The New Gold Rush

Read about this and thought I would share it.

Within an hour of downtown Los Angeles, people are seeking that one sure commodity

"I'm here to find gold," said Kevin Brown. "I'm a studio lighting technician in Hollywood, between the writers strike that happened last year, and the Screen Actors Guild, whatever they want to call it. Lately I've had to turn to having to do it for extra cash."

Geologists estimate that during the gold rush of 1849 in California, about 80 percent of the gold was never found. Today, with the price of gold soaring and the economy falling, the idea of panning, digging or diving for precious metal has become serious business.

"There's definitely gold nuggets down in the bottom here," Brown said. "Just a matter of getting 30 feet down lower than any old timer or modern prospector has done."

And, for people willing to put in the effort, it's paying off.

"I just wanted a little California gold. That's all I initially started at," said David Perkins, an unemployed aerospace worker from the South Bay. "And, one thing led to another, and within my first year, I actually picked up close to two pounds of gold."

Where's the best place to find gold? In the Mother Lode country just east of Modesto, Calif., experts say.

But prospecting is not easy money. It takes time and a lot of hard work. John Gurney, who came out to California from the East Coast to find gold, was able to pull out about $35,000 worth of gold nuggets over a couple of months. Then there was a dry spell -- and now, John is at it again.

"Some days you sit here and make two cents. Some days you make a couple of hundred dollars. I had one good day and made about $10,000," Gurney said.

This was another one of those good days. Gurney was able to recover several hundred dollars in gold nuggets from the river. And, after running the dirt through a sluice, he took the rest down to the river and sifted out the gold.

"See these two pieces," said Gurney. "They're just sitting right there."

California's second gold rush has also created at least one recession-proof business.

Keene Engineering of Chatsworth, Calif., makes the equipment you need to find gold -- from plastic pans to large commercial rigs. The owners say their business has doubled.

"There are hundreds of people coming in here to buy gold pans and sluice boxes, and take their chances of finding gold in the local hills and mountains," said sales manager Patrick Keene. "There is a whole new flood of prospectors and miners."

Gold also is found in Southern California along riverbanks in the San Gabriel Mountains. One hot spot is a canyon above Azusa, where the road is often lined with campers.

"Back in my childhood, I use to come up quite a bit with my parents," said David Perkins. "But not until I was in my early 20s did I know that gold was in the river. There aren't many places like this. Once more people find out about it, it's going to get really crowded up here this year."

When asked if prospectors give out the location of a really good find, Perkins responded, "If we're sitting on a good spot with good gold, we're going to tell you to go about a mile down the river and that's where you're going to find the gold."

It is what it is

Rod

Could Not Help It

The funniest Staff Meeting Ever!

The boss of a Madison Avenue advertising agency called a spontaneous
staff meeting in the middle of a particularly stressful week. (This is
one pretty sharp boss!) When everyone gathered, the boss, who
understood the benefits of having fun, told the burnt out staff the
purpose of the meeting was to have a quick contest. The theme: Viagra
advertising slogans..
The only rule was they had to use past ad slogans, originally written
for other products that captured the essence of Viagra. Slight
variations were acceptable.
About 7 minutes later, they turned in their suggestions and created a
Top 10 List. With all the laughter and camaraderie, the rest of the
week went very well for everyone! The top 10 were:


10. Viagra, Whaazzzz up!

9. Viagra, The quicker pecker picker upper.


8. Viagra, like a rock!

7. Viagra, When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.

6 Viagra, Be all that you can be.

5. Viagra, Reach out and touch someone.

4.. Viagra, Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.

3. Viagra, Home of the whopper!

2.. Viagra, We bring good things to Life!


And the unanimous number one slogan:

1.. This is your peepee. This is your peepee on drugs

It is what it is

Rod

Conniving Old Women.....

Three mischievous Grandmas were sitting on a bench outside a nursing home when an old Grandpa walked by. And one of the Grandmas yelled out saying, 'We bet we can tell exactly how old you are.'

The old man said, 'There is no way you can guess it, you silly old biddies.'

One of the Grandmas said, 'Sure we can! Just drop your pants and we'll tell you your exact age.'

Embarrassed just a little, but anxious to prove them wrong, he dropped his pants

The Grandmas asked him to first turn around a couple of times and to jump up and down several times. Then they all piped up and said, 'You're 87 years old!'

Standing with his pants down around his ankles, the old gent asked, 'How in the world did you guess?'

Slapping their knees and grinning from ear to ear, the three old ladies happily yelled in unison - - -

'We were at your birthday party yesterday!'

Gents beware..

It is what it is

Rod

Spring Has Sprung?

Where?

We have had the most interesting weather since it has officially been declared spring. Wind, rain, snow, sun all on the same day and sometimes all at once.

Maybe it is just that I have been able to see it this year compared to years past. Don't know for sure but it has been interesting.

Take today for example. Started out looking like it was going to be fairly nice with a broken cloud cover but no mother nature had other plans.

It started out with a light fog that lifted and then came back from the west but look to the east and the sun was shining. But the fog prevailed and set in for a short while but then a cold north wind came up and blew that out but it brought rain and then snow. Yea!

I guess I'm just ready for winter to be over been reading about people already starting gardens and able to go out in the nice weather and here we are still having winter like conditions.

Well what do I expect living in Oregon. The saying here is only two types of people try to predict the weather here...Fools and Newcomers.

It is what it is

Rod

State Of...

Now with the extra time I have on my hands I have been doing allot of reading about the economy and the TARP payments and of the fiasco going on with AIG. Basically what I understand from what I have read is that the economy is at almost the same levels just before the depression. Is it going to happen again...who knows. But let us hope that it does not.

Now my parents were born at the end of the depression so they do not remember it at all. So that leaves my grandmother. But she was raised on a ranch her parents had homesteaded so except for people always stopping by the ranch for work she had no other way to tell that there was anything different.

On the other hand my wife's parents do remember the depression and they were effected by it greatly. Her dad probably had it the worst as they were in Oklahoma when the depression started and headed west and were basically fruit tramps moving up and down the west coast where ever there was fruit to be picked.

He has told me that when they did have any money to buy food that it was usually beans and they would cook them plain most of the time. The first few meals would just basically be the water from the beans and as they added water to them and recooked them they would eventually just have a kind of mush to eat.

During the winter time when there was little to no food they actually had rock soup. His mother would put on a big production even going to the trouble to wrap it up like it had came from the store so they would think it would be great.

The only time they were able to eat enough was when they were picking fruit and then it usually made them sick. Only occasionally did they ever have any meat or milk and everything they owned could be put in or on a old car that they had.

One thing I always found interesting was that they still to this day like beans. When I first met them there was always a pot of beans on the stove and my father in law would eat some every meal. Still would except for health reasons. I know for a fact that when ever we go to visit them that there will be a pot of beans ready when I get there as I like them also and that is his excuse to have some.

So maybe as a suggestion you might want to ask any old timers you know about what it was like then and how they survived just in case. You might be surprised what you can learn.

It is what it is

Rod

It Figures

After I wrote my post yesterday I thought I would go ahead and answer the phone today no matter what the caller ID said. Might give me some good things to rant about.

Guess what...

Only got 5 calls today.

And only one was from a creditor...

It is what it is

Rod

Hard Times

I was reading Johns blog today and this is what he had to say.

Now, I wish to remind you: Don't give up! I know these times are hard, especially on families where one or both have lost their jobs. It leads to breakups, many a time. But I wish to tell you... don't give up! Better times will come. Stick together, right now, no matter what.

Now I feel that he pretty well covered it with that statement.

So what do you do. It gets real depressing getting calls all the time from bill collectors but they are just doing their jobs also. But it does irritate me when it is one that has got federal bail out money. And some of the things they say. Do you really need to have health insurance? Well yes I do I have pancreatitis And it can flare up at any time leading to time in the hospital and numerous other expenses. Not even wanting to consider what the bill would be for meds. without insurance.

So we have started screening our calls because all it does when we answer them is either depress us or piss us off and we don't need that at this time. So if you call us it had better say your name or we don't answer it.

We have chose to consider this as a early retirement or at least that is what we are calling it. Makes things better if you can at least try and laugh at them.

So if your in our situation where both are unemployed do not blame your old job. They are just trying to keep the doors open them selves it was a business decision nothing personal. I knew that I was probably going to be laid off long before it happened. I could see the steps they were going through to cut costs and they had got to the point where seniority did not matter any more it was how can we operate at the lowest cost possible. So that meant that middle, upper management was going to get cuts and they trimmed the fat.

So do I believe things are going to get better for me... Yes I do.

Depending on what happens with the mass of paper work I have filled out and sent in to various government agencies I believe I have a plan for what ever the out come. So plan ahead look in the mirror so to speak and look at the worst case and you will be able to figure something out.

I have heard the horror stories of marriages breaking up and people committing suicide and just going off the deep end because of this. I personally can not even fathom that. Maybe they need to start a blog so they can rant at who ever all they want...works for me. Just remember this.

Bad things happen to good people to and you don't always have control over it happening.

It is what it is

Rod