I had previously mentioned a problem that I had with one of my clients. He was sending emails asking me to do things for him while I was at home and he wasn't paying for it. I accepted the situation in the beginning because he had been overpaying for work that I did in the office, but this became a problem as his requests escalated.

I have been extremely overworked recently, and that has made these requests more annoying and difficult to fulfill. I became slower in responding, and he started to send 5 or 6 new messages in a short period of time whenever I did respond. This became overwhelming and I started ignoring his messages with a full understanding of the possible repercussions. He could get upset and decide to stop being my client. This could potentially result in the loss of several thousand dollars in future income, but I had reached a point where I didn't care if that happened. I had plenty of other sources of income and this client was draining away my life energy. It just wasn't worth it for me.

We had a meeting today to discuss this, although it wasn't overtly declared as such beforehand. He asked me to come into the office for the usual work that I do, but I knew that a confrontation was imminent. I had not visited the office in 6 weeks and I previously went there once a week. There was a lot of tension built up due to circumstances and it had to be released. As expected, no real work got done today. We spent the time discussing/arguing the situation and came to the conclusion that we should terminate our business relationship.

That should be the end of the story, but it's not. Instead of completely severing all ties, I ended up retaining a role in maintaining the website for his business partner. Under ideal circumstances, that would mean I can escape the "hydra" of emails and still retain a revenue stream from them, but it's too early to determine if this situation can be sustained longterm without further tensions.

The heat has been turned on.

I'm not sure why they are so hard to find. Most of the stores that I go to regularly have other types of trash bags, but they either don't sell recycling bags or they are often out of stock. The exception is the Asian supermarket near my home, but they sell the bags at a ridiculously high price. I am surprised that Whole Foods Market doesn't sell them at all despite selling environmentally friendly biodegradable trash bags. I ordered a case of 200 recycling bags a few days ago, and they should be arriving today. I have a huge mound of junk that has accumulated while searching for recycling bags.

I noticed that I am missing some words when I type. I have omitted entire words several times today. These are words that I believe I typed but didn't. This is probably due to the Monday sleep cycle issues, but it troubles me, because I usually just get tired and irritable without missing words. I am especially troubled by this, because I have observed several elderly people do exactly the same thing several months prior to getting a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease. I don't think that I am getting Alzheimer's but it could still be a sign of brain damage.

The winds are howling in a very unusual way and the lightning/thunder is abnormally intense. I don't see any official news reports about the weather that mention the current storm, but several people who I don't know have reported a tornado on Twitter. It sounds possibly close enough to tear apart my house.

1) At a school Job Fair, I spoke about graphic design work with the owner of an audio store. I told him that I had no prior employment in this area, but it was a hobby of mine. He said that would be OK if I brought samples of my work. Many other people spoke with him at that event and he forgot about me.

A few days later, I had assembled some samples of my best work and was ready to show it to him. I tried calling the store, but he never answered the phone. One of the salesmen answered every time, and he started to recognize my voice. The store was only a few blocks from my home, so I decided to just bring samples of my work and leave it there for the owner to see.

When I entered the store, the salesman who had previously answered my phone calls recognized my voice. I asked for the owner by name without explaining why I was there. The salesman went into the office and they discusses something about my presence, but I did not know right away what they said. The owner asked me to come into his office. He looked at the samples of my work and asked me a few questions. He hired me right away.

As I was leaving, I discovered what the salesman had discussed with the owner. Due to a misunderstanding, they thought I had a previously scheduled job interview that the owner forgot to put into his appointment book. I discovered this when he apologized for forgetting and told me he almost left for the day. I did not correct him.

2) I was at NewLife Expo. This was back when there was more legitimate alternative medicine and less totally obvious quackery. One of the exhibitors was selling massage tools. I am not very social and rarely have lengthy conversations with random strangers, but he was somehow easy to talk to. We got into a discussion about trees. He was a former drug addict who realized that he had to quit drugs while hugging a tree in a drug-induced psychosis. I told him about how I had also recently hugged a tree for a totally different reason. I was studying a type of Chi Kung called Zhang Zuan, which includes a posture called "Embracing the Tree". It's more commonly done without a tree, but it can be done with one, and I had tried it.

We eventually got to the topic of the manufacturing process of the massage tools. He told me that he needed an assistant, because he was an actor and was starting to get a lot of gigs. He didn't have time to manufacture the massage tools. I had recently quit my job at the audio store, because they relocated to NJ and the travel time was 3:30 in each direction. I had no prior experience in sculpting wood or manufacturing massage tools, but he was willing to let me try because he felt that we had some type of spiritual connection. I quickly mastered the sculpting and stayed at that job until he closed the business when he got an acting gig in Costa Rica.

I am suffering withdrawal symptoms. My latest addiction is to online shopping. I get my purchases delivered to a mailbox rental, because I don't have a doorman or anyone else to receive packages at my home. Due to a combination of excessive work and bad weather, I haven't been able to fetch my mail in over two weeks. I could order more stuff to feed the addiction, but I don't like picking up too many packages at once, because bringing them home would be too inconvenient. I once again have a bit of time available to go fetch the mail, but rain is in the forecast again.