Very promising showing!

I know I’m not supposed to count my chickens and all that, but today was full of very good signs. We had our first weekday showing today and it has been a very promising one! Kelly of course beat feet when the time came to show the house so she never saw how long they were here. She did, however, pick up on a very valuable clue: our guests had sat down at our table!
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Water, water everywhere

We had a good, steady rain all day Friday. It did a world of good for our drought situation. The MT.Net weather station reports 1.86 inches fell Friday – amazing for 24 hours.

The Falls Lake water level jumped considerably from the rain as well. It is now just 2.6 feet below normal: a considerable jump from a low of 10 feet below normal at Christmas. Experts say that if it rains like a normal March the lake will be full by April! Then of course people will be itching to water their lawns again, no one will have learned anything, and we’ll empty that sucker out until the tropical storms arrive.

For now, let’s celebrate!

Hasta la Vista

I got a kick out of Russell Harrison’s post about the Microsoft Vista PC his wife has to use. Seems Vista has got a long way to go towards being user-friendly. Its taken over the clock in his wife’s PC and won’t give it back.

Cheap Thoughts: Tips for seeing a home

I think it should become customary for people viewing a home to leave some sort of tip to the homeowner. Its not fun to clear out at a moment’s notice for an hour or more. Often the prospective buyer (or buyer’s agent) doesn’t bother to leave any feedback so we’re often left with no clue anyone’s even been here.

You wouldn’t come invited to someone’s party without bringing a small gift or snack, so why should seeing someone’s home be any different? Leaving a tip or gift would show appreciation for being invited into someone’s home, even if you don’t choose to buy.

One show, one no-show

I got an excited call from Kelly Friday afternoon, proudly informing me of a showing we had Saturday afternoon at 1. We scrambled to get the house in shape and get ourselves out to Marbles, only to get a call before we left telling us the client had to cancel due to a “missed flight.” I suppose the wickedly high winds from yesterday’s cold front disrupted air traffic.
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Cancer claims Jeff Healey

Just found out that legendary blind Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey died Sunday. He was just 41 years old. The retinoblastoma cancer that robbed him of his eyesight as an infant finally took his life.

I think Healey’s performance in Road House was the highlight of the whole cheesy film, but opinions vary.

He leaves behind a wife, 13-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Sad to hear he’s gone.

Here he is performing Angel Eyes (Rickroll-safe YouTube video). He had amazing talent.

Two-wheelin’

I’ve decided to get into better shape, so I woke up early and dusted off my road bike. Its the first time I’ve ridden it since Kelly thoughtfully got it tuned up as a Christmas present. She left the tires flat on it (so I wouldn’t get wise to her surprise), so I had to pump them up first.

Time was ticking away. I rode up the street and back. Felt pretty good.

Well, I’ll just ride over to the top of the greenway, I thought. Hey, that didn’t take much time at all. What the heck, why not do the whole greenway circuit!
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Daylight No-savings Time?

WRAL Weathercenter’s Nate Johnson posted about daylight savings time, which goes into effect this Sunday. Ah, daylight savings time: one of my favorite whipping boys. If there’s one thing that raises my government-as-nanny hackles, daylight savings time is it.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with conceiving daylight savings time (DST) as a way to save on candles. While candles may have been all the rage in Poor Richard’s day, it may be safe to say that we use energy quite differently nowadays. The energy required to shift one’s biological clock to match clock time is quite expensive, too, but not so easily measured.
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