Staying in, keeping warm, working hard, feeling better!

Dear Ones,
Ken led out in the death march this morning, at least it seemed like that at first, so cold and damp and dark. The mind rebels but a kind friend provided a warm scarf and for the first time in my life I tried it this morning. It really does keep the throat warm!
Then back for a very long and very hot shower, its the one time during the day that I really get warm and feel human. Then down to eat. Well this morning it was simple. I had a medical nutrition breakfast, that is a did a shake only I used hot water. It tasted wonderful and breakfast was over, just 150 calories and 15 grams of protein. Then mid morning I had a bar and a banana, bottle of water. Later I had a non sugar hot apple juice. Late this afternoon I heated a couple whole wheat tortillas in olive oil and filled them with a mixture of green beans and pinto beans, added a little cottage cheese and enjoyed eating it. I did sneak in one mocha and then this evening had another bottle of water. I took a break and watch some of the Devil Wears Prada, I'm Tivo ing it so I'll watch the ending later. I liked it a lot and it made me thing about whether I enjoy what I do for a living or not. Well I think I do enjoy it very much. The mixture of visiting with homeowners and inspecting their creations, the driving, scheduling, trying to work smart so time is used wisely when I'm out. For example I never mix shopping or auto dealership visits with work as it would be too easy to forgo work. So I only take time to eat when I'm working, nothing else. I also enjoy creating the reports sitting at my desk but I'm too slow to keep up with the number of properties I need to see hence my helper Jean. She enjoys working at her desk and creating reports. She is very very good at it and her help keeps me going.
Loree came in this week to work at her desk here instead of at her house by remote. She does wonders with files and the books and is so precise at her work.
So today I stayed put, I've not left the house except for the walk this morning and one trip to the mail box. I've kept the fire burning so house is warm and the dogs are happy. I've settled in at my desk and created several reports including emailing them to the lenders. In addition I've been working on conditions, those hateful after the fact requests by underwriters. Sometimes what they ask for is so stupid, I mean really inane. One of the conditions today was for a little property I inspected in Oakland. The underwriter wanted to know why I had no used 4 properties that he or she listed instead of the ones I used. What that means is that I have to carefully research each property so I can answer the question. The real meaning of the question was "if you had used these comps your value would have been much lower so why didn't you use them"? The first one was not even listed in MLS and closed 7 months ago so there is no way I would have considered it. The second one was a fixer and had been marketed for nearly a year before finally selling. Since the property that I had inspected by totally remodeled and near perfect I would not be using fixer sales as comps. The third one closed 6 months ago and was located on a very busy street. It had been marketed at various prices for over 250 days and finally got dumped. So that is the kind of stupidity I deal with. Someone ran a quick computer search and found low comps and decided that was the value without taking time to take a harder look at them, no he just wastes my time. That little adventure took a little over an hour to solve, an hour with no pay as you can't charge. I did three sets of such conditions this afternoon, one was especially egregious, they had fooled around and not closed the loan for the last 2 months so now the lender wants 2 new comps and a new listing. Fun fun!
Now its bed time and while I could easily go find something to eat I only have permission to eat fruit as a snack at this time of night. Well I just happen to have some strawberries and blue berries waiting. Yum yum.
Ken, drill Sargent just called to say we are walking in the morning, oh boy, I am so excited!

So I send love and hugs to all tonight, all in all I feel better, rinsing out the nasal passages with the solution seems to be a good things to do and while I've had some rough times of coughing its been so much better than usual, well I'm thankful.

Love

tim