The Living Dead

I have been a tad under the weather these days just gone, but, nonetheless, I was rather perplexed when the phone call went this way:

"Hi, this is Al. here. How may I help you?"

"Oh-My-Gosh," she yelped. "I heard you were dead. I mean I heard you just died, I mean I am surprised to hear you."

One should wonder,...if "she" thought I was dead, why would she call...whom did she think would answer?

This being the season of Halloween however, it all seemed, ironically appropriate.

"Actually," I retorted, "while not fully dead, I did join the Legion of the Undead, the blood sucking souls, who walk the nights sapping the life out of..."

"Well, you have all ways been that... I mean being a real estate agent is the most non-blood sucking thing you have ever been. Tell me something that is new."

So much for respecting the dead.

This put me in mind of my of fellow agents in this the beginning of the Dark Ages, so we are told.

Many, I am finding out, have left the business, pushed out by the lack of a paycheck and the inability to, well, put in a day's work for the day's pay. In the old days of light and leisure, all an agent had to do was sit in a chair whilst buyers and sellers fought out who would bow to the front and who would bow to the backside. Then the checks would pass and buyer and seller would come up from under the table duly puckered from smooching the agent's "privates".

Not so today...

OK, I expand the truth a tad via literary license, but the point is noted. The housewife agents in those golden days did a banner business when all buyers and sellers thought all that "paper" they had was really wealth, but now that the work is hard, the Gals are off the job. I've done an informal survey in my corner of the world and count 30% of the agents no longer hanging out their shingle; opting for better pursuits (like chowing chocolates while watching "The View" or fat Oprah).

The rest of us soldier on. Sucking blood from the streets to feed our families and find you a home. Burning the midnight oil to find a buyer for your home.

OK, OK, it is not that bad, but the REAL Real Estate agents are at work. They may be a little chalk faced from hours away from the spa, but they are working.

As for me, I am going out on Halloween. I'll walk some kids around, grab a Snickers or two, and hand out business cards.