Home For Now

Photo © Howard Dratch, 2007. Rainbow from the end of my dock.

Here again in Bacalar, home again. At the same time my home is on the market officially. For those of you seeking a tropical, Mexican village on a 35 mile long freshwater lagoon not too far from the Costa Maya and the Caribbean, this is a special, unique property. The location is among the best on the lagoon. The views spectacular in all weather and seasons. Terraces both upstairs and down overlook the panorama of the lagoon, the uninhabited far shore and the spectacular ink-black night sky in common with the Mayan astronomers.

I have made a short pdf article I can email. Email me at: hfd@7colorlagoon.com. You need do no more than put Bacalar House as the subject. Visit the photo gallery of the house at http://7colorlagoon.com/galleries/houseforsale/index.html.
Two agents are already representing the house and more are expected. Links to them will appear here shortly and are on the last post at 7 Color Lagoon.

This house does still need some things. Modern lighting that is well-planned and designed would be an improvement on what was designed by the original owners. We have only used small lamps to augment this but modern equipment in whatever style would help. One style that does tend to intrigue me for this house and for my next space is track lighting.



Laguna Bacalar
Lighting
Foreign Investment
Tropical Real Estate

Macworld's Mac Security Pledge

Macworld recently published its' "Mac Security Pledge" on ways to protect your on-line presence from identity thieves, hackers and other bottom-feeders of cyberspace.

Definitely worth a look and then take the pledge.

Back In The Little Pitaya

Photo © Howard Dratch, 2007. My house in Bacalar is going on the market. Check the Bacalar House page which will be largely enhanced shortly.


Home again in Mexico, an alien land, after being home in the States where I have begun to feel a little lost in the brave new world. Home again in "little Pitaya", a title I just made up after actually having returned to The Big Apple itself. There was a lot of Miami too but I don't know if Miami has given itself a fruity name. I must stop to search to see one day when it really seems interesting enough.

Also when pitayas are in season I must photograph it to show off. It is a delicate red-skinned fruit that is the fruit of a viney cactus that grows around tropical trees. Around lime or mange trees I was told would be best. It is, like all cactus, slow-growing for here, mature enough to fruit a time to wait. I have not been able to raise them, but have managed to eat them happily. The flesh is whitish -- it almost looks like a whitish kiwi inside with its flecks of black seeds. The taste is not of a kiwi but similarly sweet-tart and juicy, the skin thick and waxy. The Mayan word for it is pi'tahaya I am told by Mayans who question why I would want to learn Spanish when I could be learning Mayan. This is one of the only words I ever seem to remember for some reason. The numbering system was fascinating with its dots and bars, the dots a 1, the bar a 5.

While in Miami I treated myself to a new watch suitable for life here on the jungle edge. A $50 Casio that will work sturdily like the last one I gave to my guard but will not tempt anyone to cut off my hand above the wrist to take it.
That type is collectible, incredibly beautiful but awfully tempting. Essential Watches has IWC watches as well as "pre-owned" Rolexes like the vintage "Paul Newman" Daytona for only $120,000 or the other quite acceptable model for $3100. Not for the jungle. The watch will probably function flawlessly but the machetes might just start flying too.



Since being home I have pulled the walls of the property, the steel gate and the walls of the house around me to retreat into myself. There was this crushing culture-shock of being shocked by both my cultures and the profound exhaustion. There was also the Mexican version of broadband to deal with. And the volatile stock market that does sap the energy watching and reading the roller-coaster days of fall.

Love & Cholera on Babbitt's Main Street

Photo of stack of antique bound books from the site Pictures of Old Books.

Shopping for books always seems as if Amazon is the lone Internet dealer. Shopping for books in New York was always The Strand where they were all to be found in bins and dusty shelves, everything that could be read could be found with enough searching. Back in my more youthful days living in small-town America, shopping for books included the sweet hunts in odd corners -- the Salvation Army store in Hudson, NY where I found a first-edition of Harold Lasky's The American Presidency.

There were also yard sales at churches and the wonderful book sales at The Woodstock Library. Last January a magical book sale appeared in the parking lot next to my motel near The Falls in Miami where a lovely lady sold me all the books that would fit in my suitcases for the trip home for $4. The shopping can be as much fun as the collection and both almost as satisfying as the reading.

2007 has brought us the Internet, PayPal and plastic money. Check out my Amazon links and Buy.com for books. I found Love In The Time Of Cholera at widely different prices and a rather complete selection of Sinclair Lewis' works at Buy.com.

Books

The SubPrime Mortgage Crisis

Photo © Howard Dratch, 2007.

Confused about the market jitters, past volatility, housing supply surpluses, the "melt-down". Here is the explanation is a single shot. This is, of course, merely an indication of the forces that moved big lenders to throw caution to the winds allowing everyone a shot at their 15 minutes of wealth, sort of.

Hitting The Real Estate Web Sites

Miami Downtown condo under construction. Photo ©Howard Dratch, 2007.

It is not a new game but for those of us contemplating large moves and great life changes, surfing real estate and rental sites has become almost as much fun as Iron Chef competitions and watching mediocre movies for the 100th time. Today I ended up corresponding with a rental agent for the Design and Cultural Districts, Downtown Miami and the Brickell area with its condo complexes and high-rises that have tempted me with their urban amenities (not with their horribly high prices).

Monday I return to my comfortable home in Mexico and, for all its evil memories, it is home, mine, beautiful and comfortable. I am simultaneously anxious to get home and relax and depressed at leaving my own country for all its current problems. However, the house must be sold and I have become entranced or mesmerized by the discipline of investing in order to raise my income enough to survive these life- and financial-changes. Every morning has me hypnotized by screens of numbers and letters, bar charts and "candlestick" graphs. The rest of the time spent with annual reports, financial reports, prices per share, earnings per share, dividend yields and the discussions and analysis of "analysts" and experts. The experts and analysts are fun, take themselves seriously and are taken seriously and often spew nonsense, good sense or mass hysteria depending on the day.

Another area might have been another choice to live since the stock and bond markets are now accessible by Internet from anywhere-ville. My problem is that Florida is close to sea level (to make my heart happy) and its medical community has kept me alive far longer than ever expected. It has good things to say for it (and some negative). I was also checking out Arizona luxury real estate for fun. There is always the wanderlust to consider some place new and different. The desert tempts now that I have changed from distance, open-water swimming to lap pools. At my age and after the violence that came from swimming in open water, a pool seems like the proper kind of swimming.


Technorati Tags: Real Estate, Miami, Condos, Apartments, Arizona, Luxury Homes, Florida, Stock Market, Stocks, Bond Market, Investing

Nutritional Boosters, Healthy Diets And American Nutrition

Visiting America again I am constantly amazed by the super-sized people. There are so many people now waddling through doors built for the masses of an earlier time. On Amtrak the 50 year old dining cars did not leave enough room for so many of the travelers to fit into the booths. The TV spews out a constant stream of junk food ads, convenience foods, instant foods, fast foods, drive-thru meals and even ads from Taco Bell for the second dinner or fourth meal -- I was impressed with the bald pandering to the public not just to supersize 3 non-squares a day but to add yet another high cholesterol, high fat, high calorie meal to their day.

The opposite is also true. There is a plethora of organic foods and health foods that are no longer relegated to "health food stores" but have large sections in mainstream supermarkets. The nearby Publix sports large sections of "organic" foods, exotic and "ethnic" foods. Health struggles with grease and fat in the constant battle of health versus self-inflicted disease. One Internet concern markets high-protein supplements and muscle-building drinks, muscle milk

Bon Provecho/Bon Apetit/Eat Hearty!

Servicing Industrial Power Supplies

Visiting Miami reminds me of the time we spent here during and after Hurrican Wilma. The storm came nowhere close to the violence of Hurricane Dean's category 5 pass over my house in Bacalar. It did not destroy Miami as Dean did to the village of Bacalar and the damage done to the growing city of Chetumal.

However, it did disrupt the modern, American city of Miami and environs. Power was cut, power poles leveled by the hundreds, streets were blocked and gas stations were unable to pump gas. For a modern city in the developed and industrial world, it was a telling situation that warned us of the fragility of the contemporary infrastructure of a modern city. It is anything but hardened. Miami, after all, wasn't the corrupt and ignored New Orleans written off by the government. It was merely a small blow and a big shot of damage.

Back in Mexico after Hurricane Dean I had my generator ready to be plugged into the electrical system of the house (and that system isolated from the public grid). It was noisy and hard to get running since I had not properly exercised the machine regularly and gas supplies and lines were dirty. But it worked. It pumped water, made light, ran my computer and even ran the refrigerator. Luckily vegetarians are not so dependent on the refrigerator since little will go bad if it is not refrigerated.

For businesses the need is great for quick and sure access to power supply repair not only for the stuff of private home needs but for the far more important needs of medical facilities and laboratories, food processing, manufacturing, oil drilling, communication systems and defense needs.

Keeping the machinery going and being able to access immediate repairs and supplies for the emergency back-up equipment is right up there with "job one".

Fighting Repetitive Desires

There are so many things in this world that are not good for you. Many become addictions. Tobacco is probably the worst. I know. I smoked heavily and, with my lousy genetics, developed heart disease. Thirteen years later I remain addicted to tobacco. I don't smoke it, couldn't, shouldn't, mustn't. But the desire remains. I still want the cigarette I can't and won't smoke.

Salt is another. Heart disease compels some control over salt intake and it is incredibly hard. Food needs salt to enhance flavors and so much sneaks into all foods.

Some people have the predisposition toward alcoholism and do not seem to be able to control their drinking. It, too, is a violent addiction that needs to be addressed because of the damage it does not only to the alcoholic but the people around him -- abused families and killed or maimed innocents the alcohol-user hurts in cars or with weapons and "accidents".

Of course there is also now the ever-popular recreational and prescription drug addictions that require drug rehabilitation.

The good part is that many rehab facilities have been sited - wisely - in beautiful locations. Malibu, Bacalar, Baja California all have the requisite meditative and beautiful environments to help in the rehab process. My memories of Malibu are of the beauty of the Pacific, the canyons and Mulholland Drive.


Technorati Tags: Drugs, Drug Rehabilitation, Alcoholism, Malibu, Treatment