For the past five weeks, our family has lived just south of Florence, Italy in a small town named San Donato in Poggio. Returning yesterday, with twelve hours of flying and about nineteen of travel time, I am tired, excited, sad, happy, and reminiscent, already.
We stayed in a wonderful apartment, huge by Italian standards, with three bedrooms and one full bath, a balcony patio with tiled floors, a full kitchen WITH dishwasher, and even a clothes washing machine. The people in town were very lovely and warm and we enjoyed meeting them all.
It was very interesting to me to see that even in a city so busy as Florence in the Tuscany region, with about 370,000 people (which swells to almost 2million during summer season), there are quite a few "affittasti" or available spaces to rent. Also, many of the signs say "negoziabili" although I noticed this one more in Biella, a city of about 45,000 in the Piedmont region.
There were, fewer than I would have imagined, "immobiliare" or real estate offices. Prices, however, quoted in Euros seemed reasonable until I did the current math, about $0.75 US dollars to the $1.00 Euro.
I guess if I want to live there, I will need to save a bit of cash. It was really lovely!! (and I particularly like this one, which does not even quote a price until you apply - in other words, if you have to ask . . . )
So in the course of my business, I often have to ask for help from other professionals. Today when working in a Georgia County that has limited historical plats available online, for example, I contacted a surveying company in that market, for the second time in a matter of three weeks. It is a shot in the dark of course, most people are nice, but busy with their own affairs and clients, etc. However . . .
both Larry Evans and Kirby Holton at Statewide Surveying in Douglas, Georgia were helpful, and very quick about it. No days and days of telephone calls, no cajoling, whining or begging (on my part), they simply assisted me the very best they could - with great results. I got exactly what I needed to do my valuation analysis in the best way possible, to serve my client more fully.
Today the value was in the details of kindness and assistance. Thank you gentlemen.
(p.s. I hope you enjoy your prize on Thursday!)
Ok - so I am certainly a geek, and when it comes to maps, I am utterly smitten.
"Hi, my name is Christina," I say.
"Hi Christina," the chorus replies.
"I am a mapaholic and have been my entire life . . ."
At least that is the joke I tell to some folks.
I am evaluating some large land tract sales in Cobb County Georgia, and decided to head back to my trusty USGS 1:24,000 maps of old - we called them quadrangles. I used to drive in to downtown Chattanooga, taking my life in my hands, park on Broad Street and go into the Map Store. A wondrous place for certain.
Today, I found that there is a web site (of course) for the USGS - that is United States Geological Survey - where I can search and download, in PDF format (thank you Adobe), current and historical topography maps for the entire United States.
I am floored, and happy, and able to evaluate those sales a bit more thoroughly.
I do love my work.
For the past five weeks, our family has lived just south of Florence, Italy in a small town named San Donato in Poggio. Returning yesterday, with twelve hours of flying and about nineteen of travel time, I am tired, excited, sad, happy, and reminiscent, already.
