Update for week ending 5/28/06

Well we have had a lot going on this week and I will try to recap it for you in chronological order.

Sunday - Our friend Gene left Sunday AM. Gene is our partner in the development business and is going to be the partner in the property management business as soon as he moves down at the end of June. We were sorry to see Gene go and look forward to his return.

Daniel my neighbor in the West Bay Mall opened up her deli. I of course came and supported my neighbor. She has a great little deli with some imported groceries and the place was packed.

After that Cindy and I took a nap, read, made dinner and watched the sopranos (what can I say not every minute is something different).

Monday - The new office opened up and we started normal business hours (9-5 M-F, 8-12 on Sat, closed Sundays). For most of the first days we tried to get the phone/DSL lines guys to come back out because we could only use 1 line at once and had some typical problems (they showed up on Wed). The day was good other than that with a few leads on properties to manage. We have an appt with the owners of cinnamon beach house for June 24th for example.

On the home front Monday our Gardner Santos did not come to work. He had said he was sick last Thursday and wanted to go home early. He did not show up Friday but came back on Saturday. Santos does not have a phone and I do not know where he lives so we just waited and wondered as the garden grew and our trash piled up in the basura.

Tuesday - still having trouble with the phones, so we continue to call. We have some construction going on at our house so Cindy has to stay home and watch the workers that are making a new walk in closet, redoing the bathroom and shower and knocking a hole in the wall between two bedrooms making one big bedroom. She fancies herself the general Contractor (GC) but I am pretty sure Melvin the GC we hired has it under control.

Santos did not show up again today so we figure he is quitting or died, but we hope he comes back since when he was working he was really good. We asked around but no one knows where he lives. In the evening we had Spanish class and that's progressing pretty well.

Wed. - Santos came back to work yea! It turned out he had Malaria and he had the pills and a doctors note to proof it. So we told him to take it easy and work slowly but he said he felt much better and worked hard. Never the less we got a lawyer and started the process of formalizing our contract with Santos so there would be no problems later regarding his pay, pensiones and if we had to let him go everything would be documented. The contract is also good for Santos since it gives him proof of our agreement if we try to screw him.

The phone and DSL guys came back and they figured out the problem with our phone lines was they needed static IP addresses and so now everything works (most of the time). If anyone wants to know the Honduran national anthem it is the busy signal. Not because everyone is on the phone but because the phone companies, cell phone companies and DSL phone lines all have major problems connecting to each other so when they do not connect they ring busy. Solution, dial more times eventually it works.

Thursday - I met with the electrician at our Orchid Hill development. Orchid hill is 4.4 acres on top of a beautiful hill overlooking Dixon cove. Latitude Sixteen (our development company with our two other partners Gene and Steve) has a contact on this property due to close June 15th. Well the house on the site is about 60% done so we have been getting quotes to do the plumbing, electrical and finish work inside the house. Thursday I had my 2nd meeting with the electrical guy were going to use to discuss placement of switches etc..

When I got back to my office I told Steve Woods (our local islander that's helping run the office etc.) Go over to the other office they need you to run some errands. So he left at 3, but decided to go home instead of the other office. I asked him the next day what happened and he said he must have gotten confused on things. Steve is funny, one minute he is sophisticated and well spoken but when its convenient for him he is very native and easily confused. I told him I don't think so and explained to him the concept of Country dumb when it suits you. He fessed up and hopefully things will be smoother going forward.

We got our international phone number 970-300-4078 so you guys can call our office now and it is like making a call to Colorado. Thank heaven for VOIP phones.

At home Cindy and the construction guys are knocking this project out at break neck speed so things are going smoothly there thanks to the GCC (General contractor Cindy).

Friday - We sold one of our lots in West Bay and so Cindy and I went to the closing and met the new owner of lot 15. Nice guy who is investing with his IRA with real estate. Evidently you can do that and I found out about his IRA trust manager and how it works. I am intrigued about this so I am planning on investigating it.

In the afternoon I met with Dean and Calvin our web guys who are finishing up the web site. It will be done next week and you can all take a peek at it.

Then as we have done for the last 3 Friday nights we went to West end for dinner at Ricks at 8pm. Mark Havey from the AKR office plays bass in a band that does a lot of island music, Spanish music and some Brazilian jobin stuff. We enjoy listening to the tunes, having a few cervezas and talking with everyone.

This Friday was especially funny as this lady in a pink flower skirt and a white halter style top was dancing to the fast beats of the congos and bongos. Needless to say the music had her shaking pretty hard and out of the top came one of our twins. Not only did she not notice/care she danced for another 2 or 3 minutes and then walked back to her table before someone told her what was out and about. It was pretty funny but she was undaunted stoop up and took a bow.




Work went well as the web site is almost done