There is a man on the radio right now, a guest on one of the programs, whom I would love to kiss 'n hug if I had a chance. What he has to say is so profound to me, talking about the Founders and so on, what some of the earlier mindsets were back in earlier days of our nation. The guest referenced a speaker from those days who preached about how folks were 'worshiping the golden calf', caring more about their stuff than they did about their religious roots, saying the people worshiped their prosperity rather than the Lord who provided it for them. Is that not the truth?!?
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Presently, besides my laptop playing the radio show for me (is it still radio if it is a podcast???), there is substantial hammering, pounding, and prying going on below me. It seems my neighbors might be replacing their ceiling or something. I saw planks lined up against the rail on the 2nd floor, dark stained strips which could become a ceiling...Won't I be surprised if if it is actually the floor being done? If so, then why did it sound like they were hitting the bottoms of my feet? Guess I could go down there and check it out, I suppose. On the first floor, one of the Owners is having a wood deck being built over his tiled patio, for some reason. It is possible the wood brings the height/level up to match the doorway to accommodate his motorized chair. Saws and hammering is taking place below my window and below my bed!
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Yesterday, Justin was here to clean and check items off the 'honey-do' list. Instead of coming on Thursday as originally planned, he came Wednesday since he could not do the job he had been assigned. His father is moving into the small home we own in Brookstone and work is going on to freshen the interior as it shows its age plus wear and tear from the various renters. Justin's job was to pressure wash but there was no water service as it was disconnected by the tenants and not restarted until today. His father is in the southernmost part of the state right now so Justin has to open the house and lock it back up at the end of the day. Including this a.m. before Bible study, which was highly inconvenient as Justin had to run way over there and back again before 10:00 a.m., something he was not prepared for until the phone call came to let people in!
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Justin is optimistic that the market is turning around, at least the one he is directly involved with, but after talking with Joanne this a.m. and hearing her stories, I have my doubts. The Realtors must work and work and work in order to put a deal together, having to negotiate with lenders on a property, sometimes more than one if the Seller has a second mortgage as well....yikes! It might take as long as 4 months before a package can be put together, since many of the sales are in foreclosure or being sold short. Miss Chardonnay has had a few recent contracts and for that we all rejoice, since some of them are nearby and affect the 'comps' on our properties. If any of us here decide to list our condo for sale, the Realtors will refer to the MLS to see what the sale price was for area properties, and determine the selling price for ours. At this point, it matters not what we actually paid for the property, it is about how much it will sell for now. If there were no sales around here, that is not a good thing! Poor Joanne, no wonder she is sick....Still on IV antibiotics which she can stop and start on her own since she was also a nurse. She was going to the doctor this a.m. and said it just wears her out to get up and dressed and out the door. Barely up and already planning her nap...I get that!
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The river, and the skies above it, are busy with boats going up and down the river, many of them working vessels, with helicopters and planes in the air. Choppers are flying just above the surface, at least it appears that way from here, and moving along quickly. Between the motor boats and the saws and the pounding and dogs barking, it sounds really quite alive around here. I am sure Justin has plenty of noise too with his pressure washer going. He has called me a couple times since we parted company at Victory with various fun facts or something important to tell me. The last call he made was trying to get me to download some additional podcasts but I was unable to do so. He said he will come next week to set it up for me, speeches from the recent CPAC gatherings. I would LOVE to have them but could not get them to load.
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When he was here to clean yesterday, he kept venturing into my room to talk to me, which really tickles my funny bone. It is like he bubbles over with stuff. At one point he stood in the river room door way and just gazed at my book shelves, saying, "You have a lot of books..." as he reached for one of my favorites, "Eats Shoots and Leaves", which used to have a place of honor on my dresser. One day he had walked in, picked it up and after looking at it, said, "You are such an English person!" since this book is about punctuation and grammar. He pulled that one from the shelf yesterday and again told me how because of me, he had won a trivia contest in one of their hangouts. He knew what the subject matter was in that particular book, and no one else did! You're welcome, Justin!
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Even though I was listening to the radio on-line as he worked, he kept coming in to ask me to look up different songs on the computer, ones he had heard on American Idol (yes, he is a fan....) so I can listen to them. Or, he would relate an entire episode of a TV show to tell me the punch line. Again, I love it! We had a misunderstanding though, regarding an item on my list. I had twice now requested that he vacuum the face of my dresser and the bathroom vanity. When he left my room without doing that, packing up the vacuum cleaner and such, I reminded him about doing it. He claimed he had, even though I was right here and saw he did not. Upon further discussion, he did not know what the face of the dresser or vanity were----he was going around the base where they met the floor, thinking that was the face. Instead of vacuuming, then, he took the Pledge and physically dusted the dresser fronts and the bathroom vanity, a more thorough job than the dusting brush would have provided. In the building business, that would fall under 'scope of work', making sure the contractor knew what was expected of them! I was not angry and neither was he, just was sort of a learning thing for us both. Huh....
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He had to be my teacher, too, today, besides the failed download attempt. He was playing trivia at Applebee's last night and said he was the only one in his group who knew about the universes of the superheroes. Um, what? That was a 20 minute explanation in the church parking lot as he described which heroes were Marvel Comics while others were DC Comics, and they will never battle each other as they are in separate universes. Good for you, Justin, for knowing that trivia! But, he could not explain why Superman does not have a good sense of humor! (Seinfeld trivia, bring it on!!!!)
