Pushing their Failures on the Plates of Others
It was back up in the 80's again today, but thankfully the southerly wind has kept the humidity at bay. I know we've had our weather issues, but after watching a short news clip on BBC today, we must continue to be thankful we didn't get hit with the drought like they've been having out West. Today's video was about the drought in the Plains Provinces of Canada, which sent a real alarm thru me when hearing this year's drought has been the worst on record for those areas. Of course since they don't get the rain needed to keep their pastures growing, nearly all of the ranchers have had to sell off at least 25% of their herds. This was also the first year they had to deliver water to them due to their waterways and creeks drying up. What's made matters even worse, is this being the second year of drought for them, but this year's has been much worse.
I'm sure you're wondering why anyone should worry about what's going on across our northern borders. Well, it's giving us a great deal to worry about because Canada is one of our major trading partners, and if they can't supply us with the meat, lumber and all the other imports we normally get from them, then you can be sure our prices are going to go up, and that's exactly what they're doing. Just today someone who loves a good lamb chop once in a while, announced she'll not be buying them anytime soon due to the bone-in ones, now commanding a whopping price of $19.99 per pound. Now that's something worth writing home about. Since I had to stop out to Hy-Vee today, those very same full loins of pork which I paid $1.99 per lb. for, are now back up to $2.99. These 1/3 price increases and decreases are enough to make a person's head spin.
When thinking about these droughts, I couldn't help remembering all the field tiling that's been done in North Iowa, just to make sure our farmers can grow beans and corn. Wouldn't it be a real kicking-back on us if our farmers suddenly realized they needed every drop they're able to get on their fields, just so to maintain the sub-soil moisture in their fields? I wouldn't be surprised if we start finding more advanced computerized tiling systems being installed by some farmers which would actually monitor and possibly contain or divert that water before it becomes runoff. Don't believe me the first to think of it because there must certainly be some engineers and inventors already working on it. One of the ranchers in Canada mentioned that they're now trying to figure out a way to keep their less-frequent rains from becoming useless runoff.
We had another "soft landing" closing today which took a little longer, and only because I discovered the banker had inserted the wrong address in all of her documents which she had to correct and re-print. Thank goodness she's always been one who'll take ownership of mistakes and get them corrected immediately.
While she was doing that, I had a very nice visit with the buyers regarding how impressed I was regarding the foresight they had when having purchased their first rental at the young age of 18. They now have four of them, and glad they started at an early age. More than once one of the buyers referred to those rentals as being their retirement account. Fortunately they're not of the slum lord mentality which gave me all the more reason to give them praise.
I personally know enough people who've wasted away their youths when believing they were never going to get old, but then one day, they awakened and realized they didn't have the disposable income they once had, and nearly all of them playing the blame game by pushing their failures on the plates of others. Not long ago, a dear friend of mine mentioned something about one of her "victim" relatives having burned thru over $300K of inheritance in a five year time period, and now relying on the charity of others. I've come to believe some victims work hard at remaining such because they've grown comfortable with their situations and indeed enjoy the extra attention they get.
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With a few minutes to spare, I placed a call to one of our City's great minds regarding how impressed I was with Rob Sand's hour presentation in Central Park yesterday. Unfortunately he wasn't alerted Rob was coming and even questioned where I saw it posted. I had to admit it was only a very short blurb in our local rag which I'd noticed and then made an entry in my calendar to attend. I did encourage him to do his own research on him because I truly believe he's one of the few shining stars in our State. In spite of him being highly educated and well-versed, he presented himself as just another concerned citizen.
I received a call late this afternoon from another Realtor saying the person I was to show one of my listings to in the morning, now wants him to show it since he's been working with him already. Every time that happens I would like to say, "Well, why didn't you alert your buyer when it was listed instead of finding out "your buyer" had already called me to show it?" Irregardless what anyone says, we Realtors DO NOT own the buyers we are working with, and unless they have some sort of binding contract with a "buyer's agent", they're free to work with whomever they choose.
I'm still in dis-belief we're already on the downward slide of September, and mostly because our days have been so warm. Truthfully, it actually feels like the first weeks of what August used to feel like. I'm not complaining because if we do get rain tonight, my maturing veggies will be supplying me with all the bigger crops. Believe it or not, out of two cucumber plants, I've canned over 25 quarts of kosher dill pickles as well as getting my fill of cucumber salad on a near-daily basis. Yes, it's all been good in spite of my battles with the deer.
Tonight's One-liner is: Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy with what you have.