Learn How to Repair Your Iron or Aluminum Outdoor Patio Furniture Sets Inexpensively

Consider this scenario: You own an iron, steel or aluminum outdoor patio furniture set that has been faded and torn by the sun’s heat or the Winter’s cold. You barely use it any more because it’s really an eyesore and, because the paint on it is peeling and chipping or the finish is fading, it is not conducive to sitting or using. The patio furniture set cost you upwards of $1,000, maybe more. If you’re like most people, you ignore it by keeping it stashed in the garage or under an awning in the corners of the backyard. Or, perhaps, you decide to donate it and buy a replacement patio furniture set. You never think to repair or refinish it.

Then someone like Shivie Dhillon from Sundial Powder Coatings comes along and tells you that you can have a new patio furniture set for pennies compared to what you paid for it or will pay for a replacement set. You ask how. He answers, as he did to me, that his advanced powder coating process will transform your old and ugly patio furniture set into a “new, just bought from the store” patio furniture set. Most importantly, he adds, you don’t have to treat, repair or refinish your patio furniture every year or even every other year. His powder coating will provide a longlasting, durable, aesthetic finish that will last 10-20 years whether the furniture lives in the most suffocating California heat or in Boston’s freezing Winter temperatures.

The point is that powder coating your outdoor patio furniture set for $200-$300 will save you $10,000 – $20,000 over the course of 10-20 years of use.

What is Powder Coating?

It’s rare that the common person will know exactly what powder coating is and how expansive and inclusive its uses are for every day products and items. Those who have heard of powder coating believe its uses to be strictly geared to motorcycle parts or car bodies.

Shivie Dhillon owns and presides over Sundial Powder Coatings and Quality Screen Printings in Los Angeles. He is on a mission to educate homeowners on the affordability of powder coating and the various uses of powder coating on every day products.

For instance, every day products that can be powder coated include:

• barbecue grills
• clothes dryers
• gas and electric ranges
• microwave ovens
• refrigerators
• water heaters
• aluminum doors and windows
• fences
• garage doors
• shower doors
• office furniture
• porch swings
• snowmobiles
• toolboxes
• bicycles
• outdoor patio furniture sets
• toys
• hammocks and swing stands, and even
• snow shovels.

Shivie Dhillon, managing partner of Sundial Powder Coatings, grew up in southern California’s San Fernando Valley. Shivie’s mechanical, technical and financial expertise allowed him to quickly grasp the complexities of managing a powder coating treatment plant. But it was his budding curiosity and entrepreneurial drive that made powder coating a common term in the home and in the automotive shop.

If you were going to try to re-finish or repair your old patio furniture, you would do it with a spray paint can or a spray gun. Your patio furniture, once dried, would look instantly beautiful. You would be so proud you would invite guests over the next weekend for a barbecue. The guests arrive, sit on the furniture and, after a few hours, the paint begins to chip off. You’re bewildered and embarrassed. What you didn’t know was that retail paints are not high quality paints but, most importantly, the patio furniture contained impurities. You didn’t know you were doomed before you even began and this is why do-it-yourselfers (DIY’s) run out of patience and go buy replacement patio furniture sets year after year.

How Powder Coating Preserves Patio Furniture for 10-20 Years

Sundial Powder Coatings is the first and ONLY powder coating company in southern California to offer a 7-stage water pre-treatment system. It’s an advanced and innovative pre-treatment wash that clears your patio furniture of impurities with pure de-ionized (DI) water running and washing through a 100% stainless steel housing. You could try ot duplicate Sundial’s water pre-treatment process but it would occupy your entire yard and your neighbors entire yard. it would also cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase, manage and operate.

The 7-stage pre-treatment process yields benefits that a spray paint can or most any other powder coating company cannot:

• Toughens the exterior
• Durable and longlasting finish – stands up to hot and cold weather
• Scratch-resistant
• Attractive often glossy finishes
• Colorful finishes
• Highest possible quality
• Versatile
• Environmentally friendly

Shivie says it best: “Unless it’s a 7-stage wash, you may as well spray paint it.” And you now know how longlasting spray painting is.

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If you couldn’t hear it, you could sense it. Red Auerbach yelling along with Doc Rivers to “D up”. You could sense Red saying to Phil Jackson as he attempted to pass his record 9 NBA Championships as a coach: “not in my house, you won’t”, this after the gods of hoopdom or conspirators of Los Angeles Lakers basketball grounded the Celtics airplane for hours at LAX. Seems like something Red would have done.

So, just before midnight last night on June 17, 2008, in the final game that lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes, the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Boston Garden for their 17th NBA Championship with #17 Celtics great John Havlicek sitting courtside to watch. (sorry TD Banknorth but it’s the Boston Garden and will always be the Boston Garden).

In putting away the Lakers in Game 6 last night, the Celtics did not allow the Lakers to score more than 30 points in a quarter until the meaningless 4th quarter. The Lakers averaged 23 points per quarter last night while the Celtics averaged 33 points. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen scored 26 points apiece with Allen tying an NBA record with 7 three-pointers. Rajon Rondo scored 21 points and Paul Pierce scored 17 points with 10 assists while defending Kobe Bryant.

How about this for Celtics defense: 18 steals, 6 by Rajon Rondo, and 3 each by Posey, Ray Allen and Garnett. The Celtics outrebounded the Lakers 48-29, of which the C’s had 14 offensive rebounds to the Lakers 2 offensive boards. The Celtics blocked 4 shots, the Lakers none. The Lakers led in turnovers 19-7 which means Celtics passing was crisp, mistakes few and Rondo in charge. And perhaps the most telling line of the clinching game was that Kobe Bryant was held to 22 points on 7 of 22 shooting. He didn’t exactly have a bad shooting night in that he posted for open shots and just missed. No! He tried to post, he tried to drive and, other than the 1st quarter, could never get enough space for enough time to wreak his airness-like touch.

Speaking of Kobe Bryant, I am reminded of the days in the 1980′s when Larry Bird’s Celtics would play the as-yet-to-be-throned Michael Jordan Bulls in the playoffs. It was not uncommon for Jordan to score over 60 points in a game but it never panicked Bird, Parish or McHale. He would say (paraphrasing) that he was ok with Michael scoring 60 points a game because he was the only component of their team. There was no one on the supporting cast that could score consistently and, above all, the Chicago Bulls didn’t play Championship defense. Well, through the 2008 playoffs, it seemed that a Laker’s victory or defeat was literally in the hands of Kobe Bryant. If Kobe had a good shooting night, they won. If not, the Lakers lost. And this is how it played out in the NBA Finals against the Celtics. Kobe is still, by leaps and bounds, the only consistent scorer on the Lakers. Shut down Kobe Bryant and you can win because no one else on the Lakers can score consistently against a good defense, not Sasha Vujacic, Lamar Odom, Pao Gasol or Derek Fisher. And their defense? What appeared to be decent defense through the 2008 Western Conference playoffs emerged as sub-par in the Championship series against the Celts. The Lakers were not tall enough, quick enough or most importantly, hungry enough (see Ray Allen’s drive against Sasha Vujacic in Game 4).

On the offensive side, the Celtics had consistent and reliable scoring ability up and down the bench: if Pierce scores 10, Ray Allen will score 30. If Allen is off, Garnett steps up. If Garnett is off, Pierce or Allen steps up. If all three of the members of the Boston Three Party have a bad shooting night, they will still play stifling defense with Kendrick Perkins – who was ready to have a monster defensive series until he suffered an ankle sprain and bruised shoulder – and will defer to the a deft-scoring bench such as Rajon Rondo, James Posey, Eddie House, Leon Powe or Sam Cassell.

The problem the Lakers had was that the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers did not take out the Celtics in their Eastern Conference playoff series. The Celtics needed 7 games to get by Atlanta and another 7 games to eliminate Cleveland. The more the Celtics played, the better they got. Remember, this was the first time that the Celtics, as constituted, played together in the playoffs. The team concept gelled in The Finals.

2008 NBA Finals – Clinching Game 6
Boston Garden
Boston Celtics 131
Los Angeles Lakers 92

2008 NBA Finals – Game 5
Staples Center
Los Angeles Lakers 103
Boston Celtics 98

2008 NBA Finals – Game 4
Staples Center
Boston Celtics 97
Los Angeles Lakers 91

2008 NBA Finals – Game 3
Staples Center
Los Angeles Lakers 87
Boston Celtics 81

2008 NBA Finals – Game 2
Boston Garden
Boston Celtics 108
Los Angeles Lakers 102

2008 NBA Finals – Game 1
Boston Garden
Boston Celtics 98
Los Angeles Lakers 88

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Oh Where, Oh Where Will Her Delegates Go?

In Washington on Saturday, June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign and officially endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States. (The campaign suspension allows her to keep her delegates and continue to receive donations to pay down her debt.) It was a complete endorsement. She didn’t hold anything back and urged her supporters to switch to Obama for the good of the Party and the country. Obama didn’t know just how complete an endorsement he would get and one guess is that he is happy and content at the way in which she went about it.

The problem is that many of her supporters see right through Clinton and know that she isn’t thrilled to be endorsing Obama and is still rather miffed at the way in which she (and her husband) were treated by the Democratic National Committee a couple of weeks ago when it decided to count but then halve primary delegate votes from Florida and Michigan. She was counting on those delegates to persuade more super delegates to vote her way and, at the very least, to create momentum for a showdown in Denver.

Although Barack Obama has clinched the nomination by amassing more than the needed 2,118 delegates, she still wields power and influence with her 1,919 delegates. What hasn’t been expected until recently, however, is the power her constituency holds over the election chances of Barack Obama.

So, how will Hillary Clinton’s constituency vote in the November Presidential General Election?

CNN polls report that about 25% of her supporters will not vote at all in November if Clinton is not on the Democratic Presidential ticket. About another 20% or so say they will vote, but not for the Democrats. Instead, they will cast their votes for John McCain, the Republican nominee for President. And McCain couldn’t be happier. He has already gone into action and begun speaking with her base of women, latinos and blue-collar voters with ridiculously political statements like “there is a genuine affection for her here at McCain HQ. During her speech there was no small amount of pleading with the TV: ‘Don’t do it, you can still win!’” and this beauty aimed right for the heart of the Obama campaign balloon: “Sen. Clinton has really grown on us over here in Crystal City over the past few months,” … [she is] an “impressive candidate” who “inspired a generation of women” but “fell victim to a vast left-wing conspiracy that resented her generally centrist foreign policy views.”

If you read CNN.com’s Rebecca Sinderbrand, she leads her story with: “While Sen. Hillary Clinton was endorsing Sen. Barack Obama, some of those weighing in on her campaign Web site were less willing to concede.” So, we went to her website and you can too – Blog.HillaryClinton.com – to read what supporters were writing on their way out the door:

• “I will donate for your web site if you separate your web site from Obama”
• “…many of us are, for now, UNDECIDED, on what we will do.”
• “I am a Obama supportor and hope and pray we can unite together to take back the White House.”
• “I too, along with you Hillary, will work my heart out for Obama.”
• “Thank you for your amazing speech, Hillary. I was moved and inspired by your sincerity. I thought I’d never be able to switch allegiance, but you made it easier by throwing your wholehearted support behind Obama. Once again, women will wait and a man will be in charge, but those ’18,000,000 cracks’ in the ultimate glass ceiling will bring it crashing down some day soon. Thank you for taking a hammer to it for us Hillary. You – and we with you – have truly made history.”
• “I’m with Hillary. Let’s crack the VP ceiling.”
• “Together let’s work our hearts out for Senator Obama!”
• “I hope those who are crying out that they’d rather vote for McCain than Obama are reacting out of hurt and will come to their senses.”
• “I have not been so sure that I could vote Obama come November”…”Come November I will do what is right, for me, for her for the country..I’ll pull that lever for a Democrat.”
• “My vote in November will go to Barack Obama now.”
• “Hillary, we will always support you and be there for you! Please be Obama’s running-mate!”
• “Two people, one America. Hillary will work with Obama for America.”
• “I will listen to the issues and unite around Obama once my mind has completely absorbed all of the events recently.”
• “Wanting a Democrat in office, I will back Obama, as Hillary has asked.”
• It will take me a few days to get there, but I won’t vote for McCain! I will get there for Obama. If she can do it, how could we not.”

We went through about 75% of Clinton blog postings and didn’t find anything shattering to suggest that Clinton supporters were leaving the Democratic Party. It is true that Sinderbrand stated that “some…were less willing to concede” but she purposely led the article with it when 95% of comments support Clinton’s endorsement of Obama to one degree or another. The Sinderbrand article is creating a stir and one must wonder why? Perhaps CNN is trying to get Clinton on the Obama ticket, perhaps CNN is trying to undermine the Obama campaign. Who knows? Only CNN does.

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Delegate totals are current as of the Puerto Rico primary held on June 1, 2008. The Republican nominee needs 1,191 delegates to be nominated and John McCain has already amassed that total. The Democratic nominee ONCE required 2,025 delegates to be nominated but that total changed after Michigan and Florida Democratic primary totals were re-distributed on Saturday, May 31, 2008. The Democratic nominee NOW NEEDS 93 additional delegates bringing the total to be nominated to 2,118 delegates.

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courtesy Fred Palmerino Photography

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Going into the Montana and South Dakota primaries last night, the last night of primaries in this historic presidential primary season of 2008, Barack Obama needed 47 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. It didn’t matter how they came – from pledged delegates or super delegates.

Obama won Montana, winning 56% of the vote and the 9 pledged delegates that come with it. He lost South Dakota but picked up 6 pledged delegates. The combined nightly pledged delegate totaled 15 which left him 32 delegates away from the prize. Then, the super delegates kicked and and pushed him over the top. Within hours of polls closing, 56 super delegates lent their support to Obama that clearly suggested that it’s time to bring the Democratic Primary season to a close and commence focus on the big prize: the contest with Republican presidential nominee John McCain for the Presidency of the United States.

As of today, June 4th, Obama’s delegate totals look like this: 1,765 pledged delegates in addition to 389 super delegates totaling 2,154 delegates. The amount of delegates Obama needed to secure the nomination was 2,118. If you recall, 2,025 delegates were needed to win the democratic nomination until the Michigan and Florida fiascos caused the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee to re-distribute delegate votes.

So, now that Obama is the unofficial Democratic nominee for President of the United States (it will be made official at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in late Summer, August 25-28, is Hillary Clinton the likely selection as Vice Presidential running mate?

Former President Jimmy Carter weighed in on the subject today of a proposed “unity ticket” and called it, in his own words, “the worst mistake that could be made”. His point against Clinton joining Obama’s ticket was that the vulnerabilities of and differences between each other’s platform would be exposed and leveraged against them. He argued that there are already 50% of Democratic voters that will not vote for Clinton and he may be right. Tuesday night, before the Montana and South Dakota polls closed, Clinton mentioned that she would consider the Vice Presidency if it were in the best interest of the Party in November’s general election. then, a little while later, refused to concede the nomination to Obama. Some feel that she is contemptuous of Obama and lacks faith in him as the Party’s leader. Other’s feel that she is the divisive wedge that could lose the Presidency for the Democrats. Stay tuned. McCain will take advantage of this.

Back to Jimmy Carter… Carter thinks many Democrats feel Obama is not white enough for them, is not old enough or even experienced enough to lead U.S. domestic and foreign policy. And the kicker: perhaps his last name sounds too Arab. Carter feels that the combined deficiencies of each candidate would be “the worst of both worlds”.

However, there are those that worry about Clinton loyalists that have pledged to defect to the Republican party after the inopportune re-distribution of votes from the Michigan and Florida primaries, a re-calculation that favored Obama. Carter feels that, strategically, there are better choices, one among them being former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn who served 24 years in the Senate and is now co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Institute, a non-profit that tries to diminish worldwide dangers imposed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. A Georgian through and through, Nunn’s appointment would help Obama in conservative states that voted Republican in 2004. But, then again, the only states that voted Democrat in 2004 Presidential voting were Western, upper Midwest, and Northeast states.

How would a John McCain-Hillary Clinton Presidential ticket be received?

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2008 Presidential Primary Results

IOWA – January 3, 2008

WYOMING – January 5, 2008

NEW HAMPSHIRE – January 8, 2008

MICHIGAN - January 15, 2008

MICHIGAN - updated May 31, 2008

January 19, 2008

NEVADA

SOUTH CAROLINA

SOUTH CAROLINA – January 26, 2008

FLORIDA – January 29, 2008

FLORIDA – updated May 31, 2008

MAINE – February 1, 2008

February 5, 2008 – SUPER TUESDAY

ALABAMA

ALASKA

ARIZONA

ARKANSAS

CALIFORNIA

COLORADO

CONNECTICUT

DELAWARE

GEORGIA

IDAHO

ILLINOIS

KANSAS

MASSACHUSETTS

MINNESOTA

MISSOURI

MONTANA

NEW JERSEY

NEW MEXICO

NEW YORK

NORTH DAKOTA

OKLAHOMA

TENNESSEE

UTAH

WEST VIRGINIA

February 9, 2008

KANSAS

LOUISIANA

NEBRASKA

WASHINGTON

February 10, 2008

MAINE

February 12, 2008

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

MARYLAND

VIRGINIA

February 19, 2008

HAWAII

WASHINGTON

WISCONSIN

March 4, 2008 – Little Super Tuesday – Clinton Survives, McCain Wins Nomination

OHIO

RHODE ISLAND

TEXAS

VERMONT

March 8, 2008

WYOMING

March 11, 2008

MISSISSIPPI

April 22, 2008

PENNSYLVANIA

May 6, 2008

INDIANA

NORTH CAROLINA

May 13, 2008

NEBRASKA

WEST VIRGINIA

May 20, 2008

KENTUCKY

OREGON

May 27, 2008

IDAHO

June 1, 2008

PUERTO RICO

June 3, 2008

MONTANA

NEW MEXICO

SOUTH DAKOTA

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Only Montana (16 pledged delegates) and South Dakota (15 pledged delegates) are left on the Democratic primary schedule, slated for Tuesday, June 3, 2008. According to My Lamppost, Barack Obama is 47 delegates away from clinching the Democratic nomination for President. Hillary Clinton is 203 votes shy and cannot clinch with the two remaining primaries since the total for both equals 31 pledged delegate. Of course, according to delegate rules, the delegates are really the ones to decide at the Denver convention.

It is noted by many journalists and newspapers that Obama has the edge in the Montana and South Dakota primaries and assuming he musters 50% of pledged delegates, he will walk away tomorrow with 16 total pledged delegates, leaving him 31 delegates shy of the finish line. News today came out of Washington that the remaining 17 super delegates from the Senate will pledge to Obama but they will wait until after the final primary day tomorrow to commit and to also give their fellow Senator Clinton time to gracefully leave the race.

Assuming Obama wins 16 pledged delegates tomorrow and then is handed 17 super delegate votes in a few days, his delegate total nears 33, leaving him just 14 delegates shy. At this point or before, Clinton should leave the race. If she doesn’t, look for the DNC powers-that-be to step in to mediate (or mandate, depending on Clinton’s view) a settlement. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, was quoted as saying that there will be resolution by the end of June (read: before her Summer vacation begins). Clinton surely believes she will fare better against McCain and has the demographic support in the Democratic party that Obama doesn’t. Would would-be Clinton voters really vote McCain if she isn’t hte nominee? We’ll see. Would Clinton accept the VP role if offered by Obama? Or will she take the battle all the way to the Denver convention? Out of pressure, the odds are that she won’t take this to Denver. it will be an interesting talk between Pelosi and Clinton if this goes another 30 days.

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On Saturday, May 31, 2008, the Democratic Rules and Bylaws convened to decide if to or how to distribute Michigan and Florida Democratic primary delegate counts.

If you recall, the Michigan and Florida Democratic primaries were held sooner than were planned and the DNC penalized both states deciding at the time to not count any of the totals. Therefore, at the time, neither Clinton nor Obama walked away with additional delegates as a result of those primaries.

However, at the time, both states held their own primaries and Clinton won both, 55% of the vote in Michigan equaling 69 delegates and 50% of the vote in Florida amassing 105 delegates. At the time, John Edwards was still in the running (he quit the day after the Florida primary, on Wednesday, January 30, 2008). In Michigan, 40% of the vote went to “uncommitted”.

The issues that the DNC Rules and Bylaws committee had before them were the following:

• Obama did not campaign in either state because the DNC issued its “delegates will not count” ruling before those primaries,
• No one knew how voters would vote had they been told that their primaries would count, and
• No one can predict where the 40% of “uncommitted” Michigan votes would have gone. Would they have gone for Obama or Edwards or would they have split? Would some have gone for Clinton?

Of course, Hillary Clinton is opposed to any ruling that does not grant her the delegate totals she amassed in those two primaries in January. After all, she is hundreds of delegates behind Obama and desperately needs all of the support she can muster. Obama isn’t sweating the details because he is in the drivers seat and was part of the negotiations in splitting delegates in half.

The Ruling

The Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee yesterday on Saturday, May 31, 2008, to raucous jeers, announced that the Michigan and Florida delegates could attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver but that each delegate vote would count as a half vote, not a full one. Clinton is just not peeved at the Committee for halving votes but also for distributing more Michigan votes to Obama than she thought he deserved. Cleqarly, the assumption was made (see chart below) that Obama would have amassed most of the “uncommitted” votes.

You’d think that John McCain is smiling and laughing as the Democrats engage in sordid infighting but the feeling here is that all publicity is good publicity. Obama is not desperate and it surely appears as though he will gain the nomination. The Michigan and Florida delegate decision over shadowed Clinton’s win in Puerto Rico and it keeps McCain off the front pages. Incidentally, Obama asked supporters to stay away from Washington yesterday during the vote so as not to antagonize Clinton and her supporters. He will most assuredly need them in the Fall. However, many Clinton supporters interviewed yesterday threatened to switch party allegiances if the Committee maintained the “half-vote” decision.

MICHIGAN PRIMARY RESULTS

FLORIDA PRIMARY RESULTS

Commentary

It appears unfair to Hillary Clinton and advantageous to Barack Obama that the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee on May 31st decided to not only hand over all “uncommitted” Michigan votes to Obama but that he received 4 additiional delegates, as well. Since John Edwards was still in the race, it is quite reasonable to assume that Obama would not have amassed the full 40%. However, it is possible that either one would have eaten into Clinton’s 55% had they campaigned in Michigan as Clinton did. (Obama didn’t campaign in Florida either).

So, what’s fair? Honestly, what’s wrong with Michigan and Florida voting again? – this time on the same day, with a caveat: neither Obama nor Clinton is allowed to campaign in either state. Set up a final debate between the two of them and then let the voters decide. Clearly, the no-campaigning rule seems to benefit Clinton since she is out of money but every voter in America has seen and heard from these two enough to have an opinion. A debate would bring us current.

It is not fair to deprive citizens of the United States their right to vote. Each vote should be counted – even though the delegates can vote their own conscience at the convention but that’s another story. It doesn’t matter if 2 additional primaries are inconvenient or costs too much money. It’s the right thing to do. I know, I know, you’re saying that it’s a foregone conclusion that Obama will win. It appears as though he will win. It still, however, does not give us the right to deprive Americans of a voting voice. Do the right thing!

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