For two days in a row now, I've had a woman visit who is deep in lust with a pair of lamps here in FUTURES.

She hasn't laid down a single dollar to put them in a "HOLD" pattern. She's leaving it to Fate until a payday. I can respect that, but I DO have to tell people who use this approach (and there are quite a few) that "something COULD happen before then, okay?". I learned a long time ago to forewarn them. I HATE having to tell them "cold" - to their faces - "it's GONE."

I've seen shock, fear, sadness, anger, tears. I've heard arguments, stories, disbelief, and pleading. Pleading? "'It' really IS gone. I don't own it anymore. I'm not hiding it in the backroom... Remember what we talked about?" It is all I can do at that point, and I do not like it. So, I say what I need to say as a warning, and if it's taken as sales hype, I can't help that.

I hope she can get them, but I also hope to continue making a living and helping others with their Swingin' Pads.

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The more I think about the "Survival of the Fittest and Least Fit", the more I think it's built into every subject we could ever consider...

...even the weather or "How 'bout them Steelers?"

Daily Existential Truth looms in the background of all things, events, ideas. (Wait...even Existentialism?) If you ever come across a topic immune to Darwin's concept of "Survival of the Fittest", let us know.

(Perhaps Existentialism is the Cockroach or Shark of Philosophies...)

...Yes, I think that's it!

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My wife just called from "out there on the bumper-to-bumper HOT AS HELL highway". Somewhere up ahead of her - and it could be as much as twenty miles ahead - there is an accident, road work, or a simple stalled car. Part of the Road IDIOCY of this area of Virginia is the "Red Rubber Necker Phenomenon". People will slam on their brakes and create a 5-10 mile traffic jam just for the opportunity to have a look at someone changing a tire on the side of the road. I know you think I'm joking. I'm not joking. We're talking total idiots. We are talking The Worst.

No, they're NOT the same everywhere.

This is Colorado: Everyone is doing 80 - bumper to bumper - on the freeway. They could give a hoot if there's a flat tire or a dead body on the side of the road. They can't and won't do anything about it anyhow. From their point of view they're either late for work or in no mood to linger on the way home from work. They're commuting, and "get th' HELL outa the way if you can't keep up !!!!"

The same can be said for Washington D.C..

Now, southern Arizona is different. Their craziness is an result of heat. There is NO effect at 100 degrees. That's too common, too easy. However, for every one degree above that, especially as it hits 110 and goes up from there (usually not over 120 outside), people are snapping, especially IN their cars (which heat up much higher - 140-160 degrees). Road Rage was invented there... and I don't mean merely the old classic driver-to-driver rage... I mean Solo Rage. I mean Rage at the Sun, baby. Rage at the Day. The Open Oven Desert. The Waving Air. Mirage Water on the Highway. The "Anyone with even a lizard brain is under a rock right now" Heat.

"It's a scorcher, m'damn car a/c broke down, the radiator's gonna boil over, I can barely hang onto the hot steerin' wheel, I done run outa cold beers for the drive, and I'm sicka red lights stoppin' the little bitta breeze I can make at 45 mph. I'm SICK OF IT!!! Red lights be damned...I'm goin' home - live or dead - I'm GOIN HOME - and if you git in m'way, I'm takin' you with me !!!!"

That's southern Arizona.

God bless it. I loved living there. You knew where you stood.