I Should Have Bought Real Estate First...

Finally! Evidence of spring.

So-o, met with Reverend Cal on Tuesday. Pitched him the entrepreneurial family care model as a project for the next four months. He was intrigued. Albany has already told me they'd approve it.

It's actually a fairly interesting project. Would mostly involve researching the NY state regulatory web, costing out greenhouses, and determining what the arugula market is for NYC restaurants. Many NYC restaurants actually have their own greenhouses, so one would have to prove that this model provides the same benefit at a cheaper cost. Some of the restaurants might actually get some kind of branding benefit out of it, assuming their patrons are the type of people who might care that their salad mix is grown by the developmentally disabled.

I'll advise Reverend Cal to set up two pilot projects to bolster Pollyanna's response to RFS's moving forward. One would be in a house with an existing backyard; one would be in a house where growing might be conducted by hydroponics. Not sure whether the latter option is entirely viable, but I'll cost it out, and we shall see. This means going down to Queens and spending a few days measuring existing homes, reviewing electric panels and shit like that.

It's clear to me that Reverend Cal intends to close his Poughkeepsie and other upstate operations by the end of summer, so I'm not going to even bother doing an upstate model. I'm not entirely sure why this isn't clear to everyone working in that office, and I feel as though I should start leaving Pollyanna's employees anonymous notes, letters cut from magazine headlines: It's goin' dow-w-w-nnnn!

True, if they leave of their accord, they won't be eligible for unemployment.

But these people all have families. Many have kids who just started college. Unemployment is gonna do little or nothing for them.

And I was right: Pollyanna has no one to write the grant. So I'm writing it.

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Other than that, I've been hoarding $$$$ so I can pay insurance and registration fees on new-to-me car. I mean: Car! Yes. Very convenient. But definitely adds something to that monthly nut.

I've also discovered a strange new reality TV show called Million Dollar Listing New York. Real estate porn! But also... I dunno. Depressing somehow. Makes you see how easy it is to make serious money if that's what you want to do. I mean, you do need to dedicate yourself to it. You definitely need the right props, and those props are pretty expensive themselves. But it's not all that difficult.

You just gotta get yourself out of that mindset wherein money has anything to do with a job.

Most money is made through capital valuation. Real estate appreciation, of course, is one of the least risky methods of capital valuation. Not entirely risk-free, as the 2008 implosion of the housing bubble showed. But pretty dependable.

As my friend Tim used to say, "I should have bought real estate first and then dropped acid."