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.

Two Perspectives

Here are two different perspectives on the issue of leaving Guaymas / San Carlos on the TBC Bus line.

Panic.
The anonymous traveler.
(Would not be caught dead on TBC)

All kidding aside, the TBC Bus for Tucson arrived in Guaymas more or less on time and had a quick turn around. As this is written the Dynamic Duo are headed North and we are hoping for a report of clear passage through the various checkpoints.

Part deux - TBC Bus to Guaymas

There is absolutely no doubt that the people we have met in San Carlos prefer to take the Tufesa bus line when not using their own car from Tucson. When Gary took a poll at Saturdays baseball game no one had even heard of the TBC line. Tufesa, on the other hand, has a gleaming termnal right on the main street of Serdan in Guaymas, clean restrooms (by local standards) and a neat littel food kiosk and everybody knows where it is, everybody. They also have a web site that lets you select your seat assingment.

Gary and Char took TBC, and since they do not have a web site at all, nada, we drove into Guaymas today, dictionary in hand, to make sure that they could get a seat assignment for the return voyage Norte. I took this as an opportunity to take a few photographs for future travelers wanting to do a little comparison shopping.

You should be able to click on any of these photos to see it enlarged, providing good detail.

Nearing sucess on the seat assignment.

A quiet place to talk to your dead relatives before boarding, just in case you think that you may be seeing them sooner rather than later.

The street scene. Notice a lack of directional signage and tourists. This is a one way street several blocks south of the main street of Serdan, on Calle 14. Also take note that there is not a street light anywhere, so locating The TBC terminal at night is more than a little difficult - some would call it impossible.


A fine new plastic sign with concrete nails. There is a cut out in the center for the future installation of a light.

A wonderful eating establishment. Notice the rusty rebar protruding above the happy couple and the close proximity to a handy shrine in case the gastronomical delights prove to be too much for the unsuspecting tourista.

This is a recommended conversation for the corner shrine:

Comi aigo en su pais. (I ate something in your country)

Por favor llame a un cura (Please call a priest)

Me gustaria hacer un recibir extremauncion. (I would like to receive last rights)

Por favor, manden mi cadaver a casa en el proximo vuelo. (Please send my body home on the next flight)

TBC Bus to Guaymas

This is a photograph of something not even close to the TBC Bus terminal in Guaymas.

When Gary & Char booked their bus trip from Tucson to Guaymas we just assumed that they were taking the Tufesa bus line and it did not occur to them to verify with us which bus line they would be on, just the arrival time. So while Julie and I sat at the Tufesa station patiently watching buses come and go, and the sun set, and dark thirty come and go, Gary & Char had long been in Guaymas on a little side street trying to get the cell phone to work, and trying very hard to reach us. Some time during the evening it occurred to me that they may not have taken Tufesa. There are at least five bus lines passing through Guaymas.

Shortly after that thought passed through the cranium my cell phone rang, and sure enough they were on TBC Bus Lines and somewhere near downtown on Calle 14 and an unmarked cross street. As Julie and I spent the next 30 or 40 minutes driving around Guaymas in the dark, stopping periodically to ask non-bilingual citizens for help, and occasionally talking to Gary about any visible landmarks, it simultaneously occurred to us that they could take a cab to the Ley market where we would be certain to find them, which we promptly did.

Fortunately, Julie had earlier in the day decided that all visitors to San Carlos deserve to be greeted with a shot,or two, of tequila so that is exactly what she did in the Ley parking lot much to the relief of Gary & Char. Of course this was later followed by more tequila and dinner at the marina in S.C.

We have since returned to Guaymas to get the appropriate Visas and of course we took a side trip to locate the TBC bus terminal. We would have eventually found it in the dark that other night, I think, only because our friends would have been standing outside looking desperate, but it is no architectural focal point or point of pride for the citizenry. In fact I can say with certainty that it does not in the slightest resemble anything that I would call a "terminal" for any mode of transportation. I believe that any self respecting donkey cart driver would not park within several blocks of that building lest they become associated with structural decay and cheap, peeling paint.

Good design and aesthetics are not everything, although pleasant when encountered, and the bus system is extensive, timely and functional in Mexico, even if not easily locatable for Norte Americanos. So we now know where to find yet another terminal in Guaymas and I will take a photograph of it later when we drop Gary & Char off for the trip north.