September 7, 2009
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
Great speech to the kids yesterday!
I'm sure that letters from citizens can't go directly to you - you're only one man, and certainly you get more letters and email than 100 Presidents could read in one day. I hope that this one gets through the screening process.
My husband and I are both real estate brokers in Cottonwood, Arizona.
I don't for one second think that I know more about economics than all of the high-powered advisers in their shiny ivory towers that work for the United States government. I do, however, know what's going on in Cottonwood. I know why our economy is so horrible, and it’s one very simple finger that I have to point.President Obama, I'm proud of you for trying to get a coherent health care plan in place. I agree that it's desperately needed. However, I think that you're putting the cart before the horse. It's great to have a good health care plan, but I'm not going to worry much about my cholesterol when I'm homeless. Long-term health problems like cancer or thyroid imbalance or a heart murmur don't much concern me if I live in the culvert under the highway.
We need to deal with the homeless, and we need to deal with the certainty of millions of newly homeless before we get to health insurance. Excuse me, but that's where your attention needs to be – first things first and all. Besides, if the money isn’t moving there will be no income to pay taxes on and health insurance will be impossible to fund. (Don’t worry - I’ll tell you about the newly homeless in a minute, when we talk about nonexistent loan modifications and foreclosures.) Or, maybe we could split the focus? Let’s do half health insurance and half Carol Anne’s problem. As long as they’re all up in arms anyway, what do we have to lose?
Where does the economic buck stop? Why is our economy still gasping? Why are people losing their houses in droves? That answer is ridiculously easy for me to answer.
The Banks.
There are 3 ways that the Banks are totally FUBAR'd, and these 3 things are why so many more Americans are going to be sharing that culvert with me.
Let me tell you what I see every single day. Mr. President, I’m going to speak to you the same way that I would talk to my sons, or to a friend – you don’t seem like the type of person that requires beating around the bush. (My husband found a pun in that “beating around the bush” statement, but it was unintended.)
Here’s what’s going on:
THE BANKS ARE REFUSING TO LEND MONEY. I've lost count of the times that a wonderfully qualified buyer has written an offer and tried to get a loan and was turned down by a bank underwriter. Consistently, the underwriter's job is obviously to stall as long as possible and then at the last minute come up some stupid piddly-assed reason why they won't make a good loan.
Our most recent turn-down was because the underwriter decided that the buyer would get "payment shock." This was a great buyer: good credit score, good job, good income, and he desperately wanted to move his wife and son and mentally disabled daughter into that cute home with the nice picket fence. It's not going to happen.
The underwriter denied the loan because this buyer had never made a house payment before and so would go into shock and he would bail when he wrote that first mortgage check. I shit you not - he can’t buy a house now because he's never bought a house before.
I will be happy to show you this file and tons more just like it.
Please, Mr. President, consider for a moment what would have happened if this sale had closed (as it should have) and this buyer had gotten that house. Our buyer would have immediately gone down to Home Depot and spent a couple of thousand dollars on paint and tile and whatever. He would have made his payments on time, plus interest. The Bank would have had that interest money to lend to someone else. The loan originator would have gotten paid and would have been able to pay her bills. I would have gotten paid and then would have been able to pay my bills. I would also have bought a pair of shoes, which I always do when a deal closes, and we probably would have gone out to dinner. Money should have moved, but instead it didn't.
Please ask “Why?”
You're doing a great job with incentives like the up to $8,000 tax credit. However, incentives don't mean a thing if, when we get a buyer off of the fence and they try to buy a house the Banks won't lend, not even to good solid buyers. The government programs to help people to buy all look good on paper, but we're sure not seeing any difference down here in the trenches. The money isn’t moving. Please ask “Why?”
SHORT SALES. A short sale is when a buyer has to sell a home that they can no longer make the payments on. The problem is that they owe more on the property than it will sell for in this market. So, to sell it, we need the Bank to agree to allow the sale - otherwise we can't do it. Mr. President, understand that if the Bank doesn't agree to the short sale then they will eventually foreclose on the property. These are their choices: short sale or foreclose.
The latest numbers are that once it's all said and done it costs a Bank an average of $50,000 to foreclose on a property.
So when I come to a Bank and say, "Hey, Bank. Here's Mr. Seller, who owes you $135,000. I can sell his house for $100,000. If you work with us there’s a shortfall of $35,000. However, if you don't work with us and you foreclose you'll eat $50,000 right off of the top of a house that you also can only sell for $100,000 because you’ve inherited that $35,000 shortfall – it didn’t go away.
In the meantime the house will sit vacant and will deteriorate and then will only sell for $90,000. You, Bank, get to pay commission and closing costs and upkeep and taxes and HOA fees, probably totaling around $10,000.
Do the math. Work with us, lose $35,000. Refuse to work with us, lose the same $35,000 plus the $50,000 plus the estimated $10,000 for vacancy and deterioration plus the $10,000 for commissions and closing costs. The total estimated loss there is $105,000. This is a no-brainer, Bank.”
At this point the Bank should be kissing my toes for offering them the absolute best of 2 bad choices and they should do anything in their power to facilitate this short sale. That’s just good business.
But NO – the Bank drags their feet and jerks everybody around and finally does foreclose, sometimes on the same day that our completed short sale was supposed to close.
Short sales are a nightmare because of the Banks, even though it is absolutely in the Banks' best interest to make a short sale happen. Right now, 4 out of 5 short sales do not close successfully. That figure should be reversed - 4 out of 5 short sales should close. They don't because the Banks refuse to co-operate, which is bad business. What’s up with that? Surely across the board all Banks cannot possibly be that incompetent, can they? Can they really?
President Obama, please ask “WTF?”
LOAN MODIFICATIONS. In my world, anybody and everybody that depends on the housing market is in serious financial trouble. REALTORS®, contractors, plumbers, mortgage brokers, electricians, roofers, excavators, title companies and officers, well drillers, fence guys, lumber companies and their employees, the list goes on and on into infinity. You know the list. Add to this list the elderly that expected social security and their IRAs and 401K’s to keep them secure in their old age – they’re losing their homes, too.
It's not even remarkable anymore that someone has lost a home or has filed bankruptcy - we even talk about who’s the cheapest bankruptcy attorney and which is better for selling your stuff, eBay or Craig's List? I'm telling you about good, responsible, hard-working people whose source of income has dried up, just like when a spigot gets turned off.
All of these people used to spend money and keep the economy moving. We now have no money to spend, and so the businesses that depended on us are folding, too. Nobody is traveling and so the tourists aren’t coming, either.
Restaurants, clothing stores, jewelry stores, car dealerships and their employees, life and health insurance companies, art galleries………… I can stop here – you know the myriad types of businesses. They’re all either in a world of hurt or belly up because the money isn’t moving.
This results in severe loss of sales tax for the cities and counties, and now they don’t have the resources to deal with the onslaught of the newly homeless.
People call their REALTOR® for advice and we tell them to talk to their mortgage companies and say, "Hey, Bank. I can see what’s coming. Sometime in the near future I won’t be able to make my payment. It’s going to happen - talk to me, please. What can we do?" The Bank says, "We won't have a thing to do with you until you're in foreclosure."
Well, OK, if you insist. Like there was a choice, right?
They miss the required 3 payments so that they can go into foreclosure as instructed, and then the Bank says, "Look – you’ve missed 3 payments and so now we won't talk to you some more – you’re a bad risk. We're just going to take your house. Get out."
In the meantime, since these people are more than 30 and then 60 and then 90 days late on their mortgage, some sort of alarm gets tripped and the Banks who hold their credit cards raise their interest rate from 6% to 29%. The Banks also lower their limit to the point that now they’re "over limit" even though they weren't when they used the money and that trips more alarms and that's a big help now, isn't it? (I swear on my mother's grave that I'm not making this up – even George Orwell couldn’t make this up. The Banks can and they do do this, thousands of times every day.)
Remember about short sales, above, that it costs around $50,000 for a Bank to repossess a property? OK, what's the best option here? Work with the homeowners and give the economy a chance, or kick them out? Apparently it's "Kick 'em out!" because that's what's happening.
Mr. President, I know that your administration has instituted a ton of programs to induce the Banks to modify their client’s loans. What are the numbers? Out of the tens of thousands of foreclosures that have been filed and/or completed, how many were modified? I guarantee you that the number of homeowners who have been “worked with” by the Banks is horrifyingly miniscule.
Mr. President, please ask “How many?”
The Banks will tell you that “They’re trying!” No, Mr. President, they’re not trying. They’re stalling, they’re jacking people around, they’re asking for increasingly ludicrous documentation, they’re pretending that they don’t want to put Americans out on the street and then they’re doing it, over and over and over again. It just doesn’t make sense – it’s lunacy.
Mr. President, Please ask “Why?”
OK, so I’m full of what’s wrong, but what’s the solution? I don’t know. That’s your job, Mr. President, and I’m praying for you.
I write this letter with the hope that maybe it just hasn’t been made clear to you what’s happening to your citizens down here on the streets of America, or why and how it’s happening. I write this letter with the hope that whoever reads it will get it to you and to the people who can help you to figure out how to change this nightmare. I write with the hope that you won’t pussy-foot. I write with the hope that you’ll ask “Why?” and then go smack somebody around.
Best wishes,
Carol Anne Warren, REALTOR®
Associate Broker, Arizona Adobe Group Realty
918 North Main Street, #A
Cottonwood, Arizona, 86326
928.300.9031
carolanne@adobegr.net
www.cottonwoodrealestate.net
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Q: “I KEEP HEARING ABOUT THIS UP TO $8,000 TAX CREDIT IF I BUY A HOUSE. WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?”
CAROL ANNE: If you have not been on the title on a home for more than 3 years, if you make less than $75,000 for a single person or $150,000 as a couple, if you buy in the United States and close escrow before December 1, 2009, you’re probably eligible for the $8,000 credit.
Q: “DOES IT WORK FOR CONDOS OR MANUFACTURED HOMES OR CO-OPS OR TOWNHOUSES?”
CAROL ANNE: Yes, and sometimes even houseboats. Talk to your accountant or check it out at ww.irs.gov.
Q: “BUT I WON’T OWE $8,000 WHEN I FILE MY TAXES – I’M PROBABLY GETTING A REFUND. IS THIS $8,000 ANY GOOD TO ME?”
CAROL ANNE: Yes, it is. This is the cool part! If you don’t owe so much, then the IRS will cut you a check for the balance. For instance, if you owe no taxes, the IRS will send you the full $8,000 when you file plus whatever refund you’ve got coming. Them, say, if you owe $2,000 on your 2009 taxes, then you won’t pay the $2,000 and you’ll get a check for $6,000. Pretty sweet, isn’t it? Make sure that your tax guy knows to claim it for you.
Q: “SO IF I QUALIFY, I CAN BUY A $20,000 LOT WITH A "P.O.S." SHACK ON IT AND GET A TAX CREDIT OF $8,000?”
CAROL ANNE: That’s a good plan, but no. First of all, you have to claim this property as your principal residence, so you have to live there at least 51% of the time. Second, the tax credit is $8,000 OR 10% of the purchase price, whichever is less. If you bought this shack for 20 grand then your tax credit would be $2,000.
Q: “CAN I USE THIS $8,000 AS PART OF MY DOWN PAYMENT?”
CAROL ANNE: Probably not. We’ve heard of a few lenders that tried and one or two said that they succeeded, but we’re not hearing anybody saying that they can use the credit it towards the down payment anymore. If you find somebody, let us know, please.
Q: “DO I HAVE TO FILL OUT PAPERWORK AND GET APPROVED FOR THIS, TOO?“
CAROL ANNE: Nope. Assuming that you fit all of the parameters, just close escrow before December 1, 2009 and remember to tell your accountant to claim it on the new IRS form 5405.
Q: “DO I EVER HAVE TO PAY IT BACK?”
CAROL ANNE: Only in one situation: they call it the anti-flipping rule. If you sell the house before you’ve owned it for three years then the $8,000 must be paid back.
Q: MY WIFE AND I WILL BE CLAIMING INCOME OF $150,000 AND 1 DOLLAR. DOES THIS MEAN THAT WE’RE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE TAX CREDIT?
CAROL ANNE: No, you’re OK. If people go over the allowed limits there’s a nifty formula so that you can get at least a portion of the $8,000. It’s only when a single person makes over $95,000 or a couple makes over $170,000 that they’re totally out of luck. Talk to your accountant or the IRS.
Q: SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?
CAROL ANNE: CALL ME! 928.300.9031. December 1st is just around the corner!
CAROL ANNE: If you have not been on the title on a home for more than 3 years, if you make less than $75,000 for a single person or $150,000 as a couple, if you buy in the United States and close escrow before December 1, 2009, you’re probably eligible for the $8,000 credit.
Q: “DOES IT WORK FOR CONDOS OR MANUFACTURED HOMES OR CO-OPS OR TOWNHOUSES?”
CAROL ANNE: Yes, and sometimes even houseboats. Talk to your accountant or check it out at ww.irs.gov.
Q: “BUT I WON’T OWE $8,000 WHEN I FILE MY TAXES – I’M PROBABLY GETTING A REFUND. IS THIS $8,000 ANY GOOD TO ME?”
CAROL ANNE: Yes, it is. This is the cool part! If you don’t owe so much, then the IRS will cut you a check for the balance. For instance, if you owe no taxes, the IRS will send you the full $8,000 when you file plus whatever refund you’ve got coming. Them, say, if you owe $2,000 on your 2009 taxes, then you won’t pay the $2,000 and you’ll get a check for $6,000. Pretty sweet, isn’t it? Make sure that your tax guy knows to claim it for you.
Q: “SO IF I QUALIFY, I CAN BUY A $20,000 LOT WITH A "P.O.S." SHACK ON IT AND GET A TAX CREDIT OF $8,000?”
CAROL ANNE: That’s a good plan, but no. First of all, you have to claim this property as your principal residence, so you have to live there at least 51% of the time. Second, the tax credit is $8,000 OR 10% of the purchase price, whichever is less. If you bought this shack for 20 grand then your tax credit would be $2,000.
Q: “CAN I USE THIS $8,000 AS PART OF MY DOWN PAYMENT?”
CAROL ANNE: Probably not. We’ve heard of a few lenders that tried and one or two said that they succeeded, but we’re not hearing anybody saying that they can use the credit it towards the down payment anymore. If you find somebody, let us know, please.
Q: “DO I HAVE TO FILL OUT PAPERWORK AND GET APPROVED FOR THIS, TOO?“
CAROL ANNE: Nope. Assuming that you fit all of the parameters, just close escrow before December 1, 2009 and remember to tell your accountant to claim it on the new IRS form 5405.
Q: “DO I EVER HAVE TO PAY IT BACK?”
CAROL ANNE: Only in one situation: they call it the anti-flipping rule. If you sell the house before you’ve owned it for three years then the $8,000 must be paid back.
Q: MY WIFE AND I WILL BE CLAIMING INCOME OF $150,000 AND 1 DOLLAR. DOES THIS MEAN THAT WE’RE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE TAX CREDIT?
CAROL ANNE: No, you’re OK. If people go over the allowed limits there’s a nifty formula so that you can get at least a portion of the $8,000. It’s only when a single person makes over $95,000 or a couple makes over $170,000 that they’re totally out of luck. Talk to your accountant or the IRS.
Q: SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?
CAROL ANNE: CALL ME! 928.300.9031. December 1st is just around the corner!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Yesterday was Mike's and my 6th anniversary. He wanted breakfast at the Jerome Grille, and then said that we would do whatever I wanted.
I remembered him saying a long time ago that he knew where there were some Indian ruins - they're protected but you're allowed to walk to them. This is what I want to do!
Mike (being the perpetual voice of reason) pointed out that Arizona is having record heat for this time in August, the humidity is up, we've just eaten a heavy breakfast and this plan of mine is not a good one.
But I am stubborn and I've got an idea in my head and I insist.
So about noon we get to the hill that we need to hike up. When I say "up" I mean UP with capital letters. It's about 2 miles of rocky bad trail, the grade is at least 30% and it's 105 degrees and there is no shade.
Did I mention that I am stubborn and I've got an idea in my head and I stamp my little feet and insist? Mike shakes his head and shoulders his bag and we head up.
Neither one of us is having much fun, but I'm seeing random pieces of pottery and every time I look up it seems as though the summit where the ruins are is Right There. We forge ahead, sweating a lot and cussing occasionally, Mike asking once again if I don't think it's time to turn back because this is stupid - we can come back some other day. Since this story continues you know what my answer was - if I'd been smart and agreed to turn back it would end right here.
Now, I was born and raised in Arizona and I know full well the dangers of this place. However, I seem to have been made with a deficient sense of self-preservation. I have no fear of snakes or scorpions or spiders (centipedes totally creep me out and I got treed by a herd of javelina once) and for God's sake I could see our house from where we were. What's the worst that can happen?
We trudge some more and finally get to the top - there's the ruins. It's hot. It's damn hot. There are no trees up here, just one sad little juniper and a few crucifixion thorns.
I'm not sweating anymore, which is a very bad sign. I have a headache, my hands are shaking and I'm confused. I go to the edge of the cliff to see how close the creek is and wobble. Mike sees this and realizes that I'm in trouble and steers me over to a miniscule patch of shade under a crucifixion thorn and makes me sit.
I'd been giving Mike a hard time about this bag that he's carrying. He's been grunting and cussing at it since the first step, and I'd suggested leaving it at the side of the trail repeatedly. Now, bless the man, he pulls from this bag a bottle of ice water and makes me drink it - all of it. Then he pulls out another bottle of ice water and dumps it over my head. Then he pulls out another bottle of ice water and makes me drink that one, too. Then he pulls out a beer and he drinks that.
I'm scared. Mike is really scared - we still have to get down and he's not sure how to accomplish that, what with me needing shade and being stumbly. Mike mentions calling the rescue chopper, but I'm coherent enough to be horrified at that idea, at the embarrassment and expense. (Mostly the embarrassment. When I see people who have to be rescued, I always call them Boneheads and ask "Well, what did they think was going to happen, going for a little stroll at high noon on the hottest day yet in August? Nimrods.")
Mike thought about calling our friend Brain and having him come get us in his WallCrawlerJeep. To do that Brain would have to knock down the locked gate and drive up the protected trail and risk a $10,000 fine. Brain would do it in a minute if Mike called, but this did not seem like a viable option to me.
In the end we didn't have to do anything. The shade and water worked and after about an hour I got up and walked down to the trail head and we went home. I took a long nap and was just fine.
My point in writing all this is to remind us all that even though it's almost Fall, even though you're close to home, even though you're competent and comfortable in this country, it can be lethal. Human beings are not constructed to stroll around in this sort of heat. Thank goodness Mike was smarter than me and came prepared. Thank God I didn't take it into my head to go up there alone, which was a possibility.
Happy Anniversary, and be safe up there.
I remembered him saying a long time ago that he knew where there were some Indian ruins - they're protected but you're allowed to walk to them. This is what I want to do!
Mike (being the perpetual voice of reason) pointed out that Arizona is having record heat for this time in August, the humidity is up, we've just eaten a heavy breakfast and this plan of mine is not a good one.
But I am stubborn and I've got an idea in my head and I insist.
So about noon we get to the hill that we need to hike up. When I say "up" I mean UP with capital letters. It's about 2 miles of rocky bad trail, the grade is at least 30% and it's 105 degrees and there is no shade.
Did I mention that I am stubborn and I've got an idea in my head and I stamp my little feet and insist? Mike shakes his head and shoulders his bag and we head up.
Neither one of us is having much fun, but I'm seeing random pieces of pottery and every time I look up it seems as though the summit where the ruins are is Right There. We forge ahead, sweating a lot and cussing occasionally, Mike asking once again if I don't think it's time to turn back because this is stupid - we can come back some other day. Since this story continues you know what my answer was - if I'd been smart and agreed to turn back it would end right here.
Now, I was born and raised in Arizona and I know full well the dangers of this place. However, I seem to have been made with a deficient sense of self-preservation. I have no fear of snakes or scorpions or spiders (centipedes totally creep me out and I got treed by a herd of javelina once) and for God's sake I could see our house from where we were. What's the worst that can happen?
We trudge some more and finally get to the top - there's the ruins. It's hot. It's damn hot. There are no trees up here, just one sad little juniper and a few crucifixion thorns.
I'm not sweating anymore, which is a very bad sign. I have a headache, my hands are shaking and I'm confused. I go to the edge of the cliff to see how close the creek is and wobble. Mike sees this and realizes that I'm in trouble and steers me over to a miniscule patch of shade under a crucifixion thorn and makes me sit.
I'd been giving Mike a hard time about this bag that he's carrying. He's been grunting and cussing at it since the first step, and I'd suggested leaving it at the side of the trail repeatedly. Now, bless the man, he pulls from this bag a bottle of ice water and makes me drink it - all of it. Then he pulls out another bottle of ice water and dumps it over my head. Then he pulls out another bottle of ice water and makes me drink that one, too. Then he pulls out a beer and he drinks that.
I'm scared. Mike is really scared - we still have to get down and he's not sure how to accomplish that, what with me needing shade and being stumbly. Mike mentions calling the rescue chopper, but I'm coherent enough to be horrified at that idea, at the embarrassment and expense. (Mostly the embarrassment. When I see people who have to be rescued, I always call them Boneheads and ask "Well, what did they think was going to happen, going for a little stroll at high noon on the hottest day yet in August? Nimrods.")
Mike thought about calling our friend Brain and having him come get us in his WallCrawlerJeep. To do that Brain would have to knock down the locked gate and drive up the protected trail and risk a $10,000 fine. Brain would do it in a minute if Mike called, but this did not seem like a viable option to me.
In the end we didn't have to do anything. The shade and water worked and after about an hour I got up and walked down to the trail head and we went home. I took a long nap and was just fine.
My point in writing all this is to remind us all that even though it's almost Fall, even though you're close to home, even though you're competent and comfortable in this country, it can be lethal. Human beings are not constructed to stroll around in this sort of heat. Thank goodness Mike was smarter than me and came prepared. Thank God I didn't take it into my head to go up there alone, which was a possibility.
Happy Anniversary, and be safe up there.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
I get a kick out of everybody reading the foreclosure notices in the paper, and some even paying for lists of these notices. The they go, "Ooooh! So-and-so is in foreclosure! Oooooh!"
It doesn't seem to occur to them that if So-and-so wants to modify their loan with their bank, then they have to let their property go into foreclosure. There's no "Oooooh!" about it.
Isn't this a sorry state of affairs, the thought process (or lack of thought process) of the banks? "You're upside-down? Your income has been drastically reduced? Then you have to go into serious default and totally screw up your credit just to get into a position where we'll talk to you about us getting real about the situation!"
Sigh.
It doesn't seem to occur to them that if So-and-so wants to modify their loan with their bank, then they have to let their property go into foreclosure. There's no "Oooooh!" about it.
Isn't this a sorry state of affairs, the thought process (or lack of thought process) of the banks? "You're upside-down? Your income has been drastically reduced? Then you have to go into serious default and totally screw up your credit just to get into a position where we'll talk to you about us getting real about the situation!"
Sigh.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Rain in Arizona - it's like Christmas! It's been drizzly for the past 2 days, which never stops me because rain is the best. Water from the sky!
Today I go to my garden and plant salsa and nurture my soul. There's something about slogging around in the mud and breaking fingernails that's necessary to Band-Aid whatever mental health I have.
The only disturbing thing about gardening is the quandary of what to do when I find a tomato worm? I try to remember to be gentle and loving but I hate them with a passion AND THEY'RE KILLING MY SALSA! I wish I had chickens because then I could throw the stupid worm at the chickens and then they'd kill it and my karma would be clean. I settle for snipping off what I think is their head quickly and cleanly and sending them off to a new and better incarnation - I'm sure that they appreciate it. Who wants to be a tomato worm, right?
So today I'll go to the nursery with the intention of buying 6 Roma tomato plants and 4 jalapenos, and will come out with a Jeep full of house plants and yard flowers and some weird bright idea for the garden (Last year it was tomatillos. If you ever have a chance to grow tomatillos, one plant will be more than sufficient. Trust me on this one. I was never real sure what to do with the damn things since I don't like to eat them, but the plants sure are pretty. Neither the Mission nor the Food Bank wanted them either, so I started lurking in the Safeway parking lot watching for somebody that didn't lock their car doors so that I could fill their back seat up with tomatillos. It was a crime wave that was reported exhaustively in the newspapers.)
There are my plans for my day, and it sounds wonderful! Best wishes for yours!
Today I go to my garden and plant salsa and nurture my soul. There's something about slogging around in the mud and breaking fingernails that's necessary to Band-Aid whatever mental health I have.
The only disturbing thing about gardening is the quandary of what to do when I find a tomato worm? I try to remember to be gentle and loving but I hate them with a passion AND THEY'RE KILLING MY SALSA! I wish I had chickens because then I could throw the stupid worm at the chickens and then they'd kill it and my karma would be clean. I settle for snipping off what I think is their head quickly and cleanly and sending them off to a new and better incarnation - I'm sure that they appreciate it. Who wants to be a tomato worm, right?
So today I'll go to the nursery with the intention of buying 6 Roma tomato plants and 4 jalapenos, and will come out with a Jeep full of house plants and yard flowers and some weird bright idea for the garden (Last year it was tomatillos. If you ever have a chance to grow tomatillos, one plant will be more than sufficient. Trust me on this one. I was never real sure what to do with the damn things since I don't like to eat them, but the plants sure are pretty. Neither the Mission nor the Food Bank wanted them either, so I started lurking in the Safeway parking lot watching for somebody that didn't lock their car doors so that I could fill their back seat up with tomatillos. It was a crime wave that was reported exhaustively in the newspapers.)
There are my plans for my day, and it sounds wonderful! Best wishes for yours!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
I just spent a week in Washington, DC for the National Association of REALTORS conference. Wow! DC is not one of the places that I would choose to go if it had been left up to me. DC is not even one of the top 100 places that I would have ever chosen. Now, it probably is in the top, oh, say 50. The history sent shivers up my neck. I marveled at monuments and artifacts that I've been looking at pictures of all of my life.
I saw one of the copies of the Magna Charta from 1260. I saw all of the de rigeur monuments, the ACTUAL be still my heart! Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Constitution, a real dinosaur skeleton, an abandoned graveyard, miles and miles of DC sidewalks - I was a shameless tourist and I loved it!
I had to discipline myself to remember that I wasn't there to be a tourist. I had to fit sightseeing into late nights and one day of hookey when they hadn't scheduled me for anything except a guided tour of NAR - I felt fine about bailing on the NAR building.
I was there for the REALTOR Conference and the Summit. The Conference was great (REALTORS are an odd bunch, but extremely competent, especially at this level.) The Summit was incredible. NAR brought together the biggest of the wigs to duke it out over the economy. The concept is that Congress and the Obama Administration could watch and learn what's going on out in the real world.
That's what happened. Alan Greenspan gave a speech which I enjoyed quite a bit. (I didn't expect that - to enjoy Greenspan.) Then 2 round table discussions with big-timey bankers, economists, journalists, all kinds of economic gurus, all who pretty much ended up sniping at the bankers. Well, who deserves it more? Jane Bryant Quinn moderated and she was the best sniper of all.
The upshot is that Greenspan believes that the economy took an "upswing" in November, and he expects it to continue indefinitely. He explained why but I don't do econospeak and my eyes glazed over.
It was incredible, listening to all of these great minds finally admitting what we've known all along - the economy is in trouble, the housing market is a disaster, and "trickle down" didn't work so let's try some "trickle up."
That's my new license plate to replace my current "Turets." "Triklup."
I saw one of the copies of the Magna Charta from 1260. I saw all of the de rigeur monuments, the ACTUAL be still my heart! Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Constitution, a real dinosaur skeleton, an abandoned graveyard, miles and miles of DC sidewalks - I was a shameless tourist and I loved it!
I had to discipline myself to remember that I wasn't there to be a tourist. I had to fit sightseeing into late nights and one day of hookey when they hadn't scheduled me for anything except a guided tour of NAR - I felt fine about bailing on the NAR building.
I was there for the REALTOR Conference and the Summit. The Conference was great (REALTORS are an odd bunch, but extremely competent, especially at this level.) The Summit was incredible. NAR brought together the biggest of the wigs to duke it out over the economy. The concept is that Congress and the Obama Administration could watch and learn what's going on out in the real world.
That's what happened. Alan Greenspan gave a speech which I enjoyed quite a bit. (I didn't expect that - to enjoy Greenspan.) Then 2 round table discussions with big-timey bankers, economists, journalists, all kinds of economic gurus, all who pretty much ended up sniping at the bankers. Well, who deserves it more? Jane Bryant Quinn moderated and she was the best sniper of all.
The upshot is that Greenspan believes that the economy took an "upswing" in November, and he expects it to continue indefinitely. He explained why but I don't do econospeak and my eyes glazed over.
It was incredible, listening to all of these great minds finally admitting what we've known all along - the economy is in trouble, the housing market is a disaster, and "trickle down" didn't work so let's try some "trickle up."
That's my new license plate to replace my current "Turets." "Triklup."
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