Eddie's mistake cost him another thousand miles and $800. Crime scene cleanup spoiled him his first year. Now, eight years into it, he wondered if he could fill his gas tank from week to week. Worse, his Internet work went poorly since the tunnel carpel syndrome set in. But it did not matter. He watched his Internet subscription calls drop dramatically within one year. "At least those web sites won't cost me any more work."

"It's not the competition," he told himself. It's something else. Eddie knew that something else sounds, looks, and smells like Orange County's racket. Cronyism had invaded his country, and just like Russia and Tijuana. Like Russia and Tijuana, cronyism has its hooks in our local governments. "No number of web sites will beat this blood-sucking monster in our political fabric," he figured.

"What else?", he thought. "I can grab the top 3 organic positions just about anywhere in a reasonable time. It does no good," he told his subscribers. "I'm out of this line of Internet business promotion."

Had he known 20 years before that life could turn this hard, he would have learned a marketable trade. "Too late now," he mumbled to himself.

By the end of summer Eddie knew winter's icy roads spelled trouble. Colorado's black ice north of Alpine remained a threat even during the day. His life now threatened by winter's ice, could he somehow survive without crime scene cleanup work out of state? With enough of a grub-steak, he could take time out, learn a new trick. He could write a crime scene cleanup book and use it for something. At least he would have his mind on writing; not getting squashed by a tractor-trailer.

His mind drifted to farm workers and their struggle to survive. Few people in the United States worked so hard for a living and earned so little. New like a farm worker, he realized the United States was no land of milk-and-honey for the hard working. It's the liars, thieves, and cheats that get ahead. It didn't matter if they work in the competitive sector, monopoly sector, or the government sector. Their tentacles reached through economic sectors. Now he knew Orange County's government more resemble Tijuana's government than others.