When I left for church early this morning, I noticed it to be 59 degrees outside. Yes, the days are growing shorter and the nights colder. Like most of you, I’m feeling a bit cheated by Mother Nature this year. It seems we went from the cold and snow to hot and humid with nothing between. And, we certainly can’t forget those wicked storms we’ve had this year. I try to remind myself we could have it a whole lot worse when seeing how other States and Countries are suffering from high heat, drought, out of control fires, and flooding. It seems each year there’s all that much more intensity with our global weather patterns. Just remember, we’ve had two 500 year floods in Mason City within a 10 year period, which should certainly be sounding some warning bells.
The church I visited today is one I hadn’t attended in some time, and likely even longer since the weeks have been rushing by these past several months. The sermon was OK along with the music, but I was reminded again how some liturgical musicians tend to enjoy adding embellishments to what they’re playing. The pianist today was playing somewhat like an old pianist/organist I used to hear once in a while who thought she was really good, but many others in her congregation thought otherwise. One of them once said, “She sounds like one of those carnival organist.” I once heard her play for a funeral and the version of “A Closer Walk With Thee” she was pounding out will never be forgotten. I, and likely a few others were about ready to go out into the aisles and start dancing. Really! It was that waltzie. Don’t think we live only in the world of “Look at me”, because there are just about as many wanting the world to “Listen to me”.
Not much was happening in my real estate world other than returning a call to a long time client/customer. She wanted to pick my brain about a certain property’s pricing, and possible future value if she should decide to purchase it. Since I do try to answer questions as straight forward as possible, I freely gave her my take on the pros and cons of the home. I was afraid she’d argue with me about a few negative points, but fortunately she’d already been wondering about them herself. The big “if” with that particular property is its location, and after our conversation, she more fully understands its drawbacks.
Whenever someone questions me about the potential future value of a home, I look at the area or neighborhood trends that have been taking place. Mason City has downward and upwardly rising values in various districts. That’s all you have to do is go back about ten years and see what the prices had been and days on the market when sold. Every time I see a home sell in a “quirky” neighborhood for a far higher than normal price, all I think of is, “Oops. It looks like somebody didn’t do enough research before offering what they did.” Most times those sales are to people moving here from out of our area and didn’t take enough time to familiarize themselves with the market, and likely working with an agent that just wanted to “slam dunk” them.
The rest of my day was spent on a not so pleasant menial job that lasted at least five hours. By the time I was finished, I was ready to throw in the rag, but at least I finished it and won’t have to go back. Even though it’s hard sometimes, the best thing to do when working on a project is to set a goal for a particular day’s hours, and then work hard at getting it fully completed, because if you don’t, it’s all the harder to return and finish. I see that scenario with so many people which makes me all the more careful to never be considered one of them.
The above photo is of a Finch nest I found several days ago that had fallen out of a tree. What made me smile, was seeing all the animal hair that was woven into it. There must’ve been outside dogs in the area during its construction. They’re certainly one of Nature’s recyclers, don’t you think?
Tonight’s one-liner is: Think of all the beauty still left around you and then be happy.
