Mt. Shasta

We are currently in Mt. Shasta, California and just five hours from being back home. We drove from Arcadia (Pasadena area)  today, which was a ten hour run, after an eight hour day yesterday from Tucson. If you have never been to Mt. Shasta it is a quaint, small town and I would have to say that other than the magnificent view of its namesake mountain, its claim to fame has to be that it is only a few miles from Weed, California. There are many jokes about Weed, and no small amount of logo items available for the passer through to purchase.

North

We are heading North to Oregon tomorrow!

Bureaucracies

Every company or branch of government has its own bent toward the creation of formalities aimed at the dealings between itself and its clients. As we have assembled the bills and account statements of my Mother and changed the mailing addresses or other features of the relationship for future ease of administration, we have run into bureaucracies of various complexities and strengths.

Surprisingly, the hardest company to deal with has been the cable TV company. Who would have thunk? Apparently the cable company has witnessed every kind of fraud and has instituted firewalls for almost every occasion. Since we planned on being here in Tucson for extended periods, we wanted to have internet access at the house so that we did not have to rent a seat at the local coffee shop just to check emails. I like coffee a lot, but do not drink it after noon and know that whenever I drink it it will without fail cause a reaction at the other end and many interruptions to the email retrieval process. Coffee shops are not a practical alternative for the long haul.

So we call the cable company to add internet. No, that is not possible without seeing a Power of Attorney (POA). No problem since I have one of those. Again, no, I must appear in person at the local office which it turns out looks like the waiting room for free government services with a DMV type pick-a-number twist. They do not really want to deal with customers in person, so they make it appear unpleasant and the wait time long. The same is true for a change of address with the cable company. They will not do that either without a POA and personal appearance before the Tribunal Council of Nameless Powerful Bureaucrats.

We discover a chink in the armor after considering that the actual customer of the cable company is female and since I have been the caller with the male voice it must only be a matter of decibels and frequency. Julie calls and can easily change whatever she desires. No visits, no POA’s, nothing. Just sit in the comfort of the house and alter the relationship at will. Taadaa!

Still further South than we thought we would be...

To update the family without calling everyone, here is the latest from Tucson.


Mom is still in the skilled nursing center at Handmaker and looks to be improving from her bout of pneumonia and an infection of Clostridium difficile ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_difficile ) , both of which she picked up in the hospital while being treated fro the bleeding ulcer. Isn’t it wonderful that hospitals can charge you to treat one thing and give you another to treat on your own at additional expense. Anyway, Mom is doing daily physical therapy and, by her own admission, is not ready to come home.

Yesterday we toured some of the assisted living apartments at Handmaker with Mom and developed a sort of Plan “A” – they have a “Respite Care” furnished apartment that may be used for up to 30 days and Mom agreed that it would be a better place for her to be while she continues to recuperate. Maree will continue to be on a twice weekly schedule throughout this period so that Mom can have both the companionship they have developed and be able to go out for shopping, hair appointments and whatever. But for now she is anchored in the nursing center where they can monitor the demise of the bugs in her systems. We do not know yet when she might make the transfer.

Julie and I had wanted to drive back to Oregon this week, then considered flying, then dropped the idea for now and just unloaded the Suburban into Mom’s garage. Intstead of leaving town we dicided to ask Eric and our property manager to send the things we need for tax returns, and the functioning of our business via UPS. I guess that we can figure out a longer range plan later when we know more about Mom’s prospects for the next transition.

TTFN

Un-warm in Tucson

Catalina Mountains taken from Mother's living room.

I suppose that I expected something different than snow in my native town of Tucson in March, since this is after all a place where snow birds escape to to get warm. Warmer than what might be a good question, although if you are from the cold, frozen North this would seem down right balmy I guess.

With Mom in the hospital we may be looking at this view for a while, and wouldn't you know it we just forgot to bring our skis to Mexico with us so we will have to rent.

Mouse Trap

I stole this from a friends facebook posting because it is too good to not share.

"I will gladly pay you Saturday for a hamburger today." - Wimpy

I read today in the Tucson Daily Star that there may be a movement afoot, lead by Manhattan-based Freehold Partners, for developers to encumber their properties with a transfer fee covenant. What this is takes a little explaining. As I understand it, the developer would essentially record a deed restriction requiring future owners (sellers) of a property to pay a one percent (1%) fee to the original developer of the property, and this would apply to all sellers over the next 99 years. Like the article suggested, this is likely to not be understood buy the initial buyer of a property and should surely impact the future value of an encumbered property negatively.

But here is the real kicker. According to the article, Freehold Partners is negotiating with institutional investors (perhaps the same ones we all recently bailed out with our tax dollars?) to “securitize” pools of transfer fees. Basically, this means that they could sell bonds whose repayment is based upon the cash flows from future sales of properties encumbered by the 1% fee. The original developer is paid today for the value of potential sales of the property in the future. It must be Christmas! Whoohoo!

Gee, this sounds awfully similar to what the banking industry did with bundling questionable mortgages together and selling them basically as bonds to generate big profits, until the people paying the mortgages could not make the payments any more and it all blew up and Congress made us pay for it. So what happens if Freehold or some other entity sells a couple of trillion dollars of these securitized pools of transfer fees, but the consumer wakes up and decides that those properties with a 1% fee owed are worth less than other properties without such a fee? Perhaps the value of those “bonds” would maybe, possibly fall? What could go wrong?

I am sure our Congressional and State leaders can figure this all out and come up with away to deal with the issue. Stay tuned in to what is going on in our country.

Freehold Partners puts a little bit of a different spin on this. What a surprise. I am shocked.

Freehold Capital Partners Announces Relocation of Corporate Offices to Manhattan
NEW YORK, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ --

Freehold Capital Partners (http://www.FreeholdCapitalPartners.com) is pleased to announce the relocation of its corporate offices from Austin, TX, to midtown Manhattan.
Bringing the Freehold team to the heart of the financial markets is important for the Company's continued growth. The move will provide close proximity to major investment banks, will allow the Company to attract top talent, and further illustrates Freehold's focus on strengthening its growing portfolio of financial instruments.
About Us: Freehold Capital Partners (successor to Freehold Licensing) helps the owners of real estate projects apportion infrastructure and development costs in a fair and equitable way through the use of reconveyance fee financing. Instead of forcing first-time buyers to bear 100 percent of the burden of infrastructure and development costs, and then pass those costs along to the next buyer, a reconveyance fee (also referred to as a transfer fee) apportions costs over those who utilize the improvements, lowering the cost of home ownership. In the process, Freehold helps build long-term income streams for non-profits, including funding for affordable housing, open space, clean air and more, by allocating a portion of each transfer fee to non-profits.