I think it is more widespread than imagined

A few years ago a good friend of mine died of some form of cancer. At the time no one told me exactly what the cancer was, but I’m beginning to think it was Mesothelioma because he ran a cement company. I’m thinking that because I just found out that there is asbestos in insulation, roof shingles, cement, brake linings, flooring products, and textiles. The “textiles” part really worries me – because “textiles” generally refers to fabrics. Does that mean carpets and fabrics?

I really didn’t realize that asbestos was in so many products that we come into contact with on a daily basis! And I just found out that the symptoms often don’t surface until as many as 30 to 50 years after the exposure to the asbestos!

With the baby boomers were born, there was a massive housing explosion that created a lot of these products to be put into the general population. I think that the repercussions are yet to be fully seen.

Doing business with family

On the surface, one would think that doing business with your own family would be a good way to get started in business. After all, families are supposed to be supportive of each other, right? There is another saying, though, that the prophet is scorned in his own village. I’m sorry to say that my wife’s family appears to be the type of family where they will not be supportive of each others efforts and will not do anything to give each other a break. That is really sad, and makes it very difficult for anyone to become successful. Family members should not be haters, and yet it seems as if that is exactly what is going on here. Very sad, really.

Moving

Thanks for the post from Sylvester Campbell

The list of things that need to get done before moving is seriously getting longer and longer. I know that I sort of take on that responsibility since I am a homemaker and my husband works out of the home, but he is going to have to help me with some of this list or it just isn’t going to get done in time. The things at the top of my list today are to research New york energy rates and find a list of day-cares that I am going to check out when we go for our house hunting trip. I really am excited about this move, but I do wish that I could crawl in my bed and just wake up when all of this work is done! I just want to wake up and be in my new home with everything unpacked and my children in their new schools. This is not my first rodeo, I have done this plenty of times. I know in my heart that it will all get done and work out, I just need to start my to-do list!

Just when we thought spring was here

We woke up to snow flurries this morning. I was rather surprised since it was quite warm out yesterday and I really thought that spring was well underway. I didn’t listen to the weather report yesterday! I was quite surprised that it continued to snow all morning long, too. Usually when it snows around here it is only for an hour or two. I had to drive in to town, and the roads were just icy enough to be dangerous. The roads had not been sanded or prepared for the weather at all, so I guess the DOT was caught by surprise too!

There were several cars off of the road, having slid into the ditch. Whenever I see that I think to myself that the people were very lucky that they didn’t lose control while they were driving across one of the many bridges on that road. That is always something I worry about with my family when the roads are slick like that. The bridges around here don’t even look like bridges – they just have guard rails on the side of the road, and I worry that any car going at the posted speed limit of 55 could easily crash through the barriers and end up in the river or the bottom of the ravine. I don’t trust those guard rails much at all.

That’s just plain wrong

When I go to an automotive service center that specializes in oil changes (I won’t name the chain, but it IS a national chain) that gives out $5.00 coupons online good towards an oil change, the local service center needs to honor that coupon. Last week I took my truck to the local oil change service station and had them perform their oil change. When they rung me up I presented them with the $5.00 coupon. The cashier told me that they had already totaled up my work and it was too late to give them the coupon. Too bad, so sad!

I don’t know about you, but I think that is totally bogus. I don’t know why I just accepted that instead of insisting that they re-ring the sale. Sometimes I’m just too nice. When I went home and told my wife about it, she was very upset that they didn’t give me the credit, and couldn’t believe that I just accepted it. I guess if it happens again I’ll be a little bit more assertive and ask for the supervisor. I’d rather get them upset than get my wife upset with me.