Top Ten 2023

Happy New Year! - I'm going to get back to positive messages this year after the passing of my dad last year.  Doctors orders!  There were many changes this year including the move from our house of 19 years at Santa Ray to the new one in Piedmont.  We are grateful to have kept old friends and are making new ones.  The new house is plenty larger so please come visit and stay with us.      

10.  Piedmont:  Since I already mentioned this in the intro, I'll get right to the new place.  Its very close to the old place - I can still go to my Trader Joe's, and gym by the Lake and drive by the old place in doing so.     After 19 years we were ready for a change and the new place fit the bill in almost every way.  It was an excuse for a Housewarming party where we saw many friends old and new - Especially Rick-o who had just completed driving a rickshaw all the way down the length of India.  Being from India and having been driven across some small part of it, I know that is insane and a miracle he survived!  Imitating Paulin (see later) we had a Dosa guy cater the event to rave reviews.   

Upstairs the Kids have their own rooms - Kailee might have the best one in the entire house.   They are close to my office, little do they know the plan is to have them do my work. My mom fitingly has a suite by the Kitchen and Dining room and the huge covered deck.  Yufen and I are relegated to the Dungeon downstairs.  Plenty of room for backyard baseball which like the backyard at Santa Ray this one too is pie shaped.  Steve calls it an upside down house which is a good way of describing it as it is on a downhill, so most of the house goes down instead of up.  

9.  Trip to NY.  One tradition of Indian funerals is to spread the ashes in a holy river, the Ganges being the most holy.  In lieu of a trip to Varanasi, which Hemant made for his mom, we rationalized that all bodies of water are connected.  My dad used to love walking the boardwalk on Long Beach, NY so we decided to spread the ashes there.  Also took the kids to a Yankees game with Sameer, in keeping with that tradition.  It was also a chance for us to celebrate his life with many of his friends and family in the NY/NJ area.  There was so much love and affection in seeing many of my childhood friends and the kind words said.  I'm going to post some of those photos below with apologies to the many people who we saw and I didn't mention below.  And also the many friends and family we didn't see this time who were so special to my dads life.  We split the trip by staying in Brooklyn/NY the first week and then with Sandhya Foi the second week in NJ.  

8.  Leaving Santa Ray.  This gets a separate item even though mentioned above as you can't live in one place for that long and not get sentimental about it. We put a lot of work into that house - having bought it with Steve when it was literally falling down a hill and red-tagged by the City of Oakland for being a public hazard.  My prior years posts have some of the projects prominently featured.  What I will say is that it's not goodbye as we haven't sold it.  And most of all the friends who still live close by.  Foremost on that list are Jan and Gary.  The best part of walking down to the Village was knowing that more likely than not we would run into them.  It was a good day when that happened - guaranteed.  Their house was about half way up the hill to our house.  That cover photo is of the bench Gary made for my parents who complained that it was tiring to go all the way up.  When my dad died Gary added the dedication.  Recently Gary told me he is working on a memoir of his accomplished life.  I'm not  sure that if he will place that bench and what it represents in his memoir - it is in mine!  

7.     Business.  Overall, a good year - the business fully absorbed my father's properties so it grew in that manner. Prior to adding my father's properties the business grew 10% in gross revenue.  With the addition of his properties the overall growth was 27%.  This will be the baseline number going forward so growth will be more muted.  While the long term properties did well, we decreased the number of properties in the short term portfolio as market conditions weakened in the Bay Area due to what we believe is an oversupply as many more people are supplying inventory.  

On the improvment front - One theme was upgrading appliances across many properties.   Another, thanks to former tenants, is one of the townhomes in the Shorey House - which we re-built from the ground up and turned into a City of Oakland Landmark about fifteen years ago, see pics below.  Thanks as always to my business partner Michael F. on short term business, my lead investor / Chairman of the Board Michael A. and Jamie and Carlos for dealing with my problem tenants and so much more.  

6.  Camping trips.  Even though I am not a fan of sleeping outdoors, I will say this year's two camping trips once again organized by Yufen for a large group were spectacular as always.   Two great groups of friends sharing good food, wine and fun.  While I'm no Ansel Adams or Kevin Nielsen the trip to Yosemite after the record snowfalls of 2022/2023 was spectacular with the waterfalls in full force.  Probably my 5th or 6h time up and always a good memory of the first 3 day hike with Noelle, Macey and Paul.  The later trip to Pinnacles was also a repeated visit probably the 3rd or 4th time there and once again the hike through the caves to the Lake was the highlight.  As always the kiddos loved being free range.   

5.  Beating Jamie in chess.   Drinking beer, playing chess and listening to 80s music at the shop is probably the biggest slice if I had to pie chart a list of my activities.  Beating Jamie is definitely the top enjoyable item of that list.  Not that he or I are competitive - ha!.  Many thanks to Dennis and Debbie for letting us and Scott reside at the shop.  Carlos got re-Poed this year.  Heres to more good times at "work".  

4.Ski Trips.   Ski trips and the mountains have always been highlights of the year.  This year's highlight was a return trip to New Mexico.  Brian took me skiing the first time back East - the famous new blue jeans story.  On another memorable ski trip about thirty years ago we went to New Mexico - Taos and Santa Fe on a visit to his uncle and aunt.  This was the famous playing hooky from work story in the days before cell phones.  This past year Brian calls to tell me he is spending a month out there and if I wanted to join for some skiing.  More stories made!  The other memorable trip was that despite climate change alarmism we got epic amounts of snow in Tahoe.  Palisades stayed open on July 4th and Kaiden and I took advantage.  He didn't take off his shirt - I'm taking that one off my bucket list.  

3.  50th Birthday for Mital.  I usually save one item for the weddings I attend.  And this 50th B'Day was as eloborate as most weddings I've been to.  It was good to connect with the cousins on my mom's side as we all were there.  Paulin did a great job as event coordinator and will heretofore be commissioned with planning all future events.  And I made a video which is keeping with a Top Ten tradition. 

2.  Kailee and Kaiden

Kailee and Kaiden both started new schools as a result of the move.  The cause and effect might be reversed.  Kailee immediately formed a clique of friends - anyone remember the movie Heathers.  Kailee also travelled by herself to NY where Uncle Sam and Aunt Abby hosted her for a whilrwind NY City week which included lots of shopping, museums, shopping, plays, shopping, subways, shopping, cathedrals, and more shopping.  It took Kaiden a while to make friends as his personality is more reserved.  Quietly by himself he played the yoyo he learned in Taiwan - the Diablo - at each recess and slowly and surely he recruited a new group of friends into his circle.  He soon came to rule recess with a A Squad and B Squad of Diablo players.  The Dads at his elementary school are quite active and I have met many new friends thru that - great way to meet new neighbors.  I am so proud of you both for making the transition.  Without mom, we spent a great deal more time this year and I am thankful that you both have become more self sufficient and have enjoyed my cooking!  

1.  Thanks everyone for being a part of 2023.   I ended up spending a lot of the year single with Yufen in Taiwan for more than a quarter of the year so special thanks to joining me at concerts (Squeeze), book club, GNO, fantasy baseball, learning to fix bicycles, South Lake Tahoe, and the year end trip to Palm Springs at Herman's great AirBnB.  Your friendship means a lot and the memories whether or not listed herein make life worth living!  

Dedication:  I know this Top 10 is longer than usual and the Mark Twain quote - "I'm sorry this letter is so long I didn't have time to write a short one" comes to mind - However I did want to send out my prayers to 3rd sister.  This is how we remember her In June.