Looks like Bill right on the mark here with this weeks newsletter. ie... St James Humming
MEMBER2MEMBERNEWS
ST. JAMES IS HUMMING
There are 140 homes in St. James under construction. Wow! It is really busy, not quite as busy as it was a few years ago, but it is humming again. And I was speaking to Bob Duffy, our new Real Estate General Manager, and he tells me that home sales are very brisk. Remember I told you how nice I thought those model homes were out at SeaSide? There are six of those homes out there now, three are complete and the others are nearing completion, and five out of the six are sold. Boom!
Why is this happening? I have my theory. A typical family up north was getting ready to retire a few years ago and their home was worth $800,000. Two months later the bottom dropped out of the real estate market and their $800,000 was then worth $500,000. Back then, they said there was no way they would take $500,000 for their $800,000 home. They would just wait six months or so and the price would go back up. Guess what? It's three years later and the home is still worth $500,000 and it doesn't look like the prices will be going up soon. So, no more waiting -- time is running out, and you can't buy time. They sell their home up north and move to St. James. Some folks are building new homes on the lots they own and others are buying existing homes.
I know this missive goes out to several hundred email address of folks who don't live in St. James but own property here or are thinking about buying property here. I hear from you about your future plans to retire here. And I know you are waiting to make your move to St. James because you just need "to work a few more years" to put some more money away. You know what? You will never have enough money -- at least that's what you think. Dudes, you need to get moved down here -- you are not in a dress rehearsal. This is it!! You'll be dead a long time.
AFFLUENT/EFFLUENT -- CHARRETTE -- INTEGRITIVE -- VERISIMILITUDE
Ouch! I got hammered and I deserved it. Last week I wrote about all the affluent (instead of effluent) water we use at St. James. I love my readers. They got me right away and I received some hilarious comments. Well, for a guy who doesn't know the difference between affluent and effluent I was in for a rough week wordwise. As you know, I just love words even though I don't know many. Last week I was invited to a Charrette -- I said, "a what?" A Charrette is a collaborative session of folks from different backgrounds to work out a plan or a solution for a project. So I learned what a Charrette is. At our table was a young man, Jack Becker, from a company named Integritive (great name for a company buy I don't know what they do). And when Jack was speaking to our small group he used the word verisimilitude, and I said whoa, Dude, I just trying to work out affluent/effluent and you're hitting me with verisimilitude? And your Company's name is Integritive? I gotta go home.
Actually, it was a very interesting session and I learned a lot. Jack Becker is a very bright young man, I just don't know what the hell he does or what he sells. But whatever he is selling, I'm buying it.
How many of you knew what a Charrette was? And how many of you use the word verisimilitude?
ARE WE MISSING SOMETHING?
Most evenings at the end of NBC nightly news they have a segment called "Making a Difference". It deals with US citizens who, on their own, are making a difference for the good of our society. Last week they had a segment about a young music teacher, Nathan Thomas, from the struggling community of Paterson NJ. The city of Paterson had to lay off 10% of their teachers and the teachers in Music and the Arts took the brunt of the hit. Nathan was laid off from his job as a music teacher in a middle school. But because of his love for his students he still teaches and works with them on Saturdays at a Church that lets them use the sanctuary to practice their music. Nathan drives 80 miles round trip to work with the kids. These are all urban kids he is working with and he has instilled a love for music in them and their group is called the Paterson Strings Ensemble. When asked why he does this for no pay, Nathan's answer is because, "it is the right thing to do and I want these kids to be noble adults". He wants these kids to be "noble adults" -- how noble is that? Watching these 12 young men perform their music wearing shirts and ties is enough to bring a tear to your eye. When interviewed, the kids think Mr. Thomas is the "best person in the world". This is what these kids need -- someone who cares about them and who will work with them. They are on their way to becoming "noble adults". Real important stuff.
But are we missing something? Shouldn't this teacher (who has won Teacher of the Year Award) be working? Why don't we have the money to pay a valuable teacher like Nathan? We have college football coaches making more than $5,000,000 per year. These are not cancer research scientists, they are football coaches. Last year, Standard and Poor's 500 Index CEOs received, on average, 11.4 million dollars in compensation. Is something wrong or is it me? There are some CEOs making more than 100 million per year. Really? Is anyone worth that? How do you spend that kind of money? I'm not talking about entrepreneurs here, but CEO's of large companies hired by a Board of Directors.
What's the solution? I have no idea. We can't pay a devoted teacher $50,000 a year and some folks earn that in a day. Something is wrong. There is no way I can figure it out, hell I'm still working on affluent/effluent.
POTPOURRI
Had a note from a gal who was looking out her window at some golfers on the tee and one of these guys decided to pee before he teed. He just walked to the side of the tee and facing the houses, did his business. Dudes, you can't do that -- use some common sense. I know at your age you don't really have anything to show, but don't do it anyway. We have lots of bathrooms. I asked this gal if she saw anything when the guy was peeing and she said she only saw what looked like a dried flower arrangement. Oy Vey!
Katrina Freeman. Do you know who Katrina is? She works at the Reserve Clubhouse and before that worked at Players. Katrina is a single mom with four kids and is a loyal employee. Last year Habitat for Humanity built a house for Katrina and guess who furnished it? You all did. Led by Cindy Hauman, Nancy Gregson, and Players Dining Room manager Lindsey Krause, the good folks at St. James donated furniture and furnishings to fill Katrina's new home. Cindy told me that the St. James Service Club was responsible for a large portion of the donations. St. James did it again. Sounds like another "Making a Difference" story.
Was watching a segment on TV about folks at a job fair and they interviewed a young man who has been out of work for a year. He was asked how it was going and he said it was going O. K., that there were some jobs available but he did not want to take just any job, he only wanted to take a job that he liked. WHAT? Times have changed.
Rory Mcllroy. I think everyone was rooting for Rory to win the US Open, especially after his difficulties at the Masters. I know I was rooting for Rory but I think the announcers went way overboard concerning his achievement -- fastest golfer to reach double digits under par in the US Open - the first player to amass a score of 13 under in a US Open - set a record for the lowest 36 hole score at a US Open and finally he set a record for shooting 16 under par for the Tournament. Enough already. Let me tell you about the 2000 US Open and Tiger Woods. Tiger won the 2000 US Open at 12 under par. Do you know the score of his closest competitor? It was 3 OVER PAR. That's right, he was the only golfer to shoot under par in the 2000 Open and beat the next guy by 15 strokes. In this year's open there were 20 golfers under par. Rory won by 8 strokes. A great victory, but nothing compared to 2000. This year's tournament was played on a much easier course. I know Tiger's is a dirt bag, but his US Open victory was the best.
Talking about sports. In Plain Sight is filmed in Albuquerque as is a popular show called Breaking Bad. They are always in fun competition with each other and decided to settle all their differences with a softball game. Mary said Breaking Bad came to the game very cocky with cool uniforms and several "hot" cheerleaders from their crew. IPS came with a lone cheerleader -- he is Mary's dresser and he wore a girl's cheerleader outfit, skirt, wig, the whole deal. He was loving it. I saw a picture of him and it was very scary. The score going into the bottom of the last inning was Breaking Bad 27 and IPS 11. IPS had one at bat remaining and scored 17 runs in the half inning to win 28 -- 27. Mary said she was happier about the victory over BB then she was about her show being picked up. Do you think she is a little bit competitive? And of course, her dresser did not want to take off his skirt for days.
Went to Wilmington today and bought gas at COSTCO for $3.41 -- made my day. Drove home past Murphy Gas and it was $3.45 there. My tank took 16 gallons and I saved four cents per gallon, so my total savings was 64 cents. I don't want to talk about the 2 gallons of gas used to get to Wilmington and back -- old people don't care about that, they just care about saving a couple of cents per gallon. We are all nuts.
Talk to you next week.
Bill McCormack
Member2membernews@gmail.com
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