First thing on my mind today is that the Fourth of July is coming. That means lots of fireworks are getting purchased, and already we hear the occasional bang, pop, and sizzle. Not all of these fireworks are sane or safe, and in fact many are probably insane. The good thing is that most of these fireworks will be set off over our many lakes, or over the many inlets of Hood Canal.
We can watch some amazing Fourth of July fireworks displays without leaving our own home, because we live very close to one of the lakes. The Squaxim and Skokomish people will make a good profit on the sale of fireworks, as they do each year, and that’s good for our economy. The various police departments get a good work out tracking down and trying to discourage the illegal fireworks, but some of these things always get used. It is pretty much a pattern that repeats itself every year. There are good regulations in place, you can read them here.
See a rather irreverent report on an attack on Fourth of July fireworks display here.
We have a new puppy, so I plan to stay home, and keep him with me in the house for most of the Fourth of July weekend. Fireworks can be very distressing for animals. I usually wonder if our birds and water fowl will stick around, or leave us for a while. There will probably be the usual posting of flyers with the faces of missing pets after the weekend of noise. For more on keeping your pet safe see this short article here.
In other news, our office phones seem much too quiet for July. It makes for long days when it is my turn to babysit the phones, and wait for any walk-ins to decide to come in and see what we have in the way of listings. We are working harder than ever on our listings, by the way, marketing them. I just hate it when a listing lingers over long before getting sold.
We are understandably upset at the disappearance of a 10 year old girl in the McCleary area. She went missing just a short distance from her home in a small town where children have been able to walk to each others’ homes with no worries. Now fear has hit this small town, and we are all praying this child will be found safe, and returned to her home.
I am watching our representatives in Washington DC, the other Washington, struggle with Health Care. As a real estate professional who serves in a lower income area, I really want a public option for Health Care. It is nearly impossible to afford Health Care Insurance these days, and anything that helps to bring those costs down is the right thing for me! I just hate the way the so-called “blue dog” democrats are in the pockets of special interests money, just like their republican counterparts. It is very frustrating to think that after all of this struggle, we’ll be stuck with the status quo. In other words, with insurance companies saying, “trust us,” and then we can watch our insurance premiums keep going up and up.
Several of us in our office are seeking to update our knowledge on Washington State’ plan for helping people buy their first homes. There is a down payment assistance program that we need to understand better. You can read about it at the Washington State web site for the Housing Finance Commission. Right now many of our buyers are taking advantage of USDA loans to purchase their homes, but it would be good to let some of our lower income buyers know more about what is available for them from our state.
Our weather has been outstanding for the month of June. We had nearly of month of beautiful sunny days. It has truly been remarkable. Now on this first day of July, we are having another gorgeous sunny day. Not too hot, but just right. Amazing! I have to look at the map and see if I’m still in Western Washington, the evergreen land of rain!
Tags: fireworks, fourth of july, health care, regulations
