This is one of my favorite videos of when Erik was little. The expressions on his lovely face over his newborn brother, Lukas, are priceless. I especially like the part when Erik holds Lukas in his lap. It’s kind of weird to look at videos of the “living Erik” because I find myself thinking, “Little did we know.” Does that happen with you other parents who have lost children? 

By the way, I’m in detective mode now. Here’s the story. I had been using a company called TruGreen to take care of my lawn, shrubs and trees, but over the 3 to 4 years+, I noticed everything was slowly dying. So I sent in a soil sample for analysis and it showed that the N-P-K levels (nitrogen, phosphorus, potash) were negligible. WTF? They’re supposed to have been fertilizing my lawn and shrubs! So I told them, and they volunteered to send one of their horticulturalist to do an inspection. The result: my plants were infested with insects and fungus. Again, WTF? They’re supposed to be spraying for that! And with the N-P-K levels so low, no wonder they’re susceptible to disease! I canceled service and took over everything myself. The shrubs began to look so awesome under my care that UPS drivers, neighbors and Instacart deliverers would all comment on how beautiful they were.

I submitted my complaint to customer service 2-3 times but didn’t receive an answer. So, I submitted that same complaint to the BBB (Better Business Bureau.) THEN, manager David Hannan contacted me, eager to rectify things. He offered to replace all the plants they had killed and give me one year of free service. Okay, yes to the plant replacement and a big HELL NO to the year of service because I can’t afford to lose more shrubs. 

After having to be reminded a few times, he finally replaced the dead knockout roses (which are actually hard to kill,) but a few days later, I noticed all the shrubs juxtaposed to the newly planted ones were looking sick. Their leaves were curling up,  turning yellow and dropping and the blooms were falling off, too. Clear signs of herbicide poisoning. I emailed David to let him know of my suspicions and that I was going to submit the dying leaves, blooms and a soil sample to a forensic lab to confirm those suspicions, but I said that if he confesses and rectifies the damage, then, being a believer in second chances and understanding that all humans make mistakes, I told him I wouldn’t proceed with the analysis. He didn’t respond until I emailed him again, adding that lawyers, TruGreen Corporate and my contacts at the local new station would be notified. Then he left an email on my cell, asking to speak on the phone. Another hell, no. Doing that would leave no record. I told him I would only speak to him via email and that I would give him until Saturday morning or the sample would be shipped to the lab. No response yet. Check this out:

Evidence #1

Evidence #2

My vacation ends soon, so next week, it’s back to new material! Alan Watts is on deck. I don’t know much about him, but I know a lot of you guys have requested him as an interviewee. I don’t even know what he looks like! Thanks so much for keeping emails and Facebook private messages to a minimum, guys. That means a lot because it had gotten to the point where it was taking 3-4 hours a day to answer them all! Phew!

Here is Erik around the same age as in the video, maybe a bit older. How could I not miss something like this?:

Thanks you to everyone who has donated to the CE cause to help cover overhead. I’m having to fix some website issues so that’ll cost me $585! It’s the cost of doing business, though. But your donations help a lot. If you enjoy the blog, YouTube videos and radio show but haven’t donated yet, please consider it because equal energy exchange is good for the soul. No amount is too little, and I will never accept donations to the point that I get a net profit!