Feb 10.  The economic stimulus package:

> If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to
> China. If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs. If
> you purchase a computer it wi ll go to India. If you buy fruit
> and veggies it will go to Mexico, Honduras, or Guatemala (unless
> you buy organic). If you buy a car it will go to  Japan. If you
> purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan. And none of it will
> help the American economy.
>
> We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the
> money in  America  by spending it at yard sales, going to a
> baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer and wine
> (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses
> still in the U.S.

Feb 9.  Arrived home safely.  Took Tehachapi route over the mountains; snow was forecast for the Grapevine and I figured Route 58 would be less inclined to have much snow.  Other alternative was Highway 101...no way.  Too long.  Tehachapi Mountains were snow covered.

Feb 7.  Sitting around and waiting for the rains to come.  Preparing to open at 10:00 and close down when the showers come. Dark clouds all around us. 

DAILY WALKAROUND.  Took a stroll around the place at 10:30 and noticed that perhaps one-half of the vendors had not opened up yet.  People walking around, but not buying much.

NEIGHBOR OF THE YEAR.  Have decided that the Pallen School of Martial Arts was our most inconsiderate neighbor of the year for 2008.  Here's the entry I made in our 'Bitter Business Bureau'

]

Pallen Martial Arts of Castro Valley.  had a booth next to us at the Castro Valley Fall Festival.the past two years and we have had lot of problems with them as they continually conducted their activities and solicted new students in front of our booth, blocking customers from accessing our booth. Additionally, a number of them kept RUNNING through our booth last year and also  were a nuisance.  They were told many times by me and the promoters of the event to confine their activities inside their booth, but they would just say 'oh, I'm sorry,' and then shortly after, they would be in front of

our booth.  Very rude bunch of kids. Martial Arts?  My ass.  Bunch of little punks.

WASHOUT.  ZERO.     Need I say anything else about today?  Been raining cats and dogs throughout much of the afternoon.

Feb 6.  A bit cooler with clouds forming and rain on its way.  A few more people walking around, but still another terrible day saleswise for probably everybody around.  Looking at 'windows of opportunity' for leaving on Monday or Tuesday.

Just read an article abut the 'amusement park' at the Nut Tree in Vacaville closing. Doesn't surprise me.  I've seen how much people there spend (Vacaville Harvest Days 2008)

 GAS PRICES.  I believe that Love's gas is now at $1.99. 

Feb 5.  Clouds moving in and rain coming on Saturday and possibly Mon-Tues.  Stay tuned.

BAD HAIR DAY.  Problems connecting to the Internet.  Maybe the clouds are affecting the signal?  Sales continue to be slow here, but more people today.  Maybe the place is coming to life?  Will have to secure the canopies from the rain tomorrow.  Could rain late PM.  Not looking forward to this.  Supposed to stay another week, but strongly considering packing up and getting out of here on Monday or Tuesday. 

INTERNET.  It might possibly have something to with the clouds.  Couldn't get on all day until just a few minutes ago when we had blue sky.  Don't know... I'd believe anything,

Feb 4.  Expecting another slow day over here.  Power out this morning for awhile and signs of a bad hair day.

SURVIVOR.  Can't believe we have another one starting on Feb 12 on CBS.  Time passes so quickly.  Everybody out here is trying to be a survivor.  My 39 days are just about up....actually 34.

GAS PRICES.  Just checked the COSTCO station in San Leandro and found that the price has now risen to $2.01.  Not good.  I don't know how much gas is over here now because we have stayed put in our motor home for the past 9 days. 

DOUBLE TROUBLE.  From what I understand there were a number of vendors who sent in their payments for the Oakhurst Home and Garden (formerly Mountain Peddler's Fair in May.  On the applications, it stated that this event was to be held over Memorial Day Weekend and people made their payments.  However, the dates were changed to the week before and some people might be very surprised, especially when they show up on Memorial Weekend and there is no show.  This was a very bad move on their part.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  But this show was broken many years ago when they moved it out of the parking lot at the shopping center.

I know a vendor who had sent in payment for a Home and Garden show in Auburn that same weekend, but later he was surprised to find out that he now had two shows scheduled for the same weekend.  He called the promoters at the Fairgrounds there and explained to them what had happened.  They were bastards about it and refused to refund the money AND they refused to credit him that $300 for a show later in the year there.  I myself have had bad experiences with these people and I am calling for a boycott of events at the Fairgrounds in Auburn until they do what is right.  This could happen to you.  Please do not participate in events there.

Feb 3.  Have had three days of terrible sales and crowds are dwindling by the day.  Perhaps the area doesn't have the drawing power it had when the Sell-a-Rama was going on along with The Main Event, the Pow-wow and zillions of other smaller shows and lots with vendors.

IF THIS CONTINUES.  We are signed up to stay for another week here after this event, but if things are this bad on Monday and Tuesday, we will pack up and leave on Wednesday or Thursday and either head home or maybe do Kernville's Whiskey Flat Days.  Saw a weather forecast for that weekend that said rain and snow, but they have changed it and it appears as though they could have a mild weekend.  Have to really think on it; I heard that they have spaces available.  Have to weigh all the issues and one of them that plays a huge part in this decision is wondering if people will be spending their money over there.

WHERE'S THE PEOPLE.  Small crowds again today and sales continue to be slow.  Can't do anything about it; going to be like this the remainder of the week.

Feb 2.  Beautiful weather again, but they are forecasting rain for Saturday.  Whatever happens, happens, you know.  This weather thing can drive you batty.

DOGGIE TREATS.  How about something for the dog?

2009 STUPOR BOWL.  Which is what today is.  Seemed like these people crawled up out of the ground.  These people couldn't have lost money on the game because Arizona was +6 and somebody must be raking in the bucks.  Nobody is buying anything from anybody here.

SHOW DATE CHANGE:  I was considering doing the Oakhurst event over Memorial Day, but just found out that the dates for this have been changed to the weekend before, May 16-17.  Also, they have changed the name to the Oakhurst Home and Garden Show.  If you really want to change it for the good, move it back to the shopping area where it was located several years ago WHERE PEOPLE CAN SEE IT.  The current location is not good and nobody can see it from the Highway, which is a MAJOR route into Yosemite.  It would be nice if some of these passers-by could see canopies, etc., and mozy on ovah!!! 

CASTROVILLE ARTICHOKE FESTIVAL.  I will be switching over to this event from the Oakdale Chocolate Festival on May 16-17.  I would probably expect a good number of vendors who have previously done the  Chocolate before to be doing  Oakhurst instead.  Oakdale is just too darn expensive; both places are hot though during that time of year.  Last year WAS A SCORCHER and people turned into freaking Chocolate Zombies!!!

Feb 1.  Definitely not Super Sunday as far as sales go.  Ouch.  Terrible.  Not really that many people around... probably getting ready for the Stupor Bowel.  It was a pretty good game, but the 'local' team came up short.  Actually, their defense choked.  Everybody closed up early.

SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER.  Just watched an astronaut blow the million dollar question.  Wow.  How many common factors do the numbers 28 and 32 have?  So freakin easy.  He said two.  Oh my gosh.    1, 2 and 4. 

EXTENDED WEATHER REPORT:  Even though we know just how reliable a two-week forecast actually is,  I checked it for Kernville in two weeks (Whiskey Flat Festival).  They will be getting a bunch of rain and snow.  We did not sign up for the event, but decided to stay here in Tyson until Feb 15-16, depending on snowfall up on the Grapevine.  I had a feeling they were going to have bad weather there....to make up for several days of great 65-70 degree temps we had in 2008.

Jan 31.  Really nice day - 74 degrees.  Traffic flow isn't too bad, but people just are not buying.   

STARVING VENDORS POPULARITY.  Our readership has doubled in January as compared to December.  The most popular page is the one with European Festivals on it and we are having a lot of visitors from that part of the world.  The home page is popular as is the one listing Philippine Festivals. What I find amazing is the readership for the Orinda Holiday Bazaar, which is held in December and is a humorous accounting for the festival we did in 2007.  A lot of people are getting information on the February events...Havasu, Kernville, Ripon and quite a number are following the daily log on my shows here in Tyson.

An older couple came into the booth each holding a little pooch in their arms.  The lady asked me 'are those doggie chairs?' pointing to the small one-foot tall stools I had outside.  "Huh?" was my response as I looked over at her.  She repeated her question and I said to her  "Uhhhh... no I don't think so." 

Doggie chairs?  I think that some people spend way too much time with their dogs.  Hey Joe, ya want to go to the ball game today?  Nah, gotta stay home with the dog.  They don't let dogs in there.  Louise, want to go to the Craft Show?  Yah, okay.  I can bring our dog and get him some new shoes and a cute little hat.  Hey Westley, let's go down to Circuit City and pick up a new 64 inch HDTV.  Nah, can't.  Just shelled out $700 at the vet the other day.  Going to Cancun next week.  I am going to put my dog up at Monster Mutts Motel for only $80 a night..  Hey Bob, why don't you and the ms's come on over tonight and watch some movies of Bowser at the Dog Show.  Uh...oh gosh, you know I'd love to, but uhhh, I have some important business I need to take care of. Sorry.   Ralph, let's go down to the gym.  No.  Going to the movies to watch 'The Daring Doberman's beat Vegas.'  I'll bet it wins an Academy Award.  Did you guys see 'Mangy Mutts Meet Morticia?' 

Caught the ad in Dog Illustrated.  "Lonely Lavender Labrador Lusting for Love, send picture.  Will meet you at the corner of 1st and Main in Ripon.  respond to ad BX09393"

'MEGA-PET has opened a gigantic new store in Chandler, AZ', said Senior Vice President Harvey Shitzuman.  'It's the world's largest Pet Emporium and exceeds the size of 2 Wal-Marts put side by side.  We have constructed this gigantic cement structure at the old Tumbleweed Park, which was the former sight of the Ostrich Festival which had to close down last year when 138 vendors drowned where they had their booths located in a gully when torrential rains struck the area."

SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER.  Just watched an astronaut blow the million dollar question.  Wow.  How many common factors do the numbers 28 and 32 have?  So freakin easy.  He said two.  Oh my gosh. 

EXTENDED WEATHER REPORT:  Even though we know just how reliable a two-week forecast actually is,  I checked it for Kernville in two weeks (Whiskey Flat Festival).  They will be getting a bunch of rain and snow.  We did not sign up for the event, but decided to stay here in Tyson until Feb 15-16, depending on snowfall up on the Grapevine.  I had a feeling they were going to have bad weather there....to make up for several days of great 65-70 degree temps we had in 2008.

Jan 30.  Great weather today.  Temps going up to 75 and hopefully the winds will not arrive later today.  First day of the Tyson Wells Arts and Crafts Show.  Not really much A&C around though.  Formula for success at this event:  less people + less vendors = more money?  LP+LM=MM  or L(P+M)=MM for you algebra fans.  or LV/MP= 1 (happy vendor!)

ANOTHER MILLION DOLLAR IDEA:  How about a motor home for midgets.  Well, at least one designed for people 5'2" or smaller.  That's how tall my wife is and she has problems reaching a couple of the lights on the ceiling and can not reach for the cabinets without standing on the sofa bed or seat.  Something to think about.  Instead of calling some of these mini-motor homes we can call them midgey-motor homes.  I want 20 percent of net profits from this idea people.

POLITICS 204.  Class of Political righteousness.  Even though I wasn't in favor of voting Obama in, I must say that this guy has more of a personality than past presidents.  Maybe he will be more than the Democrat's 'Puppet-on-a-String'. Gosh, every time Bush spoke, I wondered how we were going to get screwed.  Smile once in awhile...put people at ease. Maybe he can 'loosen up' the House and Senate, etc.  When Bush smiled, I felt deceit.  I am all for 'changes' but jt's pretty darn obvious that people voted for a change of a different sort.

NEW TV REALITY SHOW:  People are Picky premieres on CBS next  Sunday.  Join vendors as they deal with the pickiest people you could ever imagine.  I don't like this one; do you have this in Red; Can I exchange this for a larger size?, Can I have two fives instead of a ten? This one has a spot on it, can I get it for half-price?  Guaranteed to make you laugh as customers drive salespeople bananas with outrageous antics and comments.

TYSON 100:  Have seen several of those little carts with the coolers around this place zooming by me.  Or maybe, put-puttering by me.  Let's have them race for the rocks on Sunday.  100 laps around the show.  Or the TYSON GRAND PRIX.  Down Kuehn Street to Loves; across the overpass to Quartzsite, down West Main Street and back over to Tyson on I-95.  Maybe 20 laps?  How'z that grab ya?

GAS PRICES: Just checked gas prices online.  San Mateo highest in the country?  $2.52 per gallon.  Saw prices in Hayward at Chevron from $2.01-$2.15.  Over here the other day at Love's for $1.85. 

INTERNET: Internet service here is still slow, inconsistent and mediocre.  About a 2.5 on the 10-scale.  With all these technologies available, it's a shame that these connections are so slow.  Not my computer...works fine with DSL at home, etc.

WEATHER UPDATE.  Bad news.  This beautiful sunny weather might end next Saturday.  They are predicting rain for next weekend, which would be disastrous.  Please rain during the week, not on those days please.  Might be a storm coming in with several days rain.  However, it does not rain here very much.

I am watching TV right now and they interviewed a guy who lost his job and his family is trying to make ends meet.  Family income is NOW ONLY $90,000 per year.  Oh gosh....that's a shame.  He said that they have to cut out all the Starbucks, cut back on eating out, etc.  That's really hard trying to make it on $90K per year.  Don't you feel sorry for these people?

Jan 29.  Warmer today but still #($*#$ windy.  They said that the winds would last another day or two.  I guess that we have had 4-5 days of strong winds.  At least they aren't 50MPH and blowing things down.  We have a good number of people walking around the show, which will start tomorrow.  However, there are lots of us set up ready to accept their #($#(#.   Several people selling the Hairy Hats and Visors.  Some of them going for 20 bucks a pop.  No thank you. I saw another guy selling the hats for $14.00 and another selling visors for $8.00. One guy even has a whole booth full of many colors and styles.  Wow.  Took a walk around the place today and I saw what had to be the World's Smallest Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.  This one was a little longer than my finger and cost $7.00.  I'm dying for one right now, but that's around seven bucks for a bite or two.  No way.  No thank you. 

Internet connections out here suck and are inconsistent.  Always losing the signal and have difficulties signing on much of the time.  Undependable and pages take forever to load...and that's IF they load. Just give me my DSL service back home. 

Jan 28.  Slept better last night; getting used to the beat of the highway music.  Not as cold this morning and temps will return to 70 degrees.  So, we have had one day of rain (last week) and two days of 'cold' (less than 60 degrees) temperatures during our stay.  Other than that... simply beautiful 70-80 degree days.

Checked out the stats for this website.  European Festivals is the most visited page this month.  Starving Vendors home page is next.  The next most popular are Philippine Festivals, Philly Cheesesteak, Inhaling Helium, Upcoming Events, Bay Area Flea Markets, Orinda Holiday Bazaar and Whiskey Flats review of 2008.  You can view the 15 Most Visited pages here.

Just heard something hilarious on ET (TV).  The lady said that Michelle Obama is 6 feet tall in leotards.  So, how tall is she without leotards?

Jan 27.  In my travels to Blythe yesterday, I passed by Love’s here in Tyson and saw gas prices had risen to $1.85, up six cents since a week ago. Now, get this one..... gas was going for $2.24 in Blythe at several filling stations. It’s going up and up and up. Just checked prices at COSTCO in San Leandro and saw that it’s up to $1.97.  Obama, Obama, Obama.

Jan 26.  Tore down our booth and loaded everything into the motor home.  No place to sleep tonight.  We are packed solid.  Have to wait until Tuesday PM to move into Space PQ-4, where we will be for the next three weeks.  Hope the people come out and bring some Ben Franklins with them... or at least Al Hamilton.

Went to Blythe.  Wow.  Did you hear that.  We went to Blythe.  How many people do you run into that can actually tell you that they 'went to Blythe'.  Had to do some grocery shopping and all they have here in Quartzsite are a couple small mom-pop-grandmother corner markets.  Not too much to choose from in Hellhole either, I mean Blythe, where it getters hotter than hell during the summertime.  No Food Maxx there.... at least they had an Albertsons's.  They have a Smart & Final there, but that's not the ideal place to do your grocery shopping.  After that, we went over to Sizzler and had their $10.75 Senior Citizens Sirloin Steak Dinner.  Not bad. You get the salad bar and a drink with it.  And that's all that were in there, Senior Citizens.  Even the employees.  You aren't going to see kids working there... I think that they want to get as far away from Blythe as they can.  Just can not imagine growing up or living there.

After we left Blythe, we headed toward Tyson Wells, about 19 miles East.  We had gone about 5 miles after Ehrenburg when we had a blow out on the Highway of our right front tire on the motor home and had to get AAA out there to change the tire for us.  Fortunately there were no trucks, etc., around us when it went and we were able to slow down and get over to the emergency lane on the right hand side and call for help.

Jan 25. Last day of the Sell-a-Rama.  Weather looks good; hopefully people will come here with some money.  Shows across the highway in Quartzsite have been slow for vendors and there have been pretty large crowds down in Yuma for Lettuce Days, but not much buying.

Another Million Dollar Idea.  Well, not quite.  Have given thought to publishing my own guide to shows, which would be called The Starving Vendors Guide to Events, Festivals, etc.  I will be providing more info on events, but will not be explicit as The Craftmasters News, which is the 'bible' as far as vendors are concerned.  I want to come up with something that lists vital information such as the dates, the name of event, website, phone number, location, cost, duration and the deadline and would be affordable for vendors in the OR, CA and AZ areas to begin with.  Very simple one-line entries.  Portions would be available at a reasonable price on this website, can be downloaded in PDF Format or a hard-copy inexpensive issue.  I would also have listings for county fairs and flea markets.

When we get back to CA on Feb 15, good shows will be scarce.  We will be doing the Chabot College Flea Market on Feb 21; Bok Kai Festival in Marysville on Feb 28; DeAnza College on March 7; Dandelion Days in Jackson on March 14-15 and then the Chabot College Flea Market once again on March 21.  Hell knows what we'll be doing the following weekend.  Nothing much that first week of April; we'd usually do Clovis, but trying to cut costs, so could conceivably end up in Manteca, which I am not excited about.  The last weekend of April will find us in Cupertino for the Cherry Blossom Festival and during Easter Weekend, we anticipate being in Casa de Fruta.  In May, we have the Ceres Street Fair, where we will be returning for the 12th time, our longest running event.  Will be in Castroville and perhaps Morgan Hill later in the month.

Jan 24.  Absolutely beautiful day here in Tyson Wells.  Must have been 80 degrees.  A few clouds but nothing like yesterday.  Could rain on Tuesday and/or Wednesday, but you just don't know for sure out here until the rain comes.  Hopefully not... we have to set up for the Arts and Crafts Show on Tuesday.  We will be in Space PQ-4 from Tuesday up until Feb 15.

We have probably decided to do the Dandelion Days festival in Jackson, CA over the third weekend of March.  It's only 90 bucks, but of course, you might have to deal with weather issues.  A couple years ago when we did it, we arrived at our booth on Saturday morning after some rain during the night and the standing water on top of our canopy (sagging) turned to ice and we had icicles hanging from the canopy.  I think there's better than a 50-50 chance that the weather will either be cold, raining, hailing or snowing.  Always ended up in one of the two bank parking lots..BofA and Wells Fargo.  Haven't done really great there, but not much else to do in California in March, other than local flea markets. 

I hope you have checked out my Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama daily updates.  Noticed that quite a number of people are visiting the page.  I have some interesting tidbits there you might find enjoyable reading.  I will begin my Tyson Wells Arts and Crafts Daily Log on Tuesday, Jan 27.  That show starts on Friday, Jan 30, but we expect to be selling by Wednesday PM, depending upon the weather. 

Menu changes coming up.  Soon, I will be eliminating the 'Miscellaneous' menu from the website and will move some of the items under other menus.  I will probably put our event reviews there to make it easier to access them or I might put our Tyson Wells events there for the time being.  Should happen in about a week,

Jan 23.  Rained a little last night and then many times during the day.  It looked like we were going to have a nice large 'spending money' crowd today, but things dwindled down and sales were extremely poor today for everybody.  Showers probably kept away a lot of the people.  Don't forget to check our daily updates in our Tyson Wells daily log.  Will be upoading stuff every three days usually

MY MILLION DOLLAR IDEA FOR TODAY.  How about a game show where you have 3 or 4 actual vendors as contestants.  You shoot a 30-second video of customers at a booth looking at items and after the end of that short video, each of the contestants has to guess what the customer said.  Each vendor has an erasable slab on which he uses a marking pen to write his/her answer down.  They each have 30 seconds to decide.  Or you can show the vendors 5 different answers/actions and they have to choose a,b, c, etc.  That  might be easier.

Some of the responses of the customers might be..... 'Oh, I have to ask my husband',  'I'll be back',  'let me have 3 of them'. 'oh no, no thank you'.  You have to choose an answer.  After the 30 alloted seconds to choose, everybody is shown the remaining 15 seconds of the video which shows the final actions of the customer.  The one with the correct answer gets xx amount of points or dollars.  The show lasts half an hour and the contestant with the most points wins a special prize.

It might even be neat for somebody to make a video like this and put it on You-Tube or something.  Remember...my idea.  30 percent of profits.

HOW ABOUT ANOTHER CRAZY TV IDEA.  This show would be called  AMERICAN VENDOR.  You show a product and there are 6 people who each have to present a sales pitch and the public gets to vote on which of them was their favorite or which one they enjoyed the most. Of course, you would have your three celebrities 'critique' each of them after their performances.  The eventual winner could be given $500,000 seed money to start his/her own actual business.

I have heard that the Chandler Ostrich Festival now has a different promoter and the Brown's are out.  Happy to hear that, but I still am not going to do that event.  The floods of 2006 still stand out in my mind and that nightmare is enough to keep me at least 200 miles away from Chandler the rest of my days.

Jan 22.  A bunch of clouds today and maybe rain tonight.  Very slow day today and nobody made very much money.  Maybe my highlight of the day was tossing all my garbage into the dumpsters on my way out.  We had accumulated quite a bit.  I had my new canopy sitting in our booth and this afternoon I took it out of the box and three of us put the cover on.  I then put it inside the motor home.  Wanted to get everything off the ground in our booth in case we get a mini-flood.  I doubt it, but better to be safe than sorry.  Three days left in this show and then we set up in PQ-4 for the next event, The Tyson Wells Arts and Crafts Show.   Don't forget to check our daily updates in our Tyson Wells daily log.  Will be upoading stuff every three days usually

Jan 21.  Nice day.  Cloudy much of the day.  Fair crowd considering that the Pow Wow started in Quartzsite.  Sales were double that of yesterday and I would think that the next 3 days will be better.  Chance of rain on Thursday.  I guess that they had rain back in California...LA and the Bay Area.  This is our 10th day out here with around 24 to follow.  Don't forget to check our daily updates in our Tyson Wells daily log.  Will be upoading stuff every three days usually. 

Jan 20.  Gassed up this morning at Love's for $1.79.  Not bad.  No idea how much it's going for back in Hayward or anyplace else.  Starting to get cloudier this afternoon and hopefully no rain on Wednesday.  They say 10 percent chance.  Weather has been fine so far.  Just a bit breezy occasionally, but okay.  No damage, no flying canopies and many bored vendors.  Sales have been slow the past couple days.  An uneventful day.  

Jan 19.  Horrendous looking clouds this morning.  Got on-line and checked the weather report...... showers on Wednesday PM.  Oh gosh.  I believed it too.  Even though this was two days away, it seemed like it probably was true.  Has been getting increasingly cloudy the past 3 days and I really thought that we were going to get rain TODAY!!.  However, it cleared up and we had a nice sunny day.  Things were quite slow today and dead during the PM.  Last year here, we had our best day on this Monday, the holiday.  Different story today.  Not a good day for us and most of the other vendors.  

Jan 18.  Weather: ditto.  Crowds were down once again and sales for everybody were pretty much non-existent for vendors.  No idea.  Lady was selling caps 4 for one dollar in row V.  You can't beat that.  I picked up 8 of them and they show various company names, logos, mentality levels, etc.  In the last space in row V, another vendor was selling T-shirts that glow in the dark 3 for $5.00.  Ya can't beat that!!

ANOTHER MONEY MAKING IDEA.  T-shirts that change colors in the sunlight is nice.  How about coming up with something that you spray onto your skin (?) that will change colors throughout the day, depending upon the sunlight, etc.  You can start off the day with a medium-brown and you can change every few hours.... orange, yellow, green like a Martian, etc.  If somebody comes up with this, I want 20 percent commission on your sales.

Jan 17.  Crowds at the Sell-a-Rama seemed smaller than expected.  The RV Show across the street began today and perhaps people were diverted over there to look at the motor homes, etc.  Sales were somewhat slow for everybody  Another day with beautiful weather, but there were some clouds in the sky today and the winds are picking up.  Hopefully, they subside within a day or two.  Expecting rain in LA on Wednesday and hopefully it won't travel this far.   A number of vendors here do exceptionally well, most notably the ones selling tools, household goods, etc and little gizmos and gadgets.  I have daily updates on the Tyson Wells page with shots of fellow vendors, etc. and I think that you will find that interesting.

Jan 16.  Parked along Kuehn Blvd. early this morning and was able to get online, so it looks like I'll be checking things every 3 days (Mon-Thur-Sun) until we move into our next space which might be close enough to the signal to log on.  Another nice day here... 74 degrees and sunny.  Had a decent amount of people here the first day of the event and heard lots of 'I'll be back's'.  Of course, we know what that means.  It's right up there with, 'Oh, five dollars... I have to ask my husband.'  "I have to go to the bank."  We have heard it all, that's for sure.

I have included some pictures in my Tyson Wells updates and you might recognize some of the people.  Hopefully, I will get several shots every day and put them on the Tyson page for you to see and will upload the page every few days while we are here.  I have decided to take pictures of every festival we do this year and include them in my reviews.  Could be quite 'revealing'?  Stay tuned.  Always check my blogs, etc,  We are getting quite a following nowadays and we are approaching 200 people viewing this website daily.   As the year progresses, I expect to have over 1,000 per day by the end of June.  We are now getting nearly another 100 visits per day on our Events and Festivals blog.

The most popular page on this website so far this year is European Festivals followed by the home page of this website.  I will list the top 10 pages next week.

Jan 15.  Drove over near Super Eight Motel and wasn't able to get on line  Needed a password so that meant that they were now charging for it  Drove back toward the show entrance and pulled over to see if I could locate another wireless location.  I found one that you had to pay for, but I didn't have time to try, since I wanted to get a good parking spot in back of the show area.  After I parked, I signed up for one service that was $2.95 for two hours, but after two minutes I lost my connection.  So I have to find an area where they pickup the signal strong enough for me to get on.

Another beautiful day in Tyson.  Warm and sunny.  Vendors began arriving this morning and more during the afternoon, as opening day for the show draws closer.  Had a very good turnout today and got some pretty decent sales.  50 percent higher than last year on the Thursday.  Finished setting up before noontime and just relaxed the remainder of the day.

Jan 14. (I think)  Not really too sure what the date is.  We are spending nights in the BLM lands, just south of the Sell-a-Rama.  No internet out here, but I might try a phone connection next week.  If I find someplace to get wireless, than I will be uploading every 2-4 days with fresh material.  The weather is beautiful here with very little wind (so far).  Temps are in the low 70's and mornings are in the 40's-not really too cold.  Be sure to check out my Tyson Well's daily updates through February 14.

No shows back in CA worth doing until April.  Kernville is the best between now and April, but we will not be doing it because we will be here in AZ.  We'll do Chabot Flea Market on Feb 21 and DeAnza on the first Saturday of March.  We will be returning to the Bok Kai Festival in Marysville on Saturday, February 28.  Please check our shedule on this website to see our shows for the year.

Jan 12.  Leaving for Tyson Tuesday at 3:00AM and hopefully will arrive around 3:00PM. This time I won't have to leave my space in order to go get a Quartzsite Business License ($50) because I did that by mail a couple months ago.

Checked COSTCO gas in San Leandro.  Up to $1.95.  Getting closer!! Damm.

My latest idea:  How about a re-cycled gift store or kiosk?  You would allow people who received gifts for Christmas/birthdays, etc., to come in and exchange them for another for a similar dollar value (plus a $2-5 surcharge) and make up the difference in value with cash.  Problem:  You would have to do a lot of transactions to make any kind of dough, ya know?  We could even call the store R.E. Cycle Gifts.

To tell you the truth, I really don't like the idea of recycling gifts from person to person, but I guess that there are people out there who see nothing wrong with it.  Think about it....  'It's not the gift that counts. it's the thought'  If you give a person a gift that you received from somebody else, there just can not be much of that 'thought' behind it.  'Oh well, I guess I've got to give that person a gift' they think to themselves.  Double wrong here.  First of all, you are taking a gift (probably) that somebody has care enough about you to give you and secondly you are deceiving the person to whom you are giving the gift to.

On Christmas, my daughter gave my wife a gift and told her 'here mom, I bought you this for Christmas' and handed it to her.  About a minute later, my wife opened a gift and it was exactly the same thing.  Can you imagine how surprised my daughter was because we had both gotten the same exact gift from a close relative and now she was giving us the one she received?  So is this one of those 'Do onto others as you would have them do unto you'?  No further comment.

Jan 11.  Nice weather here in Hayward with temps around 70.  In Quartzsite, sunny with temps 70/40 for the next 10 days (hopefully).  A bit breezy today.  In Yuma, nice and sunny with temps approaching 75 degrees throughout the week.  Reports from the Old Town Jubilee there show that some vendors are down by as much as 75 percent.  Very rough, especially for those that travel and have to stay in motels.  I might add that all the new construction in that area has been detrimental to vendors at shows there.  Improved shopping areas for visitors and the area provides more things for people to do.  Sure an improved downtown area would attract more visitors, but I think that the events are of little concern to them.

Would like to let people know that we will not be in Kernville (Whiskey Flats Days) this time nor will we be in Lake Havasu for the Winterfest since we have an 'extended stay' in Tyson Wells this time.  Whiskey Flats is a nice show for the month of February as the weather is decent. despite at least a day of rain or snow for the past 4-5 years at this event.  Nice parade, shootouts and is enjoyable.  It's a hell of a ride getting there, driving along the Kern River Valley since it has many winding, harrowing turns, making it difficult for motor homes or vehicles towing cargo trailers, etc.  Not recommended to drive at night.  It's quite scenic, nonetheless.

We will be at the Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama beginning on Tuesday, located in Space X-19 until Jan 26.  We will them be over in space PQ-3 on Jan 29 for the A&C show.  The event runs until the 8th of February, but we will be there until Feb 15.  Hope to see you there.  If you mention the Starving Vendors website, I'll take 10 percent off your purchase.

Jan 10.  New Food Coupon.  Come on over to the Funny Farm.  New entries. 

Top keyword searches for Events and Festivals for the first ten days of January:  European Festivals 2009,  Holtville Carrot Festival 2009, Yuma Lettuce Days 2009, HR4040, Tyson Wells, Yuma Lettuce Festival 2009, Bluegrass Festival at Tyson Wells, Cloud's Jamboree, Yuma Old Town Jubilee, Avi Casino Spring Bazaar.

I just heard "The Backstabbers' by the Ojays on the 70s station on XM Radio.  That is THE WORKING MAN'S THEME SONG......  they smile in your face and all they wanna do is backstab ya.  Worked for the Post Office many years and every time I hear that song, I think of my working days.

January 9.  Chevron-Southland $2.09.  Highest price in Hayward!!!  Is Southland Mall charging these people enormous rent to make up for all the empty stores?  What gives?  Other Chevrons are at least 10 cents per gallon cheaper.  Always the highest price around.

NOW YOU KNOW WHY THERE ARE NO MALLS IN THE CITY OF OAKLAND and why so many stores have steel bars in the front.   

COSTCO gas in San Leandro=$1.85.  Going up and up.  Has risen 18 cents per gallon since bottoming out.

January 8.  It's 6:45AM.  I recall that 35 years ago, I was on the USS HANCOCK and we were in San Francisco Bay heading toward Alameda Naval Air Station.  Nice feeling getting out of the service after 4 years.  However, no job, no apartment, no nothing.... just my sea bag and a bunch of clothes.

I guess that the homepage of this website was out of whack throughout the night (7 hours).  I changed the page and didn't include the menu and style sheet.  Looked ugly, but fixed it this morning.  Yesterday we drew a record number of visitors to this website mainly because of the European Festivals section that we added and we seem to be attracting a lot of visitors from Great Britain and Australia.  I am currently working on a page for beer festivals, but not sure if I will have it done before we leave for Arizona, where the weather is looking great for next week.....sunny and temps in the 70's.  But you never know when that weather is going to change.  Will be waking up Wednesday morning to the sound of the coyotes yelling up in the hills in Tyson Wells a few miles away (at least I hope that they are a few miles away).  Will probably not be able to do very many updates on this website while there.... poor internet service there.  Maybe upload every few days.

Just thought I would mention that the most popular pages are (1) European Festivals 2009 (2) Upcoming Events (3) Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches (4) The Dangers of Inhaling Helium (5) Philippine Festivals.  A good number of people checking out some of the February Festivals.... Whiskey Flat Days, Ripon (Ripoff) Almond Blossom Festival, Quartz Hill (Hell) Almond Blossom Festival and Lake Havasu City Winterfest.

ANOTHER CRAZY MONEY MAKING IDEA.  We've all seen those gadgets that will garble your voice or create various effects with your voice as you speak into it.  However, I have never seen a gizmo that you can select a person/celebrities voice and speak into it and the output will sound like that person's voice.  The technology is there, but it is beyond my knowledge of how to create something like that.  It wouldn't be all that difficult to program a computer chip that would allow this.  Then you could go to a certain website and purchase added voices via the Internet, etc. and download them to the gadget.  (My ideal.... I want 30 percent of gross sales!!!) I am living dangerously putting these ideas here, but what else am I going to do?  Imagine the possibilities with something like that.  You can also make the gizmo record another person's voice and the  possibilities would be endless.

January 8, 1974.  That was the day I got out of the Navy in Alameda and lived there for 7 years.  The Navy was a very interesting experience and I traveled throughout Asia.  Thirty-five years have now passed since those wild times, but still can recall many exciting times as it it happened yesterday.  The base in Alameda has been closed for many years and has been open to the public.  Tours of The USS Nimitz are interesting and I would recommend that for parents and kids, etc.  Buildings on the base have either been boarded up or private enterprises have set up shop in many of the sites.  The City of Alameda is claiming that they are going broke and want to sell off some of the land.  There are developers who want to build thousands of homes there.  Much of the land there is cement-covered and possibly contaminated.

I want to go there with my pic-ax,  break up the cement and sell pieces for $10.00 apiece on EBay.  If anybody does this, I want 20% of your profits for my idea.  Sooner or later, I am going to create a page on this website telling about my 'crazy money-making ideas'.

January 7.  Several search engines (Yahoo, Google, etc.) scour through websites and retrieve images for their directories and when a person chooses to search for 'Google images, etc. and when they enter the keywords, they get a selection of images relevant to their search.  I am finding that a number of people do a search on 'Illegal Immigrants running across the border' and they end up with an image from this website.  Another popular search is for 'picking nose' and they end up with an image from my Orinda Holiday Bazaar review.  Eeeeeeew!!!  Hilarious.

OPENED UP MY NEW COSTCO CANOPY AND IT WAS BROKEN.  WOW.  WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP.  Read about it in my newest TALES OF WOE entry.  Gotta put that story someplace.

PAGE ONE!  is our newest page in this website.  Latest news stories, info and important stuff for vendors.

January 6, 2009.  Damm.  Passed by Chevron this AM and prices were now over two dollars... $2.01.  Oh gosh.  That is not a good sign.  What the hell are you going to do about that, Obamadimbamaama?  How are WE getting bailed out? 

Also, in my travels this morning, I had to head downtown and ended up following one of those armored trucks.  How many times have you been on a highway sticking behind one of these things just waiting for the door to come flying open and money going in all directions.  Always happens to somebody else.  And people give the money back?  Some of the people grab a few handfuls and split before the law comes or the guards pull their guns on the people.  Seems like there now are lawmen (BART Police) who reach for their belt and pull out guns,  and start shooting away, thinking that it's one of those taser guns.  Sorry, but those taser guns need to be outlawed. But that is a different story.  What matters is that an individual was killed.  Now you have a lawyer who is going to capitalize on a $22-million lawsuit.  Boy, am I ever in the wrong business.

How about a movie where is guy travels around in his pickup truck equipped with a bunch of gadgets and he's following one of those armored trucks.  First he knocks out the radio signals with interference.  Affixed on his bumper is a large metal magnet that flies up against the back door; the pickup truck emits a huge smoke screen and the magnetic yanker (trade mark) pulls the door off the back of the truck and then he's got this vacuum cleaner hose that heads into the truck and sucks out all the money and sends it to a large garbage container on back of his truck.  If I see any of these ideas in a movie, I want 20 percent of gross revenues so I can rehab from sniffing too many gas fumes from being stuck in traffic all the time from these traffic lights which the city got a good deal on and installed them every 50 feet.

January 5, 2009

Always checking that forecast for Tyson: