Work begins

After being unemployed for four months, it is strange to suddenly have responsibilities, and a boss that calls me in the morning. I am officially a tourist no more. I scrambled to put together a tour for a client over the last two days. I went so far as to trick the guards at the gate of a community to gain access to talk with someone who was selling their home. The guards caught on and I saw them racing my way in a golf cart. I quickly engaged in conversation with a 70 year old guy who was very nice. I asked him if anyone he knew was selling their house in the community. The guards were watching all of this from behind a bush, ha ha! The nice man called his son, who came and picked me up in his golf cart, and showed me three homes that are on the market. Since the CC&Rs restrict for sale signs, this was a huge help. The tour went well, and I was able to show five properties. There is no MLS, and it seems that no agency wants to work together. I had one agency flat out refuse to let me preview some of their listings. Instead, they wanted me to send my client to them! Ridiculous. One of my goals is to try to change some of the business philosophies here. Anyone ever heard of working together for the benefit of everyone involved?

Today, I woke up, put an entire watermelon (minus the rind) in a blender and drank it down. It was too ripe to eat, but drinking it wasn't bad. I then met Caesar and about twelve others at the wall and we climbed for several hours. Melissa parked her truck with the back facing us, and played some wonderful hits from the Elementary school days such as: I Just Died in Your Arms by Cutting Crew; Final Countdown by Europe; Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper; Don't Cry by Guns N' Roses; Land Down Under by Men With Hats; and the Top Gun theme song. Now, when climbing, it helps me to have music that is motivating. With the exception of Europe and Top Gun, I was feeling a little less than motivated. But it was still a lot of fun. Someone brought a grill, and we had seven routes set up. I went home, and it started to pour, perfect timing.

New addition to the hostel, Lynn from SoCal. She has been living in Central America for several years, and rotates between Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica. She does freelance website design for businesses in these areas. Fun lady!

Now, I hope it stops dumping outside so I can go get one of five different local beers that all taste the same and have less than 5% alcohol content :) Ah, it's the little things that amuse me about this place.