Why do bad things happen to good sliding doors? Why do some sliding doors to condominium decks and patios operate just fine for years then decide they prefer to be opened by a football line backer? It helps to understand the technology of their materials, how they are put together and they interact with their host building. Glass for sliding doors can be single pane in older models or double-glazed with argon gas as a middle insulator against thermal transfer. Door framing can be aluminum, vinyl, fiberglass, wood of vinyl-clad wood.. Metal sliders will normally have a thermal break between glass and metal frame to reduce thermal conductivity. Different rates of thermal expansion of the glass and the frame can induce twisting in the frame preventing it from riding smoothly in its track. You may find that identical products on one side of your building are working fine while those in a different thermal exposure on the other side of the building are tough to open.

Routine Maintenance
Dentists tell us that it’s important to brush along the gum line to remove debris. The same idea holds true for slider door tracks. I recommend an annual “brushing” out of the tracks and cleaning with solvent followed by a coating of silicone lubricant. Hit the rollers and locking hardware at the same time with a blast of lubricant.

Repairs
The reasons why sliding doors in condominiums become difficult to open and close are not many. Most involve either the rollers at the bottom of the door frame or the alignment of the door in the building. Check for:

·-Worn roller wheels from running over accumulated grit in the track
·-Vertical settlement of the building wall in which door is installed. Try compensating for this by using the two adjustment screws at the door bottom. You can elevate or drop opposing rollers so that the door runs parallel to the track.

For problems at the door sides:
·-Open the door about two inches and check the space between the door frame and the door jamb. It should be uniform when measured from top to bottom.
·-You may need to shim between jamb and building to get both plumb.

Rollers can be replaced if they are just too worn to fool around with. This involves lifting out the sliding portion of the door to remove the old rollers and install new ones. If there appear to be just an accumulation of poor alignments and worn out parts it may be wiser to simply replace the door with a new unit. Replacement can be included in your capital reserve fund plan.

Water Entry
Water entry through / around sliding doors is usually due to inadequate sealing between the rough opening between the building and the door unit. This demonstrates itself pretty dramatically in harsh exposures such as ocean side environments or hi-rise buildings where storm wind gusts at the upper floors can drive rain through door sides that are only nominally protected. Preferred practice in these cases is to install flashing to the wall sheathing, cover it with 6″ wide strips of plastic flashing material along sides, top and bottom. Over the plastic flashing place your regular building wrap. The strip at the top of the opening should overlap the side strip. In such environments we like to see weep holes at the bases of the walls so that any water driving into the door opening and running down this barrier will have quick pathway out.

It’s no secret that the movie “The Secret” is a phenomenal example of successful, viral marketing. This little idea-some would call it infomercial-was created for less than $3 million dollars; little money by Hollywood standards.1.5 million copies of the DVD have sold for about $34.95 and the “actors” have appeared on Larry King Live and Oprah to name just two popular shows. It doesn’t get much better than that not only for the woman who conceived the idea and made it reality but for those of us who work in the field of personal development.

For those of you who have not yet seen the movie, read the book, or seen any of the interviews, here is a basic overview of the premise of The Secret.

We create our lives. We do that with our thoughts and our words. We do that by focusing on things-consciously or unconsciously– which brings them into our reality, our day to day. This focused thinking begets our reality. It’s referred to as The Law of Attraction.

Skeptics abound and you may be one of them. Welcome to my world. As a former hardcore skeptic turned open student of coaching I have spent many hours studying and practicing the concepts talked about in The Secret. These concepts happen to aid clients gain insights and shift which is often why someone comes to coaching. Being open allowed me to shift my thinking in many areas and life has never been better.

Note to critics, I have not given up wisdom or intuition and I do my due diligence or not at my own peril. What’s different is that I don’t approach things from a guilty til proven innocent point of view.

Ok, back to how we create our reality. Consider this; nothing means anything til I make it mean something. Or, said another way, how I view an event, my opinion of it, formed through the filter of all that has gone into making me the person I am, is my reality. I should be clear here, it’s my version of reality. Someone else will have their own version which may look or sound nothing like mine does. Reality it would seem is a personal thing. Which means there isn’t ever only one reality.

Bring on the critics, I am armed and indefatigable on this point.

Do me a favor? Suspend your disbelief, your critic’s view of this long enough for me to wedge a possibility in.

Next, one has to check one’s ego at the door of transformation-when one is ready-or nothing can shift. I’m thankful I learned that early on because frankly, hearing things like, “we create our reality with our thoughts and our words,” would have sent me screaming from the room a few years ago. Had I my life might not have become as rich as it is today.

For those of you who are still reading let me channel Lucille Ball and do some ’splainin’.

Theory one: We create our reality; let’s stop there and define the word reality as tossed at you up above. How can reality be personal when Webster defines it as: “the state or quality of being real or of existing in fact.” The word fact is ” a thing known to be true.” Personal does not appear in either of those definitions but Lucy wants to speak.

Take the recent snow we’ve had here on the east end. The fact is we got 2″ - 3 ” of snow overnight. My reality is it’s beautiful, I’m happy we finally got snow. My husband’s, which I know is shared by many, is “this really pisses me off, enough already, and damn I’m tired of shoveling.” My reality is shaped by my not having to go out and do anything more than slog to the gym. His by the fact that his client’s 500 yard long, hilly driveway must be cleared. Same fact-snow has fallen-two different realities.

Theory two: This one is a bit harder to explain but here goes. The things, people and events in our lives are a reflection of what we think about or believe consciously or unconsciously . This is known as the law of attraction. Someone who believes they are unlovable, and this is not often a conscious bit of information, will attract partners who cannot love them. Shake up the person’s belief system about themselves, give them an awareness of this way of thinking and they can go about attracting someone loving. Have you ever met a person who says, “It’s impossible to meet a good man, they are all taken”? Are they in a supportive, loving relationship? How about, “I’ll never be able to buy a house, I’m stuck in this dead end job”? Are they looking for a new job or ways to increase their income by becoming a better employee?

So what are these folks attracting? More of same no? Since this idea wants an entire column all its own let’s leave it there. Books abound on the idea and The Law of Attraction, by Esther and Jerry Hicks, two stars of the original version of The Secret, is the original and one great read. Here’s the bottom line, the law of attraction, like the law of gravity, is alive and well whether you like it or not, believe it or don’t.

Like becoming open minded rather than staying skeptical, I can attest to the difference that knowing and using the LOA can make in your life. Learn how to use this law to your advantage and you will discover power and control in your life that was before untapped. It is the secret to creating the best reality ever.

Gregory Anne Cox is a certified life coach who has been dishing up all-you-can-eat servings of health and nutrition information for years.
Midlifers are welcome to experience powerful support to transform what is into the life of their dreams.
One on one, group, and teleseminars.
http://www.livebettercoach.com

Need website content? Articles for your ezines? Bylined writing that you can submit to other publishers? Don’t we all! And while you may think the only way to acquire quality content you can use is to write it yourself, there are several other ways to produce articles without having to write them. Using a ghostwriter is one way, using private label rights articles you have bought is another option and doing an expert interview is yet a third way to generate quality articles for your ezine or website.

Summarizing another article is yet another way to provide content for readers. Give the original author credit within the body of your article and quote the article, or several articles, to create something new and unique.

This is a can’t lose situation for everyone. You don’t need to actually write an article, the writer who wrote the original article gets free publicity, and the reader gets fresh information they want or need. Everybody wins.

Using public domain articles related to your subject is yet another option. Permission from the author to use their work isn’t necessary, but letting your reader know where the content originated will keep their trust. Don’t try to pass the words off as your own.

Use survey results from a self-conducted survey as an article. This means you’ll have to write a little, but compiling the results and turning it into a fast article is easy and is not very time-consuming. You can create surveys through Survey Monkey at http://www.surveymonkey.com.

Use government provided information. Articles written by United States Government authors are automatically in the public domain. The government is a prolific writer on a wide variety of topics. Visit any United States Government website and you will be greatly surprised with the amount of information that is free for the taking.

As you can see, providing quality articles without writing a single word, or with just a bit of writing is possible. The information and means is there. Use them to your profit and success.

Article © 2007 Darlene Bishop, Home Business Resource Queen. Find hundreds of free and low-cost home business ebooks and resources, plus the original Home Based Business Blog at http://SensibleSiteSolutions.com

These are really interesting when you break them down. The differences between how men and women look at life. Here are some thoughts.

REMOTE CONTROL.
Female…. A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
Male… A device for scanning through all 375 channels every 5 minutes.

Female… The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one’s partner.
Male… Leaving a note before going drinking with the guys.

Gender selling, is there a different approach? Here are my experiences:
Selling annuities can also be separated based on the gender of your prospect. If you are selling to a single female (senior) safety and security is at the top of the list and trying to sell indexed annuities is not a good idea.

Single men are much the same way, generally safety and security is important and I have found that single men are always interested in how much of a monthly income they receive at some future point in time. Single females don’t seem to have this concern.

Now put them together and a whole new chemistry is developed. The male always wants to know how much can they make and to the female it is less important. In a married couples situation an indexed annuity almost always will win and it may have something to do with the hunter/gatherer/nest builder syndrome.

I am not being sexist here, but based on my experiences, men are hunter gatherers and women are nest builders. A nest builder goes through three stages, build the nest (early family), keep the nest tidy (family years) and clean out the nest (later in life).

So it is important to sell to the situation, married couples will almost always have an interest in indexed annuities because of the thoughts and needs of the male. Focus on upswing and yield as a benefit.

- Single females will almost always want safety and security and would not be a good target for an indexed annuity. Focus on safety and security.
- Single males will always have an interest in future income so focus on the benefit of annuitization.
- Married couples will almost always have more interest in how the money can grow. This can always be accessed by who is talking the most. If the husband talks the most then it is an indexed annuity sale. If it is the wife talking the most, then safety and security is the benefit to focus on.

By separating sales concepts via gender separation will in fact provide you an edge in selling annuities. Whatever you do always focus on the benefits an annuity can provide and how those benefits can be of use to your prospects.

Bill Broich is a 30 year annuity salesman who helps agents generate annuity leads. Visit his website to learn more - Annuity marketing

Plano Texas Real Estate Agent

Looking for a Plano Texas real estate agent does not need to be a chore. If you are buying or selling real estate in Plano Texas, you likely have enough hassles and hoops to jump over.

A Plano Texas real estate site on the internet may give you the MLS listings, but without the right Realtor®, they can tell a buyer very little.

If you are buying, the MLS listings cannot tell you about the neighborhood or the schools, but the right Realtor® can. Ads on a Plano Texas real estate site cannot tell you about nearby attractions, parks, employers and public transit. The right Realtor®, however, can. Deciding what is important to you (such as distance to work or daycare) can help your Realtor® help you.

Real estate in Plano Texas is popular for many reasons. The city ranked high in Money Magazine’s “Best places to live in the United States” list. More than 25 major corporations bought real estate in Plano Texas for their corporate headquarters, helping the city to achieve one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

Plano is one of the largest suburbs in the Dallas area, but further expansion is no longer possible, thus real estate in Plano Texas is highly sought after because demand is high but supply is limited.

Sellers get good prices for their homes and buyers know that their property value will most likely continue to rise. Unlike many areas of the country, Plano enjoys a thriving economy.

Most anyone would want to be a Plano Texas real estate agent and a lot of people delve into the business on a part-time basis.

But, helping people buy or sell real estate in Plano Texas or anywhere is not a part-time job. Not if you are a seller who wants the best possible price in the shortest time possible, and not if you are a buyer who does not want to look at numerous properties that are not really “what you had in mind”.

Depending on your needs, there are several credentials and certifications that you can look for when choosing a Plano Texas real estate agent. Are you selling one of the multi-million dollar properties in the area? If so, look for a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist (CLHMS). They know the best way to market your property and buyers interested in high end properties are more likely to come to them.

Are you a first-time home buyer? Then look for an Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR). They can answer all of your questions about everything from an ARM to a wraparound. Many first time buyers are confused by the jargon. A Plano Texas real estate agent with and ABR can help simplify the whole transaction.

Are you relocating? Look for a Certified Relocation Professional.

If you are looking for a home, rather than a commercial property, look for a Certified Residential Specialist. If you are a senior citizen, look for a Seniors Real Estate Specialist. But, most important of all, to tell the difference between the average Plano Texas real estate agent and the better qualified professionals, look for the Realtor® sign.

This sign means that the agent is a member of the National Association of Realtors® and has made a financial, educational and professional commitment to being the best in the business.

You should look for Realtors®, for example, typically work in the area they live in. To you this means that they are familiar with the area. If you are buying, they can help you find a property that meets not only your price range, but your hobbies and interests.

If you browse a Plano Texas real estate site and you like to bike, you still cannot tell which properties are near the miles of bike trails in the city. If you have kids, you will want to know the location of the elementary, middle or high school and what parks and playgrounds are nearby. You want a Realtor® familiar with available real estate in Plano Texas and the surrounding area.

MLS listings on a Plano Texas real estate site are only a beginning and may only increase your confusion. You will have questions like what is the neighborhood like. Are the residents mostly families with kids or retired couples? Are museums close by? How far away is downtown? And so on.

Find a Realtor® concerned about your wants and needs and those of your family.

Russell Cantwell is editor of http://www.north-texas-homes.com Visit Plano Texas Real Estate Agent for more on how to pick the right Realtor.

BMX Parks are either made of wood or they come in concrete forms. In most cases, the parks meant for BMX riders are council supplied parks made of metal. The style of riding determines whether the parks are made of wood or concrete. Parks made of wood are apt for technical rides while concrete allows a fast flowing style. Riders who are always in look for gaps and have an aim to fly from the coping generally like the hasty style.

Parks for BMX riders - places to try out skills

In most concrete parks, you are sure to come across several bowls and pools. However, if you prefer you can even merge the two riding styles inside one particular park form. Most concrete parks for BMX riders are built outdoors for their capacity to endure years of several climactic withering and torturing. Building a concrete park is quite an expensive venture for which contributions from different sources are put together to give form to such a concrete open space.

Most commercial BMX squares are made of wood. Some of the reasons for this have been successfully listed below.

1.-Wooden parks are more easy to construct

2.-Materials required for the construction are easily available

3.-The cost of construction is comparatively less

4.-It is safer to fall on wood then on concrete. You will not be severely injured

5.-If the park is particularly meant for BMX riders, it should have steel coping, which cannot be easily damaged

Quarter pipes, spines, flat banks, wall rides, mini ramps and hips are some of the common obstacles included in the wooden parks meant for BMX riders. Irrespective of the fact that whether you are an inexperienced beginner or an experienced old hand, the parks present opportunities for riders of every level.

There are some parks specifically meant for novice and children while the others allow challenging jumps for more talented and in-art riders. These specific riding domains have provisions for more than forty jumps along with several banked turns.

Throughout the year, BMX riders are allowed to practice their skills on the park during the early hours of the day. Riders when practicing within the park should wear helmets and when juniors practice, they should be kept under the strict supervision of the seniors.

A park for the BMX riders can be both privately or public owned. If you enter a private BMX or state park, you have to pay admission fees. On the other hand, parks with no private ownership will charge you nothing. You will get to see private BMX or state parks within buildings with tall ceilings, roller rinks or warehouses.

If you are an expert BMX rider, you make sure to practice your techniques inside a state park as a means to sharpen your skills.

Robert Sheehan is a freelance writer and co-owner of

http://www.bicycles-are-us.com Visit Robert And

read more about bicycles at

http://www.bicycles-are-us.com/BMX-Bikes.html

Are you sick and tired of working every day from 9 to 6, getting up early in the morning, enduring traffic jams, spending little time with your loved ones and dealing with the stress of stupid coworkers and irritating bosses? If you are, then affiliate marketing provides the perfect solution for you to work from home and earn more than you would at a regular job! This guide will teach you how you can leverage your Internet connection into a massive money-making empire that will earn you hundreds ever day!

When it comes to business opportunities, work from home can be very well paid. Affiliate marketers are people who work online and make a living by promoting other products. It is very similar to selling a product of your own, except that you don’t need one - you simply choose an existing product to work with and gain a hefty commission for every buying customer you refer. Most products pay you $10-$30 for every sale you make, so the opportunities for massive financial gain are quite high.

As an affiliate marketer, you don’t have to deal with any issues arising from product refunds or even have an inventory of the product - normally, all of these issues are handled by the owner of the affiliate program. In fact, all you will need to do is visit Clickbank and choose the right product for you, then set up a site and start promoting it! In short, pick a good product to promote and take advantage of your online business opportunities; work from home afterwards to bring more visitors and reach a high position on Google.

Once you have a steady stream of visitors to your site, you will start making sales. Better still, since all the sales are handled automatically, you won’t have to get involved in managing your site - once it’s up and running, you can forget about it and it will make you money every day with no effort from your side! This is why affiliate marketing is one of the most popular online business opportunities - work from home will create passive income for you, so you can expand your online empire without having to maintain it!

What this means for you is that you will be able to spend more time with your loved ones, take a vacation, have a few beers with your mates - all while your business continues to make money for you. When it comes to business opportunities, work from home can bring enormous rewards and free up more time than you ever thought possible!

You can find 6 best ways to make money online at George Blackwell’s Home Income Opportunity Online website here!

Back on Base
(Part Three, to:”…a Heart and Soul”)

1/36th Artillery, Augsburg, Germany)

The barracks on base were like three story dormitories, folks at the military base, especially Bruce (a close friend to Ski, and me) asked about Ski-, what happened, what took place that sorrowful day in Garmish (he had only heard he died of a would to the neck by a wolf), I didn’t say anything, and simply gave him and the others curious military personnel, that asked, gave them: a sweet and sour (little) conspiring smile. I really felt like escaping, not talking about it.

The following days and weeks, I found myself discharged, with hardly no energy, laying about in my room in the barracks when ever I could, and out in the hallways watching out of the windows, leaning on the window ledge (bottom of the frame) string into the cold rain and dim skies throbbing around the barracks, as November crept into December, and we were but a week or so away from Christmas. I called Chris Stewart up, my girlfriend. We had been dating a while now, a German-Jew, and I suppose she listened to me, feeling obliged to. At about that point, I felt peculiar. She had asked me “Don’t you feel good?” She whispered it, barely moving her lips, one evening.

“No,” I said, “I feel bad” luckily for me it was a quiet month on base.

For the most part, I became frightfully understanding about human nature, at its raw point, and so would you have. I often think it’s curious how people hold things inside of them, it has to have some kind of effect on them mentally if not physically, it has to come out somehow sideways in a persons behavior, this I believed to be so very true, and if we had more people to talk to, friends, we’d put the psychologist, or therapist out of business. Well, I understand some aspects of human nature pretty soundly now. There of course is a shade of irony in all this.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

One of the most fundamental issues we all have to deal with in our day to day lives is time management. We all know it’s important and some of us manage better than others. Hopefully what I have to say today will help refine your skills in this area, or even remind us of what is important to provide breakthrough for many of us who need to improve this area of our lives.

How often do you tell yourself you don’t have time for the things that are special and important to you because they may not be the ‘productive’ things. They may be things you do for pure enjoyment, but your workload keeps you too busy to do what you enjoy. Who gave you those rules to live by? Isn’t that a very limited way of living your life? Who said you only get to enjoy your life or be creative when you’re on holidays or when you retire, or when you get married or have kids.

Take the time to enjoy everyday. How??? Plan it and follow through.
I am one of those people who perpetually sets myself up for failure because my ‘To Do’ list was long, perpetual and unachievable. I didn’t work out my priorities or balance very well.

I am a very big advocate for balance, body, soul and spirit. Have you noticed how your productivity reduces when you are unwell, overtired or distracted by something?

Let’s begin to explore what can make a difference such that our time management provides time for boosting our self esteem because we’re getting through our workload and we still have time for the other important things for ourselves and our families.

1: Decide what is important. Decide what’s urgent. Within that decide what a healthy balance for your life is, i.e. sleep, exercise, diet, prayer, finances, projects, hobbies, family time, personal time etc. Also decide what’s not important or urgent. Perhaps for you it’s reading the paper everyday for an hour, too many emails, computer games, etc. You don’t have to cut these things out, but if they are unproductive, set limits on the time of day, and for how long you will do that. Manage and deal with the important things more regularly, and you’ll start to find you have less and less urgent things. Have you always been someone who leaves things to the last minute? Did you write your school essays the night before they were due? Break these tasks down into smaller pieces and start dealing with them a bit each day, and it takes less effort to finish. Give yourself permission to do just a bit, then finish another day. This way, in the course of a day, you’ll have a lot of productivity on a variety on tasks, and can rest easier with what you’ve done. A little bit of discipline goes a long way.

2: Structure what an ideal day would look like, and don’t beat yourself up if your day to day life looks nothing like that. What would be a great balance for you? What are aspects need to be incorporated for you to live a live of balance and fulfillment? What are you doing now that doesn’t fit in to your most productive and fulfilling ideal? Can you just drop it, or delegate it? Is what you’re doing now providing the most bang for your buck with your time? You can spend money and make more, but we can’t spend time and make more. Become a better steward of your time and learn to use it more wisely. Guilt is unproductive. Don’t indulge in feeling guilty about wasted time. Resolve to improve, and take action.

I had a job where I realized it was using all my time and energy and preventing me from moving in the direction I consider my purpose and destiny. I also realized there are other things I could be doing which for the energy I expend would yield a greater financial and personal reward. However I wasn’t in a position to just drop one thing in favour of the other. I still needed basic cash flow. A dilemma you may think. Perhaps, but there is an opportunity within that for me to grow as a person in my skills and faith and rise up to meet the challenge. I moved myself within my industry to a position where I am self employed and can take on a sub-agent to do a lot of the running around for me.

I structure my new habits and day such that I get some writing and exercise done. I create habits such that each day of the week has different minor responsibilities, so none of the minor but important things remain undone (i.e., bill paying, phone calls, and otherwise procrastinated tasks). You may think that sounds limiting, but it’s not. Things get done and it creates a loose structure to leave me time to do the things I enjoy and are important to me, like leaving my weekends free to enjoy quality time with my fiance. Like everyone else I have good days and bad days, and some days I still get distracted. But everyday is a new day.

So what I’m suggesting is decide what is important, then create the habits and structures within your day to day life, one new habit or routine at a time to create this life where your productivity and time management are a true reflection of who you are, and all you can be. Start your list today, and then break it down. Add to it as required. Go for it! You can master time management, one step at a time.

Yours positively
Danick Buskermolen

Life Coach Danick Buskermolen (http://www.maximisedfreedom.com) is a graduate of Hart Life Coaching and a charter member of Life Design Associates specialising in assisting people to breakthrough limitations, define values, philosophies and purpose and live a juicy life by design instead of by default. Danick is has a background as a successful salesperson, beauty therapist, world traveller, lifetime student of personal growth/development and education, graduate of Landmark curriculum, Toastmasters Speechcraft, author, poet, speaker and a committed Christian. For more life changing articles by Danick Buskermolen, please visit http://www.maximizedfreedom.com
for a free subscription to the maximized freedom newsletter ($47 value).

Dead Wolf
(Part Two, to:”…a Heart and Soul”)

(Three weeks later at the Reese Military Compound in West Germany (Augsburg), remembering other brief
Fragments of what took place that day on the hill in Garmish)

I remember just before I left the scene, the police were all about, a noiseless moment filled my brain, the wolf looked smudgy-eyed at me, funny I thought then, it staring idiotically into his face; I moved about but the eyes, its eyes, the wolf’s eyes only followed me-; appalled I was, how wrinkled his face shriveled up to be, in such a short period of time. There was a live human soul in them eyes, I swear there was. I lit up a cigarette, the smoke pushed it way to the wolf, blocking his stare, its fixed grin. It all made me furious I remember now, all like a weird dream-honeycombed nightmare.

The silence in his eyes, depressed me, or perhaps it was my silence. I know perfectly well the police were making noise around me, the crime area, but I couldn’t hear them, I was numb-couldn’t hear a thing, nothing at all.

The mountains, and the valley and Garmish itself was all there around me, but I might have not been there at all for all the good it did me.

There I stood, dumb as an ox. Then a police officer with a crispy voiced said something sharp-”Mr. Siluk!” And I knew I had zoned out, and came back to an awareness of where I was.

The Officer mumbled something-I can’t remember what, while the other voices went on hissing.

I at first I had an impression it was evening, but it was really only 2:00 PM, daylight all around me-’when would this day ever end,’ I asked myself.

I had gone back to my hotel room, more like a cubicle, old style European.

The maid came by, her skin brushed against me, as she fixed the towels on her cart-at the same time handing me two, saying, “I already took the used ones out an hour ago…!” Her flesh was warm, and evidently hadn’t heard of what happened to Ski, “Where is your buddy…?” she asked. It accrued to me then, he was flirting with her also, but I couldn’t answer the question of where he was, not yet anyways.

She looked out the window before going into another hallway, to her right, stopped abruptly, took a closer look-downward (some activity), stared, then dropped her head forward, the shifting of her hair fell into her face like roots of tree. Evidently, she had seen Ski being brought back on a stretcher, on the way to the morgue I would guess. I drew back against the door, I felt weak myself. I decided deep down I would be loyal to Ski and the innocent wolf-and quickly I shut the door, so I’d not have to explain anything more.

When I woke up the next morning, I had slept fifteen-hours straight, I dressed quickly and splashed water on my face, it was a sunless morning, hazy, cold morning. I kind of expected to see Ski lying down in the bed next to me-he of course was not there, thus, concrete testimony to my reality, he was dead.

The hallway was empty, carpeted the length of the hall, red with square and curly designs in black.

Many things flashed back and forth in my mind, such as: the new Ski, how he spoke so gently, and quenched voice, somewhat; I even saw on his face a hesitant trust. Here I was no longer on familiar ground (nearly for certain, not knowing what next would happen); the tugging of the beast at the neck of Ski, that was a moment before a gentle beast; had I not known Ski I might have said his brain simply slowed down, suppressing something; the wolf was to the contrary, and reassured me this was not the case-the contrasts were too strong and too many. The wolf also produced at its death an unreformed grin (so I felt); the wolf seemed to accept death gratefully.

In all fairness, I have little choice but to leave the issue indefinite.
I’m, so sorry to the reader, I should be so unreliable, but you can understand the whole matter was hard for me to assimilate.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com