Lap Burger
As I'm sure most of you've heard, Cerro Gordo County now has reported two more coronavirus cases, which brings us to a total of twelve, but I was happy to see Worth County still standing at zero.
According to the estimates, this week is when we'll be seeing the peak of the outbreaks in Iowa. Someone told me today that one of her relatives has been noticing more vehicles in parking lots with Illinois plates on them, which reminded me that I also noticed one parked on N. Federal yesterday which also had plates on it from the "Land of Lincoln".
I really wish people would stick closer to home instead of driving around and possibly infecting other areas. We should be more like many of the European countries who've closed their borders to non-residents, and only allowing transport of essential goods. I don't blame them a bit because un-necessary travel is the worst thing we can be doing in times like these. I'm still internally angry with some who selfishly traveled away during Spring Break, and then un-knowingly brought that virus back to our State.
We did finally get that offer put together on one of my listings, and hopefully all will go well with the inspections and financing. I'm personally not looking for a problem, but you never know what can happen from day to day. My seller is happy, so I guess that's all that matters.
I spent several hours getting my office bills paid, along with burying myself in some much-needed accounting. It seems no matter what sort of economic climate we're in, the bills continue to arrive on a regular basis. In these times, I must say again how eternally thankful I am for having loyal and faithful customers, because if didn't have their support, I would have been out of business years ago.
While running errands around noontime, I decided to stop at McDonald's and pick up a fish sandwich. They were busier than I'd expected, but continued to patiently wait my turn. The people ahead of me were handed two pretty good sized bags, and since I only ordered a fish sandwich, I ended up right behind them while waiting for an opportunity to get back on S. Federal.
What really got me spinning, was their having had several opportunities to pull out, but no, the driver had to have immediate gratification by taking a couple good good bites of his sandwich. Ugh! Of course the eating and driving was causing him to drive slower, so I went around him. When I got caught by the stoplight at 15th St., I could see the both of them gobbling away on their burgers. When the light turned green, I could see he plopped that half-eaten sandwich in his lap. It sure takes all kinds doesn't it? I wonder if his lap burger kept itself from oozing over onto his clothes and front seat. I can only imagine what some people's cars not only look like, but smell like. In the old days, we used to say some cars smelled like garbage pails.
When seeing the additional closures our Governor ordered today, I'd say our precious mall is going to look like an abandoned warehouse. I cringe every time I think about how much money our City is on the hook for that arena, and you can be sure, we the residents of Mason City will be paying for it with higher real estate taxes for years to come. Don't believe for a moment that everything will be back to normal once there are no more reported cases of the China virus, because many in our general public will be all the more cautious about running the risk of catching something while in crowed spaces.
As I mentioned before, our churches are going to have to adapt, and quickly, because the real "givers" are the elderly, and you can be sure, they'll be the last to physically return to their normal routines, and perhaps even nevermore. It makes me exceptionally sad when thinking about it, because most of our seniors look forward to their Sunday gatherings where they can interact with their life-long friends and relatives.
You do remember me mentioning the 21 day trick don't you? Well, if you've forgotten, I'll mention again how interesting it is for humans to make near-permanent changes with their daily habits by doing the very same thing for 21 days. I'm not saying it's 100% accurate for everyone, because some have ADHD issues, but for the most part, if you want to "hard-code" a habit for yourselves, do it every day around the same time for 21 days. If you try it, most of you will discover I'm right.
If only today's parents would be those 21 day taskmasters with their children when trying to get them to brush their teeth and/or make their beds every morning without being prodded, because if they're forced to do it for that magic number of days, it becomes a thoughtless habit which requires no encouragements or reminders.
As a child, I was trained quite well, because even after I grew into adulthood, the making of my bed every morning became so important that I'd rather be late for something, than walk out of the house with my bed un-made. Yes, the creating of good habits is something we can look back on and thank our parents for being rigid when it came to rules of the house. As I've heard a number of times from the "old ones", "Children are like monkeys, because they all have to be trained", and when no instructions are given, we find all the more naughty-monkey adults running around, and oft times creating their own naughty little monkey children. Let's hope our society is not moving in de-evolutionary directions.
Tonight's one-liner is: An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.
original post... https://niowarealty.net/north-iowa/2020/04/06/lap-burger/