MORNING
While getting my scooter tire replaced this morning, I see an armored car pull up, but it ain’t Brinks. It’s a Hummer with a turret on top. For all you hear, this is still a rare occurrence in America. The turret was not armed yet had the standard 20-40mm cannon port. I could not get close enough to snap a photo, but you can make it out through the tree branches. Foreigners may laugh but they are forgetting how militarized their own police (RCMP for example) have been for the last thirty years. This kind of sight is still rare in this country.
This morning brought no spine-tingling adventures, so blog rules say just list the events. Okay, I’ve identified five vehicles in the bakery lot that may be abusing the parking. All duly photographed and logged. I see there is a planetarium on the film festival (the foreign film) theater list now offering movies. While I find contemporary planetariums a little too geared toward schoolchildren, I promise to take a look and get back to you.
I sent a copy to Elliott, pointing out how he could retire here for half what he’s paying in rent. Myself, I consider condos a desperation measure. Further, I don’t like condo associations and condo people, the whole condo mentality is substandard, but it’s there if you need it. That’s the only redeeming quality I could mention. Now, is Ola “hello” or “leaf” in Spanish? I forget.
Yep, gears are fascinating. That’s what I studied while waiting on repairs. I found out the minimum number of teeth per gear should be 7, although I could not find an exhaustive explanation why. So seven it is, the picture has ten. I’ve begun to read a related discipline, the bearings on which the shafts of the gears must ultimately spin. My hovercraft neighbor might have a couple of old skateboard wheels I can acquire. Did I tell you what happened to him?
He decided to get out of hovercraft and now has these high-speed RC cars. I saw him dancing around last evening and went to see what was the matter. I guess when you run these cars really fast, you don’t pick them up and touch the drive shaft. They get mighty hot. But anyway, what happened is I told you the lady that wanted me to stop my scooter and walk it, well, she asked him if he would not run his models. Because he was scaring her little dog. Shall we say, his answer was not as genteel as mine. Hey, she had it comin’.
NOON
JZ and I are going to take a look at the above condo as revenue property. It is in North Miami, a kind of mixed area, so we need to know how mixed. A condo purchase was not on the menu but since it took us only 8 minutes to get an offer together, we felt it worthwhile to eyeball the joint. Close examination of the photos from the agent reveals no work we cannot complete ourselves. The area is no worse than this area is getting, which is not bad, but they did steal my bicycle.
Look for yourself, this is an actual photo. The walls seem undamaged and that is a beautiful tile floor. The big screen and abandoned furniture show the tenants were probably ordinary types that ran into a jam. The condo fee is $330 per month, slightly more than half what I’m paying here, so you can probably figure out what JZ and I have in mind. It is also quite near a campus or two and I don’t mind that at all.
Next, my mechanic who changed the tire says come look at his computer. Surprise. I believe I mentioned the huge price leap for Chinese scooters like the one I got. And how impossible it was to find a good used motorcycle in this town. Well, there it was. Scooters like mine, used, are selling for $1,100. That’s more than I paid for it new. Get me that and I’ll have that Honda 400 by the weekend.
As for the condo, there are a million reasons I will say no such as not enough parking for my motorcycles. The aerial photos show it to be a fairly open and well planned area near a spur canal. There is some kind of storage facility or plant, but generally there are lots of single family homes in the area and I can make out a lot of hiking trails and tennis courts. Drop back tomorrow for the goods.
NIGHT
Thinking instead of thinking, I headed over to Jimbos II slightly after dark. Next thing I know, they are filming a movie (with chunky actresses). Having seen it all before, I wasn’t paying attention. Rumor has it they filmed for two minutes. Must be a grade B since they were all overdressed for the venue. Trent waltzed in and before long, we meet this stone mason who builds waterfalls. (And never shuts up about it.) And builds them for “the lady who does Oprah’s hair”. Neener, neener, you never know who you will meet in bars just north of a third-rate casino.
At the rate things are going, in another couple of months we’ll have turned that place into a country joint. Naturally we talked music and it is clear for now we must focus on the tunes we can play. Which is going okay, as rarely a rehearsal goes by that we don’t incorporate something new. This is important considering too many musicians focus on the music when, in fact, an audience is just as likely to react to a display of nimble coordination. Maybe Sunday I’ll check with HWB, see if they are still hiring.
The short run plan is to pull together what we have. We will have less than one hour of music, but we’ll pick six tunes to start. We’ve all witnessed how a guitarist can monopolize a party with the five songs he knows. We only need twenty minutes at a coffeehouse. I appreciate how this new duo has brought some excellent post-1990 tunes onto my aging song list. I’ve written west of the Mississippi to see about purchasing the Fishman Solo PA system. That’s a thousand bucks right there. Bear in mind, the odds are against us.
Then again, I know from experience I make twelve times my money back on average with music gear. We are shooting for some kind of gig in February. We don’t have any fear of failure that keeps most bands in the garage. We could probably carry a small room already, since from the word go, we’ve stressed stage technique over virtuosity. Sort of, “Play it this way so it looks fancy.”
Trust me, this will pay off beyond imagination. It always does.
Come to think of it, I have a partial explanation for why that is. We all know the difference between a musician cranking a tune for the nth time and another who finds the music anew each rendition. This brings out your “stage personality” and it seems to work equally well on any size audience. Some consider that a miracle. Hence, early stage work is important to reinforce these positive elements. Meaning it isn’t just one thing, but a balance. That’s why it works better when you start with complicated personalities.
ADDENDUM
Here’s something. The New York Times did an article (back in 2013) paralleling my theme on the relaxation of train travel. It correctly notes that train stories are more “emotionally pitched” than airplane stories. While this is one of the whackiest train stories you will ever read, it is worth it for the laugh. Read the whole thing if you have the time.
I didn’t go to the cinema as planned, I had to run a variety of spreadsheets on the condo. It seems highly flippable. One of use would live there as security while we strip the place and make it new again. Occupation depends on the neighborhood, it may turn out to be fine. As a reminder, JZ and I have all the tools and experience to do all the finishing work. However, the entire project hinges on the underlying property being a real steal. That’s the nature of the game these days. The ARV in the area is $62,000.
True, this isn’t Manhattan real estate, but hey, that kind of cash would be a real boost around here. Moolah in hand is worth more than any amount of big talk, right Ken? How’s it going up in the boonies? Don’t misunderstand me, I respect how far you got without the benefit of an adequate education, but you did rip me off for $1,600 that stalled me in 2002 from buying a property on Miami Avenue. That house flipped for a $140,000 profit twenty-three months later. Such things don’t get forgotten. (If I’d made the money, I’d have sent you $20 grand as a thanks, you know. But now you are just another liar turning thermostats to luke and stealing toilet paper from Tim Horton’s.)
Last Laugh
