This is me... 'Mr. Personality"... self portrait taken 4/23/2010 while waiting in line at the dump. I was hauling a trailer full of demoed concrete and some miscellaneous shit I had to get rid of before bringing a "scoop" of dry sand back a jobsite in Hancock Park.

Picture at right (self-portrait) taken 2/14/2010... Yes, it's lop-sided, not me. I know this picture may not be flattering, but I like and appreciate "realism." I just look funny; my back, I think is one vertebrae short giving me the appearance of long limbs, I'm kind of skinny, but wiry, and at 52 years old, I can still run like the wind. I'm very dexterous, agile, and nimble beyond belief. No one can keep up with me bounding and leaping thru rocky desert terrain. I'm just built that way... see "Tujunga Man."

Yes... my room is purple. No, I didn't paint it that way, it came that way. I rent a house in Tujunga with lots of land around it. Tujunga is like a small town in a way, though it's really not that far from LA's west side. Tujunga is where I call the "out-back" of the "Valley" (the San Fernando Valley). I sometimes like to refer to myself as "Tujunga Man," like some aboriginal person discovered still living in modern times... but living in "TUJUNGA!" I AM aboriginal, that is, I'm obviously not 100% white. Being of Latin descent, I could be a different ratio of "original" races... Spanish (heavy Moorish influence possibly [Negroid]?), German, Russian [Caucasoid], Mexican and North American native [Mongoloid -actually some believe Australian Aboriginals were the first Native Americans who came up from the tip of South America before the Mongoloids came from the north-west]... who knows? I'm dark and mostly European -you know, how far back do you want to go?

I was born in Los Angeles to parents from the Juarez, Mexican/El Paso, Texas border and New Mexico. They spoke Spanish, but did not teach me Spanish and I was raised in a white neighborhood, so my culture is a blend of mid-western and southern US implants who came to live in Southern California... a bit like white hicks, but with that So-Cal laid-back beach thing... "Cool," "Far-out," and "OH, MY GOD, like totally!" As for intelligence, I'm not claiming anything special. I think I'm mostly self-aware. I know there's usually a right way and a wrong way to do something, so just knowing that, I strive to do things the "right" way as opposed to doing it the wrong way. If I don't know which way to do something, I'm great at finding the correct way... so I think that's pretty smart. I didn't say I was "swift," but I am methodical.

I'm gay... I'm truly masculine and not fully out-of-the-closet to just anyone... and I like it that way.

Issues? ... did I say I was drama-free? Where do I begin? Let's just say, I'm great at coping... I have great coping skills. I'm not glamorous, nor live a glamorous life-style. I'm extremely blue-collar except that I'm in business for myself, I co-own a construction business mainly in building and remodeling swimming pools and any other kind of water features such as fountains, ponds, streams, waterfalls, etc. I wear almost any hat that can be worn in my business, from laborer to boss... the Big Cheese. My personal skills are in electrical, field electronics, and pool/water feature plumbing. I also trouble-shoot and repair remote systems, pool heaters, pumps, and filters. .. also leak detection... anything to do with water management for water features. Our company offers more; like custom furniture, custom upholstery, household interior/exterior repair/maintenance, and more. Shit, we'll do anything for money, and do it RIGHT. Seriously, we're high-end. check out the website...www . every thing wet . com . -use that URL without all the gaps. -I don't want the web bots bringing potential clients to this site, remember... the closet thing.

But, our company is small and competition is fierce! So we are struggling... and why are we (am I) struggling?... to pay two rents, three trucks payments, and all the other expenses and over-heads that support 7 people in two separate households; myself, my business partner, his best bud and foreman (who lives with me now), his wife and three sweet kids -this is my only real "issue." This tight money situation basically keeps me from having vacations -time-off. I work at least five days a week, year in and year out without any breaks. So my life has to be lived after work each weekday and on weekends, if I have enough energy.

Lately, my off-work hobby is just "playing with plants."... I like trying to propagate plants. I take clippings and either put them in water or soil to see if they will take root. Like this very cool philodendron which is producing it's first new leaf since I stuck it in this pot before winter with a healthy potted Plumeria. The Plumeria itself was a clipping I propagated some years ago.

I'm a simple guy, but I'm not. See, that does sound complicated... I mean, what's "black or white" about anything?

My bad-ass pickup with the dump trailer attached. I drive a Ford F-350 Super-duty diesel 4x4 quadcab. This truck is extremely powerful and we use it to pull trailers, haul pallets of stone and other masonry materials -it's necessary for the business. We have two of these trucks and the other is a "dually."

LINKS to fallow... Prides & Joys | More About Me | Hobbies Page | Pictures/Adventures | Work/Accomplishments | And, well, enough about me, what about you? What do you think about me?
I'm really interested in hearing from you... your comments are welcome
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Just another self portrait...