Hi, this is my introduceyourself post.
I'm taking an image of me holding up the date and my name here. I could use comments as to what else you'd like to know about me, or how I bring my Facebook into the picture to substantiate who I am. As a former self defense instructor, I like to have clear instructions the same as I give students, otherwise they don't know what to expect or from where. I show them, they copy my moves, then improve their actions over time. I try not to leave out any steps.
About me, I do a lot of things. I own a water patent for waste water treatment and desalinization (desalination) plants. I invest in medical cannabis and pharmaceutical cannabis stocks along with some silver and gold investments and some cryptocurrencies. I write a lot of music and lyrics in several genres. I own copyrights on 4 major Alamo prints created by three major Texas, California artists from the mid 1950's or so and have prints and postcards made from them. Another area I have worked and accumulated treasures is in the field of antiques and collectibles, such as late 1800-early 1900 San Antonio memorabilia and ephemera such as early letterheads straight from the early SA Printing Company. Artwork is another area of passion I have made into a business through collecting. Lastly I am an honorably discharge U.S. Marine who served during the Vietnam Era.
Before I became crippled in a van wreck, (I'll spare you the details), I worked early on in life, mostly for the fun of it. I was pretty tall for my age and over 6 feet tall now (if I could stand up), so I got to cut grass for my 3rd birthday with a non-powered push mower made out of wood and blades. I also began washing cars at three, but only up to the windows not the top of the roof, so I didn't fall or scare anybody that I would fall. This was the 1950's, when kids could work for an allowance at three, four or five, if they were able to do so. It was fun. Not abusive at all. When I turned six, mom made me take my two full piggy banks and put it into the new Savings & Loan because while only $150 in 1960, in today's terms, gas then was 10 cents a gallon, for instance. You got three muskateers for 10 cents, I for a nickel, so I had enough to buy at least 1,500 gallons of gas. That's thousands of dollars. And that's how I learned to count so well and think about money and multiplication, how much was 10 quarters, and how to count into the thousands and higher before I ever got into grade school, or nursery school.
We had to move when I turned eight, so I began working for an allowance at our brand new home, and through the woods you came to a neat drive through convenience store where I sold all the coke bottles people threw out along the road by the woods. When I hit twelve, I began working there waiting on cars and stocking, and giving change. I could take the money for beer the grownups would buy, but I couldn't go get the beer because that's how it was. The owner said he'd be the one to do all that, which I understand now means he was the bartender of sorts. It's what we call an ice house in the south. Good working men, mostly. Some with their wives, but mostly men off of work after work and weekends. Telephone men, electricians, carpenters, blue collar workers. We had the old baseball game and some pinballs, always two of those I would play till I could play on one nickel or dime all day, not that I took advantage. I was too busy for that.
Later I moved to working for Sarge at his Phillips 66 for about half a year, and just about 13 there. As I entered junior high, or middle school, if you prefer, I got a job throwing the local paper every afternoon after school for one full year, then I sold my route and worked for the other local paper for a year delivering papers both morning and afternoon. I do not recommend that. I made a lot of money, but I often was tired going to school that year in the 8th grade. So after that, I quit the paper. In the 9th grade I played football for the first time and track also, which meant I didn't have time for some of the jobs I wanted to do, but I was happy with it because the bullies quit pestering me because I was now a member of the school football team. When I got to 10th grade, I really wanted to be in the marching band, not football. That's because music was becoming really important for me and I have a dad who did a lot of great things in country music, writing for the stars back in the late 50's and early 60's. I probably should have played football because the head drummer for the marching band was at odds with me because I took his place in a rock and roll band, so he had that grudge against me and put people I was teaching percussion to into the spot I wanted. But later on we became friends to this day. But this enabled me to get back to working, so I worked at 15 for a popular BBQ place, and later went to Burger Chef and began working there. When I turned 16, I had been studying Kenpo and Jiu-Jitsu and they made me an instructor, which I did for half of tenth grade and all the rest of my high school years. While doing all this, I kept up my studies in drums, studying with a Las Vegas big band drummer who knew everybody and all the solos they did, and it was great to learn all kinds of styles. I spent so much time playing Rock, Blues, ZZ Top, BB King, Freddie King, The Almond Brothers ;D, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Jethro Tull, Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie. If I wasn't doing that, I was practicing self-defense in the garage like I was Bruce Lee, hitting the heavy back over and over, and the speed bag all the time. It was just a great life for me up through 19. I used some of the money I had and in my senior year I bought a chopper with a drag bike engine in it. Just a wee bit too much power, really. You could lean into a turn, goose it, and the front wheels would come off the ground in the middle of the turn, and let off and they touched back down. Never wrecked doing that, and it was always smooth, but I don't recommend it, especially on an expensive motorcycle. That was risking I don't know, $40,000 worth of chopper in today's terms.
I used to go to the local hip swimming pool and do the dive scene. I like gainers, but more than that the 1 1/2 front dive. The double flip is kind of ugly to me and 2 1/2 I never was high enough to try. Back flips I don't know, I guess they are okay, but I like to move, to go forward, to bounce and fly and flip and slip into the water. A 1 1/2 does that nicely. I used to go to the coast on my chopper but mostly in my 65 Mustang. Texas coast waves takes a great amount of skill just because there's hardly any force to keep you up. In California in Malibu, before I knew how to surf, or the wisdom of wearing a wet suit out there, I was so freezing off Malibu, just totally shivering, and guy paddles up and says, You don't have a wet suit on. You'll freeze out here; it's just about freezing, did you know that? No, but it feels like it. Well, it's 35 degrees. Like, what? No way. So he says the best thing I can probably do is sit on the board, don't try to stand, and he'll let me know when a big wave is coming that will take me in to shore. I was way out there. I got that down. How to get out there and freeze. Wow. So I'm on the board sitting on my knees and feet under me, trying to keep from going off either side into the water, and he yells it's coming, start paddling like I showed you. So I do, and this big wave catches me, everybody out there taking a breather so I don't run into them or them me, I think, and I'm flying toward the beach and I guess people on the beach are saying Wow, look at that dude fly. I was 16. When's he gonna stand up and do hang 5 or something. So I don't dare do that. I fly to the beach and jump out in waist deep water and that's it for me. That was the first time I surfed and it was awesome but it was most awesome to be warm again in the hot sun. No, I did not want to get a wet suit. Later I dabbled in surfing at Port Aransas, but then I got into the Marines and then hurt and into rehabs.
That's some history on me. I like to be cool with people. I have my opinion. They have theirs. Differences make us grow wiser. I try to treat others the way I want to be treated by them. I haven't always been perfect, but I do try, whether it's possible or not, I always believed if you can try to be, then try to be. But being perfect is subjective to each of us, so that can or may include sitting around and vegging out some days. Perfect hibernation. It's good for bears. Kick back and enjoy someone you love and be with them quietly even if it seems you just are too busy. Because some day you have that flat or car trouble that takes you out of your game play for the day and you learn that what you thought was necessary really wasn't and really could wait to another day.
What I do now. Well, I've invested my money since very young. First in the savings and loan, then in Diamond Shamrock when I was eight. That took my uncle pointing me in that direction but am glad he did. Then my mom bought me a single share of AT&T to reinvest the dividend and send back extra money with it every three months. My dad shared with me in a silver stock I got us into later, and it tripled, so that was a big 5 figures, and he said, It's yours. You earned it. Wow. So now I have been in tech stocks for over 20 years and Bell telephone stocks for twice that. I learned to do due diligence and it has paid off as I began to invest in digital currencies and cannabis stocks. I am now doing very well and owning part of the companies I'm investing in enough to say I own part of that company. My accountant for IRS freaked out because I was basically living at home taking care of mom, so living on a small pension around $1000 a month. He said, I never heard of anybody making this kind of money that was on Social Security Disability. You haven't? No. In the whole USA? No. This is really very unusual. You are paying more in taxes this year than most people make in salary in ten years. Wow. I guess so. So how do I feel about that? I lived like a poor man most of my life on that pension since I got crippled. People wouldn't hire me because I had spasms in my legs, being paraplegic. Bam, my leg would kick a desk and that would be it, the whole office like pretty shook up, as if I hit my desk with a hammer. I understood. All the leaning forward somehow primed my legs to want to kick. Something to do with prepping the action potentials to fire off. I didn't know the value of a good Roho cushion either until later. So I said, Look, I'm going back to school, put one foot in front of the other and add to all the work ethic I gained since an early age. Hey I had a head start on the other kids, right? So why was I behind. Remember, in the 70's and 80's and still now in some places, there was no wheelchair access. The malls all had curbs you have to be helped over or if you were like me, a karate expert and weight lifter, you learned how to jump the curbs. Ask anybody around since then in a wheelchair or who worked with paraplegics. I broke a lot of wheelchairs slamming into curbs. That was the Everest & Jennings days of bad wheelchairs before the modern ones came out and we said on hard gel cushions and dealt with sores. So how did I feel? I was a winner in a losing situation, so I kept my spirits up, told myself it wasn't my fault, stuff like that, boosted my ego with my memories so I got through the hard spots in life. I got two degrees the same year, BA's, but that didn't help my work situation. I had no work history and was forty. I was treated like I was a goof off for 20 years. Not the case. So I turned to stocks and focused on them. Then once I made the decision to get good and angry at my situation and take the stock I held for twenty years and use it to reinvest into other stocks, that's when it changed. I had like a voice tell me to take heart and not lose courage, to use what I had and not sit back and take it, to just do it. That I would be blessed. Just take that step and let go of the old and venture into the news. And wow was that voice speaking to my heart and mind and soul so very right. My cannabis stocks went through the roof, then I turned them into other stocks that did the same thing in pharmaceuticals. Then I took some of that and went into cryptocurrencies. I remember hitting $5 million for the first time last year. It was quite a feeling.
Now what will I do. I have picked some very strong cannabis stocks and very strong cryptos. I'm managing that investment portfolio. But 24/7 I am taking care of mom. She's #1. I'm #2. I remember when I was a baby her changing my diapers, taking me to her Bunco games, taking me and being team mom for my baseball teams when I was 5-16. Now it's my time to care for her. We talk about helping kids. She loves children. So we send money to help kids. It may seem like my money, but she's my partner, you know. She taught me what it means: DRIP. Dividend Reinvestment Plan. She bought my first Bell stock. Wow, what a mom. I heard her write what I consider the best chorus is country music in just two minutes after hearing dad sing the three verses that he had written and asking her if she had an idea for a chorus to tie them together. I mean, I was totally surprised because the was the big Nashville songwriter, not her, and he was asking her, and he came to the house, up the driveway, I'm playing basketball shooting horse by myself waiting to tell her he's here, and they meet at the gate. He goes through the verses and stops at the end of verse two and jumps around, asking do you have anything? She says you said there's a 3rd verse. Yes. Let me hear that too. So he sings it and jumps around the same way and asks the same thing and she says, Just a minute. I'm thinking. And I'm thinking, What is going on? Mom is going to help write the song? He wants HER help? Then she says, How about "There stands your picture with those words I love you"? and he freaks out and says go get a pen and paper or we'll forget, that he's gotten a lot of songs that he forgot because he didn't write them down right away during the day and especially at night in bed. Wow. She says, Just a minute. There's more. And she sings, "There lies your lipstick and the comb that you used." Wow, mommy is writing this that fast? I am dumbfounded. Thunderstruck. He jumps all around, get a pen and paper, hurry up, we don't want to lose this. That's another great line. And she calmly says, Just a second. There's more. So he quiets down and she sings, "Seems you're still with me, how I wish it were true." This time he doesn't move or say a single word, just listens, as she goes right into the fourth line, "I'm beginning again, but it's so hard to do." And with that he went wild, and mom sent me into the house for the pen and paper by the phone and she wrote it out and they spoke the words pretty much together, her confident in remembering them all. Then he says that's a bullet, a hit, and runs off to EveningSide Records and records it that afternoon and evening. The song is "I'm Beginning Again" and that is the chorus. So I love my mom. She is awesome. She quilts, sews, is a seamstress, tailor, clothes designer. She is as good as any chef in Czech/Polish/German foods. She is also highly skilled at baking everything you can bake: cakes, pies, cookies, fudge, brownies, kolaches, poppy seed rolls, etc, breads as well. She is a master gardener and arborist and can root a limb into the ground and grow a new tree whatever the fruit. She can grow orange trees with lemons on it. She knows all about soils and what it takes to grow corn, cotton, maize, high gear, cattle, chickens, horses, mules, and so on. She is a country songwriter extraordinaire. She knows how to dance, to waltz and polka. If I could find a woman like her, I would have the woman of my dreams. My dad was one lucky son of a gun. So I will tell you that I have been blessed, in my opinion, as a cripple, for taking care of my dear mom, staying home to care for her instead of putting her in a nursing home and getting me a job, kind of thing. I sacrificed a job and career and finally decided I wanted her in my life more than a job that was so hard in coming to me. And look what happened, she's alive, I'm with her, and the angels are giving me my pay thousands of times over. There's an old saying that goes, Honor your mother and father, and it will go well with you, and you will live long and prosper. To me, the height of ingratitude is to find easy excuses to abandon one's own mother in her time of trouble. The old wedding vow is good for children as well because they are her flesh, bone of her bone, and it says, In sickness and in health. So I am humbled by the goodness of the angels to me. And she and I, we try to help the children now. She's my baby. I'm her baby. And we love the children of the world.
