Sailing Off Into The Sunset
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes today, I never would've believed that a February 26th temperature in North Iowa could ever get as high as 74 degrees, and I'm sure we definitely broke a record for this date. But just this afternoon I read where tomorrow night, our low is supposed to be six degrees and snow on Wednesday, but then the following day, it'll be up in the high 40s to low 50s, and start climbing higher as the weekend approaches. My gosh! Talk about a radical swing in temperatures!
Not much was happening at the office today, other than being called to show a new to the market listing which ended up being a waste of time, but I'd already suspected my buyers wouldn't like it because of its limited square footage. Oh well, I did get a good look at it, just in case someone else calls on it. In my opinion, our listing at 1012 N. Carolina far exceeds than one in a number of ways, and even priced for less.
I had to take an hour or so off during my Noon hour and head over to First Baptist Church and run thru a number of hymns on their vintage pipe organ, and since I hadn't been there for a good three years, I needed to re-familiarize myself with their instrument. Not to my surprise, even more of the pedal keys weren't working, but after playing it for a good 45 minutes, they finally started working. According to their office manager, that organ hadn't been played since I was last there. By the time I left, I felt comfortable enough to where I won't be stressing over my being scheduled to play for them one Sunday next month.
Since it was exceptionally warm outdoors, I went ahead a washed the front windows of my office which were in need of a good scrubbing. For whatever reason, the outside of those windows always seem to have an oily coating on them which is hard to get off, and all I can think of, is that it's coming from all the vehicle exhaust that's floating around in our downtown. I'll likely have to go over the outside of them one more time because I could see streaks when the sun started shining thru them. Very annoying.
When mid-afternoon arrived, I decided to bury myself in several totes which I had stored away, and glad I did because there's a great deal of unnecessary documents which I'm setting aside for a long session with my shredder. As much as I don't believe I'm a pack rat, when coming across such stuff, becomes a reminder that I possibly am.
As I was driving past the old Mohawk Square on my way out to the east side of town, I happened to notice someone working on replacing the glass in one of their entry doors which appeared to've been purposely broken to gain entry, and the creepiest thing about seeing that, was my having driven past it several days ago and wondered why that building had not yet been vandalized. Yes, there never seems to be an end to the break-ins and vandalism in our town.
One of my visitors at office this morning, was complaining how absolutely terrible N. Federal appears whenever he's coming into town from that direction, and I couldn't agree with him more. Every time I see all that decay and dysfunction, I begin wondering what first-time visitors must think of that mess as they're approaching our city center. Most don't realize that if we have people coming from the Twin Cities, they usually get off on the B-20 exit and come in from the North, and usually leave that way as well. Quiet a first impression isn't it?
After seeing a recent sale posted, I was once again reminded that our sale prices are still unpredictable because that property should've sold for a good $75K more, so the next time I have to do a valuation on a home in its price range, I'll have to throw that one out because it sold for far less than I believe it should've. Yes, there's still no rhyme or reason to some of these reported sales. Since I'm acquainted somebody who knows the seller, I'll have to ask her to find out why they let it go that cheap, just so I can get a better idea as to what their reasoning was.
One of my out of town clients was on the war path when talking about all the idiotic things our City has done over these recent years which will be a financial millstone around the necks of our taxpaying citizens on into perpetuity. We both agreed that many in such government positions, come up with some really bizarre ideas which get rubber stamped by weak-minded council members, only to make themselves appear that they're being productive and worthy of their bloated salaries, which in my mind, they should stay put at their desks and concern themselves with those day-to-day issues, instead of going off on tangents which end up coming at a cost everyone else. My client went on to say that purposely causing financial hardships for our citizens, is similar to someone breaking into our homes and stealing from us. Yes, when you think about it, there are those similarities. I did mention that several of them are definitely retirement age, so hopefully they'll decide to jump ship and going sailing off into the sunset—or so we hope.
I was just alerted today that 'The River' apartments is raising their monthly rents again, and after hearing what they're expecting to get, there's absolutely no way I'd ever pay that kind of money to live in that ticky-tacky complex that's situated in one of the worst locations. Oh I keep forgetting, that was another 'blue ribbon' idea coming out of City Hall. Shall we all now stand and give a round of applause?
Tonight's One-liner is: Customs, traditions and laws should be flexible, within good reason, if that's what it takes to make our democracy work.
original post ... https://niowarealty.net/life/2024/02/26/sailing-off-into-the-sunset/