Beginnings Blogfest and Welcoming Home the 49th

L.G. of lgkeltner.blogspot.com invites:

Do you want to share the events that inspired you to start blogging?  Perhaps you'd like to recall that first awkward blog entry where you tried to introduce yourself to the blogging world.

Or maybe you'd like to write about what inspired you to embark on your career path.  When did the passion for this career choice begin, and how did you go about making it a reality?

You could even start at your real beginning and talk a little about where you were born and what the times were like.

Or, if you'd rather not talk about yourself, you can write about the origins of a favorite book, movie, artistic movement, or pretty much anything else.  After all, I'd feel bad asking you to adhere to any strict guidelines since I'm asking you to write something original.

That being said, if you've already written a post on the subject and you'd rather share that, feel free!  Sometimes posts are received better the second time around.

That's it!  Try to keep your post a reasonable length, but I won't give you any exact word limits for this.  Sometimes self-expression revolts against word limits.  I know this from experience.

A 2013 Beginning

I have mentioned a house I purchased in midtown Sacramento.  It seemed a good idea, at the time.  I started buying real estate when I was 21 (some 30+ years ago).  I have made money on some and have lost money on others.  This one will probably go down in the losing column.

I had followed all of the tenents of buying real estate, location, location, location, and the 1915 house had good "bones."  The surprises turned out to be (1) a nonfunctional fireplace that was missing a flue and had a cracked exterior chimney, (2) original hardwood floors with one section hacked away and replaced with a plywood board, and (3) the last, most devastating discovery was the house was not connected to the city sewer (as was represented on the listing).  Cost to remedy - approximately $20,000.

My advice?  When you are buying in a specialty niche area, get a referral to a realtor who is familiar with the area and have all of the inspections suggested.

While I did live in the area where I eventually bought, it wasn't exactly that neighborhood.  Had it been, I would have discovered I am allergic to the trees that line the street.  I suppose I will laugh about that someday.

A blog post wouldn't be complete without a throwback image to the 1960s.  This is Edie Sedgewick (photographer unknown).  I have worn eye makeup and a hairstyle similar to that one.

As long as we are lingering in the 60s, here are some rescued slide series images from a parade welcoming home "The 49th" (date, location and photographer unknown).  I believe the images I purchased were shipped from Jackson, Michigan.  I will update this post to include any information submitted by my readers.

My happy dance for the upcoming WWFC Writing Challenge!

On a totally different topic - some of my favorite bloggers will be joining in the We Work for Cheese Writing Challenge weworkforcheese.  Nicky and Mike hosted the 2012's challenge in June - guess they are missing all of us and are hosting a few months early.  This group was my first blogging challenge EVER and I had so much fun!  The comments alone were hilarious.  Now, I don't profess to be much of a writer, more of a photog with random bits of text.  It will remain to be seen what I can come up with.  Give it a looksee if you would like to join in.