The Emerald Rose

        I always get the “inadequate” virus during the holidays, inadequate in what I have been able to do and provide for my family, inadequate that there is an air of expectations that go beyond what I can “cover”, and most of all a prevailing sense of commercialism that is flat out disgusting. Christmas is not about iphones and such, but we tend to let the big ass retailers do it to us every year. I really want to start some kind of a movement,….but alas I have so much on my plate now!

        The new account is going along fairly well, my wife is finding all kinds of bookkeeping errors and legal “no-no’s” that pervade this type of business, but we are working through them all and getting things straight. The more I work on this whole thing the absolutely more determined I am that my concept of a “boutique” management company is not only well worth the effort, but the best move any of these condominium and Homeowners Associations could possibly make,….but as usual they seem to lack the “grey matter” to view it that way. They operate for the most part based on the “cheapest fee” available. Little do they know how dangerous that is and how much it can come back to bite them down the road. The analogy I love is that these associations, for the most part, all think they are world class thinkers and Physicians at the most prestigious medical institutions in the world, yet they are willing to treat shortness of breath, throbbing pain in the left arm, and dizziness with a hot pack! DUH??? They may be the world class attorneys or teachers, or construction company owners, or bankers or stock brokers, …….but I’m the guy conversant in the laws, the operations and the methodology to provide a smooth running, cost efficient association for them that precludes problems from arising. (sigh!) But alas I can only do what I can do, and with my new firm the overriding philosophy and policy directive is, …”I run your Association,….not you. If I’m proven to be doing it incorrectly or wrong then fire me, I can understand that…but if you can only “think” you can do it better, as my buddy Donald Trump would say,”You’re fired!”.

         Hoping I don;t have to “fire” any of my clients, but life is too short to grovel and beg.

        Trying to get my daily “routine” functioning comfortably, which means a lot of juggling, and testing of schedules. Go to the gym first thing in the morning, go at mid-morning, go at early afternoon, go in the late afternoon, go pick up the daily mail, drop off mail, stop by the old company and check for things sent to them, go to the bank, etc. etc. etc.

        So far here is the schedule I find works best. Get up about 6:30am, feed the cat, shoot him up with his insulin, take my vitals (weight, BP, pulse, etc.) log in my exercise from yesterday, take my morning pills, get a cup of black coffee, and read for about an hour (not necessarily one thing, but sometimes as many as five. I always have at least two books on the table, a magazine or two, a Harvard University Cardiac newsletter, and a blackberry with about 20 to 30 e-mails that have accumulated since I went to bed last night. (Some are pure junk, but I can’t bring myself to just delete them so I’ll keep them for later when I have time.) Sometime during this hour of reading and research my wife usually gets up, and she likes to go out first thing in the morning and do her four miles of walking. (Lately it has been so damn cold for Florida that even she is waffling an off day.) Then we have breakfast together and go get dressed and head up to our offices upstairs.

         We both work until about 1:30 or so and then she will pop down and make us a lunch, and we go right back to work, i.e. computer work, telephone calls accounting and filing, and always research for the next “silver bullet” or hot button in my business. (Occasionally you will get a call from one of your clients who happens to be an attorney or CPA, or a Doctor who tells you he read about this method of foreclosing on people who are not paying their dues to the Association and getting judgements against them and attaching their bank accounts and retirement funds, etc. and then I have to take about thirty minutes to respectfully and honestly tell him that “It just don’t work that way in this State, so the rest of the owners will have to pony up the shortfalls whether they like it or not,…end of case.” (No matter how diplomatically I try, or how logically presented I am, or the number of specific citations I can give them, their minds are closed. It’s that stupid mentality that “I read it on the internet so it must be true!” (Sigh).

       Then about 3pm or so I like to split and head for the gym to work out. I do my 4 miles a day on the treadmill and occasionally work in some strength exercises for my arms, chest and abs, then cool down jump into my traveling clothes and head for the Pub (you must replenish those vital nutrient fluids lost during strenuous exercise,….right?) A couple of weeks ago I opted to give up beer until I got from the 190 lbs I’ve been sitting at for four months down to the 175-180 I really want to be. So in lieu of Guinness (sorry Arther P.) I have a glass or two of Pinot Grigio. (Thinking about changing that to a Cabernet or a strong Shiraz but I have to get the Pub to carry wine in the bottle instead of the box first, if you know what I mean. Then it’s home by 6pm, shower, shave get on my comfies (sweat shirt and sweatpants, and eat dinner and watch TV for the evening while my wife does those silly Suduko puzzles.

        I mentioned before I got a new Heart Monitor watch that is most cool for Christmas, and I love it. It looks like those black “diver’s” watches with the rubber wristbands, and is digital, a little gompy but,….anyway you talk about the ultimate “geek toy” I love it.

         First you have to program it . It comes with an adjustable elastic chest band with two “snaps” on it. There are two little “pads” about eight inches apart that you run under water and get them wet, then snap this little device about the size of a key fob (2″ x 1″) on it press the button on the watch, and go lay down for ten minutes and think of green fields, lazy rivers, etc. It transmits a “baseline” of your resting heart to the watch where the little computer inside of it goes to work. You get up and sit down and enter about fifteen other parameters, age, weight, exercise zone limits max and min based on heartbeat, how intensively you want to exercise and for what purpose, “improved fitness”,  “running”, “bicycling”, racing in any or all of them. Then the computer goes cranking. (You only do that once) Then every time you go to the gym you wet the  cheststrap  and put it on, push the start button on the watch and go exercise. It computes you r maximum heart beat, you r target heart beat for the three “zones” you are exercising for, calculates the calories you are burning and does a constant visual update on how fast your heart is beating! (I know I hear you going “So what, that’s a lot of work, what do you do with all that stuff?”)

       When you get home you simply take the watch off, lay it face down on this little “flowlink” pad, about 2″ x 2″, and it “beams it up to a free website maintained by the company for it’s customers and tracks your performance and accomplishments against a training plan you can put together in about ten minutes on the site. If you’re “lazy” or “slacking off” you will see a little envelope icon on the watch that tells you to” get with the program” when you open it. It also gives you positive messages of your progress against your goal or plan as well.

        It lets you open up your personal training plan on the computer and shows how many calories you’ve burned for your weekly, monthly or long term program, it shows the suggested time in each of your three target zones for exercising calculate from your age sex, weight and “heart age capacity” and then totals it all together in graphs as well as numerical tables so you know where you stand. (In case you haven’t guessed, I love the little puppy!)

        Well, I’m sorry if I bored you but as you can see I even have time to “blog” as well. Got to get some work done and get ready to go to the gym in about two hours, then home to shave and shower and off to take my wife to dinner at our favorite Italian joint, “Fat Clemenza’s”, then home and watch a video.

      Closing in on the big 500th blog in a week or two, so stay tuned.

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