RenegadeRider

About the puppy: we got him from an organization called Corgi Rescue. They told us that the mother was a Corgi and the father was probably a Border Collie, an Australian Shepherd, or an Australian Cattle Dog. We never saw either parent. Now that he is nearing 5 months old we have noticed that he doesn’t resemble any of these breeds. Nor does he resemble either of the corgi breeds. We even attended a dog show, and other than having four legs, we noticed few, if any similarities. His endless energy and bouncing off the wall behavior suggests that he is some variety of herding dog. We have noticed other behavior that also looks to belong to a herding breed. About a week ago Dianne walked him to the nearby Starbucks. Another customer began a conversation and told her it looked like a Kelpie. Searching Google led us to http://www.kelpiesinc.com /, The Working Kelpie. Our opinion is that he could have been one of the dogs that was photographed for this site. A compact, robust, enthu

Over the past few years Florida has experienced the nearly nation-wide boom in real estate prices and possibly even more so. However, in the past year, the Tampa area has seen a substantial drop in home prices. It may be due in part to the market being over-heated. Another factor might also be the rise in interest rates. But another thing that is driving the price decline is the huge increase in insurance costs since last years hurricane season along with large increases in property taxes due to the increased home values. One home owner, when asked why he was selling said that his insurance went from $500 annually to over $2500. He felt he could not afford to keep his home at that added expense.

I just returned from a week-long trip to Florida. I attended a weekend real estate class by Pete Fortunato. The remainder of the time was spent visiting family and friends. It was the perfect amount of time away from home. In the past, it nearly always seemed too long. It seemed that the last day or even the last week on an extended trip was spent with me wanting to be back home.