Archive for September, 2009
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
While it’s fresh in my mind, I’m going to write about our first day back from Hastings. I should fill you in that we actually live in Fort Lauderdale, but have a place, in Hastings that I’ll tell you about another time. We bought it 3 years ago with the intention of relocating and retiring there. Still our dream, but the economy has screwed us up. We do, however, drive up every other weekend, a four hour drive, but well worth the peace.
We are so done with South Florida and this is what awaited us when we returned.
Not even an hour after our arrival home, Mike received a voice mail. For the 3rd time in two months, and actually the 2nd time in two weeks, his company truck had been broken into. Just to clarify, it’s not “his” company truck, but the truck owned by the company he works for. The problem is that in this wonderful city we live in, associations rule the city. You are not allowed to park a vehicle with lettering on it in your driveway. The association also tell you when you need to clean your roof, or driveway or house. They even tell you to remove plants that they don’t like and they do all this for an astronomical fee. That’s another story in itself. So, anyway, Mike parks his truck in a parking lot on a main road in a lighted area. The braizen thieves break the back window of the truck, climb through and hand out their take. Being a air conditioning and appliance tech the truck is supplying the low-lives with multiple Freon tanks, guages and motors. Each time there’s a break-in Mike has to file a police report which entails waiting an hour for the police to show up and then filing the report. This takes a half hour to an hour depending on the officer and thorough he chooses to be. Of course, this is also on Mike’s time, not the company’s. The police department has no leads and no idea who might be doing these break-ins, but the hassle is no longer worth it and Mike will now have to leave the truck at the shop which is a half hour away, rather than five minutes from our house. Thank you, low-lives.
The following day I received 4 pieces of mail. The first of these was actually an $8.00 ticket for a toll violation in New York. Our son, Jason, just moved up to Albany and had his car shipped there. I called Jason and informed him about the ticket to which he replied that he didn’t run any tolls. A little while later he called me back. He had checked the date of the violation and realized it was the day the car was shipped. He hadn’t driven the car that day. As it turns out, the driver who hauled Jason’s car on an eighteen wheeler, did not want to drive the truck into New York City where we had scheduled the drop off. The truck driver drove Jason’s car into the city and blew the toll. Nice!!!
The second piece of mail was a letter that I received was from an attorney. He wanted to “help” me retrieve unclaimed property that the State of Florida has in it’s possession. And, he wanted a mere $200 to do this. The property that FL has now taken over is stock in Ashland Oil. My parents had given my ex and I stock when we got married and since our divorce in 1999 I hadn’t been able to cash the checks because they were in both our names. The checks were a whopping $21 a quarter so I ignored them. Not a good idea. Ultimately, the stock was turned over to the state as unclaimed property. Now this lawyer wants to cash in on getting me the money owed to me for the stocks. I suppose a lot of people would have signed the documents and allowed this lawyer to file for what is owed them, but $200 is $200. I threw out the letter and then proceeded to www.fltreasurehunt.org where you can search for unclaimed property in your name. Lo and behold, I found four items that I could claim. I printed the forms, signed where necessary, attached a copy of my license and mailed everything certified to the address specified. Within 60 days, I should have a check. I’m pretty sure that in this economy everyone would rather have every penny they own in their pockets and with a little effort I saved $200.
The final two pieces of mail were the largest cause of aggravation. Not because I couldn’t handle it, but because someone else should have handled it and now it wound up in my lap (again.) The story: Our daughter, Tara was in a car accident. (I’ll detail that story in another post.) The only thing that pertains to this story is that Tara’s girlfriend was driving her father’s company truck and is well insured. I point that out because the incredible state of Florida is a “no fault” state regarding auto insurance and although most drivers carry PIP (personal injury protection), it only covers $10,000. In Tara’s case the bills were to be much higher, but in this case with the insurance coverage that the driver’s father’s company carries the insurance company will be paying the bills. Now being that the insurance company will be paying all bills they gave us a claim number and instructions to submit the claim number for every medical facility, doctor and service. These instructions were reiterated to Tara’s biological mother along with the claim number on numerous occasions, but because of the nature of the “beast,” (also to be embellished upon in another post) she seems to conveniently give them Mike’s insurance info everytime. Not sure I’ve met anyone more dense. Subsequently, upon receipt of every bill I have to call, explain the situation and give them the claim number. I do have to comment though that when we received a $36,000 hospital bill, it was a phone call that I took great pleasure in making!
Well, that was day one of what would turn out to be a chain of events yet to follow. I’m sure “Murphy” has taken up residence with us, hopefully not for too long. It seems “anything that can go wrong will.” Such is life!!! More to follow…
Posted in A Day In My Life | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Market Communications, a full service telecommunications provider includes Cybertech’s latest innovations. They specialize in the integration of Cybertech call voice loggers which are perfect for desktop recording and trading floor application. Cybertech is one of the leading and still-growing install manufacturers.
Telecom needs are unique to specific businesses and Market Communications provides customers with their specific voice and data requirements. They offer recorder solutions enabling a company to grow from four channels to thousands of channels and also a Wireless Mesh Network solution.
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Market Communications can handle all the technological aspects of your company, freeing you up build and run your company.
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Monday, September 28th, 2009
Last weekend. Mike and I went to Tallahassee, FL. We decided to take a trip up to see our son Scott who’s in his last year at FSU (Florida State University.) We surprised him by showing up at his door unexpected. Normally, it might be a problem to surprise a college student at his residence but, I have a wonderful relationship with both of my sons, so I knew this wouldn’t be a problem. This might not be advisable for all parents. I guess you’d have to know whether or not your relationship with your college student will allow this. So, anyway, we showed up at Scott’s door and he was thrilled. Deciding to meet up again when his girlfriend, Liz got home we headed over to the hotel to check in.
I had previously booked our room through Orbitz.com at the Day’s Inn on West Tennessee, which was the closest hotel to his apartment, at the cheapest rate. We checked in to the hotel with no problem and headed to our room, great location, right next to the pool. Upon entering our room we found clay colored sand, all over the chairs and floor. This compelled Mike to wipe down everything in sight feeling that it just wasn’t clean. The WIFI that was promised didn’t work; the safe in the room wouldn’t lock. I guess the saying, “you get what you pay for” is absolutely true. It’s a good thing that we’re not particular or materialistic. Being that I had already unpacked, I had decided that we weren’t going anywhere.
We relaxed a bit and then headed back over to pick up the “kids.” Our first stop together to get our weekend started was to go to happy hour at a bar called “Bullwinkles.” Yes, it’s safe to assume in a college town it was filled with college students. No big deal! So Mike and I ordered our usual drink; Dewars and water. No Dewars!? We ordered Bud on tap. With the $10 cover the beer was all you could drink; we could do that. Well, after our first drink, they were out of Bud. What bar runs out of Budweiser? Time to leave.
We headed to dinner. Scott and Liz chose the place, decent food, very long wait and apparently we won’t be going back because I have no idea what the name of it was or where it was located. Back at Scott’s apartment, we hung out for a bit and left.
Next morning we drove for what seemed to be forever to a wonderful breakfast place called “Another Broken Egg.” The area was quaint, the view was magnificent, the service was impeccable and the food was delicious. Apparently, this is a franchise that’s all over the United States and growing and very worth visiting, if you have the opportunity.
After breakfast we took a ride through an exclusive residential area so that Scott and Liz could show us a “house that looked like a castle.” 
They, being young, are still in that mode where they have their lives ahead of them and dream of things that are possibilities in their lives. Of course, Mike and I are past the point where we could ever hope to possess anything of any great monetary value and honestly we’re not the kind of people that actually ever cared for those things. As we drove, Scott couldn’t wait until we came up to the “castle.” It did look like a castle, we stopped took pictures and contemplated the interior furnishings. What do you imagine?
From there we decided to shoot some pool, have a few drinks, shoot some darts and watch the truck race. Funny how girls on the street think they have to advertise a “car wash” wearing a bikini. Actually, not so funny!!! Funny how “kids” in a bar gravitate toward the new touch screen technological games while Mike and I would rather play pool. Funny how at 21 years old Liz needs 2 hours to get ready for dinner and me who’s somewhat older and could use more work, only needs 20 minutes. We left the bar to get ready!!!
Well, 2 ½ hours later, because “Ghost” was on and I had to watch it for the trillionth time, we picked up the “kids” again and headed out to Harry’s. It’s about two blocks from the capitol building in Tallahassee, a very nice restaurant with a really nice atmosphere, good service and high priced, but delicious meals. Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention that they vacuum the dining area while you eat! Never saw that before.
Now we were off in search of somewhere to relax. It was pretty odd to us that on a Saturday night there were so few people out. We found a place called One O One. 
It’s said to be Tallahassee’s social dining experience. “It’s coming for dinner and staying for the nightlife!” Nice atmosphere, classy place and they had Hookahs in all different flavors. For anyone that doesn’t know, a Hookah
is a single or multi-stemmed water pipe for smoking. The popularity of Hookahs and Hookah bars has increased dramatically over the last few years. The draw to Hookahs is that you are smoking Shisha which is a mixture of tobacco and treacle, honey or sugar, and distilled water with fruit flavors. Shisha tobacco is very light and flavorful with a wonderful fruity aroma. Shisha is not your typical tobacco. It’s nothing like the tobacco in cigars, cigarettes or dip. Smoking true narguile shisha is an entirely different sensation. Shisha Tobacco is smoked for flavor and not for any kind of effect. It provides a relaxing and peaceful pursuit. The most popular flavor is apple and others include strawberry, pineapple, apricot, grape, rose, mint and even cappuccino! Hookahs are generally allowed to be used in places where smoking is not permitted thus providing the “smoker” a form of appeasing their habit. We stayed for a little while testing the different flavored Hookahs. A new experience for us.
From there we headed through the city and found another bar, the name slips my mind and the only excitement 
in that place was a drunk college student making a fool out of himself jumping up and down, which I assume was his rendition of dancing. He was amusing though and gave us all a good laugh. We left, stopped for a few pics and retired for the night.
For our final goodbye and meal together we went to a nice little bagel place called Bruegger’s. They had fresh bagels, great coffee and quick service and have several locations throughout the United States.
After breakfast we dropped Scott and Liz off at the apartment, said our goodbyes and headed back to our place in Hastings, FL. The 3 1/2 hour trip was uneventful and quick. Quick because we used to take the trip straight from Fort Lauderdale, a 7 hour trip, which was definately a long ride. None-the-less, other than the fact that I starting missing Scott as soon as we left, it was good to get back to our place in the woods where the only thing you hear are the birds, the crickets and an occasional owl at night!
Posted in A Day In My Life | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Whirled World is a very informative blog and interesting blog. If boosting your SERP (search engine results page) is of any interest to you the author, Srihari Padmanabhan details his success story of how to use a “link wheel.” He seems to have mastered his technique in this method and the logic of it seems like it could be a wonderful way to boost your SERP.
Srihari Padmanabhan also expresses his confidence in using Google Adsense as an income source. He explains niche marketing and how to rank well on Google.
On his blog, Srihari Padmanabhan has a post on keyboard shortcuts for Gmail, which seems to be becoming more and more popular and will be useful to many.
Whirled World is a blog I will continue to refer to for useful information. It’s my intention to test out some of his techniques and I will keep you informed as to my progress.
Posted in Reviews to Peruse | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
It seems to me to get noticed you need persistence and a YouTube video. Whatever it takes, it turns out that Ann Minch had it. Her YouTube video, “Debtors Revolt” was widely publicized and Bank of America paid attention. Through her “Debtors Revolt,” Ann was able to restore her interest rate to its previous level on her credit card. Read the full story here.
Posted in Naming Names | No Comments »
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
Special Review Articles- Business and Blogging tips is a site providing numerous ways to drive traffic to your site, tips for internet marketing and business tips. Most of the top ten traffic sites provided are free and easy to join. There is also a wealth of information on tip and tricks and useful links to monitor your blog and to make money through your blog. There are web earning tools and links for how to earn money displaying ads. Through Special Review Articles- Business and Blogging tips anyone should be able to learn how to profit from their blog. The site is formatted nicely and is very easy to navigate as each link is categorized and the subjects are all straight forward. There are also article reviews of various sites with very interesting content that are sure to draw interest. I personally will be visiting Special Review Articles- Business and Blogging tips frequently to get new updates, tips and ideas on how to increase readership and enhance my blog.
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
I find that the foundation for the blog Breaking the Boundaries is a good one. I believe we all should express ourselves and share our thoughts on the attributes that make up our morality. Breaking the Boundaries suggests topics that are not often talked about. Unfortunately, I found a few of the links to articles that I would have liked to read were broken. The author of Breaking the Boundaries expresses his opinion on topics such as “actions speaking louder than words” and “being original and being yourself” which leave us questioning what we believe. I feel this is a good thing. One picture that really caught my eye on Breaking the Boundaries was the one representing the article, “Actions Speak Louder than Words.” The statement, “A strong man stands up for himself. A stronger man stands up for others” on this blog in the article, “Are You Strong or Stronger,” also leapt out at me realizing the truth in that statement. I look forward to reading more topics posted on Breaking the Boundaries. I feel that it has the ability to give more insight into ourselves and into others.
Posted in Reviews to Peruse | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
An eye appealing blog leading one to wonder if the writer is actually sharing her thoughts and critiques through the late night hours. Although my first expectation in reading the name The Midnight Writers Cafe, was that it would be an expression of thoughts, I found a pleasant surprise in that the theme was more about coffee and other beverages available in coffee shops.
Although, I looked forward to finding the links that would bring me to information on those topics, I was distracted by the author’s critiques on other blogs. I found myself reading, with interest about these blogs. The author of a The Midnight Writers Cafe has an uplifting writing technique that drew me into clicking on the links which I found of interest.
Still anxious to explore the stories shared in The Midnight Writers Cafe I returned to the homepage in search of coffee beverages and coffee shops. So many to choose from, I started at the top and worked my way down finding appealing stories and information. I most enjoyed the post titled, “Famous Coffee Shops Around the World,” and would like to see more on that topic. I will be visiting The Midnight Writers Cafe again. With coffee in hand, I will look forward to reading more.
Posted in Reviews to Peruse | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought people go to blood banks for the benefit of others. I guess, however, in every situation there will be people that find a way to benefit themselves.
On a recent trip to the blood bank, my dad was sitting and waiting his turn. There was a short wait, but one worth waiting for. For those of you who don’t know, generally there are some kind of sweets, in the case cookies, coffee and orange juice, left for those who give blood to help combat lightheadedness and weakness.
As my dad was sitting a couple pulled into the parking lot in a Cadillac Escalade. The couple walked in, went over to where the “sweets” were and loaded their pockets. They then proceeded to go over to the desk to inquire about an appointment. When told that there was a wait, they left. According to my dad, not ten minutes later a man walked in and also proceeded to the snack table, filling his pockets. He too went over to the desk, inquired and left. My dad couldn’t believe the selfishness of these people and wondered how many people actually do this throughout the day.
At that point, my dad went over to get a cup of coffee. He left a dollar on the table. A little while later, the receptionist walked over to the table and inquired as to who left the dollar there. Reluctantly, because he did not do it for recognition, my father answered that he did. The receptionist was so appreciative and expressed the fact that no one ever does that and how thoughtful that was. It’s amazing how so little can mean so much!!!
Posted in One Good Turn | 1 Comment »
