I just read an article on Yahoo that tell how I guy put a video up on You Tube offering to talk to anyone who needed someone to talk to. He is not working and living with his father so he has the time to talk. But does he have the minutes? He said he received 5000 calls. He is concerned about his charges for the phone, but says he's not going to turn people away.

Are there that many people who feel they don't have anyone who will listen to them, or is it just a fun thing to do--take the guy up on his offer? I hope it's just the curiosity and not that there are that many lonely, disconnected people.

You can read the article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070423/ap_on_hi_te/youtube_calls;_ylt=AgohN0uxmGULam_w5uiBSqddCGYD

Sorry, I don't know how to make the link a hyperlink. You'll have to copy and paste to your browser. If you know how to change it to a hyperlink let me know. Thanks.

Talk about ineffective direct mail—we received a direct mail piece from Arizona Reproductive Specialists yesterday. They are offering us a Free “Lunch & Learn” Seminar about how we can overcome infertility. The crazy thing about their postcard, which is a full 4-color piece, is that it was sent to the residence of a retirement community! You have to be 55 years old to live in Sun City and the average age is 73. What were they thinking? You can’t even have children under the age of 18 in your home unless it’s only for a short visit. No long term resident children. Someone in the marketing department screwed up.

It was particularly interesting to me because I have been looking at direct mail as a way to build my new plumbing company. I love the Sun City area because of all the amenities it has, but it’s also nice that the homes are around 30 years old so there is a lot of repair work available. Direct mail is looking like the best way to reach the people who need my services. It seems to be a very effective way to bring in work—if it’s done properly. You have to hit you’re target market and I expect to do a better job of hitting my target than ARS hit with the piece they sent us.

I just got listed on the Sun City Homeowner’s Association and the Sun City West’s PORA as an approved contractor in their contractor referral system. Being able to focus on a smaller area will help me keep my costs down and enable me to keep my prices lower. The people in these cities are also the kind of people I enjoy working for. They appreciate good work, fair prices and they don’t give you rubber checks. Aaah, life is good in the Valley of the Sun.

Check out the video I made of a VW as I was waiting at a red light in Glendale, AZ. When I saw it I got my Palm out and got this video clip.

It’s so great living in Arizona. I was in my office this morning. I have two large windows and a six foot patio door to look out of while I “work” at my desk. As I was checking my emails I noticed a coyote ambling through our backyard.

When we came to look at the house for the first time we actually saw two coyotes. We were standing out front waiting for our real estate agent and one came out from between our house and the neighbor’s. It noticed us but just kept slowly walking across the street and disappeared through the other houses. Then we decided to walk around the house and check out the exterior while we continued to wait. As we got into the back yard a coyote was just coming over the little fence we have around our property line. It saw us and jumped back over and walked parallel to us, but on the back neighbor’s property. It wasn’t afraid and it didn’t run away. It just went around our property as if it was using coyote etiquette and not trespassing when the owner was around.

I haven’t put anything into this blog for a long time, but no one seems to be reading it anyway. It’s a sad thing when no one comments. Is anyone out there? Oh well, I had started this because we had moved away from family and we were going to be doing some travel. I was going to use it as a journal of our experiences. Actually, that was an after thought. If you read my first post you’ll see that I had originally got into it because I had to sign up to see my wife’s blog and ended up starting my own. It’s interesting for me to go back and look at it after such a long time away.

I am going to try and use this to log a few thoughts and think out loud. I should be safe because it seems to be a private place by the number of responses. If I go back and read something I wrote and think, “I must have been an idiot to write that,” it’ll be okay because I’ll be the only one seeing it. Anonymity has it’s rewards.

This is our room at Avila Lighthouse Suites. It was "sweet," and the most expensive room either one of us has ever stayed in. The hotel was just built and it opened in Dec. of 2005 and it still had the new smell in it.

You can check out Lisa's blog for pics of San Francisco. The shoots we have of the streets do not do them justice in showing how steep they are. Here are some pics of the beach area around our hotel in Avila Beach.

This is the picture of the harbor view from our room in Fort Bragg, CA.

Speaking of big trees, here is one we drove through.
We took a picture through our sunroof while we were stopped to see up the tree.

Here's some more. The "Immortal Tree" is supposed to be over 900 years old (so it's inappropriately named Immortal). The part of the tree that Lisa is in is the top of the Immortal tree. It is amazing to see how big it is.

I could only publish a few pics in the previouse post so I am adding a few more here. These are ones from our drive through the Redwood forest. WOW, what an experience to see this.

Here are some pics from our stay at Crescent City. It was a GREAT motel. The first is a view from our room. The others are pics of the beach or lighthouse.

This is the view we have from our motel window here in Crescent City, CA.