I got this one a few days ago.

Supposedly

G-mail wants my name. address and password or they will be shutting down my account.
 
It must be the children of old scammers learning the trade.

I hoping all those newbies to the Internet know to check these things out. .. or at least use common sense.
G-mail does not need to know your password or other information. They have more power / passwords than any of us.

 It is unfortunate that is it so difficult/ impossible to contact them so they can shut these scammers down before more damage is done.. to the client and their Gmail reputation.

Two days ago a lady in Oahu had her Facebook account stolen and taken over by scammers . Using her Contacts List, sent the usual messages to them that she is in Italy, had all her $$$ stolen and needed some $1500.00 ?? to get back home and was too embarrassed to let family know..
The scammers sent the messages to her family.. one where she was asleep in the next bedroom and another relative that had been with her the night before.

There are others that say your friend is in trouble and need $$$XXX to stay out of jail.   
 
 

 After some mashugana from both sides, .. and a little rule or two that states a HOA cannot cause a property to fall into disrepair... and that the paint color for the garage door was approved and signed off before we were even allowed to build.. and another whole bunch of reasons..
 We did get their blessings to go ahead.
Good thing.... other wise we all may have had to live with this! for a garage door paint job.

                           Pinto Primer

              This is the pitting.. no more steel doors for us!
         

There is a lot more to be said about going ahead and doing something (Positive) and apologizing later, than to try and get permission. 

......!

 
...........!

Read between those lines!!!

YEA!
I have carved out time for myself and I am painting again.. or at least, trying to.

It feels like I am learning to walk all over again...one foot in front of the other.. but there is that old put your weight on this side and .... and  and swing your arms in the proper rhythm.

I think I see some of my personal old style coming through, but it is tight where I'd like to see  more' loose'.
There is scrubbing the too wet paper... too much water in the brush.. etc etc.

On the other hand, there is a lot that is there and I am happy it's coming back. Tossing paint around is still contrived and conscious.
My mind is not yet at the 'getting lost' for hours stage. 
It is that old adage "Use it or Lose it'.

Steve brought home some green grapes for color match. Already we have eaten half of them they are so sweet. They are going fast!
I took pix for later reference. lol

Oh! goodness. I see the grapes are way too much like the leaves coloring. I'll  have to do something about that..maybe lighten up the grapes, more translucent and other colors in the leaves. I'll  probably use the top right painting because it has less leaves.

I particularly love painting fruit and now you all know why.
 
See? There are lots of things going on behind those paintings. I have one friend that literally downs a pots of coffee when she paints.
Every painting she does has coffee spills and splashes somewhere. I have jokingly accused her of purposefully putting some there and that should be her signature.
 
One of things I do when I am painting groupings is paint them together, at the same time, so they look related.
IF I used paint straight out of the tube, I could easily get the same colors. I mix. Mixing colors is like a signature... I have a basic pallet and make up huge batches of color.

The one thing about water color is that you also have to plan ahead.. and save spaces and be patient and let things dry. There are so many paint to paper techniques, it is always interesting.

These Grapes are for DeeDee.. for her 'new kitchen'.

My friend and also a painter friend came by since the garage door was open. Her guest fell in love with them. These are still Dee Dee"s.

I already have a list of honey do's so I gave her my card and asked her to go home and think about it in her personal setting and then decide.

Red grapes are next. YUM! 

Our steel garage door is rusting...requiring  immediate attention/intervention, which means paint. 

It was never painted because it should have been in a satin finish and not the flat that we used on the house.

At the time, I was the painter of choice.
I was injured at Wal-Mart  before I could start painting the garage door. I spent three months with my foot in a boot, trying to heal.

Last weekend we noticed that it is beginning to rust.

In preparation for painting, Steve power washed it and was going to just go ahead and paint it today.
I asked that he stop before painting because I was hearing the horror stories regarding HOA. .. reluctantly, he did stop before painting.
 
I keep hearing HOA/ECC tell people to just give him a call.  Painting a rusting garage door seemed to be pretty straight forward.  WHAT was I thinking?

 I telephoned the office, left my name, address and what we needed to get done. I never heard back for another hour and a half, plus lunch hour.  

I was beginning to be concerned.
The grapevine is loading with horror stories how others are being treated by the GM, the board and hirelings.
... somewhat like trying to hit a moving target as well as being unreasonable.

Most people wanting to improve their properties are deciding NOT to go through new rituals this new gestapo is requiring.
So it is not like I was not warned.

To quote ECC .."The answer is NO! ...unless we are going to paint the entire house in another color", which we would also have to go to Committee" .

I like the colors we selected.. we refresh areas as needed. 

While Steve and I go the extra mile to improve our home..take pride in ownership... we now find ourselves with an expensive rusting garage door and there is nothing we can do about it unless we repaint the entire house in a different color..

The word of the day is BOHICA!  ( BEND OVER, HERE IT COMES AGAIN!)

A GOVERNMENT AGENCY POSTED...

 * LESS THAN 20% OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY OWN 85% OF ITS WEALTH!

 That is the number the economist are tossing around.  

(* edited)

It would certainly seem America is experiencing a bed bug epidemic.. All one needs to do is go to the Internet and check it all out... and ofcourse, it already has it's own fan club in the form of Scammers and Hijackers.
Hotels and rentals are now being held hostage to use certain companies or they will "tell the world" they have the dreaded bed bugs.... Scammers go to Craig's list and illegally post maps indicating the area of the rental location as BED BUG HERE! on others listings! 
It used to be that you paid off the 'politically correct' for being a supposed "racist/bigot'

Today, they make money by mentioning "BED BUGS"    
 
This interesting article...
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/10/06/new-school-fear-bedbugs-coming-home-in-backpacks/

I have 9 friends with rental properties. They are literally going crazy trying to sanitize after each time their renters vacate. But they do.
 
I had 10 friends with income properties, but one recently decided to sell her condo because the ROI was too always too small and now just not there.

.They have their regular cleaning services come in and then they call me or another friend and we both go through the place and sanitize. We literally turn things upside down and cross ways. It is like totally moving

I could work 24/7 and make big bucks... but, so far, I just work with friends and their friends.

Sometime we think we are on overkill. After reading what is out there on the issue, I don't think so.

After repainting with lighter colors, we have all reduced the items left for the renters to use. IE, extra sheets and towels, removed heavy drapery and kept the lighter colors to be able to see anything amiss.
White/light colored items seem to be something the renters like, too.

Extra bedding is now limited and bagged. Beds are not made up until the day the renters come in. Everything else is limited, including pots and pans so we can see exactly what is there, or not. 
Flashlight are the tool of choice even though we have greatly lightened up the units.

No, we are not scrimping. The rental furnishings are still generous for the clients.
Most have gone to longer rental requirements...    

Even though they use rental agencies, they are actively vigilant.  They are often there, know who is cleaning and have built up a speaking relationship with them and the regular neighbors.

....glad to say that so far so good!

I can easily be called a bug fanatic. I was, I will and I am.
 
In our working day jobs, my husband traveled often and long, staying in places all over the world.
His luggage would stay zipped shut in the garage as we'd bring directly into the washing machine, load by load.

This morning I get this from a friend. Whether true or not, the information is well advised.

Hi All:  A bit of information that you might like to know about.  We 
have friends here in our community and one of their sons is an 
entomologist (insect expert), and has been telling them that there is 
an epidemic of bed bugs now occurring in America. 
Recently I have heard on the news that several stores  on the East Coast have had to close due to bed bug problems, as well as a complete mall. 
 
He says that since much of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc.today now comes 
from manufacturers outside of America, (sad but true), even the most 
expensive stores sell foreign clothing from cheap labor places, etc. 

Some these countries do not consider bed bugs a problem.
I don't want to seem like I am country bashing,  I will add the sweat shops hidden on our own turf!

Whatever the county of origin, he recommends that when you buy any new clothing, even underwear and socks,
sheets, towels, etc. packaged or not, what ever you you bring into the house, WASH IMMEDIATELY or put them in your clothes dryer for at least 20 minutes.
The heat will kill them and their eggs. 

DO NOT PURCHASE CLOTHES AND HANG THEM RIGHT IN THE CLOSET. INSPECT!

It does not matter what the price range is of the clothing, or if the outfit comes from the most 
expensive store known in the U.S.  They still get shipments from  all over the world. 
Bugs can come in a box of scarves or anything else for that matter. 
Supposedly, that is the reason why so many stores here in NYC and other locations all over America have had to shut down.

All  you need is to bring one item into the house that has bugs or eggs and you will go to hell and back trying to get rid of them.

LET'S NOT EVEN MENTION GERMS....

10/10/10/10/10    not a true palindrome,   IE: 1//02/01 and the word level...... the same word letters and numbers when reversed .
There is only 60 palindrome dates between year 2001 and 3000.
 
But this very day we can see 10/10/10/10/10/ (twice ) still very intriguing. 

Some people would attach some meaning to these quirky little interests, and if I were supersticious I'd believe I'm have a REALLY LUCKY DAY and wish one for you as well!

Every so often we have to reshuffle things according to how we use things today..
ever purging over burdened closets and dresser drawers.

Today, I picked on the canister set...again.

Sugar used to be in the larger canister, then flour and the tea.

I finally realized I was going through three pounds of sugar a week... Whoa!  
It was high time I quit the sugar habit as part of my ' Get thyself Heathy' montra and it got demoted to the middle.
  
A couple months ago I realized I hardly ever bake so I tossed the old flour and the new flour lives in the 'fridge.
Fresh roasted coffee now lives in the larger unit.

Today it was the middle one.. the sugar again... it went into the little guy.

The little guy held Doggie Treats and is now in the larger middle canister.

I'll have to label it for a while... so when friends join us... they won't have to hunt.

My daughter DeeDee has several little girlz.. and in her house she has her priorities straight.
The doggies reign over the glass canister set.
The HUGE one is their chewies, the next is the the tooth cleaning treats, ( they don't know it is healthy stuff ...shhhh ~ 
The rest are ???  pretty. The girlz know....when the lids come off, it is for them and the dancing begins.

It makes me smile when I see that! 

          
Okay! He painted my bridge red.  Too late to do much of anything else. I went with it and decided to do a little more red as if it were red on purpose and not stick out like a sore thumb.

I could not locate spray primer for plastics. Figuring there has to be a primer in the formula,  I decided to use Rustolium's plastic's paint as a primer.
I picked the red because I was hoping there was a primer in the formulation. It stuck onto the old chairs... and lo and behold, it is almost a color match.  I'll leave it at that.
........

                  
                   Unfortunately, I also see I now have red rocks!

    Steve ran and grabbed a drop cloth AFTER he was alerted by my gasping.

     Only minutes before I saw him with the old chairs. We had agreed he would use the
     drop cloth when we painted. "Right now, I am only washing the chairs". 

    I went in to prepare lunch. 

 Raking the rock is not going to change anything.. you'd have to turn over each rock and
 keep it turned.. DUH!!!!  

My mind is in frenzy trying to figure out what to do with this fine mess.
I could try and make a feature outta red rocks.. NOT!

I could ------------ Suggestions anyone?-------------------------???

I can repaint with gray and PRAY! it diminishes the eye sore.. IF not.. it looks like we need another layer of fresh rock over the top.

The red is going under lock and key... before he decides to roll/strike again !!!

More, but that is another story.... sigh~

Things are working along really well. I got great news last week from the Doctors . Effectively, I have no further growths, thickening or changes in the three tumors!
I wish you all great news!

For whatever reason, Steve decided we were going to paint the little bridge over 'Black River'... without checking with me. ( Just because he builds it does not mean it is his... alone)

I love outside wood that goes silver gray naturally. That WAS the plan for said bridge. I cannot tell you how many times I complimented him on the bridge and added that it will be gorgeous once ole mama nature paints it.

Imagine my total despair at going out and finding MY bridge painted white.. a very bight glaring white dancing in the sunlight.
I won't tell you what happened next.
Days later when I could actually speak, still bursting into tears at the thought of my lovely bridge... I had to make a decision.
What color is it going to be now?
There is green and black and bright red. My vindictive thought ran to chartruse, parrot green , pink stripes. purple zig zag, orange circles and yellow balls.
A follie is a follie is a follie. These would be a perfect color combination for a follie .

Fighting back my frustration... Do you know how hard it is to think straight when we are frustrated to the max? There is no just reason.

It took well over a week before I decided to go with the Chinese Red we have on the huge
entry gate ... Pratt & Lambert's Red Rhythm to be exact.
Move or get painted!

                               Entry Gate
        

 
                      Patio side of the entry gate
       
                 
                      Another view inside the patio
        

                     Steve merrily painting along
       

                 It is a  happy color~
       

 We have a few old Adarondack chairs desperately needing paint. They were
 destined for a trip to the dump. Instead they'll be the perfect compliment for the bridge. 

Sometimes all this gray and black lava can get depressing.
I like it~