Day Three Hundred Forty Six...

Okay, so last night was a dress up party night. It was the Installation Banquet for the Austin Board of REALTORS, and I was honored to be attending as an incoming Director for the Austin Board of REALTORS. It was a very nice function, and to me the time really passed quickly. Lots of A-List REALTORS were in attendance, and there were wonderful words offered from incoming and outgoing Chairmen, presentations of awards to deserving colleagues, and dinner, dancing, drinking and balloon popping. I believe a good time was had by all, and it is unfortunate that more of our membership do not participate in these functions. I honestly believe that 99% of our membership have no concept of the work and dedication and effort it takes from the staff and volunteers at the Board to function as it does. Our Association is more than just an MLS system, and we must have member participation to make it continue to grow and thrive. I am honored to have been nominated at a Director for 2010 - 2013, and I will do my best to be a good 'thinker and planner'. This photo is of me, Jody and Board CEO David. David does a lot of 'behind the scenes' work that is largely unheralded but needed. We all need to take a moment, and whenever possible, offer a thank you for a job well done to the staff at the Board, for making my life better and my job in my chosen field easier. THANKS!

It is 'a foggy day, in Bartlett town', but I am not letting it get me down. I think is has been a pretty steady 46 degrees outside for the last four or five days. Day or night, the same temperature, no change. I went into the Post Office in Bartlett today to get some Christmas stamps, and they are only open for one hour on Saturday, from 9 until 10. I got there at 10:10, and even though they were there and would talk to me, they would not sell me any stamps. RATZ! I am going to stop at the Post Office in Georgetown in a little while, when Jody and I go in for our spoiler. I hope they will be open until at least Noon. We shall see. Worst case, I will get card envelopes addressed, and I will get the stamps on them on Monday.

I had a pre-op interview (by telephone) yesterday in anticipation of my knee surgery on the 22nd. CRAZY! I was asked to answer a lot of stupid questions, and it lasted about a half-hour. Another reason (in my estimation) that health care costs in our society are out of control. Now, even surgical procedures are getting Wal-Marted. I have been instructed to scrub my leg (from groin to ankle) for not less than five minutes the night before surgery. They wear clean PJ's that night (assuming that I wear PJ's, I assume), and sleep under clean sheets. Then, on the morning of the surgery, scrub my leg again (from groin to ankle) for another five minutes minimum, and then wear clean clothing to the surgery center. This kind of reminds me of when the merchants started asking us to swipe our credit cards at check-out, or other steps they began taking to make it more 'efficient' for them. If they want me to swipe my own credit card, or check myself out at a register, then I think I should get a discount. SO, does that mean that when I am actually being prepped for the surgery, they assume that the sanitation of the surgerized area has already been done by me at home, and they will skip the step of putting that orangey colored iodine looking stuff on the area that they are fixing to cut into? If so, then I demand a discount! We shall see...

WELL...the Post Office in Georgetown is just like a REAL Post Office, and not only did they have the Holiday Stamps, but they were open for business, conducting business, friendly and helpful! The place was PACKED and everyone was seemingly happy and not in a crazy bad mood. This photo was taken by me from the END OF THE LINE, but I was in and out of there in probably less than 15 minutes, and nobody got hurt. Jody and I then went on to the Collector's Market, and we put in some new 'inventory', stuff that I had in the OTHER storage. After that, we went to Dairy Queen and had spoilers.

Last night while we were out, our neighbors Irene and Randy had called and left a message. Well, we did not get home early (in the country time frame) but I returned their call anyway, but they had already done a 'lights out'. I called them this morning, and they had gone out. As we were headed back from Georgetown, Irene was out on the driveway, and she flagged us into the driveway. I apologized for calling them so late the night before, but had thought maybe some of the cattle had gotten loose or something. Well, it seems that Randy had fried turkeys the day before, so they gave us a deep-fried turkey. So, tonight we are having salad, turkey soup, squash and turkey sandwiches. The sandwiches are going to be from Randy and Irene's fried turkey. I have never had fried turkey before, and so I am looking forward to that.

I went over to visit Michael's new house, and it is coming along nicely. If they could get the County to give them approval for the septic system, and they got that installed (a one-day deal), they could pretty much move in. There are lots of little things that still need to be done, but they could live in the house. There is still trim, and detail things to be done, but it would be livable, and they could be in before Christmas.

This is a really long entry, so it is about time to finish it up for today. Remember...Deeds, Actions, Kindness, THANK YOU, Changes, Whirled Peas and FUN!