Category: Personal Reflections

I am concerned about the current steep rise in overall housing prices. The sales prices are rising quickly, but that’s only part of the equation. Rental prices are rising faster. Demand keeps rising and inventory is nearly constant: thus prices climb.

Part of my concern is simply access to affordable housing. As this is a fundamental human need, issues with access deeply trouble me. Another concern , though, is on first time home buyers, those just starting out. In this kind of marjet, it’s hard to keep up. And the rising rents eat away at your ability to buy.

Ultimately,  though, markets balance out. Patience is crucial, I guess.

One thing that strikes me, on this fitness journey, is how a sedentary my life had become. My fitbit’s basic plan is to accomplish 10k steps per day. Well, today, I just got that. At 11:40 at night. That entailed pacing around me house for a few minutes. And I did an hour of taekwondo and cycled for about an hour. I may not be as sedentary as some. Yet, reaching these basic steps require significant life changes.

That speaks to an internal illusion of mine. Fitness. I see myself as the epitome of health. But I’m 20+ pounds overweight and nowhere near the peak fitness levels of my youth. Plus, that fitness was based on lots of exercise, and nothing else. My diet was atrocious. And is only slowly getting better. These are not the easiest changes to make. Decades of bad habits, brought home to roost as my metabolism calms.

At one point, I wanted to recapture the fitness of my youth.  Now, though, I want something very different. I want greater health, one of better diet, of richer health, as well as strength and endurance. I’m creating something new. This really is a new mental and physical place, a new way to live. I’m looking forward to this new journey.

Oh, Maslow’s pyramid and all that psychological think! Is there anything greater than interdependence and self-actualization? Yes, this is a rhetorical question. Right now, no. Or, better put, nothing we know of. But our culture evolves. I wonder what the future will think, looking back upon this moment, about what our perceived upper-bounds were in terms of compassion, interconnectedness, justice. I’m confident that they’ll find us amusing, perhaps with a judgmental view.

I’ve seen some creative uses of PDFs, Adobe’s ubiquitous document tool. My favorite lately: printing out the fill-in PDF form, filling it in on a typewriter, then scanning and resending. A rather unique blend of old and new technology. This got me thinking about how important the PDF has become.

In real estate now, the PDF is used for most documentation. And our transaction forms (at least in Seattle) are all fill-in PDFs. The ability to edit and manage these forms is critical to business. Fortunately, there are many tools for this, and one isn’t bound by the brutal Adobe pricing structure. I fully recommend this investment for every business.