Randy Ingle

Insulated steel sports bottle

Randy — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:54:07 +0000

A few weeks ago I was informed by several people that the plastic sports bottle that I always drink out of is bad for my health. The well meaning people were very insistent that it leached dangerous chemicals into my drink and that I could die from cancer from it down the road. They told me that I could buy insulated stainless steel sports bottles over the Internet, so I went online and found a company that sells insulated stainless steel sports bottles. I ordered a couple of them, thinking I’d give a few out as gifts as Christmas gifts. That was really the only way I could justify the exorbitant shipping fee! It cost me almost as much money to ship one as it did to ship three!

Anyway, they arrived in the mail on Saturday and I gave one a try today. It was a cold day so I decided to pour some hot chocolate in it this morning before I left for work. There was a big warning sticker on the box that the bottle came in, warning that the hot liquid would stay “just as hot” for several hours. Well an hour later my “hot chocolate” was only room temperature chocolate milk. I guess I’ll try it again tomorrow with pre-warming the bottle with hot water before pouring the hot chocolate in it, and I’ll make sure the hot chocolate is a lot hotter going into the bottle. I’d hate to think that I’d wasted my money on a bottle that won’t keep my hot chocolate hot for at least an hour!

Veterans Day

Randy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:48:12 +0000

Well I really wanted to go out today and observe the Veteran’s Day ceremonies but I was hit with some kind of 24 hour (I HOPE it’s only 24 hours!) stomach virus, so I stayed in bed all day and watched television instead. I felt really guilty about staying in bed, that’s not like me at all - I am always active. But today I just had to lay low, I felt really bad all day long. Drank lots of ginger ale, ate lots of jello and toast. Hoping tomorrow will be a better day. But I did want to give a shout out to all of the men and women, active and inactive who have served (or are serving) in the military that I appreciate all they have done and will do to defend our country. You are appreciated.

Absentee voted

Randy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:06:04 +0000

I sure was glad that I absentee voted last week! I drove past the polling location several times yesterday, going back and forth between jobs and saw a long line going out and around the building every time I drove past! The parking lot was full and overflowed a half-mile down the street! I’ve never seen such a large turnout of voters! I have to say that I was really impressed with how many people actually seemed to be inspired to come out and vote this time! I think i heard that this was a record turnout, and I believe it. Not just for our town, but for the nation. I think that’s a good thing that so many people came out to vote, it would be nice to think that the new President REALLY is representing the country, and not just the 20% or so that bother to vote.

Halloween

Randy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:54:15 +0000

I spent a couple of hours last night carving pumpkins to give to my customers today. It was so much fun to see their faces when I gave them their own custom carved jack-o-lanterns! I’ve always enjoyed carving pumpkins; that’s something I used to do with my father when I was a little kid. My mother used to always roast the pumpkin seeds, too, which I’ve always enjoyed eating later!

China’s woes

Randy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:50:56 +0000

I’m really glad that I don’t live in China! I was just thinking that over the past several months they have had some pretty bad things happening - some major earthquakes, and the many product recalls due to unsafe toxins in the paint on the toys for kids, and now the melamine scandal. The melamine scandal started quite a while ago with pet food, and now it’s in their milk and spreading throughout their food chain. I have to wonder if there is ANYTHING safe that comes out of China?

Fit to be tied

Randy — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:04:21 +0000

I’ve been restoring an old pickup truck, and have started to paint the exterior. I went down to the auto parts store and bought a couple of gallons of hot rod orange paint. A couple of days ago I gave it the sixth coat of paint, and it was looking good! Today I opened the second gallon of paint and started spraying the hood. I was so upset because it was NOT the same color as the first gallon of paint! So now I have to sand the whole thing down and start over. NOT HAPPY! When I go to the auto parts store next week I am going to have a few choice words to say to them over how their paint was NOT matching, even though the cans said they were!

Fall cleanups

Randy — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:53:46 +0000

Well it has been a very busy week doing fall cleanups for my customers this week. Foliage is peak, and there are a lot of leaves already on the ground. It is a beautiful time of year, and the air is crisp and clean. I love the weather like this - this is one of the reasons I love having an outdoor job - being outside to enjoy the fresh air. I’m lucky to be living in this part of the country where the air is still so clean and where you can still see the stars at night.

It’s going to be a busy week ahead of me, getting my fall contracts in order - a lot of customers are going to be unhappy with price increases due to fuel increases, but there’s nothing I can do about that. When your job is driving around going from place to place to plow and sand, a big part of the cost of doing business is the price of gasoline, and the cost has to be passed on to the customer. I’m not a big enough operation to be able to absorb that cost, I barely make enough money to pay the bills and make payroll! I hope the price of gasoline goes down dramatically and stays down!

Is it really Green?

Randy — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:50:14 +0000

I was reading an article on TheStreet.com about how retrofitting a company to be more “green” is a good business move; it generates positive publicity and may attract more customers. I agree that it is a good idea. But I also seem to remember reading an article (I don’t recall where) about how some unscrupulous companies are making “green” claims that they don’t deserve. So that brings me to pondering how a company can go “greener” and be transparent about it in such a way that it doesn’t cost the company too much money. Going green is great, and much needed, but we also need to make sure that the company can still make a profit!

Helicopter crash

Randy — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:51:51 +0000

I’ve been hearing on the news recently about how a local rescue helicopter crashed, killing four people. The patient that was being transported from a car accident to the hospital survived, but the pilot, a paramedic, another police officer and a nurse all died in the crash. They don’t know what happened to cause the crash, other than the helicopter was flying in a bad storm and he radioed his base asking permission to abort the flight because of dangerous flying conditions and he was told to keep coming because he only had three or four miles to go.

Rumors are that the high winds forced him into some trees. He took off the tree tops at 80 feet in the air before crashing to the ground. The entire area is in shock over this tragedy. I think that when a pilot radios his base and says it is too dangerous to fly, his “base” should respect his judgement! I hope the families of the victims sue the company for a lot of money!

Plants make aspirin

Randy — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:58:49 +0000

I was reading in The Discovery News website that it has been discovered that some plants generate an aspirin-like chemical when they are under stress. The article goes on to explain that this discovery was an accidental one, it was discovered near a walnut grove. Scientists were monitoring the air (it doesn’t say why) when they discovered that the trees were emitting this gas. Then the article goes on to explain that aspirin was originally made from the bark of willow trees. I didn’t know that! You learn something new every day!