So much has been going on these last couple months, it’s hard to begin, where to start. So in early June, I moved to Oregon, and even though it’s been a little rough starting out in so many new directions, I’m absolutely loving it. The new job is going great for the most part, though it’s certainly been a change of pace. The bosses are pretty cool and the coworkers are okay. The job itself isn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it seems to be going well. Lot of work/my time that’s for sure. Things are still a little hectic. We’ll see how it shakes…

I rented a nice house in Springfield. It’s comfortable, though quite expensive. I’m making okay money at the new job, but rent is eating up a big chunk of that. Luckily I have many side gigs, or I’d be SOL… There just weren’t many options with the two big dogs. People can be stupid, I’d rather rent a place to big dogs any day of the week. I’m sure 99% of neighbors and landlords would rather have my dogs than < 30 lb yapping rats. Speaking of neighbors, mine are getting on my nerves. The worst are the ones behind the house. Bunch of annoying fat women who argue constantly. I think there are three of them there now, plus a kid and a baby. I am really getting sick of hearing them argue. Plus they let their dog run around like crazy, and that definitely annoys my dogs, which annoys me. There is also a stream of “studs” in and out of that place. One of the them has been flirty with me, but she couldn’t pay me enough. There are an incredible number of morbidly obese women here…

Obviously I’m sick of the city. This is a lot quieter than Phoenix, but there are still lots of people who drive way too fast. At least this place is month-to-month, so as soon as I find a place in the country, I’m heading out. It sucks to move, especially since I have a ton of stuff, but who cares… At least the move here wasn’t too bad, lots of friggin driving and I got most everything out of Phoenix, but I still haven’t quite got everything sorted. The garage is still a bit of a mess. I also have a storage unit full of stuff.

My raised-bed garden is doing well. It was getting late, but the first weekend I was here, planted a couple of tomato plants and a half-dozen bell pepper plants. The next weekend I planted 7 different kinds of spicy peppers, including Chitzen Icha habanero. The purple serrano peppers are coming in very nicely, already 3-4″ long. In the front yard, there are all kinds of shrubs, succulents, and flowers. I planted raspberries and sunflowers. Long term, I’m looking forward to having a much larger garden, but short term, I’m looking forward to having a BLT with a tomato fresh from the garden — now that’s living!

Probably the biggest news is that I found a horse. After missing that great one in Arizona a couple years ago, I figured I’d really have a tough time talking myself out of this one. Lucky I waited, this is a lotto winner, Two-year gelding, super sweet and gentle, absolutely a pleasure, and already lots of good training and ground work done. Parelli natural horse training. Plus he’s really good looking, and HUGE — part draft horse and part indian paint. His hooves are twice the size of most horses. He’s staying at a ranch south of here about 15-minutes. Some people there are working with him almost every day, but I’ve been trying to get there 3 days a week for training, more for me that for him. He’s great, I’m a bit green. Hopefully next year, we’ll be out elk hunting, though maybe a year later…

Wish he was ready to go now, since my VW Bus is crapping out… Actually to be precise, the cylinder head stud bolts are loose, and will not tighten because the engine case is stripped. I need to have case-saver inserts machined into it. Lucky, I’ve got a great Volkswagen shop right down the street. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to cost a little coin to get Betty the Bus back to where she needs to be. Even luckier, I live close to work and bike there, so it’s no big deal. Just sometimes a bit inconvenient to run errands, etc.

Well, that’s enough for now. I’m going to run a few errands…

Holy scorching inferno of Arizona, it’s toasty back in Phoenix for the weekend. After almost six hard weeks on the road, I’m suffering a few classic symptoms of exhaustion, but there’s no time to be tired right now, more work to do. In fact, I’m not even at the half-way point of these current adventures. Maybe then I’ll take a breather…

So here’s the latest… after nearly a month in the San Fran Bay area and despite several nice offers, the dogs and I decided Berkeley wasn’t for us. Couple cool things working but really, California sucks, way too many campfire blockers…

So despite me, and most often the mutts, exploring most every other interesting option over the past 18 months that might possibly take care of at least most of our needs — including Santa Fe / Hawaii / Ft Collins / Lincoln / Minneapolis / Iowa City / Berkeley, plus a few others, we’re still headed to Oregon, to post up for the next few years.

Me and the mutts took a 6-day scouting trip to the Beaver State over a long Memorial Day weekend, scoped out rental options and aced several job interviews. Not bad for a Friday, considering the evening before, I’d driven 500+ miles from San Fran, so I hadn’t slept or showered since Wednesday night, just kept pushing straight through, in part thanks to all the craziness the week started off with, both of my dogs nearly dying…. It’s unfortunate, but a lot of vets out there are quite incompetent, overpriced, and over-medicating. Be careful at the vet. And try to be sensible and look past the emotional aspects of it. It sucks but when you’re upset that your much loved pet is sick and suffering, you can be vulnerable.

Long story short, thankfully, despite the vet, it all worked out. The mutts are back to the usual maniacs, but I’d been a little nervous about both of them. Close call… At least they got their vaccines and I now have a few backup pain meds for serious emergency only, so it wasn’t a total loss, but $600 in mostly useless vet bills later…. Lucky it wasn’t more. The good doctor kindly waived some of his fees, not the whole bill, not exactly not surprisingly, despite his multiple instances of malpractice, of course that’s all a much longer story for another time.

The sick maniacs got to seriously sleep it all off on the long car-ride north while I thought about likely interview questions I’d be facing. I rehearsed various scenarios and make mental lists of points to address, experience to highlight, yadda yadda. The interviews weren’t bad, I was offered 3 out of 4 of the jobs I interviewed for. In the end, not too tough a decision. I accepted a position with a multimedia marketing firm as a project coordinator, overseeing business and branding solutions for a large group of clients, mostly in green construction technology, solar/wind/hydro energy, and related business-to-business market niches. I’m excited, as it seems a very progressive company with great benefits, nice salary, profit sharing, friendly funny folks working there, etc. Timing is indeed everything. It helps to be good.

While in Oregon, visited some old surfer friends homesteading just outside of Lincoln City. They bought a nice semi-custom cedar-shake cottage with a few outbuildings on an acre. They got it good, and we enjoyed a amazing dinner, a couple racks of ribs and chicken on the smoker all day. I ate a huge meal. No surfing, but we played in the rain on quiet beaches, explored rainforests, and strolled along, sometimes in, several wild scenic rivers. I’m also looking forward to living just only an hour’s cruise to the coast, and being able to get my longboard on.

So drove back to San Fran Wednesday, and then headed back to Phoenix on Thursday. The bus paint isn’t done, but it’s a great start. I’m still not yet sure if I’m driving it or hauling it to Oregon. Sucks that the summer roadtrip got canned, and these rental cars are a killer, but hey, can’t take a bus roadtrip without the bus!

Meanwhile, I’ve already farmed out most of the other work, and decided on some of the companies I’m dropping, but I’m still maintaining many of my current clients. That should be some nice extra money to really start making some moves. I’ll certainly be busy. Later this summer, I’m taking a couple more practical medicine courses, then this fall start in on dual mfa/mba program, and of course, need to squeeze in a little prep time for law school next fall. Lots of overlaps to make it all work but hey you only get one shot at some things…

Still no place, but I’ve got a U-Haul reserved this week, loading up, and hopefully be driving out of Phoenix by Wednesday night. Before I know it, I’ll be quickly jumping into my new job and getting settled into Eugene. I’ve found a few house rentals closer to town that will allow two bigger dogs, but nothing’s popped quite yet. I’m thinking about just moving to the country, find something cheaper with a few acres, and then commuting 10-20 miles a day. I’m likely just going to buy a house before the market rebounds too much more. I’ve got a few ideas cooking. We’ll see.

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.

booty booty lollipop, dinglity dee dum, hurry hooray, who ray, a Phishing I can come…

A few weeks ago, I took an old, rusty, beat-up looking VW beetle roof rack, completely disassembled it, sanded and refinished the wood slats (which were beautifully weathered, making them all the better to oil up the natural wood grain), blasted and powder-coated all the metal, cleaned/re-used all the stainless steel hardware, reassembled everything, and finally added rubber sheathing to the feet… Turned out BEAUTIFUL, better than new.

Fun project, almost done. I’m going to pick up the clamps/wingnuts today. I’d had another idea and wasn’t going to powder-coat those pieces, but then it turned out they needed to be to make it look right — I’ll post a pic when it’s on my buddy Phil’s 1966 metallic-blue beetle that we’ve recently restored to near-show quality. The bus is next…

yeah, old VWs are amazing. my pal Phil’s beetle has one heck of an amazing paint job. One of my other friends has been rebuilding a newer bus, an 81 vanagon, almost all the way through it now, and he just discovered after putting in rebuilt engine, he has no reverse gear in trans. ha!

my old 71 bus has run smoothly for nearly 40,000 miles without a hiccup… sure a few minor things, usually worn rubber or mechanicals simply from being 40 years old, but hey, easy, cheap, repair as you go, even on the side of the road if necessary.

most shtuff on new cars doesn’t last 4 years, let alone 40, and there isn’t much you can do to fix a new car yourself. you can fix just about anything on that upright 1600 or the rest of the bus, just with the book, a few tools, and some spare parts, or whatever you can improvise. Plus with the unreal VW knowledge of these guys as my “home shop”, it doesn’t get much easier… www.cevw.com

All in, I’m only about $3,500 into this 71 bus, including oil changes. She’s pretty solid, drives like a dream, and will look sweet with her upcoming paint job. I’ve got a few ideas, but I need to decide on a color soon!

If you’re building one, think about an electric beetle, you can probably do it all for less than $10k to near-show quality.

I’ve got another electric-drive bus project in the works, tell ya, it’s the wave of the future if I have anything to say about it. Take any earlier car, doesn’t need a motor, just a trans. Add an electric motor and a couple of big batteries. Solar battery charging, plus enroute diesel generator back-up charging for long distance travel, basically seeing 250-300 miles per gallon of waste veggie oil. And that’s just me and some clever friends working in the garage, drinking a few beers. Imagine what those bozo’s at the big flailing car companies could do if they weren’t all in up to their cahoots with foreign oil interests…

Too easy. Works for larger passenger cars and delivery trucks alike. I’ve even heard that big rig semi’s are already starting to use similar diesel/electric combo drives.

Cash for clunkers, what a scam, what a waste of resources…

Copperstate Classic VW show was a great success. Fun way to spend a day. A couple hippie friends and I sold a grunch of tie-dye t-shirts. People loved our tie-dye bus interiors. We certainly had one of the more popular vendor booths at the show… The show was spectacular. Many of the VW’s were out of this world, so many classic restored beauties. Many over the top, many one-offs, many many examples of creative engineering. My camera crapped out on me last month so no photos, only memories and few bucks. Not too shabby. Here’s link to one of my show favorites.

http://walterthebus.org

I think Boom and Bob were feeling sentimental, remembering the many a time hanging out in the bus, waiting out the rain on our roadtrip this summer. For a couple hours today while I worked, they snoozed in the bus to the tune of raindrops dancing on the pop-top roof. Occasional cursing from me, but really it was an easy job.

Sweet Betty the Bus got a scrub-down spa treatment with an ass lift. $100 special…

Started with then a serious spray and scrub with Zeps Purple ($3), detailing the engine, and pressure-washing the underside to clean off the road grime. Unbelievably (after four good washings since September) there was still plenty of Burning Man dust. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the bus exterior and engine compartment this clean.

Next step, installed a new monza 4-tip exhaust ($70), which is the same same as the old one that was damaged. (Note – I was hoping to fix the old header, but that could take a little time. Once I find the piece needed to weld and repair the old header, I’ll sell it to someone who needs an exhaust.) New heater hoses ($5), an oil change ($10) and a quick tune-up ($5). Betty putt-putt purrs like a kitten.

Bending out the bumper the other day only got it 90% of the way there. The driver side was still sagging, so I had to do a little nut and washer trick to level the bracket hanger. Then, after a quick run to the Depot for a half-dozen specific carriage bolts ($3) and working some magic with two cans of spray paint ($5), the bumper is looking good as new. I touched up a few other spots on the body. There’s still some splotchy areas to smooth out, but nothing major. Next step, finish up all the little dings and dents. Then she gets her real paint job.

The road is calling…

Took about an hour tonight to straighten out the rear bumper of my vw bus
using channel locks and the vice on my workbench. Amazing how good it
looked after, compared to how crappy it looked just an hour before. As
I pounded with the ball peen hammer, each dent brought back some fun
memories. The worst was the driver’s side, where the corner that nicely
curves around was seriously crushed.

On my roadtrip this summer, I was making a Y-turn, backing up the bus
in Big Sur, tight, dark, we were in a redwood forest. Sure, it looked
fine out the rearview, so I eased her back. Then all of a sudden, a super loud crunching CLUNK! — Oh great, I thought as I got out to investigate the damage — How the hell didn’t I see that! — I’d seen that I’d backed into a a
friggin redwood that was wider than the bus.

Luckily, everything was okay except a badly bent bumper, but I’d narrowly missed the exhaust.

shift happens…

finally hitting the hay after late work w/ laptop out on the backyard picnic table. The weather in Phx is perfect–beautiful not-too-hot days, t-shirt evenings. Been busy with work, school, writing, projects… I now speak Drupal, lol… Lots of time off the road, and getting restless, but gettin’er done… M’dogs are great, snoozing, probably dreaming of Midwest lakes. What a great summer — a classic pic from Red Rocks lot, sipping on Odell IPA and slinging dyes…

enjoying the lot at Red Rocks for Phish show...