Dateline Normal: " Reflection; Reassessment;" ===Fiction

Well, with all the stock market plunging, and the crisis in CMO debt securities, I simply headed the car up that long road up Hwy 10 north of the Twin Cities, to my favorite fishing town, Normal, Mn..

On the long stretch up north, I simply popped in a cd of zen reflections to pass the time. It has been a stressful period for homeowners. With homes falling in value. The piggy bank of home equity as a way of financing the fun things in life is over. It is a rude awaking. It is really a time for reassessment.

When I got to Normal, I checked in to my favorite motel, the Spruce Goose Motel, the one with the pull down king size beds, and with the stuffed animals on every wall, and the little mini-dove bars in the ash trays---just a little touch of country class.

I quickly met Herman at the local diner, where I ordered up my usual coffee, extra bold, extra sugar, with lots of whipped cream, in the dark blue Viking mug. Man it sure beat that stuff that passed for coffee in the gas stations on the way.

I got right to the point with Herman.

"Herman," what in the world is America to do. The real estate is assessed at over 100% of what it was worth a couple of years ago, and it may be ten years till another assessment is required. Till then, everyone in our town has to pay inflated tax bills--real taxes on funny numbers of assessment. What is a guy like me to do? What do you folks do up here in Normal?

"It's real simple, Wolfman---(that's what he always called me.) Up here, even though we are a simple fishing town, we have an old IBM computer, one with the 8 inch diskettes, and we reassess the real estate after each and every sale. If the comparables go down----the real estate appraisal goes down. If it goes up, it goes up. And the best part---all the numbers are available on the Normal, Mn. web site. Ya see, Wolfman, we live in the present. NO accounting games up here in God's country."

Over the weekend, I reflected on Herman's straight talk. It sure was good to get back to good old Wisconsin. Where we are high tech. Where we have cameras that take pictures of our historic town. Still. I wondered. How come we could not reassess on every sale like they did in Normal?

The more I reflected, I realized that this was the quality of life thang. Cold winters. High Tech. Historic towns. Strong cheese. Great Beer. Backward accounting. It was just the High Life.