Government Shows It Can't Manage Money

EDITOR:
Can our government manage our money?

The U.S. Post Service began in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right, and it is broke.

Social Security started in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right, and it is broke.

You established Fannie Mae in 1938. You have ad 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

The War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right;you confiscate $1 trillion of our money each year and transfer it to "the Poor" - and they are still poor.

Medicare and Medicaid began in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

Freddie Mac was started in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

The Department of Energy formed in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

Mr. President, where in your mind do you think the government can manage a $1 trillion health care insurance plan? Where do we get the money from? China (they own us)? Please do not set us up for more failure.

Mr. President, just get us 31 million jobs that you promised us. And, the rest will take care of itself. We don't need our government managing our money. We don't trust you. Only in God do we trust.

Alfonso Santillan Jr.
Veteran's
Hall of Fame

A word about Tiger

I've had "Tiger Woods for President" on my blog for quite a long time now. I used to have a lot of respect for him. That respect is gone now. I however will not remove the "Tiger for Pres" sidebar though. I think he fits that position even better now since he has proven that he is an untrustworthy piece of shit. Barack is just as big a piece of shit as Tiger if not more so. If the suit fits, wear it.

Potential Stores Online Victims, You're welcome!

I was just venting when I posted about StoresOnline. They Pissed me off an I had to say something. I was looking for a new direction and I thought maybe StoresOnline was it. Only I was sorely disappointed and lost a little faith in people in general. It's kind of sad if you think about it.

There are some positives that have come out of this though. It appears that I have helped some people who have been solicited by StoresOnline to avoid losing a lot of money and experiencing even more grief. This makes me feel good . To those of you who have been helped by my rantings and have bothered to comment, thank you!. To those of you who I have unwittingly helped, you're welcome.

Thank you, Honda.

O.K. it's been awhile since I've posted. My life has been in a state of change for the last year. I got my first job when I was fifteen in high school and have been working pretty much ever since. There were a few years in my twenties when I owned my own automotive repair shop. We did Toyota service and repairs for the main source of income and then did a lot of performance and racing work to keep it exciting. Even though I was a young business owner, and a lot of people thought I was very successful, I still had to be there every day and it became a job just like all the others I'd had.
Marriage, several location changes, kids, and many other jobs later I find myself living in the most beautiful place in America, with a great wife and family, working to support them by doing automotive work from my home, and some welding and fabrication. It's been nearly a year since I've had to make a change. The last job I had was as a mechanic for an underground construction company here in town. I had a contract with them to take care of everything they had. They paid me a fat weekly salary, and I kept them working, fabricated all of the underground things they needed and even took care of their personal vehicles as necessary. As far as jobs go, that was a good one for me. Although I had to be there early, I pretty much made my own schedule and did my work my own way.
As good as it was, I could see that the construction industry locally was slowing down. In an effort to give myself a way out, I bought the service truck and tools from my boss. I figured that if they went out of business at least I could make a living out of my truck by taking care of some of the remaining contractors. I never thought that there would be no other remaining contractors. Well there are only a couple of contractors left here, and they are the big guys who have their own service crews. This leaves me having to go back to doing general automotive work and fabrication. There has been some fabrication, but the main body of my work has been automotive.
Now I have been an ASE certified Master Automobile Technician since 1984. I have re certified several times and have never failed an ASE test. I graduated 2nd in my class from Sequoia Automotive Institute, but the automotive industry advances so fast that that it is difficult even for me to keep up with the changing technology when I'm working from home.
Recently I have had to do a diagnosis on a Ford Probe. The timing belt had been mis-installed and the owner, who had just bought it, did not know that the belt had been done. I've done a complete air conditioning job on a 96 Pontiac Grand Am, and a water pump on a 95 Grand Am. Anyone who has ever worked on either of these vehicles knows what I'm saying when I say that the Witnss Protectection Program was created for American automotive engineers. Every mechanic in the country would be gunning for these guys because of the garbage they have designed if they could be found !
This week though, I had a nice experience. A breath of fresh air if you will. I had the good fortune of doing a head gasket job on a 1997 Honda Civic with a 1.6 engine. There was not a single bolt that could not be reached, nor a connector that could not be unplugged during the entire job. This vehicle is service friendly and I commend Honda and their engineers for that. A little forethought goes a long way when it comes to vehicle design. My customers save money, and I make money, and I feel a lot better during and after the job. So I have to say.......
THANK YOU HONDA11111

Whiskey In A Jar

2009 America

America in 2009.........
Obama Nation or Abomination?
Maybe both. Only time will tell.

War

WAR SICK PUPPIES
LET'S DO THIS
Faking falls
Stopping tall
Take it all
Fact is that I'm taking mine
I'm taking mine
Time is up
Out of luck
Should have stood up
But you're out of time
But you're out of time
Let's do this (fight, fight, fight...)
Lock and load
Rock and roll
Bitch it's all over
You're going down
You're going down
Get ready to settle the score
And get ready to face the floor
Cause it's time to remember it (war)
This is war
And it's on tonight
So get up and fight
Get up and fight
You had all your life
To run and hide
Step up, step up
Let's do this
Sat around
Going down
How about a little reaction, man?
You can barely stand
Bitch slap, slow attack
Man that was practically suicide
Next in line
(Go)
Fight X8
Get ready to settle the score
And get ready to face the floor
Cause it's time to remember it (war)
This is war
And it's on tonight
So get up and fight
Get up and fight
You had all your life
To run and hide
Step up, step up
Let's do this
Cause we're all about ready to break
And we're all about ready to break
Yeah we're all about ready to break
Yeah we're all about ready to break
This is war
And it never ends
So get up, get up, get up, get up!
You had all your life
To run and hide
Step up, so step up
This is war (and it never ends)
This is war (and it never ends)
This is war
Let's do this
Let's do this
Let's do this
Fight X 7
Let's do this

My Game And The Universe

O.K. so you'd have to have been dead or vacationing on some deserted island for the last six months to miss the news that things haven't been going well economically lately.
Around here we have been feeling it more than I want to admit. The construction industry, which is the main driver of our local economy has all but disappeared. This affected me directly because the underground construction Contractor who I had a contract with recently ceased operations. Most of the other Contractors in the area have gone away also. This left me with a Service Truck, a truckload of tools, extensive mechanical knowledge and skill, and a disappearing market to apply them to.
So I put up a garage, small but adequate, printed some cards and started doing mechanical work independently. This was fine for a few weeks, because everyone who had asked me to do work for them over the last year came in. But the thing about doing repairs is that if you do them right, you don't see your customers again until something else goes wrong. Think about it. How many of you woke up this morning and thought to yourself," I wonder if my mechanic needs some work?". My guess would be none of you. Now that I've blown through the initial wave of customers I now have to promote myself and cultivate a whole sustainable client base. Self promotion is a little outside of my comfort zone. I've never been a salesman or even been very social. Another thing is that I don't really like strangers coming to my house. I originally only wanted customers that I knew personally, or people that had been referred by someone I knew. Apparently I don't know enough people. My phone hasn't been ringing for the last few weeks
As a result, I have taken a part time job at a huge pay cut with an Auction House here in town. My beautiful wife suggested I go talk to them because I have had so much fun buying at their auctions. I agreed, thinking that the change might be good for me. We also feel that if I enjoy what I'm doing, I will be in a better allowing state and good things might happen. I only wonder if I'll be able to pay the bills working for so little.
I also have a second interview with a local Dealership for a Service Technician position. I know that I don't want this job, but if I can get the money I want, I almost feel obligated to take it. Some of you might be thinking, "What's he whining about? Most people would be happy just to have one job." Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the opportunities but in the past if I applied for a Dealer Tech job. I'd be hired on the spot. No waiting. No multiple interviews. I'd have the job before I walked out. It just seems like a step backward to me .
These are some of the things that have me a little stressed out. Now when I get stressed and don't quite understand what's going on, I sometimes start grasping for reassurance in odd places. Some people use Horoscopes, or Tarot, or just try to see signs of good things to come in everyday activities. Not me. I have a more accurate way of determining what the immediate future will bring. Today I learned that things are going to be turning in my favor very soon. How do I know this? You ask. Simple. Today my Son and I went to the Golf Course. We played a few holes and I have overcome the snap hook that has been plaguing me for the past five months. That's right! I'm hitting it good, and when I'm hitting it good, all is well in the universe. That's all there is to it. I hit it good today. So you can expect things to get better . The price of fuel will continue to fall. Those of you who are out of work will find awesome jobs. The weather will be nice. People will be nice. Why? because I'm hitting it good. You can all thank me, and pray or meditate or visualize or whatever you do that my game continues to get better. Because think about it, the better I play, the better the world gets. Just imagine how great this world would be if I qualified for the PGA Tour. That's the only job I really want.

Six Random Things About Me

I got tagged for my first Meme!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you. Traceytreasure
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random arbitrary things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.



1. I'm jobless for the first time since 1988.

2. Out of my all of my brothers and sisters, I'm the only non-alcoholic.

3. I was born with a double hernia. I didn't know about the hernia until I had a physical to play sports when I was, 13 years old and the Dr. asked me about the scars.

4. I'm the only man who's ever given my wife an orgasm.

5. I can't resist kittens.

6. I miss my motorcycles.


I don't get enough time blogging to tag anybody. If you want to do it, leave me a comment and let me know that you did it.

Thanks.

Is Stores Online a Scam?

If you have heard of Stores Online and are thinking of signing up with them I can offer a little insight before you make your decision. You've probably been to the free dinner and are waiting to go to the training seminar. They are very persuasive at the free dinner and I thought I would at least give them a chance at the seminar.
The seminar was informative, but very high pressure. They pushed everyone to buy six websites using that number as the minimum number of sites required to be successful. They repeated that anything can be sold online, the marketing is the key, not the product. They also promoted using dropshippers, saying that they were easy to find and use. I have found these two ideas to be less than honest at best.

The Storesonline product itself I have found to be adequate, as long as you use the tech support phone number that was not readily available. We had to use their live chat line and call every number we could find before one of their reps gave us the tech help number that actually connected us with people who could help. The entire search for that number took about two frustrating weeks. Those two weeks were all that the sales rep at the seminar told us it would take to get the site up and running. Don't believe that for a second. Two months would be more accurate. Once we got the site up and running it seemed to work just fine.

The sales pitch also said that the site would be automatic if you used a dropshipper. Orders would come as you peacefully slept, the dropshipper would process the order, and you would see the money in your bank account. That is just what I was looking for because I already had a job that left very little time for anything else. Well, it doesn't quite work that way. All of the dropshippers that I could find required that you place the order with them as well as up front payment and they will then ship to your customer. This was not what I had expected, after what had been presented at the seminar, But by this time I had put too much effort into the site to do anything else, so we did it this way.

So now, my site was up and running, and since I followed the directions that Stores Online had outlined in their program and very carefully chose keywords in my domain name and throughout the entire site, I searched for my site, expecting to find it on the first page of the search engines, like they told me it would be, and voila... nothing! Zero, zip, nada. My site was nowhwere to be found. It took several more months, dozens of hours of link trading, search engine submission, and frustration before we even started showing up on the sixth or seventh page. Needless to say, we weren't making any sales. We were however still paying the site hosting fee,bank card processing fees, and for the actual purchase of the sites. Luckily we only bought three and only had one up and running,which took a large portion of our time. At least we didn't go for the six.

We finally tried using pay per click to try to make our site visible, and although it was expensive, we did find ourselves on the first page of the search engines using some fringe keyword searches. Then it happened. We got an order. A customer had ordered a couple hundred dollars worth of our products and payment had already been recieved. It was awesome, I was so excited! So we placed the order with our dropshipper right away, only to find out several days later that that item was out of stock and they would not be getting any more in. Now I had to contact my first customer and give them a refund, which cost us money in bank fees. Our fist sale was a loss!

We kept the site up for a while, making it a link sharing affiliate directory, only to spend money on ppc advertising without any affiliate commissions. Then we finally took it down, no longer willing to throw money into the seemingly bottomless pit.

So, would I call Stores Online a Scam? Although you do get functional websites, the amount of deception and misrepresentation at the sale seminar leads me to say yes. There are cheaper opportunities available on the web that allow you to acheive the same or better results. If given the opportunity to do it all over again, I would not.

The " Economy" Crisis

By now I'm sure everyone in America who has a TV or reads a newspaper or listens to the radio is fully aware that there is a huge gigantic unstoppable crisis about to ruin the personal financial security of every single individual in the entire Country and only the Federal Government can stop it. After all, the creators of the "crisis" should be the experts on how to fix it. They say that this is a credit problem. They say that without credit the Country will be unable to function and will slip into an extended recession. I say that we need to stop accepting the current standard of how the economy works. Does anyone else out there see that everything we need on a daily basis costs way too much? I saw today on the news a graphic showing home prices dropping 30 percent over the last year. Well, since most homes are in my opinion 150 percent or more overpriced, 30 percent is only a good start. If a small business needs to rely on a bank to loan it money to cover its daily operations on a regular basis, then that business needs to rework its operating model. We used to only need to get loans to buy homes,then cars. Now though, we are having to finance appliances, TV's, Stereos, etc. You name it, we can't afford it. This is a glaringly obvious problem to me, but no one else seems to notice. They just whip out their credit card and buy. No one uses cash anymore. And guess what? That credit just costs you more. So if I seem a little insensitive to the fact that your home value is dropping, it's not personal. I just think that the banks control over the economy is way out of control and the more banks that fail, the better off we will be in the future. I think that we need a huge pullback in the general cost of living, and that people need to step up and stop accepting the necessity to finance everything we want. Cars that cost $30.000? I don't think so! More than $150.000 for an average home? Not any more! $4.00 per gallon gas? Not here Osama! Things might get tight for a while, but if you don't buy it if you don't have the cash in hand, you'll find that after awhile, you'll start having more cash in hand. Cash is King! The old saying rings true now more than ever. We need to return to a simpler time. A time before the banks ruled and the Federal Government subsidized them, a time when a person could save up for a new car and pay cash, a time when businesses didn't have to borrow profits, they just made them. Maybe I'm just a dreamer, an idiot, or just altogether out of touch. But I'm OK with that, because whether or not there is a crisis,( which I doubt), my family is going to be just fine. You see, We never really bought in to the whole bank thing, people gave us shit about it and now I'm kind of feeling a little like we were right. (and they were wrong so now they have to sing a song). So if things get worse out there, you can hate me because I'll probably be watching with a sense of satisfaction thinking that maybe things will return to the point where my kids could possibly have a chance to buy their own home, and own it outright someday, fill the gas tank in their car that they have the title to for less than thirty bucks, and buy a weeks worth of groceries for less than a hundred dollars. Maybe someday.

There's no E.D. in baseball

So as I'm watching my Diamondbacks pile on the exhausted Padres, what comes on between innings but a Cialis commercial. Who are the demographics guys for Cialis and what the hell are they thinking? Baseball players don't get erectile dysfunction. Those guys swing wood for a living! Try the soccer channel.

Where are the comments?

Alright,I've been doing this for a couple of months now. Now I know I don't post every day. Other things seem to take priority over posting. Things like work, being an awesome husband, an incredible father, and maybe the only player in the world who could beat Tiger Woods head to head nine times out of ten on the golf course. A lack of posting is no excuse for the absolute absense of comments I am getting on this blog.
I know I probably offend most of you with every word I write, but I'm only being honest. In a nutshell, I think soccer is the most boring spectater sport ever. I think Liberal Democrats are either really, really stupid and arrogant, or really, really stupid and arrogant.I think Black Americans who think the white man is the root of all their problems should look at their homeland and decide whether or not they would be better off there, without the white man, indoor plumbing, clean running water, heating and air conditioning, clothes,medicine, food, the NFL,NBA,and other sports and entertainment,with tribal warfare,warlords, and the fact that they cannot go outside at night without being eaten by a lion. Am I such an asshole for thinking this? Maybe, but there is some truth in what I say. Even if it's offensive to some, I think that if the offended would look at themselves, they would see that I am right, and they have been trying to justify what they don't like about their own lives. You are responsible for what happens to you. Not me. Not the Republicans. Not George Bush. Not the white man. Not the Jews. Nobody else but you. You and the decisions you make. So if you're offended, I don't care. Why don't you fire back? I can take it . My skin is pretty thick. If you agree, let me know. It can get pretty lonely here in blogland when you're not a pantywaste liberal. Don't take this as begging, because I've got more important things to do anyway. Although would appreciate it if at least one of my three regular readers would let me know that they really do exist. Thank you . O

More Massdebation

B-Rock and Hillary are going to be massdebating with each other again tonight. Look for the video on YouTube soon!

It's baseball season

I'm glad that baseball season is here. I love the Diamondbacks, especially when they're rolling like they are right now. The national media does not seem to share the same appreciation of our talented young team though. ESPNBCBS seems to think that only the Yankees and the Red Sox are qualified to be shown on updates or highlights. I've got news for them. Watching the Yankees to me, is like seeing Hillary, Al gore, or B-Rock Obummer vomiting up their bullshit into the mouths of their feeding media hatchlings on tv. It makes me feel a little queasy. The Yankees are a bunch of overpaid, underachieving steriod junkies who get too much media hype for doing nothing except being part of a team from New York. I'm not impressed with anything from New York, especially if it gets over promoted. So lets see some more of the teams who are earning their pay with solid play, not excessive pay. Go D'Backs!

Global Warming Research

After conducting a scientific poll of the entire world population about global warming, I have the results to share with you brave readers. This poll was conducted using the latest scientific methods and is known to be 100% accurate.

1) The population of the world would rather be warm than cold.
2) Most people believe we should be celebrating the fact that we've successfully averted the imminent ice age that we were told was coming by our teachers and the news when we were kids.
3) Six degrees will not destroy us.
4) Al Gore is an embarrassment to America.
5) Democrats are even more of an embarrassment to America.
6) Nuclear power would be a good thing.
7) Oil comes from the earth, and is natural and organic!
8) California sucks. ( this was unanimous)
9) I can't wait for Summer.
10)$ 3.00 per gallon gas is the biggest problem in the entire universe right now!

Confused Jackasses

So today I was driving downtown in my global warming inducing diesel service truck. I was sitting at a red light when I see some bumper stickers on a car in front of me. One of them said, " Get U.S. Out Of Iraq", and the other one was a " Hillary" sticker. My first thought was "Jackass", but then when I pulled along side of the car I saw something that made me realize this person was no normal Jackass. On the drivers side rear window was an "NRA" sticker. What The Hell? I,m sorry, but you can't be a Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton and be an NRA supporter at the same time. You can be a Republican and support the NRA. You can be a Libertarian and support the NRA. You can be Green and support the NRA. You can be Black, Jewish, Elderly, an illegal immigrant, or most anything else and still support the NRA. But you can't be a Communist or a Democrat and support the NRA!. You can't. The Democrats spend a huge portion of their time trying to eliminate, override, defeat, and otherwise render useless the second amendment of our great Constitution. If you are going to support them, you cannot be an NRA supporter. The NRA wants people to be able to own, carry, shoot, and buy and sell weapons, including handguns and "assault weapons". These guns are scary enough to make proud Democrats piss themselves.
So I took a look at the driver of the car to see what kind of confused individual would send such mixed messages. As soon as I saw her the answer was crystal clear! The driver was a woman in her fifties ( I'm guessing her age). She had an extremely short, you could say
masculine haircut, and no makeup. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, so I feel qualified to say that when my gaydar goes off it's accurate!, and it was blasting loud and clear!
Now I understand how she could be so confused about her political views. She's confused about her own identity. She's not even happy with her own vagina. Who wouldn't be happy with a vagina? That's one of natures greatest inventions! She probably hates all men and really needs a gun to protect herself from their evil intentions. She probably even has a concealed carry permit. I just hope for her sake, that politically she doesn't get her way because if she did then she would most likely lose her right to protect herself from all of the evil men she has to be around every day!
The Hillary thing is equally hard for me to understand. I can kind of see her attraction to Hillary, her being out diked only by Janet Reno and Janet Napolitano, but as far as Lesbians go, I thought that our current President would be a much more natural choice. After all, don't Lesbians and Bush go together like.....well...... Lesbians and Bush!
And yes, I probably am a chauvinistic racist homophobic stereotype believing angry white man! Only I'm not angry and I'm usually right.

Project Conquest Complete

The Conquest that my son and I have been building the engine for is done. It looks cool and it runs great. I think it will make an awesome first car for my boy. Some might think a crappier car would be a better way to go for a teenagers first car. I have my own thoughts on that situation.


My son now knows what it takes to put a car like this into good running condition. He bloodied his own hands and learned first hand the expense involved with repairs on a car of his own. I think that this experience in itself will help him make better decisions when it comes to how he cares for this car. I've seen friends who have bought their kids beaters for their first vehicles, and the kids treated the cars like beaters. They never developed the respect for their vehicles that someone who builds their own does, and it shows on their driving records and their fenders. Having pride in something that you helped create is a good thing, and he will feel that every time he drives his new car. I can't think of a better way to start driving.


Here are a couple of pictures. We did the motor yellow so it would look at home in the factory yellow engine compartment. As far as Conquest engines go, I think this one is one of the cleanest I've seen, and it runs as good as it looks. It doesn't have the balls out horsepower that some of the v8's I've built had, but the turbo works well and it definately gets with it. This car handles as well as anything I've ever driven. It's fun to drive. It kind of gives me the same rush I get from riding a motorcycle. I hope the boy can keep his foot out of it!

Project Conquest Update

We got the engine back from the machine shop on Friday. It had been there for quite a while. While it was gone, we dodged snowstorms and spent the time detailing the engine compartment. I discovered that my son does a very good job on work that requires alot of attention to detail. This was a nice surprise, since most of the time he only seems to put forth the minimum required effort on anything he does.
I was very surprised with the condition of the engine that was in the car when we got it. I expected the engine to be a high mileage original. But while the block was the original, the engine had been recently butchered by someone who has no right ever opening the hood of a car ever again. The head was an earlier year head. Now this is o.k. if you use the correct rockers with the cam that's in the head, but they ran mechanical rockers on a hydraulic cam, resulting in a worn out cam and rockers. The block had been bored .020 over, but the dumbasses ran standard pistons. I know!. Not only were the pistons standard, they were 9.0:1 compression flat top pistons. This is a turbocharged engine, it's supposed to have 7.0:1 dished pistons. No wonder it barely ran! Anyway, we decked it, bored it, balanced it, replaced the head with a new casting, had a new cam ground, replaced the valvetrain, eliminated the silent shafts and jet valves, did some mild porting on the exhaust runners and now we're assembling. We've got the rotating assembly together, and we'll start the external stuff tomorrow. My son is learning more than he ever wanted about his new car. That is the whole idea behind this project. Help him understand the way a car works, and get some good father son time. I can't wait until my daughters get old enough to drive, I've already been looking at cars I think would make good father daughter projects!

My Sacred Things

When I was a kid I had friends whose fathers were contractors. Because their fathers were contractors, their garages were filled with all kinds of really nice tools. These same tools were within reach, but deemed to be off limits under the penalty of death! I never liked or completely understood this. I guess you could say the fathers didn't trust the kids. Now that I'm a father, and I have more cool tools than most people know exist, I disagree with the "stay out of my stuff" policy even more strongly than I did as a kid.
My kids all have full use of any of my tools that they think they can handle. As long as the tools are clean and back where they belong before I have to use them for work, they are fair game. What's mine is theirs as far as I'm concerned...... except for three things.
Don't ever touch my gun. My Para Ordinance P-12 45 goes with me everywhere I go. I very rarely actually shoot it. I don't need to. I just love the fact that it is there. It is a beautiful peice of machinery. In fact , in my eyes, it's a work of art, a masterpiece. I call it my Buddy. So, Daddy's sacred thing number one, my Buddy.
Don't ever touch my chainsaw! My Stihl Farm Boss is the second sacred thing in my tool collection. When we need firewood, this baby gets it done. I don't want to be surprised with a worn out chain or some kind of starting problem. I keep it nice, and it works for me. So stay away from my chainsaw and you won't meet my Buddy!
My Peaks. Don't touch my Peaks. "What the hell are Peaks", you ask? Duh. they're my sunglasses stupid. Everybody knows that. But these are not your run of the mill dark sunglasses. These are special. My beautiful wife got them for me, and that's not all. These Peakvision glasses are specifically designed for golf, and that's MY game. The importance of these shades and the emotional attachment I feel to them cannot be measured using any currently recognized system of measurement. So the third item on my list of sacred things is my Peakvision sunglasses. If someone was to damage or lose my peaks, both my Buddy and my chainsaw would be put to immediate use!