Category: business

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Death of Newspapers

It seems that everyone has been taking the daily newspaper for granted. Most of the people in my neighborhood just open their door each morning and find a nice rolled newspaper at the end of their driveway. Its waiting for them to pull off the plastic sleeves that keep them dry and browse the local news while drinking their morning cup of coffee.

Some people who can’t keep up with reading a daily paper just stop by the local convenience store or vending rack when they want to read a newspaper. But for some reason it is getting really hard to find a newspaper in a rack. It’s like all the racks were sucked up into an alien spaceship overnight and carted away. I don’t know what’s up with that, but I don’t have time to read the paper every day and have always counted on being able to buy a paper every once in a while from the racks, especially the Sunday paper. I don’t know how hard I’m going to be willing to search the stores and sidewalks for a newspaper. I can get most of it online anyways.

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I need some safety glasses

My friend that is a cop wears safety glasses instead of just regular sunglasses.  He feels that in his line of work, he has a good change of something getting through a regular pair of sunglasses so it’s safety glasses or nothing for him.  See what happened once is he was with his partner and there was this nut with a shot gun shooting up a house.  They were the ones that were the first responders.  The guy turned the gun on their vehicle and shot.  The driver side glass shattered and a piece of it hit his partners glasses and a piece of his glasses went into his eye.  He ended up losing his eye and his job.  Now he’s stuck on a desk for the rest of his career or until something else comes along.

It’s a shame that happened to his partner because they were as close as brothers which usually happens with partners on the police force like that.  Because of that, my friend always wears safety glasses and the best part of these is they don’t look like safety glasses.  They look like regular sunglasses and stylish ones at that.  The price was great too.  They offer much more than just safety glasses too.  I have to wear them on the job so I’m trusting my eyes to the ones like he gets.

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I’m calling ADT Home Security

I couldn’t believe it when my landlord told me that there have been 4 break-ins this past week in 4 houses on these two city blocks that I consider my neighborhood.  This is a good neighborhood too – upscale, nice cars, yards kept mowed and clean.  That’s the last thing I expected to hear from them.

I asked them if they would mind if I called ADT and has them come out to my house.  They asked me what ADT was.  I thought everyone knew them but I guess older people don’t pay much attention to things like that.  I explained that ADT Home Security was the best home security company in the country.  It’s all over the United States.

Not only do they monitor your home 24 hours a day but they do it 7 days a week so you don’t have to worry if your home or not.  You know your home will be protected.  The best part is they’re not expensive like some companies.  The price starts at just $35.99 and that’s not bad for an ADT Alarm system.  The whole system is wireless and very easy to use too.  They were afraid it would be so complicated that they might trip the alarm themselves.  Once I finished talking to them about it, they said they would have the security system put in both of our houses and pay the bill for the monthly monitoring themselves.  They are great people.

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Needed a plumber………bad!!!

I got up this morning to find that my bathroom was flooded.  I called my landlord and they told me to call a plumber.  I thought they would do that since they know more about stuff like that than I do but they told me to do it.  Well the only thing I knew to do was to look on the Internet for a plumber in this area.  They have a lot more information about plumbers online than they offer in the yellow pages.

Luckily I found a plumber that was in good standings with the Better Business Bureau, gave them a call and they were here in about 20 minutes.  I had them give my landlord the estimate on what it would cost to repair the leak in the pipes under my sink and they had him to go ahead and fix the problem.  Luckily there wasn’t much water damage to the floors since I had put in ceramic tile but I might have to take the dry wall out and replace some of that but I can do that myself now.

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Wii game system

Man I love the Wii game system.  The games are more like you are really in the game instead of just sitting there with a control in your hand playing the game on TV.  Did you know that they are even putting the Wii game systems in Nursing Homes for the patients to be active and get exercise.  I think that is the greatest thing.  Well I read this and it surprised me, does it surprise you too?

Nintendo’s widely popular game system the Wii was hit by a decrease in sales in Japan. Nintendo hopes to regain its sales by releasing a new version of its Wii Sports game in June. The current CEO of Nintendo said in a press conference they will not be slashing prices of their hardware. “If our products are not much different from competitors’, price cuts would generate significant fresh demand. But video games are just not that kind of product.”

As of December 31, 2008 the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales. The Wii’s competitor the PlayStation 3 for the first time exceeded sales in 16 months in Japan for the month of March. The Wii Sports Resort and other new games and software will show up in Japanese stores in June to renew interest in the Wii.

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Guess what I found online

I’m sort of new to the whole Internet thing other than what they showed us in school and I wasn’t into school that much until now.  I am learning so much from my Electrician training that it sort of makes me wish I had tried harder in school.  Oh well, you know what they say, ‘Hind sight is 20/20’ and I guess in my case, that’s very true.

Anyway, with the economy getting so tight lately you have to look for bargains or ways to save money every way possible.  I did not know that there were so many coupon sites on the Internet.  Man can you really save some money with coupons.  Who knew?  I didn’t but this is the first time I’ve been totally on my own so I still have a lot to learn.  The best part is I’m learning!!  I have found coupons on food, clothing, gadgets and you name it.

In fact, with the coupons I have found online, I just saved $13.75 on my groceries.  That’s nothing to sneeze at.  I have several sites bookmarked now and before I go to any store for anything, I’ll check these sites and see if I can find coupons I could use or even find where I can get discounts by purchasing the items online.  That way I’ll save on gas and wear and tear on my car too.  Every penny makes a difference right now.

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In like a lion, out like a lamb

Coming from the south there are all kinds of ‘sayings’ like ‘If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.’  That seems to be the case this year for sure because the beginning of March was awful.  It was cold, nasty and even snowed.  Well it’s beautiful today so that old saying held true this year.  I never paid much attention in years past to see if it was true then or not.  That might be something I try to keep track of to see if that and other ‘old sayings’ have any truth to them.

Oh guess what, a couple of guys did get laid off last Friday.  Man I hated that for them too.  I just hope I’m not next but if I am, I’ll make it someway.  I always seem to land on my feet and sure hope that continues!!!  The unemployment rate across the country is at it’s highest since I was pretty young.  Breanna and I have been saving as much as we possibly can from the little side jobs I get here and there so that money might hold me over if I should get laid off.  Cross your fingers for me that I’m not next.

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Work is slowing down

The economy is starting to affect the company I work for now.  Work is really slowing down.  There aren’t as many new home constructions or commercial construction going on either.  Housing prices are dropping every day it seems where people are trying to sell their houses instead of losing them to foreclosures.  I feel so sorry for those people that have worked so hard to have something to watch it all crumble away.

They have been talking about maybe having to start laying some people off at work.  I’m not the last guy hired but I’m not on top either.  I think there are just three other guys that were hired under me that do basically what I do so hopefully none of us will get laid off but if there is a lay off, I just hope and pray one of them is not me!

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Well I got another call for a job

Breanna and I went to the bank and set up a business account with them.  That way, I can put all of my money that I make from side jobs in there in order to purchase materials or even tools that I need to make my side business grow.  She’s so smart about things like that.  I would have never thought of that.

I told her that we are going to be partners in this.  Well when I said that, she had a lawyer friend of her to write up a simple partnership agreement for us that makes it official.  The name of the business is now Hudson and Jenkins Home Improvement.  She’s the book keeper and schedules the jobs and I price the jobs, purchase materials that are needed and do the work.  She handles the money and when we get enough to buy a piece of equipment to help with other jobs, she will let me know.

This sounds like the beginning of something very special for both of us.  I wonder how far this partnership will end up going, if you know what I mean.  it’s a good way to see if we can work together, then maybe we can be together all the time.  I’m not saying that word yet because she might read this, if you catch my drift.