Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.
March 2013, Weed, California — For months, or perhaps it’s been a few years, I’ve been cutting my hair with some clippers. It’s not that I’m too cheap to pay for a haircut, but I don’t like waiting around, and I don’t like sitting in the chair.
(Which is funny, because I sit in other chairs frequently, with no problem at all. Go figure.)
So last week, out of the blue, I thought, “Why not get a haircut?” I just thought that. For no reason.
And you know what?
Las Vegas, November 30, 2012 — Flying from freezy weather upon the Mt. Shasta, Arthur and Susan arrived in Las Vegas, only to be assaulted with balmy weather and hundreds of gargantuan advertisements.
Not content to buy full-page spreads in local newspapers or to saturate television images with photos of affluence, long automobiles, and scantily-clad breasts and body parts, large hotels such as the MGM Grand and others sport humongous advertisements on the multi-story facades. I suppose this means that Mr. and Mrs. Struthers from Iowa City are peeking out their hotel window through the huge left eye of Kris Angel, Illusionist Extroidinaire.
Maybe.
We’re hanging out with Susan’s daughter Kristina, plus two highschool granddaughters 18 and 15, and Mitch, who’s a regional sales manager for the Southwest for a really-slick heavy equipment manufacturer out of Europe. The granddaughters are fun, brilliant in photography and robotics, and of course the inevitable learning curve of boys, growth, and the info-dense nature of modern life, rock music, and the Vegas infotopia.
And toward the end of the day …
Mt. Shasta, November 23, 2012 — Nikolas and I have created a new ‘text-coupon club’ for local folks that live in our area, the towns of Weed, Mt. Shasta, Dunsmuir, & McCloud. Here’s what the Mt. Shasta Herald sez in the newspaper —
November 25, Mt. Shasta, CA– Mt. Shasta area residents can now receive exclusive discount deals from local restaurants and shops with new text-message coupon club, Siskiyou Daily Deals. Discounts and deals are sent by text message to members, who redeem their ‘text coupons’ at participating businesses. Anyone with a cell phone can join for free and receive fun, valuable incentives to shop and dine in Siskiyou County.
In addition to offering special discounts, over 30 local businesses have donated more than $1,000 worth of free prizes to give away, providing extra motivation for residents to subscribe. Prizewinners will be chosen at random intervals and instantly notified by text message when they win. To join, local residents can simply text ‘SHASTADEALS’ to (530) 419-6644, and if they ever want to opt out, they reply ‘STOP’ to the same number.
Siskiyou Daily Deals is a service of SweetLife Marketing Group, the new business venture of local marketing authorities, Nikolas Allen and Arthur Cronos. SweetLife ran a Siskiyou Daily Deals booth at the recent Winter Magic street fair in Mt. Shasta, where they signed up over 250 new members.
“Text messaging has become an essential part of our culture,” observes Cronos. “Since nearly everyone [Read more…]
Weed, California July 2012 — It’s finally summer around here.
My garden boxes are growing vegetables faster than we can eat them. The mustard is going to seed. I haven’t cut it back because I don’t want to discourage it …
Out in the vacant lot, where the dogs walk me twice a day, in the early morning sunshine, some very optimistic puffballs create a science-fiction landscape, if you look real close …
And hidden up in the eaves of the shop, a swift or swallow has built a clever nest, anchoring to a bracket that secures the outside rafters.
Inside, three growing birds peer over the edge, and cheer for Mom and Dad in the morning and evening, when the bug-catching is good. They all make a cheerful high-pitched cheeping as I come and go.
Susan and I have decided that their names are Butch, Sundance, and Peewee. Here they are, looking at you …
Hmm. Wonder what’s next.
Weed, California, June 23, 2012 — Outside I have a garden of sorts. Yes, the bloggard has become a gardener, of sorts.
I have never done this before. When I was a child, in self-defense I carefully avoided learning how to iron, to sew a button, or to do anything in a garden. I was afraid that I would become saddled with another “chore.” (I didn’t know how easy was my life then.)
I do not actually know anything about gardening, but my fiancé Susan knows these things, and she has assisted me. Actually it was an accident and I walked into it backwards. You see, last year, the roommate Carolyn — one of the folks who has shared my house, which is larger than I need just for myself — and some other roommates declared that they yearned for a garden. They pined for a garden. Their lives would be a joy forever, if only they had a garden.
I designed a couple of elevated beds, about 5 feet by 12 feet, and built the boxes, wire mesh on the bottom against the gophers, and got Glenn to bring me a truckload of manure and soil from the feedlot on his farm. It seemed a lot of work building these boxes, but then Carolyn planted and watered and grew the vegetables.
I thought she was nuts planting lettuces, because they’re so cheap in the store. Of course, the first time I tasted one, I changed my mind.
But somewhere between last summer and this summer, Carolyn moved on to greener pastures, and the new roomies wanted no truck with the garden. So …
Mt. Shasta, CA April 5, 2012 — I got a funny notion the other day. Since what so many folks need around here, in this little mountain village, is *income* and I thought of a way that I could help a few of them have more income.
There are lots of skillful people in Mt. Shasta. For example, website designers, photographers, graphic designers, and bookkeepers. And I’ve been experiencing a problem …
My CopyDragon webwriters is successful. At least, at the primary level. A number of people told me, “Oh, there’s no money in Mount Shasta.”
But I figured otherwise. Because there are a lot of fancy, expensive cars on the street. I see them everywhere. There are a bunch of fairly high-priced houses up and down all the streets. And for certain, a bunch of people must have bought those cars, and a bunch of people live in those houses.
So there must actually be a *lot* of money in Mt. Shasta.
And in fact, what I’m experiencing personally is that I have more customers for web design, seo (traffic-building), and email-marketing than I can handle efficiently. I’ve been doing more and more mobile marketing (smartphone websites), and I’m starting to expand into Text Marketing (SMS Marketing). So …
In short, I could use some help … with the production. Building those websites, making those graphics, and in time I’ll probably need some help with the bookkeeping.
My plan is not completely clear yet. But, generally speaking, [Read more…]
Such a puzzle here.
Huh. So many chickens … gone!
By the hedge, the fox.
Across the old fence,
horse gazing at me softly.
We pause. Who sees more?
