This building is the one I picked out as representative of what I wanted to do. I’ve been watching the progress, and they have really done a well-planned and remarkable restoration. Sorry about the sunspot, but you can make out the unpainted plaster on the front face. For some reason I knew this property had the right people in charge. They picked it up at rock bottom prices, got financing before the market fell and will now make their million easily, charging a hundred bucks a month less than the competition.
When it is for rent, I may check it out. (I presume it will be rental, as there is no condo market.) The work has progressed slowly, usually one or two workers at a time. They look like handymen rather than contractors. While the market sunk, this place underwent a steady transformation. I ride past there every other day, and I vouch there is no patch-up work. They replaced or repaired everything to top standards.No word from Jim, and I’ve made my customary two phone calls. I’m finding his material, that is, what he knows best, to be very slow and uninspiring ballads. He has semi-agreed to country material. I am ready to go ahead and program the lyrics, but that is so much work, I’ll wait for his go ahead. To emphasize the impact Arnel has on a crowd, the question at Jimbo’s was when my “Mexican” friend was coming back. Not a word about Jim and I.
Wally reports progress and that he has no hip pain for the first time in several years. That is good news, I just hope he can get here before May while the weather is nice. No weeds have grown back in the area of the forest he cleared by hand. I suspect the season and the shade, but I don’t even have to rake it. I’ve made up an ad to rent the back room and I will lower the price to the point that some starving student simply has to grab it. No other rental arrangement is possible here under the circumstances.
I’m into season two of “The Sopranos”. That title was a bad choice, making it sound more like a soap opera. Instead, it is becoming clear how a team of writers produced the whole series, then carefully went back and ensured each episode has a steady pace of action. Normally I can’t follow movies with more than four characters without memorizing the faces, but all new people are introduced with strong roles. I still can’t place obscure bit actors. It is an outstanding piece of work for television.
Accurate maps of the South Pole are hard to find, and satellite photos which abound are not a substitute. So much for the pristine environment, I count at least 22 permanently inhabitation around the perimeter and interior, some of them must be near 50 years old. Say, Bono [singer from U2] is also pushing 50. Let me count on my fingers here. Okay, the band released “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” when he was 20, that was 1980, so he was born in 1960. And it has been 29 years since the release. Yep, that should make a few people feel their age.
Checking house prices, a thing you know I do, I found an article stating it is cheaper to buy a house in Detroit than a car built there. The median house price turns out to be $19,422. I see that as a harbinger of Florida, since there is no economy left here, either. Teresa has stated her intention to head “back north” where all her kids (three of them, I think) all have jobs. Other news stated that many people in mortgage trouble had signed for loans over four times their annual income.
You may not believe it, but I once had a mortgage or two. Way back when I was 20, Rusty and I bought three properties. We never spent more than one year’s wages on any of them and it still took us the full ten years to pay off the first one, although it was permanently rented the whole time. Because these were backwater locations, we never got rich on them. This did, however, clue me in to the false god of mortgages. In a sense, with the way things went, I’m actually glad I’ve rented most of my life. Mortgages also tie you down to the extent you miss out on real traveling and all opportunities beyond driving distance.
Trivia. I was up around 3:00 A.M. and watched a documentary on Krakatoa. They made an idle comment that a tsunami had wiped out the plantations of nutmeg which was sold exclusively to Coca-Cola. Aha, I knew I recognized the flavor and I should have known. Around the time the drink was invented, a lot of mystery was still attached to spices from the far east. Today when I drank a cola, I could easily spot the influence of good old nutmeg, something I normally use as a replacement for cinnamon which I find too bitter.
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