Window Shopper

In the last few weeks, I have been looking for a really great deal on a laptop. I have looked at all sorts of laptops in order to get the best deal for the best price. At times, I thought I had actually found what I wanted only to go back and find out that it was not available to me anymore. Had I bought it when it was there, I would now be a happy camper. But, as it is, I am not.

After having looked at several good computers, I did happen to find one I particularly liked at Circuit City. But, as I said, about the time I actually want to purchase the thing, it’s gone. Still, I was certain that more places had the same thing if only I looked for it more diligently. And I did run across one that was sort of close at the online Walmart store. I did contemplate looking closer at this one particular laptop but…….I had a small problem. I guess you will see the problem if you look hard enough.

Here, for your enjoyment (as long as you aren’t really shopping for one), is one of the laptops I wanted to explore further. Is there a problem here? I think so.

For those who do not pay attention to detail, take a look at the availability. Not sold in stores. Not sold online. Hmmmmm. Wonder where they sell them? Any ideas????

Before the world gets to be too crazy, take some time to relax. Enjoy yourself for a while. Make peace of mind your personal goal for the day. People who do that live longer, for one thing. For another, the stress level goes through the floor when you take the time to simply relax. I love the idea.

That reminds me of something. Last year, my Mom was needing to fill a prescription in a town over 60 miles from home. We went into their nationally known drug store, walked all the way to the back of the store. Quite a trip for someone who has problems walking that far like both Mom and I did. After putting in the order, we were told that it would be a few minutes. Uh huh, we thought. It’s going to take a while. Of course, we had been used to a local discount store that has a pharmacy that takes half of forever to fill a prescription even if they didn’t have any to do.

There were some chairs along the wall so we both sat down, talking, not looking at the chair right next to us. When I finally noticed the thing, it surprised me because I had never seen one like it before. You could sit in it and relax for free. I say “for free” because it was a massage chair. Little rollers went up and down the back and made things so happy, happy I did not want to get up. Not long after I got a turn (Mom did NOT want to give up the chair), they called her name for her prescriptions. I still did not want to get up. Of course, I was the driver so when Mom wanted to leave, we left. I wish I had that chair at home right now!!! They could always just give me my meals there, ya know.

For those of us who are eagerly awaiting the government stimulus package money, the wait is shorter than you think. The government is trying to slow down the bleeding of the economy so they are sending out the checks and direct deposits sooner than originally planned. So, if you are looking for that big check, it’s in the mail or going to be by the end of May.

Many of us are really going to enjoy that extra boon of money this month instead of waiting for up to three months. The original plan had some people waiting until July for checks simply because they were blessed with certain social security number endings. But now, it seems that they want the public to enjoy more monetary freedom much sooner. So, look for the checks to be at your mailbox or in your bank account. The electronic payments will start next Monday and be going out for a week!!! Paper checks will start on May 9th and take a while longer.

By the way, if you plan to spend the money instead of paying bill or saving it, check out your local grocery stores and discount stores for specials that they are putting on specifically for you, the tax rebate check holders. Big savings for you!

The first thing I want to say is..please, please do your research about insurance companies. A woman who had been insured for some time for disability insurance contacted her insurance company because she needed some cancer related treatments. She had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and it was spreading all over her body. The insurance company began requiring her to send information. They needed more information.

After several months of doing such things, they denied her the short term disability money she needed at that time. It was due to the fact that despite all the forms she filled out and sent it, she had not proved to their satisfaction that she was disabled. The company she had worked for could not give her another job. She was unemployable. Yet, the insurance company said she didn’t prove a disability.

In the meanwhile, bills were piling up. As the insurance company kept stalling her by asking for more and more information, she was losing one thing at a time and the bills kept on coming. So, she hired an attorney. She then filed for long term disability instead of short term. Her policy stated that she would receive 60 percent of her salary if disabled. Said insurance company then objected to her situation saying that before all this, she had another form of cancer that is unrelated and therefore is not eligible for the insurance coverage. She had been cancer free for some time prior to all this.

The thing is, if the insurance company can delay and deny claims or pepper the claimant with all sorts of delaying tactics, the claimant will likely give up and go away. Many insurance companies hope you do that since then they do not have to pay out a claim that the customer has paid premiums on for years to that company. The problem is that there is no law or oversight group to change this. No one is going to force the company to do the right thing. Therefore, they can pretty much do as they please without penalty. They can be dog-slow and no one can change that. They can pepper you with all sorts of forms to fill out. You can be at that for months before they decide to say no to discourage you. And there is very little you can do about any of it.

Unfortunately, this can be a life or death situation for many people who need the money to survive. Many do not because the insurance company bets that you will die before you can make them pay out to you. I firmly believe that there ought to be more regulation on the industry. Such companies should be required to answer claims within a short period of time. They should be expected to get all of the information that they need right away and make such decisions based on the claim rather than their pocketbooks. This SHOULD happen but it will not. This is as difficult as it is to make the oil companies pay us back for all the money they have been ripping off of the people at the gas pumps.

A college just 70 or so miles from us recently went through the big ordeal of changing it’s mascot. Why? Because the original mascot was an indian. Now, that particular mascot had been with the college for many years and many of the alumni were quite fond of the indian mascot. They even had the “Indian family” go to the football, basketball and baseball games. It was tradition.

But something happened. Some folks started objecting to the mascot as “politically incorrect”. It was hurting the native American. This would be the same ones that had never had a problem with it in years past because of the reverence that was shown the Indian family. But that did not stop them. And so, the officials at this college needed to change the image so that others would not object.

Finally, they came up with a great new mascot. It’s a red wolf. For days, on the news, we heard about how the college needed to and were actually changing all the signs to the red wolf signs from the Indian signs that had been standing for years. They could not seem to find them all for a while. But, at this point, it appears that they…the officials…have finally found all the offending Indian signs. And now, the red wolf stands for the college. The unfortunate fact is this red wolf appears to need drug rehabilitation because he appears to be on something. I wonder why the college allowed such a picture for their mascot. But they do seem to be proud of what they have accomplished.

My niece had been attending this college this year. She came home because of being close to birth time. It would be better for the baby, certainly, that she not have to see those really angry red wolves everywhere. It is a bit more peaceful at home.

As you may already know, my niece is having a baby. She should have the little girl in May but one never knows. The one big thing that is necessary for any baby are the baby clothes. You have to have lots and lots of baby clothes. I doubt very much that you could have too many of that item because babies have the tendency to soil their clothes rather quickly. This happens when you feed them, burp them and change them.

Let’s face it, kids are messy. And the really messy ones are the little, tiny babies who just like to spit and play. This baby is going to have a bunch of clothes, true. BUT I have been there. Sometimes, it pays to get more baby clothes than you think you will ever need. Then when you get into those, you can breathe a sigh of relief….like I did….twice. For those of you who are also having babies, you have been warned!!!

With all the recalls coming in, I cannot do the list justice by giving all of them so I have picked out some that appear to be more important. If I have erred in this, please understand that when I look at that list, it is huge. Most of the items are foreign items that I really do not even understand what they are. But the ones that I do know about are going to be reported here when possible.

So, the items that were mentioned in the latest recall list:

1) KFC corp…voluntary recall of Double Chocolate Chip Cakes. Allergy problem because of individual ingredients not named including eggs, milk, wheat, soy ingredients and possibly traces of tree nuts. These ingredients do not show up on the label individually. The cakes come in a plastic domed container with either clear or black plastic bottom. There has been ONE allergic reaction only. For more information concerning these products, please call 1-800-call-kfc.

2) THIS IS NOT A RECALL==1995-2000 Toyota Tacoma. Rust problems. Because of a lack of good corrosion protection, these years are subject to excessive rust problems in states that use salt on their roads. The result can be a perforation of the metal in the frame of the vehicle. Over a period of time, the company will send out letters to all owners of these vehicles. If you currently have this problem, please contact your local Toyota dealership. IF this condition has occurred in your vehicle, Toyota will either fix the problem or purchase the car and value it at excellent condition regardless of actual condition.

3)Recreational Vehicles w/ Dometic Refrigerator. The list is too numerous to put here. National RV, Inc. recreational vehicles AND New Horizons RVs trailer units are involved. The RVs for the years 2001-2003 are noted. Concerning the New Horizons trailers, the year is 2003. There may be a defect in the two door refrigerator unit. The boiler tube is the defective part. Because of the defect, coolant may be released from pressure into an area with a flame resulting in a fire.
Quote from the list page: CUSTOMERS MAY CONTACT THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION’S VEHICLE SAFETY HOTLINE AT 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153); OR GO TO HTTP://WWW.SAFERCAR.GOV.

Although the Toyota Tacoma is not a recall, it is important to take note of these conditions. These are the recalls for last couple of days.

I hate the time when we need to get tags because you have to stand in the line for so long. This year, there was no line. I thought it was much better especially since we had to actually replace the tag for our car this year. It’s had too many years. And of course, you no longer have to actually have the insurance card anymore either because the almighty computer takes care of that too. It’s great and not so great.

We are probably insurance poor. That used to mean that people were spending too much money for it. Now it also means that you do not have enough. In our case, that is so very true. For instance, there are insurance types out there that are a mystery to me. This may seem really simple to you but it appears to be a lot more complicated than it looks on the first peek. What does the term life insurance really mean? Because sometimes it’s just that. You spend X number of dollars, you get X amount of coverage. I have seen those commercials on tv. But they leave a lot to be desired.

Then, there are the ones that give you some type of borrowing power but I am not sure about those either. Obviously, you have to pay into that type of policy for a long period of time before you have any ability to borrow against it. And isn’t that a bit detrimental to the thing too? Also, that type appears to need a doctor exam. The ones on tv don’t need it. That means that they will probably not want to pay it out either. I don’t know. Insurance is now and has always been a mystery to me. Guess that isn’t going to change.

We have someone living with us who is about to go into the army in a month or two. He is very interested in ways to build muscle so that his time will not be difficult when it comes to the very active military life. I do not blame him. On the other hand, I have no muscle tone at all. Sigh. Of course, it takes working on that to get any and that’s what I have not done.

It really takes a bit of effort in that area. I do plan on getting out and going walking as soon as the weather permits. So far, we have had rain, rain and more rain most days. Today might just have been the local exception. Anyway, if a person does want to build muscle, why not get out the exercise equipment and go for it!!

Since I have decided to put up a few of the recalled items on this blog, I find that the list is impressive. You have no idea how much is recalled literally every day. I cannot list everything with a lot of description. If I did, I would not be able to write anything else. The list is long. It would be wise to look up recalled items yourself. But for those who do not have time, here is a short list of things recalled in the last few days:

1) 2008 Freightliner Semi Truck: Several versions for 2008. Briefly, the problem is in the air brake system. The air leaks out under certain conditions making the brakes inoperative. Check with your local Freightliner dealership for more information.

2) Saab 9-5 Auto for the years 2002-2008. Failure to comply with the federal guidelines on the front seat head restraints. If in an accident, injury could occur. Please contact your Saab dealer.

3) 2006-2008 Hyundai Sonata Auto: Front right seat airbag which detects child in the seat. If the person is not a child but is small, the airbag may not deploy in an accident. Please contact your local dealership for more information.

4) Charm Key Chains: Voluntary recall by Walmart recalling product named “Hip Charm” Key Chains due to the possibility of lead exposure. If a child gets ahold of this product, it can cause a high level of lead in the child. A 9 month old child has been injured with this product. This product has a number of charms with a button, clover, leaf, heart and a sand dollar. The charms are on a silver-colored chain. The words “Hip charm” and UPC (#31568 11017) are printed on the product’s packaging. MADE IN CHINA!!! What a surprise…not.

I can’t help thinking that what this country needs to do is ban China from sending us any other products due to the high level of recalls. Each time I hear of a recall that has a product from China, I am that much more for banning their products altogether for the safety of our own people.

Thanks for reading this blog. Happy Shopping!!