One Of The Devil's Imps

I definitely wasn't a happy camper when I arrived at office and noticed all the footprints in the snow at the front of my office, which were liking made by that patrons of the tavern two doors down. Those tracks reminded me of the those made by a herd of cattle, and of course after that wet snow froze, I could do was to scrape what snow I could get off of the top of those many frozen impressions, and then grab another bucket of my chicken grit which I sprinkled all over, just to keep today's pedestrians from falling on that ice. If there's one definite litmus test of all the ice we've had this winter, I can indeed insist we've had more than ever before, because this past Fall, I purchased a 50 pound bag of it, and after today's sprinkling, there's at best, a quart left. Yes, it's been quite the ice-filled winter.

Once I had my contemplative session completed, I headed out to get the rest of the shoveling done, which was far easier than what I was dealing with at office. While out, I stopped to take a photo of a very large Scotch Pine tree which has one of the largest canopies I've ever seen, and just so you have an idea, I've posted it as tonight's photo. I'd wager that's right up there as being our City's largest, along with suspecting it's a good hundred years old. I'm sure it dumps a very large unwanted crop of pine cones every season. I like White Pine cones, but not the Scotch, because they're hard and sharp, while the White Pine's are long and soft. Speaking of white pines, every time I'm near them when the wind is blowing, the sound reminds me of a rolling ocean.

Once I had my shoveling done, I headed back to office and called my dear friend, only to thank her for forwarding me an article I'd been waiting for. Of course the center of our conversation was about how exiting tenants believing they have the license to walk away from there messes, and think it's just OK. I forgot to tell her that I'd also found a dried cat turd that managed to roll into the corner of a room which went un-noticed. My filters were off when I also mentioned having discovered three dried puddles of translucent white-ish matter on one of the floors, along with sharing my suspicions what it was. I'm not sure what old saying would be the most fitting. Would it be "When mad love comes, man is powerless.", or possibly "Any old stick'll do."? The things I've encountered in vacated living units, would put one of the Devil's imps to shame.

After I had a quick little something for lunch, I changed into my work clothes and headed back over to that unit, for another three hours of cleaning. My first priority, was using my Swiffer to get all that cat and human hair off those wooden floors, which took five of those sheets to get it all, and you can be sure I took photos of that dirty pile before throwing them in the garbage. My next attack, was cleaning the toilet and sink before I started scrubbing the baseboards and floors. After that was done, I scrubbed all the baseboards and wooden floors in three large rooms, and the worst one was the kitchen where there were several dried spots of what appeared to be cat vomit. You can be sure that when I arrived home, my work clothes went directly to the wash. After that three hour marathon was over, all I have left, is to get the kitchen cabinets and sink fully cleaned. I have no idea why, but for some reason, tenants are getting into dirty habits of throwing away the kitchen sink drain baskets. What's that all about? For me, it reminds me of the old saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

While at office, I placed a call to the husband of a friend who recently passed, but unfortunately he didn't answer, but I did leave a message, just to let him know I was thinking of him in his time of sorrow, and to call me if he needed anything.

Before heading home, I made a stop at a groceteria to pick up a few things, and as chance would have it, they had several large packages of pork chops which were on sale for $1.79 per pound, which in my book, was a real buy, so I purchased one, and when I got home, I separated them, and sent all but one to the freezer. I do like a good pork chop, but I haven't had one for some time, and only due to how expensive they've become. If I'm not mistaken, the big ones are usually around $4.00 per pound. In more ways than one, my faithful freezer has been a big help in keeping my food costs at manageable levels.

The wind had picked up enough to the point where it was drifting on some of the open highways and main thoroughfares, which was creating some pretty slippery spots, which is why I was taking my sweet time in getting home. I hope the wind goes down with the sun, just so we won't have to be dealing with drifted snow in the morning.

I forgot to mention something I noticed last week, which was the City workers, already back at getting the hundreds of Green Ash trees cut down in the parkings of our residential districts. They must now have their tree-cutting down to a science because those two monsters were down in no time.

I'm now beginning to wonder what they're doing with those big logs. You would think someone would at least take them for firewood. Ash is a harder wood than most would believe, so perhaps we can get some young entrepreneur to set up shop and have the City deliver those logs to be converted to firewood.

One of the tree surgeons told me last Fall, that he'd driven around Charles City, and the problem they're having with the deaths of their Green Ash trees, was definitely not a pretty sight. I've recently been noticing some dead ones in and around our Downtown. Yes, I believe our City is fully infected, and unfortunately, those trees were the "preferred" trees to plant over the years. Isn't it curious when knowing all those dead Dutch Elm trees they took out back in the late 1960's, were replaced with Green Ash?

Tonight's One-liner is: Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake.

original post ... https://niowarealty.net/life/2023/03/12/one-of-the-devils-imps/