My wife was quite upset earlier this week because her computer was acting up. She ran all of the tools she could think of to correct the problem, but the computer continued to crash. So we called her brother Will and asked him to use his remote desktop software to access her computer from his house and see if he could figure out what the problem is, and if possible to correct it. We’re really lucky that Will is an expert on computer software issues; he is our designated geek!
Having this software allows Will to fix many of our computer problems from his home, which is wonderful because it saves us from the hassle of having to make an appointment with a computer repair service and packing up the CPU and taking it (or shipping it) somewhere off premises. We used to do that years ago, and it was frustrating because they often had to keep the computer at their location for up to a week while working on it!
I also like knowing that keeping our computer here on our premises and having the work done by Will makes us feel comfortable that our private information does not fall into unauthorized hands.
My wife came home with a pound of fresh sea scallops that she picked up at the store on her way home from work. She said they were a good price, and since we hadn’t had scallops for a long time (probably a year or more!) she decided to cook them for supper tonight. She also picked up some fresh snap beans. So she cooked a great baked scallop dish with a cream base and stuffing on top, and served them with the fresh beans and sliced tomatoes picked from our garden. We had freshly baked sourdough bread along with the meal. What a feast that was!
My brother Lee just called me to let me know that he and his wife Mary want us to join them on their next vacation. They are planning to go to Myrtle Beach next February. They like going then because it is the coldest month of the year where they live, and they like to get away to a warmer climate for a while. So I’m going to check my vacation schedule and see if we can join them.
Lee suggested that we look at several different Myrtle Beach Hotels to see which one sounds like we would enjoy the most. Apparently he and Mary have used several different Myrtle Beach Accomodations in the past and have liked every one they’ve been to so far. I’d like to have a Myrtle Beach Accomodation that is near the beach. I’d love to start the day at sunrise on the beach, watching the sun come up over the horizon while wiggling my toes in the sand!
I never realized that nectarine’s bought from the grocery store won’t ripen. I bought a nectarine about six weeks ago, expecting it to soften up so it would be nice and juicy. I’ve been checking it every couple of days and that thing is just as firm as the day I bought it! I had bought two at the time and ate one immediately, but it was not ripe so I decided to leave the other one to ripen. I don’t know, maybe it’s going to petrify! Very disappointing!
Last weekend I went to a new flea market that recently opened up in the area. It used to be a roller skating rink years ago, and the building has been sitting empty for at least the past ten years. Anyway, the building owners recently opened it up as a large indoor flea market, and I decided to take a look-see at what the vendors had for sale there.
I’ve always had a penchant for Lockers. They are just a really great way to store items in my garage and basement. I even like to have some nice looking Wood Lockers near the back door since we don’t have a coat closet there. So I went to the flea market, wondering if there might be some Lockers for sale that I might like to pick up and use at home.
Unfortunately, the only lockers that they had was a really beat up School Locker and some beat up Gym Lockers. Now I don’t mind a little ding here and there, it adds character! But these were really badly trashed! So I decided that I didn’t really like what they had there this time.
Last night we went out to dinner with my wife’s parents, and had another little birthday party. Her mother’s birthday is coming is approaching, and so we decided to combine the two birthday parties with a dinner out. We made reservations at one of the town’s nicer restaurants and had a great steak dinner. While waiting for the dinner to cook, the presents were exchanged. My mother-in-law gave my wife a pretty locket that had belonged to her own mother and had put photos inside the locket of both the mother and grandmother. My wife was so touched! She told her mother “that is the MOST PERFECT GIFT EVER!” She was all smiles the rest of the night!
When I was very young, I can remember learning about how the American monetary system was backed by gold that was stored in Fort Knox. I thought that was fascinating, and I was rather disappointed when the system stopped being backed by gold. I can remember I was still in school when it happened, and our teacher told us that the system was now based on “scrip.” That never made much sense to me!
As an adult, I purchase gold and silver when I get the chance. A friend of mine used to work for a company that dealt in stamps and coins, and he got me interested and started and taught me how to purchase gold coins and purchase gold bullion as a hedge against the fluctuations of the stock market. Sure, the prices of precious metals fluctuate, but the do have a history of increasing their value a lot more consistantly than the stock market! So I encourage my kids to purchase gold coin and purchase bullion as investment choices when they tell me that they are looking for ways to invest their money.
My wife’s birthday was today, and our son baked her a cake to celebrate the occasion. This was the first time in years that anyone has even thought about giving her a cake for her birthday. We’ve always just given her cards and gifts, but no cake. Well, this year our son decided to bake her a birthday cake. When he presented the cake to her after dinner, I thought she was going to cry! I couldn’t believe how touched she was by such a simple gesture! I guess we’ll have to remember that and bake her cakes in the future now!
One of the most difficult things about moving into a new area is learning who to call for the best repair services. I can remember when we first moved into this house, it was only a matter of weeks before our water pump broke and we had no water. It’s never a convenient time for something like that to happen, but thank goodness it was after the showers of the day and the daily dishes were done and we were getting ready for bed. The next day we were lucky enough to find a great local company (thanks to our new neighbor’s recommendation) that came right out and replaced the pump for us so we were without water for less than a day!
Since then we have learned that sometimes the neighbor doesn’t give such great advice when it comes to repair services! Especially when it comes to needing to help our niece Sarah in need who lives in Chicago! So sometimes we turn to the Internet to find and research services such as Chicago auto repair when Sarah’s Toyota Camry started making funny noises. She called me and asked me to tell her what was wrong with it. She told me that it was making a funny chirping noise like a bird. I told her that she needed to take it to the shop because it was probably a belt that needed to be replaced. I told her to use the repairpal.com website to help her find a local repair shop that would treat her fairly.
My wife has been telling me that she wants to buy an electric potato peeler. I thought she was joking! I never imagined that there was such a thing! Oh sure, there is the old fashioned apple peeler that peels, cores, and slices apples, and I can imagine it could be used for potatoes, but those are hand cranked things that have been around for decades. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the other day a catalog came in the mail and I saw an electric potato peeler in it! I think I might buy it for my wife to use. I love boiled and mashed potatoes and we don’t have them very often because peeling potatoes makes her carpal tunnel syndrome act up. Maybe, just maybe now I’ll get more variety of potatoes for dinner!
I’ve always wanted to go camping in an RV as an adult. I used to go with my family when we were younger, and I’d like to see that type of activity through the eyes of an adult. I can remember as a young boy my parents took us in their tow-along RV to a gettysburg camping park. It happened to be a very cold time of year, but I don’t remember exactly when it was. I do remember though that the poor little RV had a really tough time keeping us all warm through the cold snap!
I think if I were to go pa rv camping again as an adult, I’d make sure to go during warm weather months! And I’d make sure that the RV’s air conditioner and heater were in great shape, just in case the weather got extreme. And I’d make sure that I’d review the different pennsylvania RV Parks carefully to make sure that the amenities were more than a simple trailer hook-up with water, sewer and electric. Or at least be close to some attractions that would be fun to go see! Just sitting around the RV can get boring after a while!
My sister emailed me that she is going to be performing in October at an International Children’s Festival. She’s been taking belly dancing classes in Winchester for the past several months now, and her instructor has given her this opportunity to perform in a group at the Festival. She is both nervous and excited about dancing in public. She says that the classes are a lot of fun, and she would like to perform in some area nursing homes if she got the chance. She’s just not quite sure about performing in the Festival. I think she’s afraid that bad weather might ruin it because the performance is in a park and she’s not sure of the stage area. Well, whatever happens, I hope she has a great time!
I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised how many commercials I see on television nowadays regarding the issues of credit repair. There are a lot of different companies out there that offer to help fix your credit. Some of these bad credit repair services, such as Ovation Credit service give the consumer the impression that repairing credit is easy. And it IS easy if the only thing wrong is mistakes on your credit report.
But if the issues are that you have poor credit because you haven’t been paying your bills, then these services cannot help you at all. What you need to do in these cases is to make arrangements with your creditors to get your bills paid! And that may not be easy if you have lost your income due to some unforeseen situation. Job loss, sudden health issues, and accidents can all contribute to troubles that will have a negative impact on credit ratings.
My son has been struggling for the past couple of years to find a good job. He has had his heart set on becoming a newspaper reporter, but he can’t seem to find one in the area. So he has decided to look into becoming a substitute teacher for the local school system. There is always a demand for substitutes, and I think he would make a really good teacher. Looking into what qualifications he needs, we were surprised to find that you don’t even need a college degree, only a high school diploma!
My sister called me last night to tell me that when she dropped in on Mom she found he sitting in her favorite chair with an ice pack on her hip. She had fallen down again and had stayed on the floor for a couple of hours in pain before she could get up. For the past year I’ve been trying to convince my sister to sign Mom up for a Life Alert service so that when something like that happens the Life Alert service will call for help and she won’t have to be lying there in pain for more than a few minutes.
My sister and mother both have been resisting the idea of subscribing to a Life Alert service. They just don’t want to spend the money. But I know for a fact that my mother can easily afford it; she’s just being cheap! So I’m going to talk to my wife about us subscribing to it on her behalf and paying the fees. Mom’s life and safety is more important than saving a few dollars!
I was surprised this morning to see a lot of crows eating some of the over-ripened squash that I threw out in the back yard last night. I was thinking that the deer would enjoy it! I mentioned it to my wife that I was surprised to see the crows eating it and she was surprised that I was surprised. She said “Well, why wouldn’t they eat it? They are scavengers after all!”
To be honest, I don’t really know why it surprised me. Maybe I just expected the squash to be already gone by sunrise! After all, we DO have a small herd of deer that frequent our yard every day!
I can remember when I was a kid my parents gave me a couple of dollars here and there for doing some kind of extra chore. I was jealous of the kids that got paid allowances! For me, money was hard earned and I was very upset when I discovered that one of my siblings had raided my little piggy bank and taken all of my money! The little thief took off with my money and ran off to the neighborhood market and spent all of my money on gum, candy, and comic books! And my parents did nothing about it.
I never got my money back, and the thief was never punished in any way at all. For reasons such as this, and to avoid losing cash due to other unforeseen causes, I suggest that parents dole out their money to their kids in the form of a prepaid visa mastercard. Using cards like this instead of cash makes the money more secure and helps kids to learn how to budget their money! And of course, it makes them feel “cool” by having a card to use like a credit card – like the “grownups” do!
My wife tells me that she is thinking about starting a new career. She wants to try to become a personal chef. She loves to cook, and she’s good at it. And we live in an area where we think there just might be a market for it! So I’ve told her that I think it’s a great idea and that I’d be as supportive as I possible can be. So she’s happy as can be right now, planning the menus and her marketing strategy. My wife loves to plan things, so she is in her glory right now!
Today I was driving past a house that was completely enclosed in plastic. I knew that the house was marked for demolition, so I was surprised to see it wrapped in plastic like that. Apparently it was determined that as part of the demolition process, there was some asbestos removal that needed to be done. I can remember how upset my parents were when it became public knowledge that exposure to asbestos could cause peritoneal mesothelioma or pleural mesothelioma. Asbestos has been widely used as insulation in a lot of our public buildings, and in homes.
It used to be thought to be a safe product, but so many people who have come into contact with it have later been given a mesothelioma prognosis that it has become evident that it is not a safe product at all! And this is a very serious cancer that has killed many people. I was amazed recently to learn that it is still in production somewhere in Canada! I would have thought that it would have been banned by now!
A few years ago I bought a Tom Tom GO 300 GPS unit. Recently the rechargeable battery decided that it would not hold a charge anymore, so I took it to my local Radio Shack to ask them how much it would cost to replace the rechargeable battery. The person there told me that it would cost $100! Then he told me that I would be better off buying a new GPS unit for $169. Well I told him that I had to talk to my wife about it, and went home and told her what Radio Shack had told me. Well, she said that she didn’t believe for one minute that it cost that much, and went online to do some comparison shopping. She bought one for less than $20! So I don’t know what in the world that guy at Radio Shack was trying to do to me, but one thing is for sure; I’m not too inclined to go back there anytime soon!
Business and work, Computers and/or Internet, Gadgets and Technology, General life, Relationships | Dean | 
September 29, 2009 4:42 pm | 
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