Dear Friends and Patriots.

Does the subject line read as a come-on for a few of your bucks? I assure you it's not. I live well within my means, so I'm not shilling for shekels.

Does it maybe infer I need help around the house, doing things like painting, power washing my house, or planning out a thousand board feet of seasoned oak? Yeah, I do need some help with those things, but if they start to bother me, I'll either do them or hire someone. So, don't think I need the kind of help that's going to make you sweat.

Okay, now that I'm done, let me tell you what I need. It's very simple. Just tell me the link below either works for you or doesn't. I'm not even asking you to watch the video, though that would please me even more. I just need to ensure that everyone can connect to the video. Some have already said it doesn't work. Others say Vimeo asks them to set up an account. I think that could be true, but I don't think establishing a Vimeo site account has any fee. I know I log in via my Google account. It seems that Vimeo, like Facebook, accepts a Google account as sufficient proof of identity. I've never had a problem getting one of the links to work. OBTW – Google accounts and GMail accounts .... those are free, too.

Now, a bit about Stone & Jud, Episode 8. Have you missed it? It was shot over two weeks ago. What happened? I think part of the answer may be apparent if you watch this video. If you recall, the backdrop of previous videos was a picture window and parts of a wall, with a nature scene "outside." This video has a different, more "lofty" backdrop. Angelic might be a good term for it. You'll see me and Jud ... floating on a bank of clouds.

Jud is working on lighting issues that have been plaguing us in our homemade studio, which doubles as my ESIK. I know ESIK is a term realtors use to denote a combined Kitchen/Dining area, so that's really appropriate. My ESIK gets converted into a studio, and I guess until we get our lighting figured out, we're better off living in the clouds. We ARE working on it.

Jud says this episode has more focus to it. I hope so. But, in a way, it doesn't matter. We're still just geezing. We kick around things, as evidenced by some of Jud's commentary and references, but mainly what we do is just turn on the camera, then hold an absolutely extemporaneous conversation. We do make occasional factual errors, like people's names, specific dates, and things that our minds don't retrieve in an accurate way. In the end, we're just doing the best we can with what we have left.

That being said, I don't want anyone to think our observations about the topics we choose are superficial or unimportant. They are neither. We try to address things we believe people don't truly grasp, then give a common-sense dissection of the relevant subjects. One thing we are acutely aware of is that we're doing less than two hours on topics that would require two months to cover with any hopes of accounting for the major questions people may have. Even that would be a cursory examination. What we're doing is just giving you some opinionated, experienced-based highlights and hoping it helps someone answer a few questions.

If any of you has something you want geezed by us, send in a recommendation. If we have anything to address your proposed subject, we'll give you whatever that is. If you ask something we know nothing about, I promise you we'll tell you we don't. Our objective is to talk about experiences and experiential knowledge, not to mislead anyone. We don't mind saying "HUH?" It's better than giving anyone a false impression that we're smart.

I won't linger. This is the link. Do with it as you will.

https://vimeo.com/1223845050

In Liberty,

Steve