Last Post for This Blog

Well, it's that time folks... this blog has come to an end.

I feel very confident that I accomplished my goal of informing, enlightening, educating and possibly even entertaining, everyone with the differences in coastal lifestyles.

So to all the folks on the west coast.... I didn't freeze to death during my first winter, nor did I suffer any frost bite...lol...lol...

And to all the folks on the east coast.. I hope that by now you realize "All that Glitters... is not Gold".

I want to personally thank each and every person who took time out of their lives to read my post on this blog. I sincerely hope you had as much enjoyment reading it as I did posting it.

I took this picture while in Lucerne, Switzerland. It is of the very famous Chapel bridge. This is the oldest covered bridge in Europe. Inside the bridge are paintings from the 17th Century. The pictures don't look that worn and I guess it is because they were protected from the weather.

Wishing everyone a life better than they could ever imagine.

Ciao

Sod Farms

I never knew what a Sod Farm was until I moved to the San Fernando Valley in California. There's a really big one near the Sepulveda Basin.

I was amazed that people had farms that grew grass. I remember telling my Dad, who was a farmer that grew vegetables, about these farms that just grew grass and he thought that was crazy.

I have seen a few sod farms here in Pennsylvania.

If I were a contractor building homes and got to the end and needed grass I probably wouldn't think a sod farm is a crazy idea. I know that there are different kinds of grass. Many years ago, someone I knew in California purchased Champion grass for their front lawn. That was when I learned about the grass market...lol...lol....lol.

I took this picture in Salzburg. It is the garden where the famous movie "The Sound of Music", with Julie Andrews, was filmed. The gardens are beautiful and are open for all to walk through.

It's funny cause I just realized that Mozart was born and lived in Salzburg. And I wonder if that is why Salzburg was chosen for the filming of a movie entitled "The Sound of Music"... hummm.. I wonder...

Ciao

Out with the Old.. in With the New

Every one's experiencing changes in their life. Personally, I think that most of the changes that is occurring, aren't "self-imposed" changes. Lots of peoples jobs are changing. Loved ones are moving on and leaving this planet. A change in one person's life can affect several. Kinda like the "butterfly effect".

The last several years of my life has undergone major changes. I often think that the changes are done with.... but then new ones arise.

My life changed dramatically when I moved from the deep south to Los Angeles (almost 24 years ago). And now it is changing drastically again. Partly my fault, and partly not. Almost like a "be careful what you wish for thing." You know like if you had this magic gene come out of a lamp and you tell him that you want him to clean and organize your life and then he deletes three of your websites because he doesn't see the use or need for them. Well, you can't be mad at the gene, cause he was, after all, doing what you asked...lol...lol..lol...

And that's what happened, I wanting a simple, uncomplicated, not-busy-every-moment, kind of life, inadvertently deleted 3 of my websites. All three were what I like to call "shits and giggles" websites.

I read the book "The Tipping Point" (How Little Things can Make a Big Difference) and in the book it said that, from the age of 1 to 151, everyone loves a story. You tell someone a story and that gets them feeling all warm and fuzzy, then you point them to what you want them to purchase. So in the middle of the night I woke up and wrote a story about 3 magic monkeys who created the "Magic Monkey Method." I had the website up with the story for a few years and at the end of the story it would point you to my t-shirt website. The book also said that people respond to vertical head movement and, they believe, that is one of the contributing factors to Reagan becoming President. I decided to see if it was true and made a video. Click on the word video to see the video.

A friend of mine called me up one day and said that he was going to go and get hypnotised for better sleep, clear thinking, more mojo, etc.. I asked him how much it was going to cost and he said $500 and I said, "Dude, come over here and I'll bitch slap you for $50 and you'll be fine." And then the light blub went off and "Bitch Slaps R Us" was created. It was a website that, with humor, linked everything else I did. I even created a video, which can be seen by clicking on video.

And then one night, a few years ago, one of my friends called telling me how bad the economy was and I told him, "So everyone is up shits creek, Dude go make paddles." The light bulb didn't go off then. Then he started talking about a recession and that's when the light bulb went off. I asked, "How about making recession survival kits?" He pissed and moaned about how long it would take to get it off the ground and soooooo as kind of an experiment I woke up the next morning and looked at the clock and it was 9am and I said to myself, "I am going to see how long it takes to set up a Recession Survival Kit business." I got the domain name, figured out what I was going to put in the kit. Designed the website. Set up PayPal. Went to the store and got everything to go into the kit, went to the post office to find out what size box I needed and how much postage would cost. The kit consisted of items in a brown paper bag. The items were; a handkerchief cause we know you're gonna be crying; a blue's cd cause we know you're gonna be singing the blues; a box of mac n' cheese cause you gotta eat; 16 beer recipes cause we know you're gonna wanna drink; a pad and pen cause we know you're gonna come up with some bright ideas. Recession Survival Kits sold for $24.99 (including shipping). This was a humor gift. From start to finish it took me 3 hours and 5 minutes. Website built, paypal capable and product in hand. My friend was blown away. Later I decided to make a video, which you can see by clicking on video.

Yesterday I felt a bit sad about the 3 websites being gone, but not bad enough to put them back up again. I told my sister this morning that I would let them go and I would create new things.

I am getting you ready for the travel website so I am going to be posting pictures from vacations around the world. This is one of my favorite pictures. Just a lone Chuch on top of a mountain. I was in Switzerland, on the worldest steepest cogwheel railway, going up to the top of Mount Pilatus. The mountain was named after a local legend that alleges Pontius Pilate was burried there. Amazingly, I had a full cell signal at the top of this mountain!

Ciao

I am Done With the Snow!

Last week I heard on the weather channel that a snow storm was going to hit our area Saturday and Sunday. I was surprised when I woke up on Friday morning to 12-16 inches of snow and it was still coming down.

I went out and did the mandatory shoveling. My neighbor taught me that you shovel the first 6 inches off and then the next six, instead of trying to do the whole 12 inches at one time.

My neighbor was out shoveling and I mentioned that I thought the storm was going to come this weekend. He said that it got here early.

So the snow stopped around 2:00 yesterday and it warmed up into the 40's (4.4C) and a lot of snow melted from the sidewalks and street, which is great, cause you don't want it to turn to ice.

I woke up this morning and opened up the window blinds and OMG there's ANOTHER 6-8 inches of snow and it was coming down pretty heavy. It appears to have stopped within the last 15 minutes.

I hear California is bracing for a rainy day. Stay inside you guys where it is safe and dry!

I heard that because of this narly winter we are having that the weather guru's are predicting a narly hurricane season. That sucks! My mother, who had her home rebuilt after Katrina, could potentially loose it again! Well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Ciao

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

That's my new mantra!!!

I have been going through boxes, cabinets and closets and loading up the car for weekly trips to Salvation Army. I just don't want to carry anymore unnecessary stuff through life.

Last Friday I found 4 old cell phones. One had teal stones all over it. I really believe I was the first one on the planet to come up with the idea of blinging out things. My second cellphone that I covered was done in rainbow crystals. People in restaurants would come up to my table to see my cell phone. This was probably 10 or more years ago. I think I hung onto them because they were something I created. Well, now someone else can enjoy them.

Today is Wednesday and my next blog post will be sometime over the weekend. I am going to be posting only once a week since I will be winding down this blog real soon.

This is also in an effort to simply my life. I want to spend less time connected to technology and more time planting flowers, painting pictures and/or connecting with friends.

Speaking of friends.... I think it is totally wild that since the age of 12 I have ALWAYS had a friend named Judy in my life. My first friend named Judy lived a couple of doors from me and she was older than me and we hug out. We were friends for many many years. Around the age of 19 I met my second friend named Judy, who is still my very best, dearest and closest friend. Talking to her on the phone these last 2 Sundays brought back so many wonderful memories. Judy makes the BEST popcorn on the planet! Then around the age of 28 I moved to Los Angeles and immediately met a girl named Judy who I was friend with for 17 years. I don't know about you... but I think that is just wild!

So until this weekend....

Ciao

Let's Talk Weather!!!

Houston is expecting snow today. That's wild!

My sister lives in Houston and she actually got snow weeks before we did here in Pennsylvania.

I haven't written about "black ice". Mainly because I haven't seen too much of it, which is a good thing.

I first learned of black ice when I was in Iceland. I took this picture while in Iceland. This was right outside the door of my hotel. I wonder why they didn't put salt on the ground. The sidewalk was one sheet of ice. I walked in the street most of the time I was there. Talk about slippery.

Well, I guess by now everyone knows that we are experiencing an El Nino affect. Which will be followed by a La Nina affect.

I was poking around on the Internet and found an interesting website that pretty much forecast the weather for quite a bit. Talking about how the global warming that began in 80's would be ending around 2017 and then a global cooling will begin. Here is the link if you want to check it out http://forums.accuweather.com/index.php?showtopic=13603. It's a fascinating read that's for sure.

So right now California's bracing for more rain. Houston, Pennsylvania and Delaware are going to get a few flurries, not a big snow storm like we experienced a couple of weeks ago.

Ciao

What a Beautiful Weekend

The weather has been amazing the last three days. The sun has been shinning, blue skies and it's been about 50 degrees (10C). It felt warm to me so for the last three days there were no layering of clothes. I opened up my bedroom windows and let the cool breeze come in.

I spent Saturday checking out the tiny state of Delaware. Delaware was the 1st of our 50 states. It is an interesting state. It takes about 4-5 hours to drive from the top to the bottom and about 3 hours to drive from the southeast side to the southwest side. The farther you go south in the state the more farm land you find.

Delaware is a sales tax free state. I went to the Christiana Mall. That mall has every store under the sun. I haven't seen so many people at a mall since Clinton was president! It was wild!

The state of Delaware has income tax and it is 5.95%, which isn't really all that bad. That tiny little state makes almost all of it's money off of franchise corporate fees. Delaware has the most favorable "blue-sky" laws. Which are laws for taking a company public. Hence, the big players are Delaware corporations; Google, Apple, Sony, to name a few.

There is also a huge retirement community in Delaware which I thought was surprising.

I wanted to go back next Saturday and check out some more, however, the weather websites are calling for snow next Saturday in Pennsylvania and Delaware. I wish I could say that the weather man might be wrong, but with technology today they seem to be up with their game and pretty accurate.

Ciao