TAX DAY, oh no…. since these crooked politicos do such a lousy job of spending our tax dollars, isn’t it our civic duty to give them as little of it as possible.

Finished up a ton o’ work last few days. Been on a good stretch last couple weeks really. Need to take a break soon, but it’s nice making nice $$$ for the ro…adtrip. Business expenses! Several new clients popping up here and there, couple of nice referrals too. Thanks to all!

Really getting a kick out of a few simple sites and affiliate programs that I’ve been dabbling with on the side. I’m crossing my fingers that my purely residual, do-nothing internet income will keep at a steady $1k+/month, and thanks to one recent project just starting to take hold, maybe even double that or more by the end of summer, if his product sales keep chugging nicely. Now, just need to duplicate it…

All clients are also super happy with new hosting packages, website page load speeds, etc. Been learning lots of new SEO tricks. Just last week, I had a website hit consistent first page on google (out of over a million) search results within 72 hours of domain registration, and within 24 hours of submitting sitemaps to search engines.

I have a couple of Chicago White Sox rookies renting out the house while they’re at Spring Training extended camp for a couple months.

Sacred spotted cow in the field…

knows exactly what’s going on, always do, always have, even when I didn’t let you know I did. Pardon my contrived conundrums, dealings and disinformations, and all other subversive tactics in defense of the truth, but it’s not my responsiblity nor my place nor in any way in our best interest for me to simply tell you the truth. You must discover it for you.

And trust me now like you don’t even trust yourself, you realize so very little about any greater situation that your effortless selfish ignorance offends. But before you get even more twisted, I will tell you that I cannot be directly offended, and therefore it is not me nor anyone else you are offending. Forgiven you’ve been for years, but few have patience for displaced insult and insanity. There is coming quickly a realignment.

Most in life is certain as the truth is always the truth, no matter its form, and most people want no part of the truth. My first life lesson learned was when I was four years old, in the late fall, with snow dusting the ground and my grandfather’s breath dusting the frigid air first with complete surprise, then complete realization. Finally he spoke about greater truth, my grandfather explaining, in part, something particularly vicious that my grandmother said to me. The great thing about barn grandma was that she realized that even though I was only four years old, I was not wrong, and that she was. Most people just never get it, they never understand anything. She spent the rest of her life reminding me of her greatness.

It is what it is or it is never what it is. The time is now, always has been, always will be. There is no other way. Have you ever meditated on the mosquito?

Part I
Witnessed it again last night, I have a friend whose feet smell so putrid that if takes his shoes off, he will make the whole room almost instantly vomit.

I empathize with the guy, as I used to have horribly sweaty feet as an early teenager, and shoes would start funking up quickly. I had a pair of Air Jordan hi-tops that could kill someone if they took a direct whiff.

Five Easy Steps to Essential Foot Care – Your Foundation of Good Health

1. right size, support, and purposed shoes and socks for various situations
2. wash feet thoroughly once per day, pull back cuticles, clip nails properly
3. use buffing stone, rinse, dry, rub feet peppermint or eucalyptus oil
4. before socks or sandals, dust feet heavily with mentholated foot powder
5. every few nights, sleep in socks with coconut oil on feet, +frequent massages

Part II

nice splitty!

Part III
Started today early at 5am, after a big night of 3-hrs sleep. Did an hour of work, then ran the dogs for a half hour on the golf course, gave a buddy a ride to work on the way to meet a client. Did some image gallery work. Then went to meet another client at noon for lunch meeting. Back across town 40 miles, got home, took a five minute power meditation. Did an hour of work. The plumbers arrived at 3pm.

Part IV
I’m endlessly amazed by the power of water. Just when I thought, my plumbing adventures were over with this damn house, after re-doing the garage plumbing, fixing the toilets, then the pool pipes, and the kitchen sink, I mean there’s not much else that really can go wrong, besides maybe serious slab leaks.

For now, I’ll spare you my thoughts of “water economics” and that kind of power, but rather mention how a lone pinhole in a copper pipe drip-drip-dripped it’s way, and flooded the master bedroom closet, soaking the carpet, ruining the pad, and of course, interacting with the wood.

Mold was starting to form along the carpet tack strip, and behind the baseboard. Looks like about two weeks, maybe a month, drip-drip-drip to slowly escape. The tile was soaking up water, the area under the shower basin was flooded, and eating away the concrete. Water will go around or through anything to find its way. Luckily it is Arizona, and so dry so most everything will be spared.

In all, the two plumbers and I drilled and cut nine various holes to find this leak. “We checked all the easy stuff,” Luis said, optimistically after about six holes. Lucky number nine. If he wasn’t so honest and genuinely interested in doing the job the right way, one might have thought it was all a bunch of unnecessary work. But he was persistently thorough, and finally, with the aid of a video cable, were able to find the damn drip-drip-drip. We watched it on the screen burrowing between the sheet-rock, pipes and plumbing, and 2×4 framing. Hi-tech, and expensive. This camera, a relatively lower priced model, still costs over $4k.

It turned out to be just a tiny pinhole in a piece of copper between the master but before the valve, so a steady drip-drip-drip. Fixing the leak was simply a matter of a sweating a few pipes and joints to replace a piece. No problem, twenty minutes. The bummer was needing to cut out a couple pieces of the shower tile.

There are fans now blowing across the damp areas. Then I’m going to start with mold remediation, lots of bleach and scrubbing, and finally fresh drywall, mud, tape, and paint all the holes in the wall, plus retile the shower

I’ll recycle some wood to make flooring for the closet. The carpet piece, about 6′x12′ is drying in the sun, rolled up, and added to the collection for dome flooring at Burning Man.

So, tack on one more major project to the list. Nothing like getting buried neck deep in quicksand. At least I have five weeks to break free. Despite some setback, things are feeling good though, despite how they might look… Perspective is always relative, and usually an illusion. Actually I kind of like quicksand, it’s basically a more adventurous natural and unexpected version of a pricey clay bath at some fancy spa.

our slow leaky pipe has gotten worse, so here I go again, tearing apart another wall…

After the first, you see things as you wish them to be.

After the second, you see nothing.

After the third, you see things how they really are.

One of my favorite things about Thailand was discovering the fisherman pants. Of course, since I’m so big-big, finding them in my size was tough. Most were a bit short, and too tight around my rickshaw thighs. Finally, I found a place with my size, and bought a half-dozen for me, and another dozen in various sizes as souvenirs.

For many good reasons, these fisherman are extremely popular with travelers and backpackers. They’re 100% medium-lightweight cotton, easy-to-wash, loose-fitting, multi-use, yet very simple pants…. also very comfortable, lightweight, and certainly could be considered more “dressy” than wow jeans or whatever, especially combined with some nice sandals and a cool classy shirt with a collar. Back in the good ol’ USA, I’ve had several remarks on them. I think they’re great. Likewise, I’ve seen them look melt-in-your-mouth delicious on some ladies, and are rather flattering to most women.

Dress up, or dress down, they wear just as well when you need to get dirty in the garden. Or just for chilling around the house. There is no metal or plastic or zippers or buttons, or anything else to get caught up on or to have break. These pants are so comfortable, you’ll want to wear them any and everywhere. They are fantastic for packing/traveling simply because they roll so small. For working and wearing around the house, or anywhere, these cannot be beat.

So I’ve been wearing the half-dozen of these fisherman pants I bought in Thailand. They are holding up well, but a couple of them are showing signs of wear. Yesterday, the first one of them ripped. Now I can sew the rip and perfectly fix it fine, but instead I decided to take the pants to a fabric store.

I bought a bolt of comparable, perhaps better quality, natural cotton fabric, to make patterns from the ripped pants. I’m eventually going to make up some samples of different sizes. From there, it would be nothing at all to order bulk fabric in various colors, and have them sewn. I need to contact a few people, and see where we’re at.

I’ve thought of several nice options too, like a tiny hidden pocket, sort of a built-in money belt, but basically just a little better version of that mesh swimsuit key pocket. Just enough to hold a couple keys, a few $20 bills, and a drivers license, maybe a $card too. I have a few other ideas I’m still thinking about too.

So in the next few weeks, I’m going to add these as a product to a variety of websites, and get some early response. They are so easy, I’m sure the price is going to be right from all angles. If so, then I’ll really start working the magic… Soon now watch, you’ll hear more and more about fisherman pants, just wait. It might take a year or so for the mainstream media to catch on. Just remember, you heard it here first folks.

Wowzer, what a crazy earthquake, first time ever felt rumbler here in Phoenix! Talking on the phone, heard a big boom crunk outside, walked to backyard, and started to lose equilibrium. Then my swim pool water all of sudden went slantways, with the water rising up, overflowing the deck of the eastern deep end of the pool. Some shaky ground, and maybe 15 seconds later it was over. Crazy!!!!

Just watched this amazing movie, definitely worth watching… asks a lot of big questions…

http://www.loosechange911.com

Bugorama 2010 in sunny Phoenix was a blast… sold a few tie-dyes, and got to sell/giveaway a bunch of old parts at the swap meet. Lots of amazing vehicles. I guess I still find it difficult to understand why you’d get a new car when you could restore/upgrade a classic for less, maybe half the cost!?!

fun night, trapped a dozen feral cats to get neutered. although TNR is certainly no long-term solution, it will hopefully reduce the rampant kitten factory my neighbors have going…

Of course, we live in this “civilized” age, where any focus on the original problem has been so distorted that now, torture is much more “acceptable” practice. But this is not to be a surprise, as we’ve lost our “humanity” quite some time ago, (or maybe we are just realizing it?)

Many people allege that TNR programs are torture, because TNR first cuts off food supply, then traps the hungry animals, next performs a barbaric spay/neuter surgery, and finally releases the animal, still in shock, back into their nightmare of nonstop harassment by crazy dogs and other feral cats, super fast car drivers, crazy people feeding the cats poison, parasites and disease running around everywhere, and eventually some violent, painful, horrible death…

and how many of you old-schools remember those hundreds of cats coming from that old neighbors’ place on Manuel Lake Road… those nasty things would terrorize my mother…

so out of a dozen trapped, nine cats were will feral, so they went to the vet to get neutered/spayed and a little bit of their ear clipped off for ID purposes… the other three cats were fixed, no collar, likely abandoned previous pets. they were released, and their “fixed” friends come back tomorrow morning.

for the record, I state again that trap-neuter-release is by no stretch any kind of solution to the bigger problem. if anything the numbers show, this Phoenix area TNR program neutered about 7,500 cats last year. The feral cat population in phoenix is estimated at over a half million.

i think the whole situation is disgusting. it’s despicable how truly low people can go…