2010 Report on the Plum Creek HOA Fiscal Activities
By year-end 2010 the Plum Creek HOA will have 1424 homes. The reported revenues for this statement are $783,354 which includes $5,304 in early payment discounts ($20 off if you pay for the whole year in full).
The largest HOA expense is the category of Landscape Maintenance costing just over $177,000 per year. Second place goes to the live in management man (we are unclear of his necessity). He costs us just under $132,000 per year. There is an additional $41,262 in the category of administration.
Next up is the pool, with multiple teenage lifeguards who do little more than faun over their coworkers and talk with their friends, I expected the pool operation to be the largest expense. Instead it slides into third place at just under $109,000.
The most surprising expense is for telephone service. $6,864 per year, or $572 per month, I wonder who are we calling. Perhaps we should look for some bundled long distance savings.
It costs us $2,640 dollars a year for communication ($220 a month). Those newsletters and notice signs really add up.
Homeowner activities (the Easter Egg Hunt, BBQ Cook Offs, etc.) are $33,519. A measly 4.2% return on the assessments.
Luckily our current assessment rate will not be increasing next year.
Family Portraits
Hailey has drawn each member of the family. I like mine because I have more hair.
Man on the Moon
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
JFK, Houston, September 12, 1962
Forty years ago we landed men on the moon. A culmination of a decade long goal. A goal established to advance science. A goal that was hard to achieve. A goal that seemed unimaginable. A goal made of dreams.
Today our generation lacks the commitment to repeat the same, lacks the stamina to plan and complete long tasks, lacks the wisdom to admit that there are problems that must be tackled today. Problems that can be solved while they are only hard, not impossible.
Eight
2001-2009
♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣
I’m still glad I married you.
San Antonio Zoo
http://www.schmap.com/texas/attractions/#p=14862&i=14862_1.jpg
Look at the photo credit next to the picture of the sleeping baby rhino. I took this picture about 2-3 years ago during my first visit to the zoo.
UPS is the Suck
Sometime my cheap-a** side takes over and I go against my better judgment. Once again I have used UPS for shipping, when I knew at the time I should have paid extra for FedEx and once again UPS can’t seem to find my city. If the package gets sent to Austin, it will be a day late. If it gets sent to San Marcos, it will come on time. FedEx has no problem finding my city.
Interestingly, UPS website is useless. As of 8:30 p.m. it said that the delivery was on time and out for delivery. Now it just says, ‘Delivery Rescheduled.’ No mention that they are late and not on schedule. Maybe they think if they don’t say it, I won’t notice.
The Jones Law of Bureaucratic Slimacy
The sliminess of a company is directly proportional to the amount of paperwork required to do work with them.
Texas Small Towns Rock!
I just updated my driver’s license, in person, with vision test, identity verification, and photograph in less than six, 6!, minutes. This time includes walking into the DPS office, filling out the form, chatting with the nice lady, and getting back into my car. There was no line in the office and only two people filling out forms. Not long ago I drove by the Austin DPS office on the way to the dentist. It wasn’t open yet and a line was forming.
Ceiling Repair
We had an exciting adventure in drywall repair today. View in slide-show and mouse over the photos for the full details.
I Know What Comes from Cows
I was reading a book to Hailey this evening. The book has pictures, the child looks at the pictures and identifies the item. We get to the cow.
H: Cow, I know what comes from cows.
D: Really, what?
Dad expects the usual milk answer
H: Milk and hamburgers
I swear I didn’t teacher her that
Playa Del Carmen
Spring Break 2007. Brianna made me get on a plane and take her on a real vacation. It was a blast. I miss the pool, the food, and the weather.
View the set.
DVDs
I hate DVDs. Mostly the way they take control away from you, the owner of the equipment.
Hailey has some DVDs with at least 15 minutes of commercials. There is one DVD that disables the stop and eject buttons. Once you put it in you are doomed. I told her it was broken and refuse to put it back in.
This weekend I got a All the President’s Men DVD from NetFlix, a 1976 movie with Robert Redford. This is the way DVDs should be. You put it in and the movie starts playing.
No FBI Warning No Previews No Buttons Disabled
The disc goes in and the movie starts, if you want a menu you have to press the DVD players menu button the remote. I was so blown away by this that I had to try it twice.
Really awesome and really sad that no modern movie or next generation disc player will offer this simple viewer orientated feature.
Ms. Natasha Spots
July 17, 1995 – November 14, 2006
My Mom is So Cool!
My mom called to ask me something. So I called to tell her I found what she was looking for, but I decided to tell her in code. She played along just like my friends should!
M: Hello.
D: Gray-eagle this is bat-child I have found the stamps.
M: It’s a go, take-off on 29th.
D: Roger-Roger
M: Bye!
White is No Longer Broken
H: Dad I have to show you something.
D: What?
H: Look! [holding up black construction paper] White works on black paper!
Related: When white was broken.
My Mail
Hailey grabbed an envelope from the stack of mail and insists that it is hers, she says that the address says to Hailey and Katie. I give her the mail and let her play with it, it is junk correspondence anyway.
D: Hailey, lets go upstairs. Bring your mail.
H: It’s my mail though. It’s not for the machine.
Maybe I shred too much mail when Hailey knows that all the mail that goes into my office goes into the shredder?
Haileyisms
H: [whining] I want my candy.
B: [antagonizing] I want my oatmeal.
H: [sincerly] Dad will you make mom some oatmeal when we get home?
H: [looking at our neighbor] Is that God sweeping?
D: [confused] No, that is Rob.
H: I have an R in my name.
D: No you don’t, and I don’t know where you would put it if you did.
H: On the brown table in the living room.
H: [after I spilt my tea all over the coffee table and floor] Ha. Ha. Daddy. Ha! Ha!