St. Paul Real Estate

The Green Chair

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun, don't ask me why.  The green chair is in the park at the South end of the Smith avenue High Bridge.  Often when I walk by the park I see people sitting in the chair and posing for the camera.  I point that out so that you know my idea is not original.

I put my camera on the tripod and got out my remote, climbed into the chair only to discover that the camera's "auto off" function had kicked in.  Got out of the chair, changed the setting and tried again.  Proving once more that 'do it yourself'  isn't always the best way to go.

The chair is much bigger than I thought and I think a different camera angle may have worked better, but mission accomplished.  After all of these years I have a photo of myself in the green chair, and for some reason a bruised knee . . not pictured.

Fireworks and July 4th

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Since it is July 3rd there is really only one thing to write about and that is July 4th. We get started a little early with the fireworks here in St. Paul, MN, and I got this kind of OKish shot last night.  I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the very best July 4th fireworks can be found at the Taste of Minnesota. They can be seen from several places along the river, on the bridges and from downtown. This shot was taken from the Smith Avenue High Bridge because I didn't feel like walking far.

Taking photos of fireworks isn't easy and I don't get much practice. I'll call this a warm up shot. The people on the bridge watching the fireworks are always friendly and ask some interesting questions.  Some will notice my camera and ask me if I am taking pictures. Others will ask me after the fireworks if I took any pictures. Occasionally someone will ask if the black object I am carrying is a camera . . honest I am not making that up.

There is much more to the taste of minnesota than fireworks. Like FOOD and rides and more.  Worth a visit if you are staying around town this weekend.  The taste is not the only game in town.  There are other things to do this holiday weekend for those of us that are having "staycations"  There is a staycation web site and they have a list of events. 

Have a great weekend and please don't blow your self up or burn down the house with a firecracker, cherry bomb or bottle rocket.  Every year people get hurt and property gets damaged, this year will be no exception.They are illegal in St. Paul but there doesn't seem to be any way to enforce the law so if you do play with fireworks you probably won't get a ticket.

Milestones

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.  This post was supposed to have a photo of my keyboard on it but my keyboard is a mess and I guess I can't just put it in the dishwasher like I do with most everything else . . except the cat and the dog.

The letters in the graphics represent the letters that are missing from my keyboard.  The keys are still there but they don't have letters on them any more because I wore them off writing this blog.  It doesn't matter because I don't look at the keyboard when I type.  I don't need to look at the screen either and would rather not but it is right in front of me.

I used to write posts when this blog reached certain mile stones like when I had one hundred posts and then when it was a year old, and then when I hit 1000 posts, and when I hit the two year mark.  I skipped year three and post number 1500 was written a few weeks back.   Wearing the letters off of a keyboard is as good of a milestone as any.

 

People start blogs every day and there are like a zillion of them but most people don't stick with it very long, Certainly not long enough to wear the letters off of a keyboard.  They get all discouraged because no one reads the blog.  When I started I used to refer to my readers as "both of my readers".  When more people started reading it that really bothered me. It was much easier to write when I knew that no one was actually reading it. I think that is when I stated using more photos. Now I tell myself that they are just looking at the pictures and that takes the stress out of writing.

Letters are not really needed on keyboards so I think I will hang onto mine for a while and maybe I can figure out how to get all of the strawberry jam off of  the "ift" key so that it isn't so sticky and get the sesame seeds out of the number pad. They really should make keyboards that are dishwasher safe. I suppose if they get put in the dishwasher the letters get washed off of the keys.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

The photos people like to steal

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. The point of the Friday fun thing is that I write about most anything and in this case it is fun for me and maybe not so much for you.  Theft is not funny but if you are me you have to have a sense of humor about everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING.

The first photo is stolen the most. It is easy to spot because of the vignetting and the drop shadow frame. It is on Flickr and I have tagged it "most stolen".  I have found it in the lobby of the Rossmor building.  Some of the residents use it to advertise that their unit is for rent. I have found it on a few Realtor web sites and it is on the MLS in a couple of places. I never really liked the photo because of the perspective, and because of the way the top of the building is cut off.  Every  time I see it I cringe. I now have a better photo of the place but I am not telling where it is. You can take your own &^%$#!! photo.The Rossmor photo is Creative Commons that means anyone can use it but . . "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work) "

Our MLS does not allow for photo credits so that means you can not put it in the MLS. You can use it on your web site and give me a photo credit and link back to this blog. Chances are your web site doesn't get any traffic and no one will see the photo or the credit anyway but what the heck. .

This photo of Mears Park is not stolen as often as the one above . . . or maybe I have not found them all.  I have found it on a few web sites and there is never any doubt that it is my photo.  It was taken last year and the park does not have the same flowers in the same places each year.  I also used HDR processing on it which really makes it unique. When a friend saw the photo on a web site he told me that he was sure it was mine because the wood chips are in the same place.There are some who instantly recognize my work and send me a note when they find one of my shots on someone else's web site.

I share many of my photos and usually ask for a photo credit. The Mears park photo is copyright.  When I find the photo on the internet I send a cease and desist email. In the email I ask the thief to immediately remove the photo.  Usually they do and I don't have to take any other kind of action.

For the Realtors who steal them . . and I have to say there are two of my photos of the Rossmor on another agents web site and in the MLS right now . . you need to know that I don't share my photos with direct competitors. I have taken photos for some of my competitors but I charge for the service. Camera lenses are expensive and I like mine to pay for themselves quickly. 

If you are using some of my photos right now please contact me. Like I mentioned above I know where some of these are right now and the cease and desist letters are ready to go. For non profits I usually just say yes when they ask to use a photo.  For businesses I usually say no unless they want to pay for them, or give me a link or . . . we can work something out, but you can't just take them because that is wrong.

This was fun to write. See you on the internet and have a great weekend!

What is fun anyway?

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun, but I can't think of a dang fun thing to write about. It isn't that I am not having fun . . OK I am not having fun. I did manage to get some photos of some pipes and a valve or two last weekend.

A digital addiction

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I took this shot on a Friday while I was running some errands downtown.  I mostly can't leave the house without my camera . . just in case, but sometimes it stays in the case.

There are people who take pictures of themselves and to be honest I don't get it.  I took this one because I liked the mirror and there was nothing to photograph except cement, and I decided that the blue jacket would add some color. 

All most all of the photos on this blog were taken by me. I have quite a collection. I started taking them for the blog and then ended up creating an additional blog just for the excess photos. Most of the photos are huge so I had to buy an extra hard drive for my computer for storage.  My photos can be found on various web sites. There are a couple of local non profits that I have given some to for their web sites and the university of Minnesota uses one for a banner on a blog.  The St. Paul visitors bureau has used some of them too.  Two of my photos are on the covers of books and one is on a box for a software product and a couple of them are in books.  I get free books that way. :)  Some people just steal the photos and I once made a friend because of it . . but don't try it.

It is an addiction and I am noticing that I am not the only one who is addicted. Digital photography is growing and morphing into some interesting art forms as we use HDR, textures and other techniques that are made possible by technology.  I meet people through the Twin Cities group, and a group called "The beauty of St. Paul"  on Flickr who share my addiction.

People ask me what kind of a camera I use so I ended up putting that information in my photoblog.  If I write a post that people like they never ask me what kind of a keyboard I used. I think with writing it is more about the monitor but no one asks about that either.

For me it is fun to take photos of my listings and sometimes I take property shots for other agents. I make them pay me  too. :)  Camera lenses are expensive and I need to support my habit.

There are so many wonderful places to take photos in the twin cities. There are interesting buildings, the river, lakes and so much more.  For fun this weekend my daughter and I are going to wonder around Nicollet island for a few hours with cameras. She wants to take a photography class. Not a bad idea, I have never taken one and may join her, just for fun.

Have a great weekend and if you see me standing at a ramp exit with my camera just honk and I will move, don't run me even if it does seem like it would be fun.

Air Travel for fun?

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.  Some people travel for fun. I guess I do too but there is often a business reason for the trip . . and the fun comes later.

This particular plane was struck by lightening a short time after take off. There was no damage to the plane. There was a flight delay but it wasn't the airlines fault this time.  Air travel has gotten a bit more friendly in recent months.  On the last two flights I took they had free cookies, peanuts and beverages.  We didn't actually get any peanuts on the last flight becasue a passenger on board is allergic to them. I guess that is why they have peanuts if they had pretzels or chips they would actually have to serve them. No one eats the barely edible cookies so they don't actually have to give any of those away either. 

It still isn't real friendly. Like when they want you to be at the airport way ahead of time so you can sit around and wait and then they tell you there is a flight delay and they are sorry for the inconvenience.  I was once stuck in traffic and I got to the airport 45 minutes before boarding and they said I couldn't fly.  How fair is that?  I said I was sorry about the  delay and for any inconvenience. They did let me on the plane but it took a lot of convincing on my part and I almost missed it when security had to stop the woman in front of me because she had an ankle bracelet on that tripped the metal dector and they had to wait for a female agent and couldn't let any more passengers through until they were done.

I like to count how many times someone tells me they are sorry when I travel. It happens in hotels, restaurants, and airports.   I often take public transit from airports to hotels if I can because the only thing I am afraid of besides dust bunnies is taxi drivers. I have had some horrific experiences in cabs including one driver who could not find the airport.  I have never heard a taxi driver say they are sorry.

The rudest people I ever encounter at an airport are the people who sit in the information booths.  I rarely need information but occasionally I am not smart enough to figure the airport out.  It seems like the person in the booth gets very annoyed by people who ask questions.  Maybe I am not supposed to ask questions but I don't know of any other way to get information from the booth. 

As a traveler I make mistakes too. Like last week I lost my drivers license. No you don't want to know what happens if you don't have a photo ID, or if a small bottle of shampoo slips out of the plastic baggie and into your suite case or if you are very tired and it is late and you forget to take your laptop out of the bag. None of it is very pretty and when it comes to security no one says they are sorry except for me and I mostly mean it.

I always have cameras with me when I travel. They are like a pacifier. If I can look out the window and shoot a few I won't cry much. It is too bad that I missed a shot of that lightening bolt, it all happend so fast. . sorry about that.

Have a great weekend and stay in St. Paul, I know I will.

Armless robbers

 

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I have chosen a very un fun topic today just for fun. When I sell real estate in downtown St. Paul I like to tell the new owners some things about living downtown.

I like to let them know that there is one thing that the City of St. Paul does very well and that is parking enforcementt.  Our meters take quarters or dollar coins only and each quarter lasts about ten seconds.  It is impossible to carry enough quarters to park for an hour downtown. They wouldn't all fit in a pocket or purse. It is hard to put them in the meter fast enough. With each quarter lasting only a few seconds the time that the first quarter bought is used up before the last quarter goes in.

The parking enforcement is so efficient that if I stop at a meter and reach down to find some quarters in my car or purse by the time I look back up there is already a ticket on my windshield and the person who put it there is long gone.

Yesterday when I took the pictures of the parking meters for this post I stopped at a meter, left the engine running, and put a quarter in the meter.  Sure enough there was a young man two cars down putting a ticket on a windshield.

If you park downtown and your meter runs out you will get a ticket without fail. I consider them a normal business expense.  They are unavoidable. I once asked if I could deduct the tickets from my taxes as they are a normal business expense and the answer was no. The meters do not give receipts so I can deduct all of those rolls of quarters I go through either.

Yesterday I was informed that the little slot in the back of the meter is for a card.  The card can some how be purchased through the city.  It can be used to pay for parking instead of trying to cart around 10 or 12 pounds of quarters for each hour of parking.  There is no information about it on the city web site. The program is kept secret because the city makes so much money off people like me who rarely have a couple of rolls of quarters on them that they don't want anyone to know about it. 

When there are events downtown the city goes one step further.  They put hoods on the meters that are any where near the event.  I think that a ticket for parking at a hooded meter is a ginormous amount of money and is probably what they use to pay the mayors salary.

I have gotten parking tickets for as much as $100. I was once downtown with a friend. We put quarters in the meter, went to eat and got back to the car seconds after the meter expired.  As we walked down the street we could see the ticket appearing on the windshield but the person who put it there apparently moved so fast that he or she could not be seen. It looked like the ticket just appeared out of no where.

I have no idea how they do that. They are almost magical. 

I can be in two places at once

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.  it kind of makes my eyes water when I think of all the work I did this week.  It was one of those weeks where I saw so many houses that they are all kind of starting to look the same.  They don't really look the same I think they just kind of get mixed up in my head.

I can be in two places at once which is a good thing,  because there is a Saint Paul, Minnesota and a St. Paul Minnesota. Both are correct spellings and the pronunciation of both is the same.

When I go to look something up on the internet I may not find it if I use St. Paul, and sometimes it won't come up if I use Saint Paul either and I am left to use Minneapolis.  The city of St. Paul web site spells out Saint but the domain name is StPaul.gov

This blog is StPaulRealEstateBlog.com but I also own the domain name SaintPaulRealEstateBlog and people use it to get to this site.  I own other domain names that have the name of the city in them and if the domain name is important to my business I own both spellings.  There are a bunch of St. Paul and Saint Paul real estate blogs on the internet but mine was the first and is clearly the best and I own the domain names.

The brokerage I am now with is Saint Paul Home Realty.  Bud decided to spell it out, and I have noticed when Erik Hare writes on Sundays he spells out Saint when he refers to our lovely city where as I take the short cut and write St.  I have a theory about that. It seems that the locals who  have lived in our city for a long time, or maybe even for generations use the St. instead of the Saint.

On Twitter I am number one in the twitter elite, either for Saint Paul or St. Paul, I don't remember which. I am number one in the city spelled one way and I don't exist if the city name is spelled the other way, and on that site I can't be in two places at once.

In the pre-internet days it probably did not make much of a difference how St. Paul was spelled but today it does. The databases on the internet usually do not allow me to be two places at the same time even though I really am in two places.  They give me an 'either/or' choice and I have to make tough decisions.

If you live in St. Paul or plan on moving here it is best to just get used to being two places at once.

Lets dish

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Kind of cold and rainy this past week. I guess we need the rain but I am not sure I understand the benefits of cold except that it keeps me inside.

I don't watch a lot of TV. We have an ancient television in the living room and a decade old television mounted on the wall in my office, yet for some reason we were paying around $80 a month for cable TV.  The cable bill goes up every year.  When I ask about it they tell me the same thing each year. They tell me that they add features and services and make improvements in the system. I never asked for many of the services they offer but I have to pay for them anyway. They don't deduct anything from the bill when it doesn't work right or when there is an outage. 

Many services and devices have improved over the years and at the same time the prices have gone down.  Computers are faster than ever and have bigger hard drives and more features but the prices are lower than they used to be. It is the same with mobile phones and calling plans.  The phones are better, the coverage area is larger and the cost per minute is less than it was a decade ago. The cable company has a monopoly, they don't have  to provide better services at a lower price because they don't have any competition.

Last month I brought my one digital cable receiver and my last cable bill to Comcast.  The bill was for $89.00 but I only had to pay $14.  Apparently with cable I was paying ahead.  My bill was not always that high, it crept up over the years until the last one was high enough to make me want to cry. There is now a satellite dish on the back of the house. From the look of the thing if there is a wind strong enough to take it out it will be strong enough to take out the back of the house too.   Most of what I know about the dish I learned from the cable company. So my expectations were low. I figured at half the cost it would be half as good, but was willing to take the risk. 

The dish exceeded expectations and I have not had any problems with it. The picture is as clear as can be when it is windy or stormy out. There have not been any outages like there were with cable. The monthly bill is less than half as much and so far I can't find anything missing.  The local channels are all there as are the channels that I watched through cable. I found a channel that I always wanted to have but could not get without increasing my monthly cable bill. It has not changed my viewing habits.  Never have there been so many channels with so little to offer so I still don't watch much TV.