How can't you be excited when you find your 20 year old copy of Paris Hilton's sex tape (CD actually). Perversely, I'm listening to Taylor Swift's Reputation - it's not bad. I like her.
And one of the very first, if not the very first subdivisions I did - in Callicoon NY, up on Bayer Road. I bought 30 acres of big view land from George B, who was an old timer who owned a dilapidated home. He was a horse trainer at the Monticello race track - old school layered on old school. When we were renovating the old house that came with the 30 acres, I found his smut stash - literally 60 magazines - Playboy, Oui, Pin-up and a bunch of other classics. He was a real smut connoisseur. The comical part of it, in the middle of the the 2 foot stack was a Playgirl - just testing it out I guess. Good for him. Eric G, I know you are blushing.
Anyways, my point is, besides my savings bonds and my Paris Hilton tape and few other bits of nostalgia, I came across this. And you know what, the articles in Playboy are awesome.
I've been inspired by this pandemic. I don't mean in a happy way, I just mean it's got my thinking juices flowing, and that gets my writing juices going, because at the root of it all, I'm a writer locked in a builder's body!
That's not really true. I like building - it's super challenging. I think my energies are flowing because this pandemic is the real thing, and I think I have a good business mind and it is sparking a constant idea generation of what comes next, what come now, what comes longer term - I like the added risk element. I'll tell you the least interesting time to be in business - boom times, when even the dumb prosper. Give me some challenges to navigate. I'm being facetious of course, but there is a grain of truth to it.
What's Next for the Catskills : Boom or Bust- River Reporter
I can't decide how to feel about the future. I'm getting such mixed signals. We are busy as hell and people are calling and writing all day long. And the stock market is stupid - I sold everything I had left today, after liquidating quite a bit at the beginning of the year, and then switching the remaining portfolio weight to a more conservative mix. Now I'm out, except for my 529. There just is zero reasons this market isn't going down.
The whole thing just feels like a little bit of denial, that the hope for a quick rebound is clouding decisions and people who haven't been harmed too much are searching for the buy in price and those who have been harmed/closed are banking on a quick rebound. From a stock market perspective, all you got to do is study the market twists and turns of 1929 to understand how weird and deceptive it can be. Up 1000%, drops 50%, up in the perfect dead cat bounce deception luring people back in, then a drop of 85% and 2 decades to return to breakeven.
I guess for me the risk is to be fooled by all the interest currently to ramp up production. I'm just not sure how deep this goes, and how badly the banks get hit.
It's always fascinating, this lane of ours we operate in. It's so narrow, but we mine it, harvest it, tend it, and it always produces our 8-16 homes a year from our resilient NYC buyers. And in times like this, why not go with the guy whose been doing it for 20 years? Why would you get involved with a company on their 3rd home, betting they won't be there when you need them in 2 years? Tougher the times, the better we look.
Gotta get going - the oven timer is going off, and that means my 3 beers in the freezer are ready to come out. But who am I kidding, I'm going to have a rye.
The real question is - how many people are, right now, cooling it with a drink, in a home from Catskill Farms, feeling safe and cozy?
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