Absolutely No Practical Experience
When that wind started blowing last night, I knew we were going to be in for a windy day, but never expecting nearly gale-force wind tunnels in our Downtown. When I got out of my car at office this morning, I had to hold onto my car door because it felt like that wind was ready to rip it off its hinges.
Of course the garbage trucks had to be in the back alley to empty those dumpsters for those various businesses down the block, and when I went out to my car, there were umpteen plastic grocery bags blowing around my back door which I had to go and pick up and then put them in that dumpster near La James. As I was walking over to that dumpster, there it stood smack dab in the middle of the alley, so I proceeded to roll it back up against the building where it belonged. You can only imagine how hard it was to move that devil with the wind pushing against me. I had another confirmation of how completely out of touch the general public has become when one of the big-boy workers came out to dump something in their dumpster across the alley, and noticed my struggles with getting that La James dumpster back where it belonged, and of course he never even showed the slightest concern over my labors. There you are, another confirmation of our world turning into a place where "It's all about me.".
I had a number of calls to make and errands to run, along with checking on several vacant homes. While driving down one of the side-streets, I happened to notice the City street sweeper was out attempting to sweep. Now why in the world would they wait until the leaves were frozen solid at the curbside to do that, and on a very windy day to boot? I'm beginning to wonder who exactly is steering our City's boat because I'm noticing more and more important things being dismissed while bothering over other stuff that isn't nearly as important. Someone told me last year that the chain of command with several of their departments have been given to another who's a micro-manager. I've had my share of dealings with such people, and I can tell you that in the end, they create more work for themselves and those under them, and only because their minds aren't fluid enough to look at the whole picture. A good department head should never micro-mange, but rather set standards of practice for those in their lower chain of command.
When I worked in corporate many years ago, I was cursed with having to answer to a micro-manager for several years until his superior finally realized he was causing more problems with our work flow, and transferred him off to another branch. Since then, I had to work with others for a short time. What I came to understand about such mindsets, is the reason they're so hell-bent on managing in such a way, is that they actually don't understand the jobs of those they're supposed to be giving direction. I'm sure many of you have had to endure such managers, and I'm pretty sure when you think about how well they didn't know your jobs, you'd agree with me.
I think the big reason we're having so many problems with City governments and the managers they hire, is the fact that they have absolutely no practical experience. Just like I told a home inspector several days ago, "How can someone consider themselves a good home inspector when that's all they did was take a bunch of courses and pass an exam, but have no experience in home construction?" To me it would be like trying to teach a tone-deaf person who can read music, how to sing on pitch.
Speaking of music, I had a soulful conversation with a long-time acquaintance of mine who's been struggling on and off for years with trying to freely understand written music. I didn't realize until now how frustrated he's been over it. My only advice was for him to find a piano lesson book for beginners and not move on to another lesson until he fully understood the previous, and above all, to practice, practice and practice. He's convinced the "light bulb" will go on some day which I fully agreed.
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It looks like I'll be getting another listing the end of this coming week because one of my long-term clients will be taking a new job far out of town. I've already done some deep research on the home, so if it gets listed at my suggested price, it'll be sold in likely a day or two. Yes, our market is still cranking along while the inventory continues to diminish.
The seller of 1910 S. Georgia called over the weekend to tell me he's made all the improvements I suggested. I told him I'd be out to take new photos, but with today's biting wind, I decided to hold off until tomorrow. You can bet I'll be putting the word out on it as soon as I have those new photos posted.
Can you believe how quickly the topsoil has frozen since this wind started? I'm now wondering how deep the freeze went after it stops, and if our temps are back up in the 50's next week, that frost will be driven deeper which I hope isn't going to be a repeat of last winter with all the many water lines that had frozen. I said to a colleague today, "Can you imagine what a nightmare we'd be living if the outside temps were 20 below zero and having wind blowing like today's? I'd say that would be about as close as one could get to living in the arctic. This climate change has got me very concerned over that wobbling jet stream.
I had a nice chat this afternoon with the buyer who didn't get that house bought yesterday, and fortunately she's finally understanding why I've been giving her strong guidance. She actually said to me, "I'm so thankful I have a realistic Realtor like you because if I didn't, I'm afraid I would've let my emotions go haywire." It did give me a good feeling that she's finally realizing I'm working hard at finding something that'll fit her budget, and not have major improvements to make on it like yesterday's pick.
Tonight's One-liner is: Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.