Italy

It’s around 10:30pm Eastern Time, but I’m somewhere over the Atlantic, perhaps over mainland Europe now, listening to Karol G, on an aging ITA (Air Italy) airliner, up front in business class, with my business class slippers and my business class wine and my business class lie flat seats. Just finished watching Back to the Future.  Should be landing in a few hours, collect my luggage and then recheck in for the flight to Olbia Sardinia where I’m spending the next 10 days.   Then four in Corsica, thenn another 4 in either Milan or Silicy - haven’t decided.  Away nearly 3 weeks.  I should come back to full-on spring weather, as opposed to the teasers here and there we’ve been getting for the last month.  I think the dollar has lost value against the Euro - things are more expensive than I planned.

I leave with a dozen projects rolling full-steam, with little in the way of slowing down in my absence. I worked hard to get our projects to a place where uninterupted progress could continue, but not to the stages and phases that I’m uncomfortable going through and past without my personal inspection.  No one knows construction like me.  I’m literally an expert on everything from human falability to Murphy’s Law to been-there-done-that problems to avoid.

We rolled into contract on a new Ranch in Narrowsburg.  The house will be finished in June or July and sold as soon as it is complete.  I have a lot of spec homes going up or complete, so if we get those sold this year, it will be a big year.  I’m having deja vu as I write this so maybe I said the exact same thing in a previous recent post - wouldn’t surprise me, it is front of mind considering all my cash I have on the street right now.  2 completely finished homes, 2 mostly finished, and 1 half done.  Completely tempering that risk is a half dozen projects that are ‘pay as you go’, meaning cash flow friendly.

I haven’t seen any Iran-related price spikes other than the day to day gas tax we are currently paying - everyone is feeling it, but as the top of the food chain, I’m expecting to start hearing about possible price increases.  Can’t see how we can’t.  Maybe I’m the last to hear since we have so much pricing power with our subcontractors and vendors that they can raise their prices on smaller relationships but not risk it with us.  My best guess is that everyone is sitting around wondering how long it will last -this spike.  If not too long, then we all will just eat it.  If longer, then there will be a lot of tough conversations to be had.  Hope the Trumpers are happy.

I’ve been hearing more and more about the cost of living.  Fuel, gas, taxes, groceries.  The average family is getting crushed and bled.  Not sure where all this leads.  Consumer debt. Creeping credit card debt.  Home equity loans.  Personal loans.

One of the weirdest things I’ve come across in awhile is the fact that Venmo payments are default set to Public.  Why would a payment app default to public, since us older people it takes awhile to realize that everyone can see what you are paying everyone else.  I know more than one politician has gotten in trouble for sending some money out and someone noticing some interesting payment recipients.  I know I don’t want people to know who I’m paying, but I found that out a little late to avoid some embarassment or overlap in my dating life.  I mean, what can i say, I’m a player.  Not really, but a guy can dream.

In the Big Beautiful Bill, the federal government limited the amount of money a person can borrow for graduate school from public sources.   Very smart legislation, and it will cause college-goers to avoid schools they can’t afford, will help avoid college as playland with long debt hangover, will force applicants to do a return on investment analysis, which is a good thing.  Hiding out in grad school to avoid the big scary world may seem like a good idea, but not after you start getting the loan payback notices.  I hear the job market sucks for new bachelors degree grads, and the article on loan limits tied the detour from grad school to job market as one reason for the more competitive job-seeking market.  Add in AI, and I can see where the problem is. Still a ton of opportunity in small business for a well-rounded common sense applicant.

Lucas Petersheim getting sized up for a nice suit for the prom in a few weeks. It's a senior prom, he's only a junior, but one of his friends is taking him since he's pals with a lot of seniors.

Love the smoking areas in the Rome airport (FCO). A bit claustrophobic but very well ventilated. I also really like when I'm planning a trip somewhere new and get intimate with the airport code, forever etched in the Old Memory.