I received an invitation yesterday to attend a luncheon at the Arizona Biltmore to benefit Crisis Nursery. It got me to thinking about one of the issues in life that bothers me the most. Last month it was all over the news that a woman had chained herself to a post outside an animal shelter or some such place in protest over pets left outside in the heat. I was already upset over the numerous stories over the past few months of children being thrown against walls and killed, locked in boxes till they suffocated for eating a popsicle and thrown off the top levels of parking garages. I’ve always wondered why anyone can volunteer at animal facilities and Sherriff Joe even has his pet posse roaming around to find people who mistreat animals and yet we hear all the time how short handed CPS is and that they can’t possibly protect our children and yet they do not ask for volunteers unless a person has a degree in social work. Kind of an upside down world I would say when we put more value on the life of an animal than a child. Every year when football season starts we hear the talk about what a disgrace it is that Michael Vick has a second chance at an NFL career after being released from prison for dog fighting. He paid his dues and yet he is chastised and faces resentment every day for having another chance. Take a look at the number of pedaphiles and child molesters and child trafficking offenders who are on the streets and holding jobs they never should get close to. Go onto your computer on sex offender sites and put in your address and see just how many sex offenders are your neighbors. When are we going to start to protect helpless children as much as we protect helpless animals?
My very favorite past time in life is reading. Given my druthers, I will take a quiet afternoon with a good book over almost anything else. I once took a bag of books and went to a secluded resort in San Jose del Cabo all alone and stayed till I read the entire bag full of books. I remember that trip fondly as I enjoyed a delicious Margarita every afternoon, took a nice siesta and started my reading all over again. The resort had no telephones and no TV’s and it was heaven.
I am in the process of reading Malcomb Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point”. He also wrote “Blink” and “Outliers” which were equally good. The books are about how some people just seem to excel in life and the reasons why, the so called coincidences in life and the ways in which we can change our futures.
I, most recently, finished “Hunger Games” which is part of a fantasy novel trilogy. Wow,wow, wow is about all I can say about that one. It is full of addictive survival scenarios in a brutal storyline about 12 districts and a capitol in what used to be our country. The games are “24 men enter and only one man leaves”. A teenage girl is the main character and the book follows her through her determination to survive. I cannot wait to read the other two. This is storytelling at it’s best. The author is Suzanne Collins and she truly has a gift.
Six Mistakes Housing Investors Make – Investing in real estate right now can be surprisingly profitable, if everything goes well. Investors will want to avoid falling into one of these common traps:
* Mistake 1: Confusing a cheap deal for a good deal.
Homes in deserted subdivisions aren’t any more appealing to renters than they are to buyers. The same is true for less-attractive properties or those in less-desirable school districts.
* Mistake 2: Overlooking key costs.
Factor in closing costs of 3% to 6%, the costs to fix up the place and maintain it, and your holding costs.
* Mistake 3: Forgetting that time is money.
You lose money when your property is empty, whether you are painting it or between tenants.
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