“When you said that you found a house that we could flip, I didn’t think you meant you bought a condemned property,” Mike said to his business partner.
“Look, Mike,” Alan said, “this dilapidated house degraded the whole neighborhood, which is why the town sold it to me so cheap. I convinced them that this neighborhood was mutable and that the whole character of this area would be upgraded if they sold us this eyesore. Not to mention how it would increase property tax revenues.”
“So how cheap?” Mike asked.
“Five thousand bucks,” Alan beamed. “It sits on a quarter acre and the land alone is worth four times that.”
Mike was impressed. “So are you thinking it’s a teardown or a fixer-upper?”
“I went through the place and I think it has good bones, Mike, so I’m going with rehab,” Alan said. “If we’re diligent, I think we can turn this dump into a home some family will treasure. And best of all, we’ll still turn a tidy profit.”
“That would be a sweet victory that I could savor,” Mike said.
Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (degraded), Your Daily Word Prompt (mutable), Ragtag Daily Prompt (fixer-upper), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (diligent), MMA Storytime (treasure), and Word of the Day Challenge (victory).
Rory is back with this month’s edition of 12 Bloggerz, where he asks a dozen eclectic questions. So let us proceed.
Have you learned anything during the pandemic and especially the lockdowns that has changed your outlook on you, your life and or your personality that is truly significant?
Yes, I’ve learned that the world is full of assholes who are willing — if not eager — to politicize everything, including matters of public health, such as maintaining social distancing, wearing face masks, and getting vaccinations, during a deadly pandemic. Assholes!
In your ideal world or lifestyle, how much sleep do you think you really need to function at your most optimum level and more importantly – do you get your desired amount daily?
I would like to get a solid eight hours of sleep each night, but most nights I’m lucky to get six or seven hours of sleep.
Are you a thinker, a deep thinker or an active over thinker and if so what do you think about the most and for how long do you need to ‘think’ on a problem before you reach a satisfactory resolve or what steps do you undertake to not think as much?
I’m a thinker, but I’m not really a deep thinker or an over thinker. I have found that over thinking things often causes analysis paralysis and results in nothing being accomplished.
What are you most terrified of today?
The demise of the American democracy due to so many Republicans buying into the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election and should be reinstated as POTUS. It could happen and that prospect scares the shit out of me.
What do you do for fun or excitement to fill your day/days or week?
I blog.
What is one of the most important features people should know about you?
I’m happy.
While in recent times much of life has appeared gloomy and doomed – in the last 15 months or so, what have been 3 really good things to happen in your life?
Twelves months ago we had our first grandchild, a boy
Five months from now we will be having our second grandchild, a girl
After six months of landscaping, our backyard beautification project is finally complete and it looks, well, beautiful.
How often do you watch old television series and if you do, what makes for a good viewing on older content in your eyes and do you find that time relaxing?
Since the pandemic started we watch a lot of old TV shows that we didn’t watch when our lives were more active. There were a lot of good shows that we never watched that, thanks to Netflix and Hulu, we can binge-watch now.
How often do you use herbs in your cooking and which ones are your most favorite and why?
We use herbs on most of what we cook. We use garlic and onion powder a lot, as well as a touch of seasoned salt. And, depending on what we’re cooking, there are other herbs and spices that my wife will throw in, from parsley and sage to rosemary and thyme.
How confident are you about taking a vacation/holiday to another destination that would involve air travel?
I haven’t set foot in an airplane since I retired at the end of 2016 and I haven’t missed it at all. I have a nephew who is getting married on the east coast in the fall and I’m not looking at all forward to a cross-country flight.
Are you a tidy or a messy or somewhere in between type of person?
I’m relatively tidy, but not obsessively so…like my wife is.
What is the most useless product you have ever bought unwittingly or accidentally thinking it was more practical than it actually was?
I bought a small, handheld scanner that I never used because about a month later I bought a multifunctional printer that also had a scan and copy feature. Now there’s an app on my iPhone that is essentially a scanner. And since my iPhone is a handheld device, maybe that handheld scanner that I bought back then and never used wasn’t so useless after all. Maybe it was just ahead of its time.
Welcome to June 3, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.
I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).
Today’s word is “diligent.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
Welcome to June 3, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.
This, That, and the Other 