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Doomed From The Beginning

As far as any one of us were concerned, our musician friend Eric had flown the coop to San Francisco and had no plans of seeing him again any time soon. He and his buddy, Josh, left right after Christmas, they loaded up their cargo van with all of their musical instruments and equipment and a few things that they would need once they got there and got settled in and left town with the biggest grins on their faces. A Kodak moment to be sure, too bad no one had a camera and didn’t think to use any of the cell phones that we all had that could have captured the moment, sigh.

So imagine my surprise to answer the door last night to find Eric and Josh both standing on my front porch looking pretty ragged and tired. I got them in, fixed them some grub and brought in the six-pack that I had just purchased on my way home and settled in to hear their tales of woe.

They were doomed from the beginning with getting two flat tires even before leaving the state and of course they only had one spare. That held them up an extra day and put a hurting in their budge right off. Then one night when they were in a restaurant/bar some body broke into their vehicle and stole a bunch of their equipment, including Eric’s brand new apogee quartet that he had just gotten for Christmas, which broke Eric’s heart and his spirit enough to were they never made it out to California at all. How depressing this whole adventure turned out to be.

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Cat Stevens

I wonder whatever happened to Cat Stevens. I haven’t heard anything about him in so long. I fell in love with his music when I was a kid, my parents used to play his album back before CDs where even thought of. I’m glad that my parents always had music playing in the house that we grew up in. I love all types of music and You Tube has become one of my best friends as of late.

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Online Schools The New Educational Concept

I keep hearing how the economy is getting better, but I have to tell you that I don’t know anyone who would know it. People are still losing their jobs, their houses, their retirement money and having to sell off anything that they can live without. The number of cars, trucks, motorcycles, jet skis, campers, trailers, heavy equipment that are up for sale at the end of every other drive way and parked in plenty of fields and parking lots is still on the increase. Things are not getting any better, I can tell you that.

I do understand that more people are flocking to colleges and universities to further their education in an attempt to get into a better field that are promising a better future for many people. The amount of online schools are on the increase and I’m thinking that it may be a good idea for me to check out some of the offers that I’m seeing and hearing about. I’ve really never been a fan of education, I hated school, but if I want to get ahead in life it just makes sense to do something about it and the time is right for that right now.

I’ve been looking at the classesandcareers.com website that I’ve located and it looks like it might be something that I can sink my teeth into. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

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Aunt Shirley, Our Golden Oldie

Aunt Shirley has mastered her smart phone in a very short time. No one expected her to catch on so darned quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great, considering a lot of people her age wouldn’t even attempt to do some of the things that this “golden oldie” has learned to do. Last year she celebrated her 78th birthday party. Her 80th birthday party is going to be crazy fun. As a matter of fact it is already in the planning stages.

After Uncle Bernie passed away, she was back on her feet in no time. She went and got her real estate license and has done pretty well considering we are still in an economic crises and houses are still moving at a snail’s pace. She has been using a lot of tools that having a smart phone can offer. Even a pretty cool real estate closing checklist app that has proved to be one of the best toolss to come to the real estate business in a long time.

Heck I don’t even have a smart phone. Don’t want one. Don’t need one. As a matter of fact, my two year contract just ended with AT&T and I am due for an upgrade. I don’t want anything fancy. Don’t need the Internet, GPS, the weather, none of the stuff, just let me make a call, send a text and take a picture and I’m good to go. I know that they still make flip phones, but they don’t come with a slide out keyboard that is required for texting.

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Dollars and Sense

My brother-in-law is currently dabbling here and there with Stock Trading.  At dinner last night at my parent’s house the conversation was mainly concerning Online Trading, Mobile Trading and IRA Accounts. I have to tell you that most of it was way over my head. I’m surprised to find that I really don’t know all that much about the Stock Market and all of this economic business, so I’m happy to be learning about all this Online Broker business through him, he is a good guy with a good head on his shoulders.

My sister and he have been married since high school, over 20 years now and they have managed to do quite well for themselves even with the economy in such turmoil as it has been the past few years. So I’m inclined to trust him to a certain extent and am thinking about entrusting him with some of my savings to see if he can make me some much needed money. My parents are contemplating the same thing, so I hope it all goes well. If things go sour there would be much hell to pay and I’d hate to see anything come between family members and their money.

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Searching for Chocolate

My sister belongs to the local Red Hatter’s club, so I’ve been helping her to find a cool restaurant to hold their March gathering. They are a great group of ladies, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting most of them at various functions that I’ve attended with my sister. One day I’ll be joining the club, but you have to be 50 years old and I have a ways to go yet, but it will come soon enough, I’m sure.

Anyways, it is cool that we no longer have to rely on the old fashioned paper version of the local yellowpages to find local restaurants and such and that we can turn to the Internet to find just about anything you need at any time. Whether it is a local search or trying to find something half way across the world, it’s all there for the taking for anyone looking.

We did come up with a place called The Frenchman’s Corner, that sounds interesting, you can drink your coffee or tea and  taste their Belgian chocolates on a what is promised to be a journey of gastronomic sweet delights. Going with a group of friends to a place like that is perfect. If and when they decide to go there I’ll tag along, sounds like fun and I love chocolate!

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Generations

Weird how some things get passed down through the generations and some things don’t. I come from a family that is over flowing with musical talent of some type. There are singers and dancers galore, as well as many types of musical instrument being playing played all year through, while I can’t do any of the above. If I start to sing, people start leaving as soon as possible. I had piano lessons while I was a kid. The lady next door was my teacher, she was a great piano playing and a a good friend to my mother. But no mater how hard and long as I practiced I just never got the hang up if and I insisted that I don’t want any more lessons, ever.

One major trait that I did inherit is hair and lots of it. Hair everywhere in the usual places and more. I remember riding the bus in elementary school and the kids started calling me gorilla arms. I can’t tell you how embarrassing that was. I took it as long as I could but then I just plain had enough of it and came home, found my mothers razor and shaved both of my arms and have continued doing that for the rest of my life. Up until now that is.

There are so many products out there to help with people that have extreme hair issues and I’m ready to start looking at them. I’m tired of shaving my arms every day. It’s bad enough to have to shave my legs and arm pits almost every day. So I have been looking into purchasing an epilator to do the job. For the past week or so I have been looking online and have found a great site that gives us epilator reviews and guides that has been very helpful. If I am going to dive in and give one of these epilators a try I want to make sure that I am buying the right one and paying the right price for it as well.

interesting epilator
Emjoi AP-18 Emagine 72 Tweezer Head Epilator

This particular one is listed as an Emjoi AP-18 Emagine 72 Tweezer Head Epilator. It isn’t cheap but I think it just might be the right one for me. I think I will go ahead and order one. I’ll keep you posted on how it works out for me.

 

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College Grants and Scholarships

My sister’s youngest son is heading on for college soon and her life is jammed full of researching colleges on the Internet and the endless filling out of forms.  She was telling me of a web site that provides free access to an extensive list of grants & college scholarship opportunities that she uses.  Our teenager and I will be confronted with the same challenges soon, that is if she makes it out of High School and believe me sometimes I really wonder.

She isn’t still 100% sure of what she wants to do with her life and I am sure there are numerous kids out there that are in the same boat.  It seems the majority of them want to become famous celebrities with lots of spending money.  So we aren’t even sure what classes to check out and it sounds like the classes for becoming a rich Super Star are going to fill up quickly.  And of course money is a huge factor so we are definitely interested in college financial aid to help ease the strain on our already strained bank account.

Big sis really has been urging  me to start checking out the processes soon and she informed me about a website that she has been using a lot that has their college scholarships and grants database updated constantly and is user friendly, which is what I need.

I never went to college so this is a whole new ballgame to me.  I’m glad that my sister is dealing with it now so that she can assist us when the time comes.  Both my sisters excel at researching on the Web and I learn so much from them, as I always have in this crazy life of mine.  I’m so grateful for both of my sisters, I don’t know what I would do without either one of them and most of my brothers are pretty awesome also!

nice teen

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Time For Exercise

I find myself anxious to spend more and more time outside lately. I had promised that I would start going for more walks when the weather broke so it looks like I’ve got some walking to do. I do want to go online and find a good pair of Shoes that would be good to walk in. I’m sure that I could find a good deal if I just took a little bit of time and did some searching some evening on my handy dandy laptop.

I have a pair of Sneakers that are still in good shape, but I’m not sure if I would be doing any justice to my feet, legs, back, etc buy wearing them that much. I might as well look for a good pair of Running Shoes while I’m at it. I don’t intend to keep walking for very long. I really want to start running again, but I have to start some where.

Buying shoe online doesn’t have to be a hassle. I found a great buying guide and plenty of tips for shoes online that I found to help set my mind at ease about ordering footwear via the Internet. I’m pretty good at finding good deals with reputable companies online. I’ll keep you posted………

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Insurance Needs and Wants

Shopping for your normal every day life insurance policies online has become a lot easier these days. I remember way back, years ago trying to do some comparison shopping for my auto insurance using the computer and it was a real hassle. I finally got so frustrated that I just about tossed the stupid laptop out the living room window and gave up. That left a real bad taste in my mouth, a taste that I just can’t seem to get our of my system for way too many years.

I was watching a friend go online the other day and it didn’t take him all that long to get some decent quotes for his home and auto insurance needs and wants. He finally hooked up with an agency don allred insurance burlington nc and couldn’t be happier, so I have decided to give it one more try for myself. I mean it shouldn’t be all that bad. I do spend a good amount of time on a computer at work and at home, so I shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring this whole free online quotes and get a much better bang for my buck.

According to all the TV commercials that we end up watching year after year put out by most of the well known top 10 insurance companies, I should be able to save at least $300 a year on my auto insurance policy, if I take my time, follow through and do it right. There is so much I could do with saving $300 a year!