Eagle Canyon

The Pass


The Shrubs

Long drive. We took 3 naps.
Utah and Colorado were incredibly beautiful.
I even liked Kansas.

  Sonny,    That's great Jim! Ruth called about an hour after you and Becky took off. She was worried that you might encounter a problem or something. I told her that I would let you know that she called and that you would most likely be okay. After thityy five hours and you are still running now on nothing but caffeine and adrenalin everything must look what you'll be dreaming about for the sixteen hours. I look froward to your further comments in your blog.   All is very quiet here on the home front. Squirt seemed to know that you and Becky were taking off but he hasn't made his usual graphic expression on the living room carpet yet. I guess he can learn after all. I'm taking Jessica with me today, of all places, to the Hilton for that fantastic Star Trek experience. Because of past experience, I will avoid eating in The Quartz or whatever it was, restaraunt. I'll be looking for some more comments about eight or ten hours from now.                                                         Love Sonny

Funny. They had the same Dangerfield comment about Jeffwee Hock. It went "Yea, Jeffwee has a big heart.... but also has a very tiny pee pee". He does drive a Corvette!!! Speaking of Jeffwee, he says she called him too and had trouble pronouncing his name too, and couldn't (or wouldn't) get around to asking the important questions. Like your work abilities or ethic, etc. She kept asking where you two knew each other from.

Sounds great Jimmy. Better than me. I am fully brain dead. I stayed in a Suburban Extended Stay here in the Orlando, July 2005 for a week and hated it for the tiny rooms. As far as a "bad side of town", I suspect theirs is nothing compared to Heavensville's (L.A.) "bad side". But even there, things are not that bad, as long as you look for the good, and don't give anybody any kaka. Got a call from Becky at Alijon yesterday afternoon, wanting to do a reference check. Seems late in the process. I told her that you didn't know how to code. You act funny around female coworkers, and don't bathe. But that you don't steal, so you're ok. HaHa.... Just kidding. I was in the middle of doing an emerency fix that had to get done RIGHT AWAY and told her you were a good guy and a hard worker, but told her I'd have time. She asked when we worked together, and I told her about MGM and M2. She said she'd email me questions, and that way I could answer offline. She never sent me the email, so you may want to get her my email address. She seems a little dim witted. I say that, because she really mangled my last name, and couldn't understand mike -=-=-=at-=-=-= ginsburg.net was my email address.

It was a girl who thought we processed loans 24x7.
We rambled on, I explained that I'm am just a humble Notary Public, and I only notarized loans.
She explained she was from Utah, got into a bind and she needed a loan.
Wellio, we ended up joking and laughing about things.
Then somewhere along the line she invited me over to offer herself to me.
That just figures.
If you can't find a woman in Las Vegas, you ain't looking.
People come here for many reasons: to vacation, to get rich, or simply just to break the circle they're stuck in.
Everyone here is looking for something they feel they can't get anywhere else, and its not friends that they want.
Welcome and Goodbye to Las Vegas....

Life seems like a perfect chaos.
How can it be that nothing happens the same way twice, but there are perfect circles?
How can it be that you can't get something from nothing, when consciousness is just that?
How can it be that a perfect vacuum doesn't exist, when all matter floats around in one?
How can it be that once a circle is complete, it has no beginning or end?
Life is full of paradoxes. Perfection and chaos cannot exist together, but they do. They need each other. It's a paradox.
These past two months have been a perfect chaos.
I'd be a fool to not realize I'm being led me into leaving Las Vegas.
The condo, the association, the loan, the late ad, the new contract; the dragging out of things.
If I'd gotten the loan, or the ad came out, I'd be staying in Las Vegas.
The following is not normal:
The condo's association soured, after 30 years, and after we finally got good tenants.
The loan failed, after everything everything was signed at the title company. It should have been finalized.
The Be Quick ad failed to come out for 3 months. It came out the day after I accepted the job in Louisville.
My contract in Louisville was sold, and delayed, each week, for a month. That is not normal.
All these things caused me to almost go broke (within a couple hundred dollars, and thats not my style).
Its just all too phenomenal.
But if there's a reason for the above, why the delay?
Its like something is waiting for Becky and me, and it's timing our arrival.
I guess, I'm impressed.
I feel like I'm experiencing some kind of miracle.
I don't believe in ghosts, or anything else surreal.
The Mustang's fuel filter failed and a tire blowout within 10 minutes of each other.
It happened the week before our taking off. I see no connection between the two.
I wasn't going to take the Mustang, but after the delays in the contract, I decided I had to take the truck.
Okay, the fuel filter needed to be replaced, and the tire needed to be replaced.
And Sonny needs a vehicle to find a new job. 
I had to do the right thing. I had to fixed the car before leaving.
The car would have broken down when Sonny was driving my it.
An insane person assigns reason to phenomena.
EG: "The crops are dying because God is mad at us."
Perhaps thats what I'm doing.
Or it may be its my knowledge of gambling,
I understand the roll of the dice may may appear chaotic,
but I know a 7 will come up, on average, every 6 rolls over the course of a million rolls.
When you understand what is going on, there is no chaos. There is a perfect circle.
The dice roll the way they do simply because they have too.
So if say, 12s roll 1,000 times in a row, its because they have too. It only seems phenomanal at the time.
This pattern will repeat forever, as long as the dice are rolled.
This life seems chaotic right now. I'm seeing 12's roll 1,000 times in a row. 
Everything this life has shown me so far, has been completely wonderful and incredible beyond belief.
I can see a blade of grass growing, but I don't understand how, or why its growing.
I just know that it is doing it, it is necessary, and that it has to do what it does.
My life will end in the years to come, and my end will meet its beginning. 
I hope I'll come to realize my purpose and why I was necessary?
Everything large and small, living and non living, is significant.
And all things seem to exist for a purpose.

I was replacing the fuel filter on the Mustang and bingoooo, I got the call.
I passed the drug test.
I was sweating some muscle relaxers I took on 7th when I was suppose to be working for US Consultants.
I passed the 20 years of background screening
It was supposed to be only 10 years.
So now, my resume is as clean as it can get, even with all of the acquistions that have happened.
We may take off tommorrow night

I think so.
Most of whats going on seems typical for a good job.
- If I get this job, and we sell the condo,
We won't have any money problems at least for 3 years.
I'll be 54, Sonny will be 59, and Becky will be 48 when things start going south.
Thats if our investments pay nothing. The key word here is, investments .
We can't go on a spending spree and we have to live cheap.
- If I get this job and we don't sell the condo,
I'll be able to pull everybody's weight.
- If I don't get this job and we sell the condo,
we should be able to scrape by on Be Quick
- If I don't get this job and we don't sell the condo,
things will start going south by October.
 We have assets, they're just not easily converted into cash. 
A lot of things can happen in three months. We could finance!
I'll figure something out.
We've been on an $1,800 a month budget
Which is pretty cheap for a homeowner and two people in Vegas.
Lately, trying to refinance, buying tools for Be Quick, going to Disneyland, Adventure Dome, Star Trek Adventure...
has put us way over budget. We've been spending way beyond our means.
We've got to think rich and act poor.
Some things that have happened in the last two months are pretty unusual.
I'll just blame them either on bad luck or bad judgement on my part.
Without a causal connection, though, the odds of what happened yesterday are phenomenal.

Popped a tire. Fuel pump went bad.
Both unrelated..I think. What are the odds of that?
We left Frys about 4pm today.
It seemed kind of weird, to pop a tire while entering I215, then the fuel pump giving out 2 miles later.
We really weren't sure our tire popped at all, and it didn't seem like we needed to pull over.
But about 2 miles down the freeway, the engine started slowing and racing sporadically.
Then it died.
Freeway Assistance came by, but after a few minutes it, it would start again.
We didn't notice a flat tire.
A few miles later, at the Warm Springs exit, the engine died again.
It finally started and we made it somewhere on Warm Springs.
Then the tire started flopping around.
So I replaced it with a donut, all the while, burning my hands on the tools, and ruining my new dress pants.
It looked like my tire had melted (I'm serious).
We got another mile, and the engine died, again.
Cars were whizzing by us at 80mph.
Finally, it started again, and we made it to Paradise and Warm Springs.
We stopped and called our insurance for tow.
We had no water. We had no one to call. My tools were too hot to touch.
After two hours of waiting, we'd managed to get the car to a Rebel Station nearby.
Finally the tow truck pick us up, but all of the repair shops had closed.
The tow driver dropped us off at Pep Boys. They said I couldn't leave the car parked there.
So, we drove it home.
Its now 8pm.
I'm thinking tommorrow, we'll replace the fuel pump, fuel filter and get a new tire.
OH, I took my drug test.
We won't know the result until Friday or Monday.
Everything is being cut pretty close.

The reason this all happened was that you went to Fly's without me... Oh, how I miss visiting Fly's stores. And harassing the cashiers. Next time you're there, as a cashier to "print out an F8".

Sounds like an absolutely terrible experience, Jimmy. Is it going to be a problem driving the thing out to Louis-ville?

I just got a delivery from a Fed Ex deliveryman (for my Quest drug test).
I noticed he was driving a small, obviously poorly kept, probably spring driven, car.
SO, I stopped him and asked him if he was an independant contractor.
He said "YEP".
"Fed Ex concentrates its truck routes on Business-To-Business deliveries."
"For Business-To-Home deliveries, they contract us."...
hmmm
There's an easy job that anyone can do!
The contractors have to take a drug test and a physical exam first.
I think, if I stayed here and did the notary thing, I'd want to add that to my courier side of business.
Speaking about drug test.
I won't know if I can take off until either Friday, or Monday...and that really hurts.

Ajilon is verifying my BOA employment now. That was 18 years ago...wow.
They're overnighting a 3 part Quest Drug Test Form to me.
I should get it tomorrow.
I have no idea what they are going to ask on it, and how much they are going to critique what I say.
I've never been tested for drugs before.
Ajilon's relocation specialist called.
They wanted to know when I'll be in Louisville.
I didn't know what to tell them.

   I'm just rolling with the flow    

I'm always going to wonder if Be Quick would have flown.
We've been passing up at least 3 calls a day.
I feel like I'm betting on a Roulette table
Only on table both Red and Black always win, and I have to choose the best winner.
The color I don't pick, will probably never be an option again.
I'm basing the choices on which opportunity has the best foundation to build on.
1) Bank of America/ Ajilon
- Is a solid company
- I can get health insurance through them, and even have a 401K plan.
- Will start out at over $100k
- Requires full time hours.
- I can build a reputation through them, and possibly get contracts for years to come, any place in the country.
2) Be Quick
- Is not solid
- I could be building a reputation for it right now, but instead, I'm ruining it.
- Pays around $10k as it exists right now
- Requires only part time hours.
- If the system went country wide, could pay $100+k.
Its a tough call.
*** The best idea would be to get both of them working for me
But, that's going to be difficult to do in Louisville with a full time job.

You're so kooky, Jimmy.... In regards to the employment thing. The Drug Test thing will probably be just instructions on where to go. You fill out a few lines on a form (name, address, etc.) and they will put a cup down about 2.5 or 3 feet off the ground, and watch you pee-pee into it and you'll be done. Don't forget, eat nothing but poppy seed bagels between now and then. 

Bank of America is going through the 16 pages I faxed to them last night.
I made a mistake and wrote down US Consulting as my employer for M2 corp in Orlando.
It should have been STJ Inc. OOPS.
Pat Hill at US Consulting called me about it.
So, I frantically called Mike to verify we worked for STJ Inc.
Then I called Ajilon, and the person doing the background check to straighten it out.
They still haven't told me where to take a drug test.
I'm starting to pull my hair out over this thing.
I have a back up plan (Be Quick). If I need money, I can get lots of it.
But, I guess I'm going to have to cancel my hotel reservation in Louisville again.

Sonny is interviewing at Circus Circus
Becky rubbed his head for good luck, and I shook his hand like a car salesman.
I'm definitely going to Louisville, KY
I've faxed 16 pages of info and am waiting for further instructions.
Ruth sounds GGGRRREEEeeeeaaaattttt!!!
Stage IV cancer never sounded better.
She says she's even up to 128 lbs. The Mississippi doctors may renege on their diagnosis. hmmm.
Ruth thinks praying has helped. I told her IT REALLY WORKS!
Attitude is they key to a good life.
Social Security denied Ruth disability, even with Stage IV cancer.
However, they said she can get if she gets a divorce.
So she's getting a paper divorce.
Isn't that just weird.

Ajilon: Clark Zalot 502-454-5840 was supposed to call me.
However, I called them.
The deal is:
- Their sending me an email with where to do for the drug test (Quest Diagnostics).
   I'll need to dig out the old fax machine to fax a new contract back to them.
- Pay is weekly, autodeposit! The timesheet is on the web. (I already like these people).
- Per Diem in Louisville is $128 per day and thats great, so it should work out to $34 and $16, so the write offs are great.
- They will help me find a great place to stay!!!
- They'll also ask Leanne if the 25th is okay (instead of next Monday).

Hurray for Jimmy.. Looks like it's finally coming along. Actually, I had a question about my "physical being". Why is Squirt being shipped off? Sonny can't take care of Squirty?

Sonny's going to take care of Squirty.
He's not really a dog person...he likes cats!!!
Now, me, I just don't understand that.
CATS ARE WORTHLESS...hahaha.
A dog:
-  loves everything you give him to eat.
- will lick your feet, no matter how sweaty.
- will warn you when ugly people approach the house
- AND, they'll drink beer with listening to country music.
Cats do what, exactly? hehehe.

Through U.S. Consulting Services

What's this, Jimmy?

Not!!!
No one has called yet.
I'll wait until 2pm their time, and call them.
I noticed in my notes, 
US Consulting said I'd be working W2 for the Vendor, and Ajilon would be calling me.
- I'd think that would mean I'd be working for Bank of America
- US Consulting's non-compete clause would be invalid
- Somehow, Ajilon fits in there somewhere
I was hoping all that would be cleared up today.
hmmm.
But, it all means nothing if they decide not to hire me.
I just wish I wasn't tied to the phone.
I noticed that Friday, Adam G said "Good luck with the drug test" (which I'll pass in flying colors).
I thought that was odd.
Adam also said, buying and selling contracts happens a lot with consultants. I've never heard of that though.

No, if you are W2 to Ajilon, you are THEIR employee, not BofA's. Ajilon would be responsible for your paycheck and withholding taxes, etc.Maybe you should call now, and not wait. It's not fair to you, that they are making you wait, like this.

Needed to analyze and prepare culinary specimens for consumption by hotel patrons
Paducah is also looking for a Hotel Technician
A Front Desk Clerk.
I thought Las Vegas was creative about their titles. LOL.

Sonny said he's a little frustrated about these times.
Most things are uncertain right now. What is certain, isn't good.
At this point, he knows he'll be laid off in July, but even that is a big maybe.
The Frontier has to keep 6 engineers around until the hotel gets leveled.
I share some of Sonny's frustration
Waiting is not something I do well.
So, should I unpack?
I know I could contact Jerry Newberry's friend, Kevin McDonald.
Kevin McDonald is responsible for all of Bank of America's ATMs on the west coast.
I'd think Kevin could get me in anywhere I wish.
I could bypass this whole headhunter thing. hmmm.

The guy who replaced you here, at work, Neil took a new contract in South Portland, Maine the first week in May. It was suppose to be good for the rest of the year. He was hated by the rest of the rest of us contractors. So, we were glad to see him go. Found out he got let go from that contract yesterday, after four weeks on the job. And he had to pay $1750 to get out of his lease on his apartment here in Florida. Good move!!!

Now, it looks like I'll be W2 instead of 1099 for $2 less an hour.
Plus, I'll be working with Ajilon and not US Consulting.
Its all good though, as long as I get hired.
Clark Zalot should be calling today about me taking a drug test here, maybe on Monday.
Adam said we should still be on for the 18th, but now, I'm thinking with the new red tape, it may be the 25th.
But then again, he's washed his hands of it all.
On the other hand, Ajilon must have bought my contract somehow.
hmmm.
I just hope everything doesn't go sour.
Be Quick is all but shut down now.

Looks like we're pushed back another week.
The start date was supposed to be the 11th.
Then it was pushed up to the 18th.
Now, it may or may not be pushed up to the 25th, depending on what we hear today.
I'm just rolling with the flow. haha...
We've said our goodbyes 2 times already.
By the time we say our last goodbye, we'll be hearing "Okay already!!! GET THE $&%@* OUT OF HERE".

What the heck, Jimmy? Next thing you know, they'll push the start date one more week, from December 24 to December 31. And you'll be on the road during Christmas week.

It beats mine. It looks GREAT! It works GREAT! And you can share them.
I knew it would take a year for the world to catch up with some of the features of LVDude.
The multiple, dropdown SEARCH ________ is available on IE and Netscape.
Blogs (that even use the same code that I, eh hummm, borrowed) are like mine on Tagged and MySpace.
The drop down customizable menus and shared menus are still mine.
I think my favorites menu is still the best.
I think my Ads section is still the best too.

That's amazing!
The tenants are moving out Friday, and we're squaring up with them Saturday.
Everything is moving so fast.
I feel half brain dead.
Sonny transfered the power to our names today, while I was catching up on sleep.
We still don't know when we're taking off.
A mexican fellow wants to buy the condo.
He has 5 kids...hahaha
We have the cheapest property in Vegas, and still, he wants us to come down $2,500...lol.
I should sell just to muddy up things.

Feeling "Half Brain Dead" is better than being "Half Brain Dead".

Jennifer's school, Odyssee, had a graduation ceremony for the 1st though 7th grades.
There must have been 421.5 guests there (as Dustin might say it). lol.
It was fun, but my brain can only handle one graduation celebration a year.
Today was the third one in one month.
I loaded up Dig Dug on my cell phone, and gave Dustin technical descriptions of every play I was making, EG - If I go under this rock, I can SMASH a minor and a dragon before they float through the rock and get me. hahaha.
He's always telling us about his HPs in Runscape.

  I guess now that the condo is being sold that it will only be the house bills-Right? Your leaving at Friday will give me a little motre time to get the hang of it.

 I can handle th ebills okay but I willl need to be able to contact you if something comes up lik ewhat might be an important phone call that would have to be forwarded.

The condos lost their street parking to a bike lane several years ago. Its really too bad that happened.
They wrote a letter saying condo owners that visitors have to park 3 football fields away (on San Rafael or Mill Valley).
They're preparing to fine violators $100 fines.
So if someone parks behind your garage, they fine YOU, not them.
Because of them, we're selling the condo and taking our profits.
They've yelled at me about what liars and pig the tenants are.
They've yelled at me about what a lousy landlord and businessman I am.
They even said the condos are selling for $140,000 because of the wonderful things they did.
The condo's have doubled in value, because all Las Vegas real estate has doubled.
They're dues are higher than what I paid in Summerlin, and they don't even have security contracted.
The association doesn't have to keep their promises.
They started to put up visitor parking 8 months ago. They cut down a tree. They marked the pad.
Here's the deal - There are over 130 condos in the association.
They each pay $100 a month. Thats $13,000 a month they get paid for mowing the grass, and keeping common lights on.
Click here for their CCRs.
Since we've bought the condo in 1978, they've cut down our tree and removed the shrubs in front of the condo.
We haven't seen the benefits from their maintenance of the grounds.
The bottom line is, don't get involved with associations.
Its can turn into a good deal gone bad.
- They can arbitrarily create the own rules.
- They can tell you what you can do behind inside your house and your garage.
- They can issue fines and they can raise your dues.
- They can even sell your property if you don't pay them.
- AND, they can pick on only you. They don't have to be fair.