I am fascinated about how much publicity is being given to the swine flu this year. Thankfully no one that I know personally has gotten it yet, and I hope that no one does. I am wondering why this flu is receiving more press than the other annual flu outbreaks that also kill lots of people! And I wonder why the flu is being called “pandemic” when the press is not reporting thousands of people being killed by it. And for Egypt to order all of their pigs to be slaughtered is simply absurd! People are not catching swine flu from pigs, for crying out loud!
My wife has been suggesting that this would be a good idea to invest a little bit of money in the stock market. I’ve always wanted to do some Stock Trading but have been quite nervous about it. I’ve known a lot of people that have lost a lot of money in the stock market! But then again, my aunt is very wealthy and she says it is largely due to investing her money in stocks. Of course, she has no interest in helping me to learn anything about trading stocks. Sometimes I wonder if all of her wealth is really above board, or if there were any shady dealings going on there!
My wife has suggested that we try Online Trading services to buy some stock. She says that it not hard to find an Online Broker that will help us without charging us an arm and a leg! She has found a website called firstrade.com that she has suggested that I read too. She says that there is a lot of good information in their link called “Knowledge Center” that will help us to learn about what to look for and help us with making the right decisions for our own future. So I guess I’ll be checking them out and see what I can learn about it.
This is the time of year when I am very busy using my sweeper to clean the driveways and parking lots. The salt and sand that was spread on the surfaces during the winter need to be removed. If it isn’t removed, then the stuff gets tracked into the stores and homes, and can ruin carpets. It also can get pushed onto the lawns, which ruins the lawns. So I am always glad when I have to sand and salt my customer’s driveways and parking lots because I consider it job security for the spring, when they will pay me to remove it! I love it! Getting paid to put in on, then getting paid to take it off! Life can be ironic sometimes!
My wife is friends with a lot of people that she has met through yahoo groups. She’s never met them, but she writes to them every day. Some are across the country, some are in Australia! She said that they all share a love of crafts, and that is what brought them together in the first place, but as time has gone by they’ve talked about their personal lives and become friends. Several of them have been concerned about a lot of home invasions in their neighborhoods. They have become very frightened; they feel that the police are not doing enough to investigate the burglaries, or to prevent future ones. A few of them have been burglarized themselves! My wife has been trying to convince them to buy Home Security Systems to help keep their houses safer. We’ve been considering buying a Home Security System ourselves; we expect with the job situation and economy worsening that there will be more crime as people become more desperate to find ways to survive. With a Home Security Surveillance System in place, we think that the loss of valuable posssessions and better peace of mind will be greatly increased.
Well, today is “Earth Day.” Did you do anything different today than usual? Go to any rallies, or watch special shows? I didn’t have time to do anything other than just go to work and wish that I had the time to do something in observance of Earth Day. All I managed to do was turn out the lights in places (like restrooms and break rooms) that I noticed were left on even when they were empty. My small part….. Oh well, I’d like to buy one of those tumbler compost things this summer – maybe that could be my “big” contribution!
I’ve been seeing a lot of those new smart car vehicles on the road lately. I’ve heard a lot of hype about how economical they are; they cost about half as much to buy as a “regular” size car, cost less to run (better fuel mileage) and that some parking garages only charge 1/2 price for them because they can park two cars to a spot. And I’ve seen interviews on television from people who own them that say that they love the cars, but I really don’t think that I would feel safe in one of them. And I’ve heard that the gas mileage on them is about 30mpg. Our Chevy Lumina gets 24 mpg, which is really good for a mid-sized car!
I’ve seen enough car accidents involving compact cars that I really feel vulnerable when I’m out on the road in a small car! And I really don’t want my wife to be out driving in a sub-compact car either! I want her to be driving something a little bit more substantial. Not that I’m trying to force her into a muscle car like a chevy camaro, but I think it will take some serious proof to me that a sub-compact car is a safe one to drive.
Besides, I think that cars like the ford fusion and the honda element are better looking, safer, and economical as well. And I suspect that the insurance rate on them might be lower than on a sub-compact car too. So I think that for now, I’d prefer to adopt a “wait and see” attitude on the new smart car.
I recently found out about a cool Internet group called Freecycle. It is a Yahoo group that is dedicated helping people to give or receive new or used items that need a new home. For example, if I have a baby gate that I no longer need and it is just gathering dust in the corner I might put a post on the board saying that I want to give it away. Then people reply if they want it, and arrangements are made for the pickup. Or if I wanted a crock-pot I would post that I want a crock-pot and someone might reply that they have a crock-pot I can have, and then I make arrangements to get it! Everything is free; the intent is to keep unwanted/unused but still working items out of the landfills! Isn’t that cool!
So I signed up to my local Freecycle group this morning. If you don’t know how to do it, go to www.yahoo.com and create an account if you don’t already have one. Then sign into yahoo. Then on their main page choose Groups. Then you can use the search feature to type in Freecycle. Then you choose which local Freecycle you are interested in joining. Then you follow their registration process (follow the directions) and then you’re golden!
As the economy worsens, there are going to be a lot of consumers in the country who are going to be faced with the problems that bad credit brings them. With bad credit it is hard to refinance a home, and in some cases it is hard to find a job. Some employers are concerned that if the potential employee has credit problems that they might end up stealing from the employer! Isn’t that a horrible reality to think about?
More people are going to be needing a credit repair service to help them with this problem so many of us are going to be facing. If someone with bad credit can find a method to help them to fix credit ratings so that the credit reports will show good credit instead of bad credit, that may be all that they need in order to get that good job, or to get that mortgage refinanced! There are a few things that I’ve learned about how to repair credit. The first step is to get a copy of your credit report and see if there are any errors on it that may be bringing your credit rating down.
I did that a while ago and found that the credit report was showing that someone else with my same name had opened an account in a different state and made charges on the account and never paid the payments! Well, it only took a letter to get that removed from my credit report, and that helped to improve my credit score!
Today was just a lay-low kind of day. I’ve been really busy doing my taxes (whew, they ARE done and mailed off!) and needed to stay home and rest and recharge. Just checked my emails, read through a few magazines, do a little bit of laundry, take a nice long nap, watch a little television, cook a frozen pizza and just vegg out as much as possible. I need days like this from time to time!
The price of gasoline sure keeps me guessing from day to day! It’s very aggravating how much the prices change overnight! It just does not make any sense at all. I know there is a “logical” explanation about “supply and demand” but as far as I’m concerned the REAL reason is that there are a lot of greedy people in the higher ranks of the oil business that don’t NEED to make more money than they already have, but they WANT more money just the same. If I recall correctly, isn’t the “love of money” one of the biggest sins? Seems to me that this is a perfect example of that sin in action!
Well, regardless, I want to buy a hybrid car when I can afford to buy a new car. I love the idea that I can spend less money on gas. The only drawback, as far as I can see, is that electricity is still going up because we burn oil to make electricity too! So we need more ways to generate electricity, such as windmills and solar energy! I really don’t know which hybrid car I would want to buy. I know a few people that have them and they love them, but I don’t know which one would fit our needs the best. So I plan to be spending some time researching the different cars on thecarconnection.com website.
I found out about the website a few months ago when my sister was telling me that she was thinking about buying a mazda 6 or a lexus and that she was researching both of them on the Internet. My sister has been owning and driving mini vans for a long time now and she says that she wants to make a big change by buying something smaller and more luxurious now that her kids have grown and left the house. Besides, her current 8 year old van is just about on its last legs; she certainly got her money’s worth out of it!
I decided that I needed a new thumb drive the other day, (the one I have been using was full) so I went online to shop around and see what was available to buy. I was quite surprised and impressed to see that I could (and did) buy a thumb drive that has 8GB of storage on it! I can remember that my very first one was only 128MB of storage. The prices have come way down on them, which I was both happy and upset to see. Happy because I could afford to buy the 8GB one, upset because I saw that the 128MB one that I paid about $30 for is now selling for only $5!
I was shopping around for ceiling fans on the Internet last night, with the thought in mind that it would be smart to put a ceiling fan in all of the rooms in our house. I think it would help us to maintain a better comfort level while minimizing the cost of energy. I was really surprised to see how many different styles of fans are out there! I mean, I’ve gone to home improvement stores and seen a lot of fans there, but this website that I went to has several hundred different styles! It was absolutely amazing!
One style that intrigued me was the Punkah style fanimation ceiling fans. They are a very different style of fan than I’ve ever seen before! I’d like to see them in action, up close and personal, but the price range is beyond my budget!
From what I’ve heard, the hunter ceiling fans are the quietest fans on the market. I think I’d like to put one of those in the living room. I get irritated when there is a lot of noise going on when I’m trying to watch television!
I don’t know what the mineral is that built up in our humidifiers metal filters, but it is white and hard like a rock. I can’t see where I can order replacement filters, so I have decided to try to remove the stuff myself. I ran the filters through the dishwasher – no luck.
Well, some folks suggested that I soak them in vinegar, so I put them in a corning-ware casserole dish, covered them with white vinegar and let them soak overnight. Still no luck.
So, today, while at Home Depot, I bought a jug of CLR. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m thinking that I can soak them overnight in the CLR, then run them through the dishwasher to remove the CLR from the filters and that should do the trick. What do you think?
I like to wear Tactical Pants. I find them rugged, yet comfortable. I am frequently looking for bargains on them, and I found a good one today on the website at the lapolicegear.com website – a closeout of 5.11 rain gear pants for only $9.99 – marked down from the regular price of $79.99. The only catch was that they only have them in men’s extra small size, which is too small for me. I wear a medium. Oh well. Continuing my shopping I see that there is a great pair of tactical pants for sale for only $19.99. That’s great price! Those come in a variety of colors, and every imaginable size. I think I’ll be ordering a pair of those.
This is peeper season. No, I don’t mean “peeping tom” season, I mean the critters that make “peeping noise” all night long. These are amphibians that are trying to get the attention of the opposite sex so that they can mate. For years I’ve been told that they are frogs, but I was just reading a really interesting article on the yahoo news website about how some New England towns are actually organizing volunteer escorts to help amphibians cross the roads at night to help them get to their mating sites. Apparently these escorts try to find amphibians that are trying to cross busy roads and scoop them into buckets, and carry them safely across the road. I thought that was very interesting! The article continues to write about how some towns are considering building tunnels in parts of the road so that the amphibians will be better able to cross without needing that escort service. I thought that was a great idea too!
I’d really like to buy a new car for my wife in the next couple of years. She hasn’t bought a new car since 1997! I think that’s a long time to go without buying a new car. But she and I have not been able to come to an agreement about what kind of car to buy for her. She is all about wanting one of the mini vans that she has been coveting since they first came out! I keep telling her that those are no longer “in style” but she keeps responding with “I don’t care, that’s what I want, and who is the car supposed to be for anyway?” She wants it to be practical and be able to seat lots of people and pets. As for me, I’d rather it be something nice, just for her, like an audi a5.
When I tell her that she gets upset and tells me that she is not interested in buying a status symbol car like that! She says that if she were to want to buy a luxury car, she would prefer something along the line of a hyundai genesis, because she feels it it very comfortable inside, yet conservative on the outside. I don’t understand why she doesn’t like cars that seem to be screaming “I’ve got money.” That is one of the big differences between us I guess. So I’ll probably just let her decide on what she wants. After all, she IS the one who will have to drive it all the time!
You would perhaps think that by the title of my post, I am talking about people painting pictures of elephants, or perhaps people actually putting pain ON elephants, but I’m talking about elephants that paint! I was sent a link today by a friend to a youtube video that was showing elephants using paintbrushes to paint real pictures! I was so totally surprised at how very well the elephants could paint. I hope that the trainers were not mean to them when they were training them! The paintings were absolutely remarkable! I never would have thought that elephants had that much manual dexterity with their trunks!
What do you think of when you hear the word diesel? I think of farm equipment, big rig trucks, or buses, or even some cars that are made to run on diesel fuel. I had never heard of any other kind of diesel. Well, it turns out that there is a brand of underwear named Diesel. Really! Diesel underwear! I thought Maurice was playing a belated Aprils Fool’s joke on me when they told me that they love to wear Diesel underwear. I replied, why, does it give you great gas mileage? Yeah, it was a bad pun, I admit that!
But then Maurice told me that it was the most comfortable underwear he had worn in years, and that it actually enhanced his appearance I started to think maybe I should try a pair. So I asked Maurice where did he buy his Diesel underwear? He told me that his wife bought them online from Zappos.com. That really surprised me too because I thought Zappos.com only sold women’s shoes! But no, now I’ve learned that Zappos sells a lot of products, including Diesel underwear!
I was surprised to hear on the radio that there is a big uproar over the fact that Michelle Obama touched Queen Elizabeth on the back in a warm gesture. I know that there is a social etiquette rule in place that no one is supposed to touch the queen, but from what I understand, Queen Elizabeth started the touching by putting her hand on Michelle Obama’s hand in a warm gesture, and then later put her arm around Michelle Obama’s waist. I find it very interesting that the general public spends so much time obsessing over what Michelle Obama does – baring her arms, putting her hand on the Queen’s back; isn’t there more important issues “out there?” Or are we so tired of dealing with the issues that we are finding respite in being so nit-picky in criticizing the First Family?