Self-employed means not working?

So I am self employed through the sole owner of three companies, and a 98% owner of a 4th company.  I work Monday through Friday 0600 to 1800 hours and Saturday from 1200 to 1600 hours.  And I could work more if I had the time and no family or dog!  I do try to take Sunday off.

But I have acquaintances and others think that I don’t work and have all the free time in the world to do things for them.  At not cost to them, and often cost to me in gas/car maintenance, and sometimes significant time cost.   I get asked if I am busy.  They know I am the owner of 4 active companies, all of which require my time and effort to make them work.  And I charge a lot of money per hour to the company when I work for that company!

So if you are self employed you can take off all the time you want to do things for them, at cost to you (aside from the missed billable hours to the companies) often?

I don’t get it.  It is a job, and often requires more time than if you were working for someone else.  In fact, not often, but almost 100% guaranteed that you will be working time if self-employed than if you were working for someone else’s company, and often won’t get paid for some of that time as well.

Yes, Monday through Saturday, during normal weekday hours, and that includes Saturday as I cut grass in the morning before I get to work (yes, work is in my upstairs office, but when I’m there, I’m working!!), I am BUSY!!

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Back in the saddle!

I am currently 64 (and almost halfway to finishing my 65th year) and for most of my life, I have only slept between 2 and 4 hours a night.  About 13-14 years ago my sleep increased to as much as 8 hours of sleep.  I thought it was just because I was getting older.

During that last 13-14 years, my back pain, neck paid, numbness in my arms and legs, were increasing.   In 2023 I had neck surgery in which a couple of new disk, in the form of “cages” as the Neurosurgeon called them, were put in my neck to replace a couple of disk.  My arm issues went away!  At the end of December 2024 I had MAJOR back surgery in which some rods, pins, new disk were installed.  This brought back all normal sensations to my legs and lower body.  The back and neck pains are gone.  And over the last 4 or 5 months, my sleep has reverted back to 3-4 hours of sleep a night and being totally rested when I get up, ready to go.

It seems my body was putting me in “recovery” mode these last years to try to heal itself.  It took the surgery though, and now that my body, a bit over a year later from the last surgery, has pretty much recovered (MRI/xRays all look great and well advanced in healing and bonding of the metal parts is well advanced), my body is no longer trying to force a reset and healing process, and letting my sleep be like it was.

This means that I have been getting up 3-4 hours after going to bed and heading up to my “office” or to my smithing/3D work room to work.  Because of this, I have taken some code I have been working on from,  which is available at SecComSol.com for download and use, V0.1 to V6.0, and soon to be released (like within the next 48 hours from this post) V7.0.

In the 3D production side, I have been producing a TON of prints for re-sale and personal use!  You can check some of those at my DGSmithing.com website!

Add to that, I have been back to studying Philosophy and Theology on my own again!

I have even been able to get back to walking progressively longer walks, exercising, weight lifting and such.  And, shocker of all shockers, I’ve been considering beginning to run.  (And historically I’ve not been a runner ever…)  That said, I will probably just start riding my newish bike instead, in a progressive distance growth mode.  IE;, start out with “short” rides and grow the distance I ride more and more as I go.  I will keep the walks as well, as my Belgian Malinois needs to go for walks as well!

It feels SOOOOOOOOOO good being back in the saddle and doing the things I enjoy!

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Has the time to “Celebrate” the Christmas Season shifted?

For me, and historically in the US, the start of the Christmas Season, at least the start of the Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving, was when Santa Claus arrived at the Grandstand in front of Macy’s main door in New York New York on Thanksgiving Day.

This is when stores started putting up, and selling Christmas decorations, and people actually started saying Merry Christmas.  Over the last several years the decorations came out in quickly grown spurts as early as Halloween, and in a few cases even earlier.

This year, 2025, it seems that while the decoration and Christmas “supplies” started coming out shortly after Halloween, it wasn’t as heavy as it has been.  In fact, at least here in Florida, while stores had decorations out for sell, few actually had decorations out to “decorate” the store and make it look festive.

In the neighborhood I live in, less than half of the people that had decorations up last year, had them up this year.

From Thanksgiving, I heard only 2 people say Merry Christmas, or even Happy Holidays, to today, Christmas Day, unless I said it first, which I did frequently.  I had one person 5 days ago tell me, after I said Merry Christmas, “It’s not Christmas Day yet, too early to say that.” .  Since when?

Has the Christmas Spirit left the World to a degree?  How many people celebrate the “Reason For the Season”, the Birth of Jesus Christ?

Merry Christmas folks, and a Happy New Year to come soon!

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An Update on Things in this branch of the Bell Family!

Well, the 3D printer has kicked into high gear!  I have over 1200 hours printing various things on it!  You can see some of those prints at DGSmithing and Production with more coming weekly!  (In fact, a couple more being added today!)  Yep, I have created a new company and have begun making a new stream of income!!  This is “secondary” to Secure Computer Solutions Company which has, as posted earlier, kicked into high gear as well.

Secure Computer Solutions Company has released it’s first release to Android via Google Play Store (search there for CBClient) and will soon be releasing the same product on iOS (iPhone/Apple Tablet), with Windows, Linux and MacOS already available as well.  The CodeBook System, consisting of CBClient and CBManagern (available for Windows, Linux and MacOS) applications, is currently in release V2.0.1 and will soon be updated to V2.1 with some maintenance tasks added for user initiated cleanup processes.

Open Enterprise Corp, a company I created to provide Business Consulting processes and minor funding to startup companies is doing well as well!

I have been diagnosed as clear of Adult Onset Diabetes and have gotten MUCH closer to my 220 pound body weight goal at the same time!  YEE HAA!!

I had some MAJOR surgery on my lower back (six screws, two rods and several “cages” between disks in the spine) back at the end of December 2024, and am moving around pretty good.  My lower body has feeling again, I am no longer having GI issues I had for over 30 years, and I am back to sleeping only a couple hours a night (hence working on this page at 0300 hours) feeling good and rested again!  I am able to jog with my dog (not much, not fast and not hard, but starting slow, and I hate to run anyway…) and do longer and longer walks with the Wife and dogs.

Circular Wind Ryu is coming back on line and accepting new Students as well.  With my back this area took a bit of a back burner, more back simmer mode, but it is now time to ramp it back up and grow the Student Base even more!  Come on by!!

Things are moving along pretty fast and well for me  here!

Delia has a new(ish) job at a new (to her) Rehab Hospital as the Administrator/CEO and is enjoying it, but very busy with it!

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CBClient LIVE on Google Play Store!

Our company Complete Computer Solutions Company has released the premier product, CBClient – The CodeBook System, is now officially available on the Google Play Store as a free download. This new release supports Android 13 and higher, on both phones and tablets.

CBClient includes a fully functional DEMO mode, allowing you to explore and evaluate all core features before purchasing a license. When you’re ready, licenses can be purchased directly from the Shop on our website. Once a license is activated on your device, no additional fees are required for continued use on that device.

To use the system within a group environment, at least one member must have CBManager in order to create and manage CodeBooks for the team. With CBClient, you can now receive your encrypted CodeBook messages securely on your Android device—giving you convenient, on-the-go access even when away from your computer.

Download CBClient today and experience the power of The CodeBook System anywhere you go.

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I have a new Hobby!! 3D Printing

At the end of August of this year I decided to bite the bullet and do something I’ve been thinking about for a LONG time!!  I decided to buy a 3D Printer.

I purchased a higher end Bambu Lab H2D printer, with two AMS 2 Pro units (Automatic Material System, a system that allows use of 4 different spools of filament at one time and changes between them as needed in your print) and a Four Spool Filament Drier (filament retains moisture from the air, and to print you want none or as close to none as possible in the filament).  The H2D has two print heads and a wide, compared to most non-professional 3D Printers, and is somewhat quiet and doesn’t shake as bad as some I have watched work.

I am having a blast with it.  I started using it roughly the 29th of August and have over 500 hours of printing on it already. Some things I have printed so far:

 

Each layer of the above rack is 4 sections of printing, one per spool.  Total time to do that full rack (top to bottom) and another full rack (top to bottom but only 6 layers) took about 135 hours of print time.

Eight Reindeer plus Rudolph!

Hollow Jack-O-Lantern with a tea cup light in it.

These are just some of the things I’ve made.  No end in sight!! 😉

I will probably turn this into a new stream of income in the near future, but for now I’m having fun making tools, gadgets, holiday trinkets and flowers for the wife!

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The World Is Falling Apart…

Day by day the world seems to be in a downward spiral and is falling apart. Humanity has lost all sense of morals, rightful compassion, and understanding.

Many of the leaders, rulers, and official government employees seem to think that only they should be in the money, in 100% charge of all things, and that they should control everything to their benefit.

Here in the US, our Congress thinks that they are in charge, and not the population that put them in their seat. I have news for them, they are NOT officially in charge! We the people are. And they need to start understanding that and remembering that, and start work FOR the people of the US and NOT themselves as they have been from many years. When we, the United States of America, went to war with, and won, the King of England, the Constitution, which set up the Congress, the President, and the Judicial department of the government, did not intend for the Congress to be a life time job. It was for Citizen representatives to come in for a short time and help govern, at the direction of their districts in their home state, the government and help establish the laws that were needed nationally. These positions were not intended to be life time jobs in which the person got rich off of grafts, lobby money, and insider information. Which is what these folks, all sides of the spectrum, appear to be doing, getting rich on their position. This needs to stop, and stop now. We need to return the full Congress to the Citizens of the US, and only have a person there for no more than two, this can be adjust to where it makes since but two sounds right to me, terms. Also, without a vote of the people of the US, pay raises for Congress members (both House and Senate) should not be randomly granted to the members by the members.

Over the mast many years, Socialism has been tried in several nations around the world. The nations that have attempted this have ALL but died out over the principals of socialism, and the only people that “survive” with any hint of success are the leaders, yet, here in the US, we have MANY people trying to turn the US into another attempt at what has not work to date. The concept, over all, has some merit, but the implementation is not valid, and there is no strong way to validly make it work. We should not be allowing these kinds of policies and process to even get a foothold in the US, but have gone VERY far down that road and it looks like it is happening sooner than later now-a-days. Not good.

Each nation has the right to protect themselves from outsiders, decide who can come into their nation, and how long that can stay, etc. This can and should probably include fences and guard post. Yes, in almost ALL cases, a nation was acquired through war of the years. That war lead to the acquisition of lands that at one time were owned by another nation or group. Some land was bought from one nation by another nation. After that conquering or purchase, the land has a new owner. The nation that now owns the land now has the ability to set the rules of that land, who can come and go, who has access to the countries rights, etc. They also have the right and OBLIGATION to protect that land from invasion from people of other nations who try to enter without permission to enter. And if that person enters ILLEGALLY, they now should have no rights to “due process”. They gave those rights up by coming in illegally. I have no problem with a person entering into the US by applying for a “VISA”, getting permission, moving here, finding a job, or creating a company and earning money, then applying for citizenship and becoming an US Citizen. I ADMIRE a person that does that, and that is how my family made it into the US, as did most of the non-native Americans (American Indians) here in the US. On that front though, if you become an US Citizen, you need to adopt to the culture of the US and BECOME an US Citizen in all ways. Learn our language, fly OUR flag, and live like a North American instead of where you came from. My family history is predominately Irish, but *I’m* not Irish-American, I’m American! If your heritage came from Africa and you are an US Citizen, you are not African-American you are American! Replace your home country for that position. If you are here visiting, you are from your home country, but once you become a citizen of the US, you are North American… Dual citizenship is a bit different, but when in this country you are this country, when you are your original nation you are that nation. (Make sense?) If you enter a nation illegally, you are an illegal alien NOT an “undocumented immigrant”. You are not an immigrant, you are a trespasser and here illegally, and have no rights from the US to fall back on.

Enough ranting for today, but more to come soon!

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Worse PAIN in my life!

Over my 63 years of life, I have done many things that have caused physical pain in my life. I’ve done things that have required that I have 17 surgeries to my left knee, including three replacements of that same knee, broken bones (and re-braking two to re-set them), stupid things (but fun) that led to neck surgery (and recovery) where three titanium disk were put in, and most recently led to having lumbar surgery in which six screws, two rods and eight cages were put in my lower back.

Last week (as I write this) I started having lower back pain in the lumbar region again, and it included numbness to the left leg, kinda like before my lumbar surgery. But slightly different. By Thursday, that pain was the worse pain I have EVER felt in my life!! I could not get comfortable in ANY position, sitting, laying (in any position), or standing. It was taking my breath away as well. I took a left over pain pill from the back surgery (which I didn’t use after I got home from the back surgery…), and it barely, if at all relieved the pain.

Finally I asked Delia to take me to the VA-ER in Tampa. That ride was painful, couldn’t get comfortable at all, and the pain was intensifying! (Which should have been hard to do, as it was pretty intense before I got in the car!) It seems I had a pretty big kidney stone. Interestingly, shortly after they gave me an injection of pain relief and steroids (not a fan of steroids, but if it was going to help…), I apparently passed the stone, right before going in for a CAT scan. The scan showed a exit path of the stone and the massive damage it caused to said path on the way out. Luckily they didn’t have to do anything to get it to pass, and the pain is gone now, but WOW that whole event was painful!

Hope that was my first and LAST time of having a kidney stone!

Kidney Stones

Ouch, they hurt!

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Happy Thanksgiving! And soon, Merry Christmas!

As the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade starts (music JUST started on TV!) Delia and I would like to wish everyone a safe, fun filled, Thanksgiving Day and week!

And with the crossing of Santa Clause in front of the Macy’s store, I will officially say the commercial “Merry Christmas”, as historically, his crossing the “screen”, was the beginning of the Christmas Season!  Spiritually the beginning of Advent, the Holy Season of “Christ Mass” starts Saturday evening at sunset.  Then you will earnestly here me say Merry Christ Mass!

You all have a blessed season of festivities and family, but remember the true meaning of both today, Thanksgiving (the thanking of a new land and new experience), and Christmas (the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ)!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

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Abortion – Why Do It – Why Not Do It?

The topic of abortions is an ongoing battle over the past 30 or so years.  It was less of such a hot topic 40+ years ago.

Do I think abortions should be medically allowed?  Over all no, not morally, medically or spiritually need in most cases.  IF there are medical reasons to do so for either the mother or the child, I see a possibility of going for an abortion if there will be significant issues with carrying through with the pregnancy that will cause significant medical harm, including death, to either the child or the mother that could lead to death or majorly pour health.  This would be the mothers choice, with agreement from the spouse (he should be involved, he was part of the process before), and the Doctor.  Notice I said medical harm, not because of found potential birth defects.  If it is shown in pre-birth testing that the child will have a club foot or some other such issue, I do not think it is a valid reason.

Medical Doctors USE to take a oath, the Hippocratic Oath, many medical schools no longer do so.  Many people wrongly think this oath obligates the Doctor to “do no harm”.  That is actually not the case.  But it does say that (s)he will do all they can to not do harm as is medically possible.

Based on my moral standards, which are from the Judeo-Christian leaning, once the child is conceived, they are now a human and have their own rights and life, and must be considered human and treated as some.  The mother (and father) now must consider this in their actions.  Their chance to control the birth of the child ended at the act that led to the act of conception.  At this point, unless there is a medical reason that REQUIRES the end of the birthing cycle, to take the child’s life is now murder in my books, and by the original laws as well.

Now, people are saying that the Constitution allows for it.  Please show me where this is the case!?  I don’t see it in the Constitution at all, in fact, I see that the human life is protected from murder…

All this said, the major issue on this right now is rather or not the Federal Government can control this issue.  NO IT CAN’T here the Constitution CLEARLY states that the States are in control of this issue, NOT the Federal Government.

Now, if a State decrees that abortion is allowed for any reason at any time, just means I won’t be living in, or concisely supporting that State.

Enjoy Life, and let your pre-birth child enjoy theirs! 🙂

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