Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

Few observations -

I'm wearing a mask when I go out.  I'll probably paint lips and a tongue on it, just for kicks.  One has to wonder how long it will be till the NYTimes runs a fashion article about different mask makeups.

For some reason, while my grocery store's shelve are alarmingly getting less filled across a broad array of items, clam chowder this week seemed to be holding it's own.  Whereas, Campbells Tomato soup, which i was listing as strangely available, was gone this week, and lord have mercy, I had to go off-brand, which I have never done.

A lot of people are walking their dogs.  Dogs are getting more walks, getting more attention, than ever before as people stay home and look for something to do.  I noticed while walking my little 1 mile loop, which is typically solitary, all sorts of new dogs and people.  Happy days are here again for the canines.

I feel retired, trying to fill my days, which I'm doing pretty well.  The key seems to be to acknowledge a few realities.  1, you aren't going to be as productive, so accept it.  2, because of the lack of travel, commuting, errands, sports, kids activities, etc..., the days are longer, and take more 'effort' to fill. 3, to survive the time, you have to reinvent, with an acceptance of downtime, acceptance of a slowdown and redefine the auto-response of 'busy' to define a successful life to something unAmerican like 'satisfied, bored, and sitting quietly'.  It's as much as a mental pivot as a physical one, and for Americans, not necessarily the worst thing ever for a gogo culture.

Noted a very strange and counterintuitive development, that being a real halt to my online shopping.  For months or longer I've been annoyed at the frequent one click shopping, with little or no real budget or thought of real necessity.  I mean, it's a continuation of the day to day bounce from 100 other activities that the purchases while not unnecessary or desired, happened as a 'check that off the list' routine among 100 others, but when you got the credit card statement it was an 'ugh' moment with half the things hardly touched (like my 32 piece sketch and drawing portfolio set or my 8' extension arm to hang Christmas lights on trees in my yard, to unfairly single out two).  But low and behold, since I've been hangin' at home, you'd think the shopping would fill some of the void, but it seems that reducing consumerism in one direction (physical), sort of reduces it across the board.  Sure, I'm still buying stuff (like my new toaster, which resulted in eating a lot more bread), but not big ticket items, and not at the rate one would guess with all the time I have on my hands.

Which makes me wonder how many people and families will take away from this isolation a new set of priorities and realizations about what they thought they needed in their lives and what they actually do need.  I'm just wondering if for some people, the awareness of 'buying whatever, whenever' was bringing less joy than may appear, may pivot and just consume less for the foreseeable future once this is over - like once off the roller coaster of 'buy this, buy this now amazon culture', it's easier to stay off.

I find my days go 1 of two ways - they are either lightly structured, moving through breakfast, tasks, dog walks, kitchen cleanups, work tasks, exercise, etc... or they aren't, and I barely shower, do my hair and accomplish much of anything.  Even the former is done at a slow pace, but like a retiree, it has the form of structure, so what I'm finding is while you have to give yourself a break in comparing it in anyway to what was being done prior to the outbreak, a semblance of structure and routine goes a long way.

Otherwise, you get caught in the loop I did the other day, when I finally turned off CNN and found myself somewhat entertained watching daytime TV shows like Ellen, PD Live (Cops spinoff) and a few others too shameful to mention.

Even if you do fill your days, there is too much day to fill, so I'm getting a lot of movies in - Lately "Lord of the Flies", 1963 version, 'Of Mice and Men', John Malkovich, 1992, "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Favourite", "Dumb and Dumber', "Dumb and Dumber To", "Ground Hog Day", you get the picture.  It's embarrassing in a vague way to know my bookkeeper is seeing all these purchases.

I call this picture below "Dog sitting on a new stone wall on a Friday evening c. Happy Hour"

I'm doing a lot of watching and waiting.  Waiting for my wildflowers to grow I planted last fall, waiting for the leaves to bud, waiting for grass to grow.  No rush though, I got nothing planned or pressing.

So Says Wesley Clair Mitchell, economist, in his 1913 book, Business Cycles - "In that organic cycle, entrepreneurs who think business conditions will improve become 'centers of infection and start an epidemic of optimism'.  That optimism leads to a 'flood tide of prosperity' which washes away caution, creating euphoria that culminates in a crash, which, in turn, clears the way for recovery.  Lather, rinse, repeat"

Or said another way, when the tide goes we see who is not wearing shorts.  So while the current virus is the cause, the pain is acutely felt since optimism abundant, and business owners were forgetting that all economies have cycles, defined mostly by thinking that either 'this time was different' or that you will be the one that finds the chair when the music stops, like the Bob Dylan song from the early '60's where everyone thinks they will be the one that survives the nuclear holocaust and will be roaming the earth alone.

You know things have changed when you discover your ex-wife trying to smuggle two rolls of toilet paper out of your house disguised as fake boobs while picking up her kid.  Busted, she then shamelessly offered cooking/hosting a modern family Sunday night dinner, which I accepted, for one roll, not two.

And when you go to the grocery store - where the shortages were supposed to be because of the initial run on food goods - but each time you go the shelves are a little more bare.  The journey to the grocery store brings all sorts of thoughts to mind.  1, super interesting what is, and isn't being bought.  I'm glad Campbell's tomato soup, one of my favorite meals with a sandwich since I was 10, seems to be not a widely shared soup fetish, for while the soup area was mostly barren, the tomato soup was fully stocked - so I did what you do in those situations - I bought 3x more than I was going to.

In fact, even though I'm worried about shortages, and only have to feed me, my son and my dog, the scarcity caused an almost instinctual desire to hoard.  Why buy one, when you can buy 3?

Paper products - paper towels and toilet paper - have been gone for weeks.  Are they available on Amazon, I'm not sure?  But I'm self rationing, and trading my stock for valued goods and services.  I probably won't do it, but I could - since i buy the thickest 4ply offered in the marketplace, I could self-separate the layers, reroll them, and sell them off.  I'm sure there would be howls of protest, but a simple replay, beggars can't be choosey, should do the trick.

Interestingly, all this sitting at home has reduced my urge to spend money.  When things are rolling and I'm busy all day, I don't think twice about 1 stop shopping on Amazon, for items large and small.  And it's not really for budgeting reasons, it just seems like slowing down and staying put had an impact on my desire to binge buy, that random consumerism lost its glow for now.  I mean, truth be told, I really don't need much at this point, so it's just gluttonous anyway.

I haven't had a toaster in years - but this time at home has really driven home the point that using the broiler in the oven is a waste of time, and I end up over toasting most things, had an oven fire the other night when I forget to take out the Naan bread while talking to my sister, and I end up burning my hand on the cotton-picking broiler coils which hurts like a son of bitch.

I picked a retro model, with a top heating grill and cool gauge.

NY State ordered all construction sites to close.  They didn't put a date on it, so I guess it might immediately.  That's an interesting development for sure and we will see what it means this week for small residential projects.  I'm really interested to understand how enforcement will work.

Not telling us something we don't know.

https://www.curbed.com/2020/3/10/21168519/homes-for-sale-american-home-suburbs

Luckily, and interestingly, construction is considered essential, so we continue apace without sneaking around in the middle of the night, or camping out at the site, both which we were willing to do to keep it moving forward.  We have 3 homes to close in the next 4 weeks, and closed on 2 last week, and I intend to meet the schedule.

Not easy however, with building departments in disarray, the board of health redirecting all their efforts to virus tasks, and the constant fear of new orders about what businesses are permitted.  But, as I predicted and hoped, the strengths of our relationships, the length of our relationships, our credibility across a wide range of municipal, banking, and construction departments, has paid off.  And lest I forget the most important ingredient - our clients, whose strengths as buyers bridge many unexpected issues.  I consider it all a competitive advantage, one that seems relatively unimportant until you need them, and then it's life and death, from a business standpoint.

We needed a septic inspection for a certificate of occupancy, we wanted access our unsecured credit lines, we wanted to close some loans, close some deals, close some houses, and really, it's happening.  We are even getting people to look at our new homes.

Not withstanding the 'good' news on our business front, the pain out there is real.  Out of cash, out of water, out of cash flow, out of work, out of school.

A hiccup on the economic relief package, though it seems to be reconciled now.  I agree with some last minute objections, where unemployment benefits would equal or exceed the actual paycheck, is a really bad idea.  Why would anyone work, or why would any small business fight to keep an employee on if they can make just as much on the dole?

Here's my exercise cabin I built on our property in Milford PA.  Great space for functional fitness.

A new farmhouse in Kerhonkson which will sell in less than 2 weeks.

and a painting from a young swiss painter I bought from my art broker friend Bryan, which just went from my miami beach condo to my Pennsylvania bedroom.  One of my favorites.

And french toast breakfast at the Petersheim Home School.  Frankly, in my opinion, it's amazing it takes 8 hours a day to run through their lessons, because lucas has doubled his learning in half the time.  I guess the inefficiency of educating large numbers defines education.  While I'd never do it, since the socialization is important, and sports and the whole thing, what I'm seeing, viewed only through prism of amount of learning, Lucas is getting a lot more education at home - plus i throw in some primary sex ed, combining art class with sex ed primers, with classic art as tools.

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