It’s Now or Never To Buy Myself A Banjo

So far the best starter banjos that I have found online are going for some pretty decent discounts. It feels good taking my time and doing research on finding the best deal ever before placing an order. Last week I discovered a few gift cards that I had received for Christmas and had tucked away so it seems to be a good time to get myself my dream banjo musicians friend. Besides I should be getting a decent tax refund here pretty soon.

This year I promised to use some of the money for something that I would really enjoy, so it’s now or never. It will be nice to be able to play around at night after a long hot day working the farm. They say that this will be an extremely hot and humid summer, ugh!

New Phone System Issues

One of the Christmas gifts that I received this last year was a new house phone. The one that was hooked up here at the house was so very old and in need up an updated version, so my sister purchased a whole new phone system for place and presented it to me on Christmas day.

Unfortunately I am not impressed with the way that it works and am going to have to request the receipt so that I may trade it in for a system that does what I need it to do. This new one will not allow you to push any buttons for passwords, zip codes, account numbers or the like that are required by many businesses that I deal with on the phone. It acts like an old rotary phone and no ones system is acknowledging any of the numbers that I press and that is a real issue.

I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I really need a phone system that makes life easier, not more of a hassle than it all ready is and will be talking with my sister concerning this later this evening after dinner.

Groundhog Day 2016

Today is Groundhog Day. If this furry little varmint sees his shadow, then we are doomed to six more weeks of winter. If he does not, then Spring is just around the corner – 6 weeks or less. I personally don’t see the logic in this. If you don’t see your shadow, it’s because the sun is behind a bunch of clouds. What does that have to do with foretelling the speed of spring’s approach? Spring will get here in her own good time.

In these parts, spring does not come in February, no matter what shadows lurk around groundhog holes, although yesterday we did enjoy warm temps – it hit 60 degrees and felt great when I took the dogs out for their walk. So February takes up 4 weeks of winter, regardless of the shadow seeing moment. The question then becomes, how far into March do we have cold weather? Does a quick spring conflict with the other old saying, “If March comes in like a lion then it goes out like a lamb”? I say, welcome the lion and forget the groundhog!

Christmas Shopping All Done Online This Year

It didn’t take me as long as I thought to find and purchase a wonderful Rickenbacker Guitar via the Internet last week MusiciansFriend.com Rickenbacker. This much anticipated package arrived this morning at my door, which gives me plenty of time to get it wrapped up and put up in the guest room along with the other presents that I plan on taking to my sister’s house tomorrow morning. I haven’t seen anyone on that side of the family since Thanksgiving, People have gotten way too busy and when a major holiday comes around it really messes things up.

I am thrilled with the fact that I got all of my Christmas shopping done online this year. I didn’t have to go to any brick and mortar stores for anything, including the wrapping paper and ribbons. I had plenty of scotch tape and gift labels left over from last year, so I didn’t have to worry about those items, but I’m sure I will need to replenish my supply before next Christmas comes around.

Getting Rid of Junk Mail

This is great! A must read. ?

CBS Newsman Tips for Handling Telemarketers. Three Little Words That Work!!

(1)The three little words are: ‘Hold On , Please….’Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s ‘beep-beep-beep’ tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your hand set, which has efficiently completed its task.These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘real’ sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!!

(3) Junk Mail Help: When you get ‘ads’ enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these ‘ads’ with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those ‘pre-approved’ letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more  than the regular 41 cents postage ‘IF’ and when they receive them back.  It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney’s (60 minutes) ideas.Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn’t on anything you send them.You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 41 cents. The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let’s let them know what it’s like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they’re paying for it…Twice! Let’s help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that’s why they need to increase postage costs again You get the idea ! If enough people follow these tips, it will work —- My friend has been doing this for years, and she get very little junk mail anymore. THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS

Mother Loved Her Diamonds

Soon after we are all done with Christmas and New Years, it will be February, and then Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. My mother was born on February 14th, so it was always a day that my mother enjoyed immensely. Mother really had an eye for all things shiny and pretty, so diamonds always were a hit for her. Dad tried his best to give her everything that she always wanted and once in a while he would present to her on February 14th some very nice Diamond earrings gift that would put the biggest smile on her face for weeks on end, and make her the happiest person on earth.

Ross-Simons is certainly one of the better known jewelry stores around, they’ve been in business since 1952 and still going strong and they are currently offering up to 1/3 off of their diamond earrings, along with Free Shipping to boot. I was feeling a bit melancholy earlier and was checking out jewelry sites, seeing all the “bling” that my mother was have gone ape over if she was still here among us. She was just getting comfortable with using the Internet and all that it has to offer, she really would have enjoyed surfing the net and seeing all the nice shiny things that a person can order due to today’s technology.

Miss That Warm and Fuzzy Christmas Feeling

If the Ibanez that I ordered doesn’t get here soon I won’t have the time to wrap it and get it in the mail to my nephew in time for Christmas. I’m sure it will but for some reason I’ve gotten myself a bit nervous about the whole deal. Must be that I’m just so beat from working so hard around here lately and with the holidays quickly approaching I tend to get a bit whacked out since my folks passed on and I’ve moved in and taken over the house and the farm and everything that goes along with all of that.

I really miss my folks and warm fuzzy feelings that we really didn’t appreciate to the fullest until it was taken away from us all so suddenly. At least my sister isn’t far from here and she has done her best to keep me included in all of her dinners, get togethers and celebrations. I couldn’t have asked for a better big sister. This year I will actually spend the night before Christmas at her place if I can get everything in order around here for me to be away for the night. It will be nice to wake up Christmas morning and be around family again, instead of waking up here alone as I have been doing for the past several years. Way too depressing.

TV and Sports Programs

A good friend of mine has cable and I subscribe to satellite, so we tend to bounce back and forth to each others living room in order to get the best of both worlds.  He gets the best in cable sports, while I get the Sunday ticket package, so between the two of us we get it all. It’s just too bad that we don’t live closer to each other but I can handle an hour drive in order to enjoy the companionship of a good friend and in order to enjoy a sporting event that I don’t get on my television. He has put to good use the Cloop – Your Handy Magnetic Cable Keeper that I brought over to his place a few weeks ago. His place is a total nightmare, even for being a confirmed bachelor (as I am myself) that I just couldn’t deal with all the cables that keep seeming to breed and cluster all under the entertainment center that he is currently using.

Say Hello to Cloop- Your Handy Magnetic Cable Tie.
Say goodbye to tangled headphones

We both try to keep the refrigerator full of beer and each is responsible for bringing over some munchies to enjoy during the games. It usually isn’t anything fancy, maybe some popcorn, nuts, chips and dip, something along that line. Once in a while we’ll call the local pizza joint to have a  pizza delivered, since neither one of us enjoys cooking and we both enjoy a thin crust pepperoni pizza.

I have found that Cox cable sports really does have the best selections available. And if I didn’t have the opportunity to go over to my buddies place to watch these sports with him I would most likely switch over to Cox cable. But I have had satellite for a good long time and have always had good customer service and I don’t pay a lot of money each month so for now I’ll just stay put. Since I do live alone it does me good to get out once in a while and I’ve known this guy for most of my life and it works out well for the both of us.

Luxury Real Estate Online

I grew up with a father that enjoyed gathering everyone up in the station wagon on Sundays and taking a nice Sunday drive, looking at the new houses that were popping up all over town and then on the way home we would drive through the older section and look at all the nice older houses and properties that were full of character and love for generations in the past. So it isn’t any wonder that I know enjoy looking at real estate websites and seeing what is out there that is for sale all across the country, since the Internet now allows us to do just that.

One site in particular that always fascinates me is by the Bushari Group Real Estate that has the most splendid Boston Condos and Boston Luxury Lofts that just blow the mind to gaze at. You have to remember that I grew up on a farm and am still living on one and have never had the opportunity to live in any places like what I have seen online. Now that I’ve inherited the farm it doesn’t look like I’ll be leaving any time soon so I can only dream of ever living in a glamorous house anywhere much less one of the luxury Boston Lofts that I keep returning to online from time to time.

Green Wine Info

You would have to live under a rock some where out in the middle of No Man’s Land not to have heard about the green movement that is going on so strongly these days. I find it interesting how many industries and companies are trying so hard to do their part in this very important movement, even today’s wine makers are getting into the act.

I found a very interesting website that talks about the ways that wine makers are going green and I wanted to share it here because I feel very strongly about these important green issues. So please take a moment and check out what they are saying at wine.com.