While the rest of the country swelters, I'm wearing long pants, socks and two thermal tops. Welcome to summer in San Francisco. I live close to Lone Mountain near Geary Blvd.  Most days, especially in the afternoon, the wind from the ocean races up the broad expanse of Geary avenue, when it hits the hill it whips all around the side streets making it seem even colder than it is. Night before last I went to a real estate seminar in downtown San Francisco (one takeaway from it: the subprime mess is going to add a year or two to the downturn) and when I got off the bus I was almost blown off my feet. You could see masses of fog gusting past. Brrrr.

It is days like this that make me think it might be OK to be forced to live in Florida because I can not sell the property I own there. I'm seriously considering it doing it in six months if the market is still soft. I would save on the rent I pay here and not live in a drafty crumbling building. This building is a total tear down and is only worth the land it is sitting on. There are gaping holes in the garage roof from the water damage. I'm subletting a rent controlled apartment and as per usual for such places, only one heater works and it costs over $300 a month to keep the place in the high 60s during the winter.  Despite the masking tape I've used, you can see the cold breeze from the outside moving the curtains.  Florida is warm and everything I own there is newer, has way better insulation .. air conditioning too ! People sacrafice a lot to live in San Francisco.

I was over in the Haight yesterday and ran into a large number of people who were milling about waiting to see "Martial Cage Fighting". There was a guy in a beige suit that had textured strips that looked exactly like my bed sheets (I have nice 500 thread count ones .. but still). San Francisco is such a microcosm of diversity and it's really interesting the look and vibe you get from a particular segment. This group looked similiar to the hard rock metal rock audience you see at shows. I'm a student of marketing and one concept I've been introduced is segmenting the audience not so much by their demographics (age, geo, gender .. etc) but by their interests, spending habits etc... I was wondering if I could leverage this new approach in marketing my houses (ie. the typical first time buyer who now can't get a loan might really want to buy my house on a wrap). Something to investigate more.