First of all, let me just say how sorry I am to hear about your job loss, Ron. Another statistic in the saga of Obamanomics. Having lost my job a few years ago I can certainly feel your pain. I hope you can find a source of income before too long.
On the subject of the temporary loss of this message forum, when Mike Kavanagh passed away in December (he's at the top of my remembrance list) I was left to founder with regard to this website. Mike handled everything, including costs of all services. Apparently Boardhost had been trying to bill him for the message board but the billings were not making it up to Heaven. When the message board disappeared I contacted Boardhost to find out what to do. I was shocked at the monthly cost of maintaining this board at the level he had signed up for. After some negotiating I found a plan that will temporarily fit my budget, but I'm probably going to downgrade to an even lower plan shortly. With the level of activity here I don't think we'll notice any difference. We're back up and running and I hope we can spark some good discussion here.
I must apologize for my lack of participation, but my involvement with our Homeowners Association has really sapped my time. It's a long story and will become a book, hopefully by the end of the year. It's a thriller novel based on characters and events that I'm actually experiencing. I'll just be bumping up the level of evil to create a little more edge.
As it is, there's plenty of drama in the real-life version. Basically it comes down to we're trying to save our home and beyond that, the lifestyle of our neighborhood. In a coup to stop the insidious intrusion of idiocy (that would be the III) we recently took over the Board of Directors in a special election. We now have 12 of the 13 Board members on the side of reasonable thought and neighborly interaction. The previous Board was intent on giving us up to a law firm that makes its money from selling foreclosures following a process that involves fines, liens and attorney fees for the most minute infractions of the covenants.
In my book the Covenants are governed by a coven of witches who are a front for the lawyers. It only gets weirder, both in my book and in real life. As the book progresses I'll post snippets here for you folks to enjoy.
Musically, my life is a routine of teaching (I have about 10 guitar students now ranging in age from 8 years old to 18), doing anywhere from 3 to 8 shows a week at retirement homes and writing. I was in the studio on Monday to record my parody, "Bail-Out Funds". I scrambled to get it done Monday, despite my current state of pneumonia, so I could get a CD to Glenn Beck, who was in town for a show Monday night. I don't know if he listened to it or not - I'm sure he gets a lot of that kind of stuff tossed at him, but my studio engineer, Jim Ratts, enjoyed it. Next step is to put together a video and get it up on youtube.
Well, that's it for now. I need to go hack up some phlem (sorry - this is a nasty virus I got) and then get back to work on a zillion other projects.
Spread the word - we're back in business! Have a great day...let's keep in touch.
Bob Haworth
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