My wife always says this one reminds her of “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” in The Wizard of Oz.  Not sure what she’s trying to say there, but OK.

We (yes, that’s me under there) were remodeling the part of the homestead that was built in the 1930’s. (Crawl space of about 7 inches, yikes).  We had to rip everything out and start over.

If you know of anyone that might be better off to simply buy or sell instead of the fun(!) of a remodel, I may know of a good real estate broker they could call.

And, by the way, good luck getting that song out of your head!

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For all of our Salmon Creek neighbors, who can tell me where this “Grocery” store is?

A lot has changed over the past 70 years since my family moved into this neighborhood.  It’s hard to imagine this being the main grocery “superstore” for the area, when we now have Fred Meyer’s, Safeway and Albertsons all within a few miles of each other.

I’m going to go through the archives and periodically post photos from this era… its always fun to see how things have changed.

If you or any of your friends, neighbors or relatives are looking to move into or (gasp) out of the Salmon Creek area, let me know… I just may know of a good real estate Broker who can help.

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As you notice, there are a couple of new links on the side bar.  One links to the new Clark County PhotoBlog, an idea I had last fall that I could just never find time to implement. It is still in the so-underdevelopment stage, but I have a boatload of images to tag and post.  The other links to the new Clark County Neighborhoods Blog.   Also resurrected from the “idea” files from days gone past, the ‘Hood blog will be about things really, really local (the buzzword, if you’re so inclined, is “hyper-local”).

With both blogs we will really be looking for contributions from our readers.  Especially the neighborhoods blog, as news, notes and activities in and around Clark County are sometimes best presented by those close to the action.

There are about 174 175 176 other ideas I am determined that I will eventually get to.  So, if nothing else, it should be entertaining to watch the trial and error process of my endeavors here.  And just think, all without an admission charge.

As far as our main blog, it will still be about house, home and real estate in and around Clark County, plus many of my aimless meanderings into other topics.  But these new sites will allow for an additional fun and focus about what makes Clark County a special place to be.

Thanks for allowing me to take you there.

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Those entertaining words of wisdom came from my Dad. Mind you, I hope he expected me to work well with the former, and I hope he didn’t really think I’d need the latter. Either way, I’m not totally sure, as he didn’t tell me directly. I found it scribbled on one of the hundreds of scraps of paper that contained poems, notes, editorials on life and other random musings he felt he needed to write down and that I have gone through over the past two months.

As most of you know, real estate is my full-time gig, but one I may have seemingly been working at part-time recently. Especially in the area of my activity in social networking. I understand that a large part of my chosen profession necessitates a connection to clients, prospects and industry peers via social networking. But to really do social networking right, well, you have to actually feel social. Sometimes, life, you know, “real life”, (not twitter or myspace or your blog), makes it where you just aren’t social. Interestingly enough, some of those non-social times are when you most may need to be social or to interact with others.

I haven’t posted in over three months, and I haven’t really been involved on twitter in almost four months. That “real” life thing kinda took over. So, if you are wondering if you could ever stop your twitter or facebook or friendfeed or other social media addiction Cold Turkey, it can be done. I just don’t recommend my way of doing so.

See, this year my wife and I celebrated the first Father’s Day of the rest of our lives. What I mean by that is that over the course of the past three months both of our fathers went into the hospital, succumbed to fatal illness and passed away. Within five weeks of each other. As one of the counselors said with a huge degree of understatement, “the world is a different place without your father.”

After some closure (it’s never really “closed”, is it…) of the services and Father’s Day, we are now picking up the pieces and getting back to work. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those who helped get us through these very trying times. We are also indebted to the great clients (they are now friends, really) who have stuck with us during this time as we diligently tried (but, with painful candor, sometimes failed) to maintain the level of service we are committed to providing.

I am dusting off the blog (and boy was it dusty) and adding some long-awaited features. Same with the website. I am updating twhirl so I can get back to twitter. I am even going back into facebook and friendfeed to get my (on-line) social life back in order. Social networking has its place… but don’t forget to enjoy real life while you can.

And remember, always cooperate with those that have both know-how and bail money.

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Now this is an event we start planning for around, say, Labor Day. Measurements must be made of the room, furniture must be rearranged, plans must be well thought out, this all takes months of planning…. and in the end we put everything in the same place every year.

Anyway, as customary in our family as Midnight Mass and too many presents at Grandma’s, the Trek takes us to Thornton’s Tree Farm, in search of trees that Paul Bunyan has deemed too big to tackle. If we can easily see the top of the tree, it just won’t work for the kids. Very precise criteria has been developed to insure we have chosen wisely. For instance, if after cutting the tree down, having dad (that would be me) lug it back to the truck, unload it at home, and set it up, if he can still get out of bed pain-free the next morning, the tree was too small.

Thornton’s is a wonderful place. Especially since they let me back after that unfortunate chainsaw incident (kidding!). With a gift shop and hay rides and a petting area, its loads of fun… oh did I mention they also have trees?

Enjoy a little tour of the place and share in our Annual Trek.

[Sorry, the video didn't make it through our move, it really WAS fun, and we'll post another next year, thanks for dropping by.]

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He threw me a JJ Putz fastball and I stood there like I was looking for a Little League change-up. See, after my first post I was so gung-ho, I was popping off to a colleague about how much and how often I was going to blog. Big ideas. Grand plans. Primed and ready to roll. Um, then reality set in. You mean I still have to sell real estate AND find time to blog? Ooohh. That changes things. Or does it?

Now time management has never been one of my strong suits. I have to simply work harder at working smarter to keep from having to work three times harder. Throw this new blog thing in with one wife, three kids, two baseball teams, two soccer teams, a football team, a gaggle of geese and a partridge in a pear tree, plus a bunch of clients who are very important to me, and well, you have a recipe for Chaos that would make Emeril proud.

But I knew my colleague’s question was a challenge of my manhood, (or at least I’m going to look at it like that to properly channel the motivation). And it has been a month of Sunday’s since I last posted. So I am re-committing myself to this blog thing. I think my problem is not time. It’s not content. It’s that I want every post to be as enthralling and well read as the next JK Rowling novel. High expectations, indeed. I need to come to grips with the fact that not every post needs to be a 1000-word treatise worthy of worldwide adulation. Not that I’m capable of such, but nothing like putting a little pressure on yourself to really induce writer’s cramp.

So, how about simple items of interest for those that drop by? That’s not too much to ask, is it? No, it’s not. While I might not revert to the Twitter concept of slapping out six words to the world about what I’m doing every 15 seconds, a happy medium might suffice.

I can do that. And I hope you’ll continue to drop by and join in the game. At least I’ll feel like I put that fastball in play.

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Like Ray Kinsella’s feeling towards his cornfield-turned-baseball diamond in “Field of Dreams”, I launched this blog with a leap of faith and a dose of apprehension.  While I didn’t plow under my crops and I only hear those pesky voices from the fields on certain days, it’s still an undertaking of uncertainty.

Will they come?  And who are they anyhow?

I’m not a big fan of doing things “half-baked”.  So as I contemplated launching a blog, I was concerned about the commitment of time and the creation of content.   Could I find time to write? Would there be anything to write about?  And even if I satisfied those concerns… would I have an audience?  Fortunately, after talking to my high-profile focus group (that would be my mother, my wife and my sister), I am guaranteed at least two readers, (my sister is still undecided).  With the comfort of that safety net, I dove head first into the project.

Then the light bulb went on.  It was then that I realized, with hundreds of transaction sides over the past ten years, there was an absolute potpourri of tales and tidbits to type about.  Something to be gleaned from every purchase.  A lesson to be learned from every sale.  Something of benefit for others from others.  Experiences, and not all good, mind you, which can – really should – be shared.  No gory details.  Nothing personal about people.  And the names will be changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike.  But experiences, nonetheless.  A chance to “learn from history, lest we be doomed to repeat it”, kind of thing.

The wheels were spinning now.  In addition to real-life experiences, there were market trends to be analyzed, evaluated and discussed.  There was news and events to be translated to help normal people (those without the warped perspective that a license and a title can give some folks) find a better grasp of the complexities and idiosyncrasies of the real estate industry.  There were simple, fun and entertaining things going on in our hectic everyday lives that might be of benefit to share.  I was really on a roll.

At least for now I was content to know I had content. As for time, we’ll just have to see how that one works out over, well, the course of time.

So thankfully, for now, Terrance Mann was right.  You came, as evidenced by the fact that you are reading this.  I hope you will come again and again.  Stop by often. Join in with a comment.  Become part of the audience, or better yet, the community.  It sure will take some of the pressure off my mother and my wife.

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