One of the things I always try to do before going on a road trip with any of my vehicles is to give it a good “once over” to make sure that everything is in good working order before we leave. One thing is for sure, having a vehicle break down while on vacation can put a real damper on the fun! One of the problems is finding out where to take the vehicle for service when you are in an area you are not familiar with!
That’s why the repairpal.com website is a valuable resource to people who take their cars to their trips. The website helps the users to local reputable auto repair shops around the country. So if a traveller were to be driving his Chevrolet Silverado on a Dallas vacation and suddenly realized he needs a brake job he could go to the repairpal website and type in the search engine for a Dallas auto repair vendor and what kind of vehicle he is driving and what service is needed. The website will provide an estimated cost of repair and trustworthy service locations to take the vehicle. I think that’s a great resource to know about, don’t you agree?
Although my favorite television show is Burn Notice, I also greatly enjoyed watching the television show Monk. I liked how it depicted that even people suffering from mental illness can become productive members of society. And in this particular case, Monk was a very productive member of society. I honestly cannot say that I’ve ever seen a Monk episode that I didn’t like. I watched the series finale of Monk last night. I was so glad that they did not kill off the character. The ending left open the possibility that Monk could return in the future, either as a series or as an occasional special. I hope and trust that there will be Monk reruns to watch either on the Internet or on Television! I have not had my fill of them yet.
My niece and her fiance have been looking at a apartment. They haven’t signed the lease yet, but they are pretty sure which apartment they are going to be taking, and now they need some furniture to put in it! They’ve been asking other family members for hand-me-down home furnishings to help them out, and they are getting quite a bit of luck with that, but there are still a few items that they are going to be needing!
I’ve also suggested that they check out the local thrift stores and freecycle, but there are a few items that they want to get brand new. I’ve suggested that they go to some local furniture stores and see what they like before buying something online. I’d like to make sure that the brand that they get is going to be comfortable and well-made. I’d hate for them to buy something sight unseen and then be upset because it is not the quality or comfort level that they want to have!
My brother has been telling me that he wants to open a catering business in his town. He thinks that there is a strong market for it because there are a lot of “high end” businesses that he thinks that will use his services. So he’s been looking at ways to advertise his new business and was thinking about using the justclicklocal.com website. So I went to the website to check it out for myself. I saw that the website can be used to find just about any kind of product or service anywhere in the country. For example, I can find a dog walker in Miami FL, a dentist in Pittsburg PA or an auto mechanic in Charlotte, NC just by typing in the keywords and location!
So, just to try it out, and to help him out I was looking around the site some more and found that he could list his business for free! I thought it seemed easy enough to do. So I recommend that you give it a try yourself if you are looking for a local business, or want to advertise your own – give this site a chance!
There used to be a time when the credit card companies backed me up when I made a claim, disputing a payment. Well, those days sure seem to be over! There was a charge on my American Express card last May for $197 for a product that I did order. However I then subsequently cancelled that order and the merchandise was never received. I have proof that I contacted the company and cancelled the order, and I have an email from the company acknowledging the cancellation. Yet American Express keeps telling me that the charge is valid and that I have to pay it! So every month I have to reopen the claim. It is getting very tiring and I am thinking about cancelling that credit card! I have plenty of other credit cards that I can use – I don’t need the aggravation that goes along with this one!
My wife has never liked the kitchen sink in this house. It is badly scratched up and because of that condition, it is difficult to clean. She asked me to help her find a reasonably priced undermount stainless steel sink to buy to replace it. Well, I was resisting the project; I thought that replacing the sink would be a big ordeal, and a huge expense. But the prices of sinks at the mrdirectint.com have made me reconsider the project; we may very well replace that sink after all!
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.
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.
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!
My uncle Bill and my Aunt Diane have started to look into Retirement Communities in Canada. Their big old house in Quebec is getting too big for them to be able to keep up. They’ve been holding on to it for a long time, thinking that their kids would want it when they passed on, but their kids have all told them recently that all they would do is sell it; no one wants to keep it. So Uncle Bill and Aunt Diane have decided that it is time to get into Retirement Living and stop worrying about keeping up their old family home.
They have been looking for Retirement Homes in the area because they want to stay in easy reach of their family and friends, so they have been using the senioropolis.com website to help them to find the right place to live. That website has a lot of helpful information and resources find Retirement Residences in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta.
I’ve noticed that there seem to be a lot of different anti-virus and anti-malware software programs available for sale. And I’ve noticed that whenever I buy a new computer, there seems to be some kind of internet security already loaded on the computer. It used to be that these programs that were preloaded were free, but the last couple of times I bought a new computer it seemed that you were only given a few weeks of free use before you had to register the program and pay some money in order to keep it.
I think that it is a shame that when you spend so much money on buying a new computer that you don’t just get that kind of protection pre-loaded for free forever. Although computers are slowly becoming more affordable, they are still a major out of pocket expense for many families. And I think that the companies that make them are making enough money to be able to come up with a good deal with the software companies to provide protection from hackers to the consumer for free.
Mygrand-father had a lot of interest in investing in the precious metals. I can remember when I was younger he would take me to see his gold coins that he kept in a safe deposit box at the bank. He didn’t own a lot of them, but he sure was proud of the couple that he had! He would tell me that they were set aside for hard times. When he passed away my father got them. I wonder whatever happened to them!
I’ve become interested recently in learning about how to put gold in an IRA or a 401K account. To be honest I don’t know the difference between a gold IRA and a gold 401k account. My wife told me that there is a website called goldcoinsgain.com that has a lot of information about IRA gold. She said that it explains which kinds of gold can be put into accounts, and it explains how to put gold in my IRA. So I guess I’ll be spending some time reading that site!
I think Freecycle is great, but it has its limitations. We get (and give) some great stuff for free, but there are times when it can be aggravating. For example, when you are trying to negotiate a pickup or dropoff, the other party involved doesn’t seem to want to exchange telephone numbers, they simply state that they are leaving something by the curb for you to pick up at a certain time. But sometimes that certain time is simply impossible to meet, and when you send them an email about it to try to let them know (and renegotiate) they don’t always respond. So it can get quite frustrating! And if you are trying to give something away and the person doesn’t show up to get it, and doesn’t call you to let you know that they aren’t coming (or got lost) or to renegotiate a different time, that is very frustrating as well!
Maybe they ought to develop a rating/ranking system like e-bay, where feedback is given. I think that would make it a lot easier to use!
When the personal computer first came on the scene, back in the 1980’s we had a hard decision to make – Apple or IBM. They were incompatable with each other. Many consumers preferred the ease of the Apple, but many businesses went with IBM. Well, I should clarify that a little bit I think – there were a lot of creative businesses that went with Apple, but the nuts and bolts number crunchers tended to go with IBM. Anyway, the operating systems were so different that you could not file share, and this was a big problem.
At some point in time along came some geniuses who created the PDF file. The PDF file can be read by both systems. Even Linux! A miracle! Opening up the lines of communication. Along with the invention of the PDF came the need for software for pdf conversion. This type of software makes it possible to convert pdf to word or to convert word to pdf. It also allows users to edit the pdf file directly. This solves many problems between the different operating systems. Now maybe we can all get along!
One of the things that always scares me about ordering things over the Internet is having to pay for the shipping. Especially if there is a chance you may have to return the item and have to pay return shipping too! Many times you can get great deals over the Internet, but the bulk of the cost is the shipping and handling charges!
That’s why I really like to shop at Zappos. Especially for something that has to be tried on, like shoes or clothing. They pay for shipping, both ways! And they have a 365 day return period! There have been a few times when I’ve ordered something from Zappos and had to return it for a different size, and their shipping speed was fantastic! Their customer service cannot be beat. The return routine was very fast and easy. And to be honest, when I was doing some price comparison of items, their prices were right in line with other companies that were charging for shipping.
For those of us who are not interested in investing in precious metals, or the stock market, there are some decent options close to home. You can invest in CDs or simply open a savings account, or an interest-bearing checking account. CD rates being offered by banks change frequently – sometimes it seems to me that the bank CD rates have changed from one day to the next, but to be perfectly honest I don’t check the rates every single day. I’ve just noticed when I do go into my bank that they have posted the best CD rates on a board for the customers to look at.
I’m sure that bank rates differ from one institution to another, so it is a great idea to compare bank CDs online. One website that offers these comparisons is the selectcdrates.com website. Along with offering quotes on rates from various states, the website also has a link to a tips section that has a lot of good advice on handling financial matters.
A few years ago a friend of mine (Ed) decided to become a stock broker. I tried to be supportive and do my Stock Trading though him and the brokerage firm that he was working with. The only problem that I had with him was when I called him and told him that I wanted to buy stocks in certain companies he always tried to talk me out of what I wanted to buy and steer me towards what he thought was a better investment.
I got pushy and demanded that he buy the stocks that I wanted (and he did) and they made money. The stocks he recommended lost money (I kept track.) I came to the conclusion that I was better off with an Online Broker because that was not going to ruin my friendship Ed. Well, maybe it would if he found out! So I’ll just keep my Online Trading a secret from him as long as I can!
Jerry sent me the link to a blog called Online Siesta that he suggested that I read. I found it interesting because it is a blog about how to make money with blogs! It is full of great tips on how to make money with your blog. As I’m reading the blog I see that it is written by the Vice President of Infolinks.com, which sells in-text link advertising. Apparently the way bloggers make money with this is similar to other programs where the blogger puts in hypertext links that generate revenue when the reader clicks on the link.
That seems like it is a good way to make money, assuming that the reader actually clicks on the link. As for me, when I’m reading someone else’s blog I really can’t say that I click very often on the links. I wonder how many other people actually click on them? I really enjoyed reading the post about the 10 top reasons to NOT use in text advertising – it obviously is sprinkled with sardonic humor that I get a kick out of!
I was reading that the Golivemobile is expanding their overseas operations in the upcoming months. I’m sure that those countries will be thrilled to have Golivemobile over there. For the most part, it is a technology company, which doesn’t usually have a large negative impact on the environment. So for those countries that is a good thing because so many other American companies do a lot of polluting. And I’m sure that the jobs that will be going over there will be high paying jobs by their country’s standards. Low by American standards, but that is the whole point of sending jobs overseas, isn’t it?
My daughter wants me to buy her one of the new netbooks. I’ve never heard of one before! I asked her what a netbook is and she told me that it is a computer that is so small that it could fit into her purse! She said that her best friend had just bought one a few days before and she thinks it is awesome! She said that she can take it with her everywhere she goes. She spends a lot of time on the road and really likes being able to swing into one of the many places that have free wi-fi and check her email or write a few blog posts without having to lug around a big laptop.
I told her that I will have to do some price comparison between the brands. So far I have found that they are for the most part close in price range. She said that she wants to get the same kind that her best friend has because that way if she runs into questions about it maybe her friend can help her figure out what is going on.
Automotive, Computers and/or Internet, Fun, General life, Travel | Dean | 
December 26, 2009 1:41 pm | 
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