Hello Pilgrims

I think that the economy may be slowly starting to turn around. I had a good day yesterday and a decent show after all is said and done in Del Mar. Not enough to burn the mortgage or take a vacation but I can see a clear path to paying the majority of my bills this month. Hallelujah!

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I got a scary letter from the bank that holds the mortgage on my building on Saturday. All of a sudden, they are demanding reams of financial information from me and they want it all yesterday. Said it was a condition of my loan. Now it may be, I haven't taken a close look at my original loan docs but the fact of the matter is that I have never been asked to furnish this documentation in the four years that I have owned the building.

My original bank, Temecula Valley, was taken over by the government and absorbed by this new bank when everything went down two years ago. I have never been late, never been delinquent. Were they trying to pressure my loan, with many financial experts calling for a coming implosion in the commercial real estate market?

I sauntered over to the bank and explained the situation to one of the women at the bank. It started bad and then got downright nasty.  I pointed out that my supplying the information had never been required in prior years. I told her that I had a fixed, permanent, nonrenewable loan. She said that when my loan was assumed they could unilaterally change the terms of whatever agreement I had with the previous bank and demand whatever additional terms they wanted to.

I told her that I believed that that was incorrect. It seems a bit un-American.  I am not a lawyer but that is like some sort of adhesion contract and  I thought that both parties were bound by certain terms of our original agreement. She laughed at me and openly mocked me. I ended around the twit and went and saw the manager and think that everything has been worked out and now think that things are going to be resolved in a tolerable fashion.

But the fact that this woman feels like they can do whatever they feel like with such an impetuous, imperial  attitude really sticks in my craw. I have heard about people with perfect loan performance still getting foreclosed on and don't appreciate being squeezed. But will keep my fingers crossed that it was a false alarm.

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I know people with perfect credit getting the run around right now while trying to get refinanced. The banks, who received such a compassionate bailout from the american taxpayer are repaying our largesse with coal in the stocking. What's the old saying, "the only people that can get a loan right now are people that don't need one?"

I was never good at talking to the banks. I left that stuff to my brother and dad when we were building homes. It freaks me out. In fact there is little terror in the world quite like the feeling you get under a banker's microscope, especially if you are an entrepreneur.

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I think that 600 blogs is doable this year.

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I have a lot to be thankful for. First off, a wonderful yet sometimes tardy wife that has stayed at my side, through thick and thin. For my health, I didn't even get through my $3500 dollar deductible period on my health insurance this year. Knock on wood. For my wonderful friends, my coffee klatch, my Moose brothers, my sunday morning brunch bunch. The Fallbrook Gastronomic Society. The guys and gals at the gym. For Jim and BigDave and too many other people to list. My clients, thank you for keeping me alive. Mike Mahoney. For my family, my mother and father and brothers and sisters. My cat Nigel. For all of the appropriate saints and sages - Lao Tzu, Fu Hsi, Confucious, Yenur, Padma Sambhava, Kalu Rinpoche, Jesus, Buddha, Philip Dick, Roger Zelazny, Bob Keyshawn, Tolkein, joshu, Thaddeus Golas, Ahura Mazda, Muddy Waters, Vonnegut, Chogyam Trungpa, Theodore Sturgeon, John Lennon, Dr. Greisman, Jerry Garcia, Yoda, Robert Hunter, William Morris, Lord Dunsany, Alexandra David Neel, Dennis Hopper, Edward Hopper, Sandy Denny, Merlin, Rick Griffin, Les Gampp, Musashi, Allan Adler, Sam Maloof, all the cats and dogs I have ever loved. Thanks for all the readers of the Blue Heron Blast. I hope that you all have a great and safe holiday! Peace.