The next time your trash bill comes, think about how angry you would be if someone started stealing it before the garbage man came in the morning.
Angry? You'd be delighted, right? No more having to pay the bill if someone hauls it away on a regular basis free of charge. But who would want to steal your trash, right?
My wife and I don't get to the movies very often, but we were talking for months about going to see the new Indiana Jones flick. Then, those who went before us had a warning: Don't waste your $9.
Wait, what did they say? The movies are $9 per ticket?!!! Definitely not going now, especially with the reviews I've been hearing from people I trust making it sound like Rocky V.
So instead of the relief from day-to-day monotony found in a cinema, I took my fly rod and waders and took off toward Delta, stopping just short of the hamlet for a little Sulphur and Rusty Spinner action on Muddy Creek near Bruce. I already paid for my fishing license, so it was free.
Well, pretty much free. It used to be pretty much free.
So I went home this weekend and visited a friend of mine who is into demolition derby. He's working on a car that runs on alcohol because it supposedly lights on fire less easily (I've been to his demo derbies, and that's a large problem).
Anyhow, he said the fuel is cheaper than gas -- only $3 per gallon. Wow, I thought, why doesn't everyone start doing this.
Then, like the ethanol boom that hasn't been, he dropped the other shoe. His car eats alcohol about three times faster than gas. So it's actually about $9 to do what $4 gasoline would do.
Do you think we'll ever come up with an easy alternative to gasoline?
Apparently it's not worth it anymore to let your engine run when you are stopped instead of idling it. Modern fuel injection takes care of those problems, so just turn your engine off when you're going to be stopped for more than a few moments.
That was just one of the good fuel-savings tips in an article I saw on CNN this morning.
The list was one big duh (don't tailgate or drag race away from traffic lights and stuff like that) until I got to No. 5. That one was a paragraph filled with a bunch of old wives' tails about idling your engine that were contradicted. No. 6 wasn't bad either.
To see the list, click here.
This morning, my phone rang, and on the other end was John Shelley, owner of John Shelley's Garden Center and Nursery, a southern York County landscaping business that caters to those who want new landscaping designs for their homes using higher-end plants.
And after two minutes on the phone, I wish I would have gotten him into a story that was already in today's paper.
What he told me was this: He got out of the vegetable gardening business years ago, but starting recently, his ornamental landscaping customers began requesting something a bit odd. They wanted raised garden plots - patches framed with timbers for growing vegetables -incorporated into their designs.
"People want to grow a Victory Garden in their backyard," Shelley told me, referencing a government initiative during World War II.
No, it wasn't in the middle grade or premium column. It was for regular. Saw it on my way in to the office this morning on Carlisle Road.
If you didn't file your taxes electronically the last time around, your stimulus check is coming in the mail, but it's taking longer than those getting direct deposits because they did file electronically.
I just wanted everyone who is electronically challenged (like me) and back-burnered to know that the checks are finally showing up. I got mine yesterday in the mail. What glee! I'm rich!
I began thinking about all the things it could pay for:
* Three months of car payments
* Three months of student loan payments
* A month's rent
* Utility bills for the next two to four months
"Wow," I thought. "I'm on easy street. No bills for a full month, I can go out and stimulate the economy by buying crap I don't need."
The story of my colleague Sean and I fixing his lawnmower on our own began to circulate in the office the other day. It started with a murmur on the other side of the room, and before I knew it, two of our editors were next to my desk.
I don't want to think about the hours of time in classes they spent (and that I have spent for that matter) to learn a specialization, only to have something so basic to everyday life as getting the lawn mowed be a blind spot of knowledge.
That's the picture emerging from a recent study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I glanced at this at first, and figured someone was reaching a bit for conclusions. Then I took a look at the numbers.
In roughly the past six months, women have gained about 300,000 jobs. Men have lost 700,000 jobs. Check out the reasoning yourself and see if you agree.
Right now, my home is a pile of clutter three times what the quarter-house apartment can hold. It's my wife's belongings (we just got married), my belongings from my previous apartment, and all the stuff we got for wedding presents so we could start our lives together.
Too much stuff. I just want to purge. But I just can't. It's possibly stuff someone could use. Or maybe not. How did it get this bad?
Do you feel like clutter is imposing on your life? What do you do about it?
When money gets tight, you'd be surprised what you can do yourself. My colleague here on the business staff broke his lawn mower the other day, and it sounded like a simple fix, so I decided to help him out with it last night.
It was either that, or he would have to pay a few hundred dollars for a new lawn mower, or get put on a two-week waiting list at the local repair shop.
No offense to my father and mother, my sister, and my new cousin-in-law. But I don't want to drive an average of 400 miles per weekend to see them for the rest of this month.
But these people are close to me. They are family. I want to cut out the driving, not seeing them.
So really, what are my options here?
I'm trying to get as much mileage as I can out of my trip to Europe last month. The way the economy is going, it's the last time I'll be there until after I'm dead. And that's only if I get cremated and my ashes get blown all the way across the Atlantic.
Anyway, they have a lot of these Smart cars over there, and I think the coolest thing at first glance is that you can back into a parallel parking spot, with your bumper to the curb and the hood toward traffic. And you still don't stick out any farther than a normal sized car.
I wanted one.
Then I got back to the states, and realized why no one has one here: SUVs.
I recently opted for a non-HMO health care plan and will reap the benefits of it this weekend. I was able to get an appointment with a podiatrist tomorrow, less than 24 hours after I realized I needed to go see one. I will spare you the details.
Suffice it to say, it took much longer to get an appointment the last time, when I had an HMO. First, I had to go to my primary care provider - a very good doctor, but one who was only able to look at my foot and say, "Yup, you need a referral." That I'm sure cost my health provider a pretty penny, though, for the visit.
Then I went to the doctor who could help. But this time around, I cut out the middleman. And isn't that the easiest way to save money? Also, the lag time from appointment to appointment is saving me several days of pain. And isn't that the goal of medicine?
So then why are HMOs the way so many companies go? For many, they are the only option in our employer-based health care system. Is there something I'm missing here?
Are you getting ulcers from layoff worries and want to find something with a little more job security, but don't know where to start?
Perhaps it's time to get back to basics, and ask yourself this question: If you were a customer, how bad would things get before you would stop buying the product you are selling or making, or service you are providing?
I have a laptop that blew up on me going on two years ago. I haven't fixed it. My wife and I have a desktop that serves our needs OK. I can spend that money elsewhere, like on food.
I did a story the other day about Glatfelter's push into making coffee and tea filter papers. No one will give up a morning cup of coffee or tea until well after they've started sewing their own clothes and supplementing their grocery shopping with the backyard garden, or so the logic goes.
It's an example of a company looking to make their business as recession-proof as they can.
Are you plotting a move to a "safer" career? If so, let us know where you are now and where you want to go.
