The Life of a Shop Keep

Growing up, after moving to the place I ended up finishing out what would be my teenage years, we had a shop. It started out as a resale and commission type shop and a side for what would become a bait shop. Oh the memories of this place, from early spring to late fall and sometimes the beginning of winter, we even lived in the shop. You see it started out in a big pole barn about 60 ft by 120 ft (its just an estimate in size because I have never measured it). We sectioned off one entire side by length, it had a room that we used like a kitchen with a Coleman stove, a small refrigerator and ran water by hose to it. In the front on the one side we had a large minnow tank, a sales counter, a display cabinet with antiques, a snacks stand, refrigerator with other baits and soda. The other section had all the resale items such as clothing and odds and ends.

This place ended up becoming where I would spend most of my time from age 11 until I graduated highschool and moved out. We had another building that we moved the bait shop part into later on when I was in highschool but we didnt live in it. By the time I was in highschool, I had pretty much started running the entire store inside and out as well as doing all the paperwork for it. It was open 24 hours a day mostly and only closed when I could sneak off, which was usually on the evenings that it was slow or when it seemed there was no business. Most of the time I could predict what days this was going to be, I actually used the business as a project for one of my highschool classes to get extra credit.

Before my stepdad passed away, he had told me that he had been so hard on me about the business because, it was his legacy to me to run it and make sure I always had an income and he knew that none of his kids wanted anything to do with it. He wasnt wrong, his youngest son has told me that he cant even think about fishing because it makes him sick from running that store while in highschool. He didn’t really run anything to do with it other than picking up nightcrawlers to make extra money at night and didn’t do that very often either. I did though.. lol I was picking upwards of over 1000 per night and getting paid .02 cents per worm. That was $20 per night in just a matter of a couple hours.

I was also the one that would go with my stepdad and sein the back waters of the lake for crawl fish to sell and dip net or cast net for other bait fish to resell. I seem to remember only twice did my stepbrother take me to catch bait fish and both times he took his girlfriend with him and only once did he help but was only for a little while. When we could go for getting bait fish, we would fill about 10-15 totes to bring back and then I would help my stepdad process and portion them to be frozen as bait.

We also made our own lead weights, specialty bobbers, plugs and sometimes dough type baits to sell. It was just me and him doing that, and my step siblings didn’t help with that either. Yes, back then I was angry that I was the one that “had to participate” but I am not since growing up.

Over the years, I have often thought about reopening the bait shop again, but would probably be harder than it was back in the 80s. Its a new time and you can get bait at any gas station or supermarket around here now, so not so sure I could work that out.

Anyways, thanks for reading ~W

Check out our store at: https://whysprs-whymseys.square.site

Roadblocks??

I’ve mentioned a few times about the little town I was running around in my youth and here’s another story from then.

This little town had a tradition that went back to at least as far back as the 50s, I just know the man that lived next door to us used to tell me stories about it from his youth and he was at least 60 back in the 80s.

Anyways this tradition of crazy nonsense was called the Road Block. Basicly people around town would donate to us big items such as TV’s cabinets or anything big for us to use for blocking off the main road into town. This was a small country town and had one single main street that ran from the highway to the park. The last 2 weeks in the month of October was when the road block would be errected, usually in the evening and then would be moved to the sides of the road during the day for the entire duration.

Usually this was just something to occupy the teens of the town amd keep them out of real trouble and actually causing real trouble in the town. I can remember the first year that I participated and was before I became well known in the town. We had all kinds of items donated to our cause that year such as tractor tires, big cabinet TV’s, cabinet stereo systems, stoves, washing machines and driers. What I didn’t know at the time was that another part of this was the calling of law enforcement on ourselves to have a sheriff deputy chase us. I didnt make the calls but I did do a great deal of finding hiding spots when this would happen. The funny side is that there were people that would come out and sit in front of the General Store and let us know when the sheriff had been called and on the way. Other than doing that, these adults didn’t participate unless to tell us where to get more items for the road block.

Over the years we kept the flame going of this tradition but it is no longer upheld in that town. There have been talks of us as adults bringing back the tradition but other than that it has been lost to only memories.

Thanks for reading ~W

Check out our store at: https://whysprs-whymseys.square.site

words of warning.

Magick (note the k) a form of occult practice that has become popular again since the "great awakening" from back in the 50s. The words of warning I want to give is that those who are only adept, should be extremely careful in how they handle things. Emotions are strong power as is words and ceremonial repetition, and things come back to you more often than not. There are things one should not play with out there. I often have been asked in the past for love, curses, and many many more types of magick. Everything has balance and you really have to be careful to offset that balance. Along with that, images in your mind also play a part in that you can hold an image there and make it so. This being said, if you are throwing a spell out and suddenly think of some one else, guess what happens? It gets sent to the wrong person or to multiple people. 

Yes magick can be dangerous, but it can be a blessing as well. It is not inherently evil as so many people have said in the past, and its not inherently good either. It is a balance, and those who use it have to be weary of the responsibility of doing such.. 

Lost track of what I was thinking

Something I havnt talked about is that I do work as a handyman. With this type of work you run into all kinds of crazy, rather it be a possible client that refuses to pay or opening up a water heater closet to find theres no floor and its held up with straps and nailed to the wall.I started out doing just yard work and debris removal and then started getting asked about other things as well. In the begining, I didnt really have many tools other than what I needed to work on my car plus a hammer and hand saw. Now I have an entire tool chest that is packed full and I carry around with me all the time, plus several pneumatics and odd tools that I keep in a shed as well because it wont fit in the chest.I originally did it as a part time job right after my divorce for extra money that my full time job didn’t provide. I would take along my girlfriend at the time and her son with me, I would pay him for the help but only if he actually did work. It gave him a really good work ethic that he shows to this day.A few years in and I had a call from a local lawyer who also gave me business pointers and actually helped me a lot. The work I did for him was more of janitorial services for the most part in his offices. It was one of the oldest buildings in my town, built back in the late 1800s. Later he had me working at his home as well and had to use him as my lawyer to get my workmans comp claim to actually pay my medical bills when I got hurt at work.After I had gotten hurt at work and was able to walk again, I still had issues doing the work that I was doing normally. It was hard work, tossing 50 lb bags of feed almost daily all day long.Anyways, I left there and went full time as a handyman. It can be scary at times not knowing when the next call is going to come for you to make money to pay your bills or buy food. Its always feast or famine unless you have savings. I learned this lesson a few years ago. I had landed this big contract that I knew could end at any time but I took it anyways and quit another job that I had taken when there was no calls. It paid enough that I had paid up the mortgage for 6 months as well as the other bills. At the end of that 6 months I had gotten a few calls but they ended up not paying, normally I wouldn’t have worried about it so much but it was at the end of that 6 months and the mortgage was coming due.I chased down the company that owed me money but they soon changed thier phone number and it was like the company no longer existed. It was a corporate account from a maintenance outfit based out of Florida and I’m in Illinois. The amount would not have been worth the court fees to sue them because it would have cost more than it was worth. It did however cause me to loose our home.This was the fall prior to covid hitting. Thats when I built our tiny on wheels and that is where we are now.

#handyman #oddsandends

Yard Ninjas!!!

JUNE 19, 2023 

Before I start this post, I wanted to share this with anyone that would be interested.

Can you squeeze in 5-8 hours per week for this remote job and earn 35 to 45 bucks an hour to make posts or comments on social media posts? If your answer is yes, then visit this link

Yard Ninjas!! What are they? The little guys that do regular acrobatics, parkour and sounds like they are filming an old kung-fu movie on my roof every morning. They tend to use my porch roof as a spring board to launch themselves into a nearby tree. Yes, I’m talking about squirrels aka tree rats. They have been eating the crap out of the ripe mulberries that became ripe way early this year. We haven’t had them here on the property as far back as i can remember, so was glad to see them this year. I noticed 1 or 2 last year but we now have several families of them. Just an observation the last few days.

Fighting against the world

Sandi and I were talking earlier about me going bald and how I am pretty scary looking when I'm bald. Reminisced of how she remembered me and how I seemed in highschool when we first met. Afterwards it sent me into memories of how my fight my entire life has been with the world and how I could have concurred the world long ago had I not allowed myself to get distracted along the way. I have seen how I have been distracted from my end game for far too long. Even though I was shown my death on more than one occation of dieing alone between 32-36. These visions and predictions have never come to pass, which leads me to my post I was originally going to post about. In a nutshell I was going to draw on a story of how when things are predicted that they dont always come true or dont come to pass as to how they are predicted.. dont get caught up with it because really all you end up doing is wasting your life to make that prediction come true.. for more details on what I mean, you will have to either comment this post about it or wait for my book to get written and published and read about it there..
~Brad

Trials of Fire

Sometimes you can learn from watching things around us. Chinese martial arts was learned by watching animals fighting with each other, such as cranes, tigers, monkeys, praying mantis and the such.
I have chickens, ever see roosters fight? I have 3 roosters and the neighbor has at least 3 as well and they have their rank in my yard by fighting to win their mates

It kind of goes like this:
One runs across the yard and then crows. Another usually the dominant roo runs over and either kicks the other or fluffs its plumage and looks as if it bows and the fight is on. The closest thing I have seen to this outside of nature was at a pow-wow during one of the dances. Wings down and head low and hoping in circles with an occasional kick. The kicks look similar to a round house kick from shoto-kan karate. I am guessing this is because of the spurs on the sides of their legs which is for defence and offense. They also will strike with their wings as well. You wouldn't think that something like a chicken feather would be good armor but it seems so.

Our world is a miss

Our world is turning upside down and inside out, we are living in times of civil unrest and civil strife. Some of fight to make ends meet, some rub their fingers to the bone to just scrape by. Its hard living in these days full of stress of living and a world so full of anger. I wish I could turn it off but I can't. Visions of things that are happening all around the world haunt me in my sleep to the point that i don't get rest.. I want to run away sometimes but I know that from experience that it doesn't help anything whatsoever. The only thing to do is stand up, put my feet firmly in the sand and draw that line...

How Much Are You Worth

How much are you worth? How much do you sell yourself out for?

I look down and ask myself how much am I worth on a regular basis.. right now, the average adult in southern Illinois is worth about $8.25 per hour.. thats minimum wage. some factory workers get paid between $14-16 per hour and an average wal mart employee makes $10 per hour.

Now this being said full time used to be considered 40 hours per week but ever since Obama and his "infinite Wisdom" created the medical reformation act, full time has now become 30 hours per week, which means not only do you get forced to buy insurance at an over priced rate but you also now earn a lot less money than you used to make. so that person that was originally making $330 per week is now making $247.50, that is $82.50 in lost wages per week or $4290 a year that has been lost.

now knowing this, a single person with one income makes about $990 before taxes and fica (social security which supposedly will run out before I get it, which is another story in itself) which ends up as being $721.77based on http://www.payrollforamerica.com/calculators/Illinois-payroll-calculator.php .
Now shall we add in costs of living? an average apartment in my town runs anywhere from about $400-$500 per month utilities from what I hear are similar as follows: average water starts at about $40-$60, electric about $175-$250, then there is food so look what has already been spent so far with even the cheapest 400+40+175=615 so lets hope you don't have a car payment or paying on anything else cause we still haven't included the cost of gas (locally $2.39 / gal when I wrote this), food, phone, consumables such as personal hygiene products, or anything like TV or Internet either oh and don't forget that insurance that is mandated by Obama. Right now as we are calculating you are seeing that this person working full time and is single only has $106.77 left from paying these bills.

now has any money been put back and saved at this point? probably not. By all rights we should be only paying out and living on 50% of our earnings or less, but as it turns out, the majority are living on about 75% or more.

So I ask you again, how much are you worth? you see this was just me trying to show you what average people around me are dealing with, how they struggle and how we as a community of people struggle daily to just exist. I myself am sick of just existing. I want to make more than that  little amount I quoted above, I am sick of being the man on the low end of the totem pole that every one craps on, on a regular basis. I know for a fact that I am not the only one that feels this way. But I tell you what in December of last year I met some people that gave me a small glimmer of hope, a star to steer by that I am trying to make work. Yes, it is hard work. Yes, you have to spend money to make money... But you know what? I see it working with so many people. I have met people over the last several months who have shown me so much that can come of this, and it is a way to escape from this living that isn't even a living. One man named Orrin Woodward call it the Matrix.. Its not hard to believe either because it does resemble it a lot.

So once more. HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH???
I know I am worth more than that $106 that was left over from those bills listed above, and so are you!

If you are interested to find out more information about what I am talking about, please feel free to contact me at 618.241.0328 or you can message me via hang outs or Google plus of even here by leaving a comment. I will get back with you I promises.

Write you again soon
~B

Needed view points

Last night we went to one of our monthly seminars and heard needed viewpoints that we was needing to hear, for it was the same issues that we are dealing with in a sorts.
Basically both Sandi and I have been struggling with voices in our heads. I didn't know what hers was saying but I do know what mine always says all the time.. "Failure", "idiot", "worthless piece of crap", "you will never amount to anything", "what, you expected anyone to love you?" "Freaking retard", " stupid reject".
These are the things I've been told most my life and have heard it so much that I believed them so when I feel like I have failed, that negative self talk is what I do.. At least I no longer physically take it out on myself like I used to, no do I try to cop out and try to commit suicide... So many times did I try and take my life because in my head no one cared.

Last night we both without knowing almost didn't go, but we were glad we did. Frank and Courtney Cox were speakers. And soo much was said from them that we both could associate with, both their stories of struggle I could associate with and have been almost ready to give up with our business.  I have been hurting and struggling all my life with a lot of baggage that I have, which has cone back to taunt me as of late, and is partially why I have quit writing again too. My head hasn't been on strait and was knocked down, but this time it wasn't just me, I was also dragging down everyone around me. I felt like I was on the Titanic and had no life raft. But after last night, I feel like I can get back up and go another 10 rounds. See I spotted Courtney outside the meeting room as we was waiting for the ticket holders meeting so I asked Sandi if she wanted to go and meet her while there wasn't people crowding her. She spotted us even though she was talking to some one else she looked up and started talking to Sandi, but she locked eyes with me as if she could see deep down inside me and said "Don't give up, we could have and then we wouldn't be able to be here, the business works, don't give up just don't give up.. It takes a while some times and people will say you're crazy but what ever you do, don't give up".. Later on I actually got to go up and talk to Frank Cox, I was nervous and couldn't say anything, i was teary eyed knowing we had some similar experiences and what did i muster up to say.... " Awesome!" as i reached out to shake his had... Boy dis i feel stupid.. That one moment I could have gleaned a personal nugget of information and I dropped the ball... Guess what I had to listen for the 2 hour ride home... Yup the negative self talk of how stupid I was for not saying more.. But i thing that he knew i was choked up, so he didn't say anything either other than the two words "thank you".

Looks like its almost time to clock into my 9-5
Write to you later,
~B

Life

We recently joined an endeavor called Life, to explain it simply, we deal with information and media... In being in Life we have made lasting relationships with some people,  and learning a lot about how life (not just the business but real and actual life) and how to get out of the bondage we have been in for so long.. And now we are heading towards freedom. Our products truly life changing. We have begun to see the world in a new light. I encourage you to check out our small video and if you believe you may be interested in it, please feel free to contact me in some form or another..

Click here for our site

~B

They Say Deaths and Trajedy Come in Threes

A week ago yesterday I buried one of my older brothers, today I am burying my cousin.

I had just started reconnecting with my brother Kevin almost a year ago on my daughter's birthday. We had talked on the phone a few times, but we still hadn't known each other since after about my first divorce about 20 years ago. I wish I would have gotten to know him a bit more though. In his passing though, there was some good that has come of it, in that I have met some wonderful nieces and nephews and reunited with my other brothers and sister which I have not seen in many years either.

Last Saturday morning my cousin Owen David was found dead. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. I didn't know him as well as a lot of my family but I did know him.

So my question now is, who or what is next? It is kind of scary in a way but I know that there is a purpose in God's plan.

I ask that all who read me to pray for comfort of my family in these hard times for them..
~B

Respect from the ex just doesn't even happen

Apparently my daughter cut herself back in my ex wife's birthday. I didn't find out about this incident until this last Saturday which was 2 weeks later. Matter of fact no one even told me at all, not my ex, not my step kids, not anybody. I had to find this out by reading on Facebook that she was in the hospital and that was only because my youngest stepdaughter said she had went to visit her at the hospital in another city. I had no clue as to why she was there or why other than I had figured it had happened on the 4th because that is when she quit posting on Facebook. Either way it is plain disrespect full and pretty shitty that no one let me know that my 14 yr old daughter almost died because of a 4-6 inch long cut through her bicep which could have very easily severed the artery that is there and wouldn't have necessarily had a chance to make it to the hospital for help. This is the 3rd time that her boyfriend has been there to help and has done way so much more than her mom has for her when things like this happen.. I do believe I'm liking him more and more, he takes care of my baby girl for me... Thanks Micheal!
Than for the read,
~W

PS
Just wanted to tell ya out there, I know I'm no where close to being the Christian that I wish I were, matter of fact I have wasted many of the gifts that have been given to me through God. But the world needs to start to Pray.. just pray, not necessarily for anything, but just pray. It brings you closer to God, and in these days He is very much needed.