Winter 2015 March 17 Tuesday

62  degrees this morning, 44:57 minutes walk

62 degrees and a light wind (for here) is difficult to dress for. I continued to wear the thing around my neck and mouth (I never can remember how to spell it).  

St. Patricks Day.  I always hated getting pinched and I still do!

It also means Spring is almost here, at least by the calendar!  Yesterday was a great day weather wise and hopefully more are coming!  

The new house is in progress.  Of course a lot could go wrong between now and closing, but we expect it should go through.  We are looking forward to owing our own house again.  Nothing against the house we are in now, but it will be nice to be able to personalize the house etc.  

Also, hopefully, the house mortgage, etc. will help on our taxes and get something instead of just paying rent.  I think in the end the money is about the same (unless your house appreciates in value a lot), it is the realization that you can personalize your house all you want  and you know what the payment will be is the deciding factor.  

Some of the property managers last year were acting like 4% to 10% increases were “normal” and I hardly would agree with that.  

It is now well past the middle of March, the 3rd month of 2015.  The passage of time marches to a fast drummer!  It seems like a long time we have been here, but a short time also.

I gave a speech on our China trip to Toastmasters last night.  I found I tried to say way too much in the time allowed!  It was a good lesson.

Since my China trip, I am amazed at what I didn’t know about China, and what I am learning, both the good and the bad.  

Baseball season is almost here, actually the pre-season is here.  We will miss our Memphis Redbirds, it was something we really enjoyed.  We have tickets to some of the games here, and we hope it is as good.  

The good thing about the Memphis Redbirds was it was the farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals, so it was easy for us to follow the (many) Memphis Redbirds we saw start out and then make it big in the “big leagues”.  

Here the baseball team is the farm team for an MLB team a lot ways away, unlikely that we will ever go in person and unlikely that there will be much local television coverage.

Today is going to be an “office day” after a very busy “field day” yesterday.  I made several major advances on a couple of accounts, which is always good.  

My accounts are very much like some people talk about guests- They are glad to see them come, but they are also glad to see them leave!

I love getting new accounts, but I like to get them worked and get them off my list!  Some hang around forever, (it seems) stalled by some technical or legal step, others are completed in a day or two.

Looking forward to a wonderful day today!

That’s it for now, Tuesday, March 17, 2015.