The devil is in the details

With all the hoopla about the tax rebate, only one news station gives us the real bad news. This 'stimulus' is really an advance on next years (potential) refund. That's right, you're just getting your next years rebate a year earlier, meaning next year your refund will be that much smaller.

Why should I get excited over this???

Apartments and Conglomerates...

I looked at an apartment yesterday. I'm not looking to move or anything. A new mega apartment building opened up, and I've been seeing it under construction for a year or two, so I decided to check it out. best thing to say is "a fool and their money".

This is another building of several recent ones opening in Boston that was built and owned by a large company that builds rental units (name withheld to prevent me from being sued. :-) This building is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. You could cross the highway of death and get to the mall, but that's about it.

So a nice new dull lobby (When did the 70's come back into fashion? And how did I just walk into the Brady bunch house). of course, no one who is working there is actually form THIS building's office, so most of my questions are answered with an "I don't know" And to think I left my cheque book at home.

So I see some very small apartments. I think they include closets and such to get those large square foot numbers. Tiny kitchens with almost no space to put things. the cheapest carper I've ever seen. Washer and dryer in the apartments - but the real cheapo units.

Then we see the two bedrooms. A bit bigger, almost livable. but three guesses what is maybe 5 feet from the windows? The train tracks. That's right. Your view here is of the subway line. I felt like I was in a NYC cold water flat, waiting for the elevated to go by. Well, my prayers are answered The woman says "you can't even hear the subway". As the words leave her lips, a train goes by. The apartment rumbles. We don't have to shout, but the rumble is quite loud. Both the living room and one bedroom face these tracks. On the way home I made sure to look out the subway as we passed the building. yep, you could see in so clearly I could wave and have someone wave back...

They must have been really desperate, to show probably the worst unit in the building as their open house unit. But the best part is yet to come. This two bedroom unit is... $3,000 per month. That's right. You can high five the subway as it rumbles past you for only 3K per month. (plus parking, of course). For an apartment in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and heat is not included.

the sad part, is this building will probably will up. The rental office was full of people who stayed for 'more information'. Well, a fool and their money...

You have a new friend. Now please pay me.

So I received yet another email from reunion.com. This is the service wehre old high school chums and re-connect with each other. "Someone has signed your guest book". So I try to read my new guest book entry. The excitement builds! Whoops - sorry, you're not a real member. oh well...

You see, both Reunion, and other big name Classmates.com are pay services. You can sign on and make a profile, and even do a basic search for free, but to actually contact anyone you need to pay to become a member. And neither is really cheap - $35-40 per year. Now, unless you're like 5 minutes out of high school, connecting with old classmates is more of a curiosity than a driving force in your life. And at 26 years after graduation, I'm amazed that some of these people are still breathing. :)

First off, while I enjoy competition - do we really need tow companies that do the same thing? I mean, after sending a few emails to names you remember, aren't you pretty much done? With so many free sites (like MS) out there, what in the world would I get for $40? And why $40? Why not $10? For $10 I might sign up just to see who is around. But even at $10, you think I'm going to pay you $10 a year for 26 years? And that depends on which service your friends might be on. What if I pay reunion and my buddies are on classmates? Now we're paying $80 a year for both services. So much for competition bringing down prices. Maybe I'll just have to wait for one of them to go out of business and see what the other one does? I mean come on - if XM wants to buy Sirius, why can't one of these reunion services buy out the other. or have MS/FB just take over and we can have a free way to contact old buds.

Until then, my mailbox will continue to fill up with 'somebody searched for you' or 'somebody remembers you' and have to sit and wonder who from my past wants to pay me a visit...

John McLachlan
SHS 1982