Window Shopper

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Now I admit this happens to be one or two phone companies in rural areas of the U.S. However, they are predicting that this is about to be a trend. You remember, if you’re old enough that is, the phrase “Can’t get blood from a turnip”? Well, Frontier Communcations plans on trying to do just that. Isn’t it enough that the gas companies are and will be sucking the money right out of the bank accounts? The lenders took us for all they could get. The gas companies followed along. The retailers and discount stores plus the grocery industry is working on taking more. And now, this particular phone company plans to charge by the gigabyte once you go over your limit per month….not per day, per week, per month. And how much is that? 5 gigabytes a month. My goodness, I could use that much on Youtube in one day. Download a couple movie and you are out of business for the rest of your month unless you want to pay out a dollar, maybe two per gigabyte.

This will eventually change the face of internet use forever if they are able to get away with this. The plan is to start charging a dollar or two for every gigabyte used over the 5 gig. limit. Are you kidding me? Most people will not be able to be online if that occurs. Then where will their precious profits go? This is STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. Talk about “byting” the hand that feeds you. What a waste of resources that outfit is. Oh and look at this. They are willing to provide HIGHER usage for those who live in urban areas as if those who live in rural areas aren’t good enough. COME ON HERE!!!!

They will also be willing to sell higher packages of usage for a higher price, of course. HELLO!!! And then Time Warner is trying out the same thing in Texas. Outrageous. They want to charge the heavier users instead of letting the lighter ones pay all the bills. Well, now that is about the only sane thing to be said about it. However, is it worth it to the rest of us. For instance, we would be in the rural area meaning we would not be able to have as much as, say, Joe Bigshot in the city. And why is that? Because we don’t have as many of their precious customers around us as the big cities do. BAH! All this is is another way to scrape more money out of people who are financially bleeding as it is. The poor guys are the ones it hits hard just like always.

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Ariel’s Journey, The Ice Horse Adventures begins a new series of books written by Doug Kane and ChristyWood. While the book says that it’s for pre-teen and teens, I found it to be enchanting and fun. At my age, you would think that I could be past all the exciting stories but I love them nevertheless.There is no sex involved in this story which makes it refreshing but there are wonderful tales of love, action, adventure and time travel, perhaps more adventure than the girls really wanted.

The journey begins amid extremely high emotions coming from two of the girls who have been at odds with each other for quite a while. With the parents tired of all the backbiting and fighting, they send the five girls off on a trail ride that will change their lives forever. Soon the girls realize that there is something quite different about their Icelandic horses known to the girls as “Iceys”. Powers unimaginable come from the most unlikely sources. Horses and girls find themselves in a time and place that the girls had no idea they could go to. Challenging an enemy for the life of a young lady becomes the goal of the now intrepid travelers who are somehow turning into the most unlikely warriors. Will horse and warrior win the battle? Does love cross the lines of time?

I recommend this book since I could not put it down myself. Personally, I cannot wait to see the next book in the line called Prinsessa’s Mission coming out in April 2009. You will be able to find the book at Amazon.com on November 1st.

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The truth is that it can’t get any better than this! Well, maybe if you own the company but for those who do not own a software company, have I got a deal for you! From the inventors of .ZIP comes a free software program called SecureZIP Express. You can download and encrypt documents and it’s all free. These can be compressed or decompressed with ease. You will find that it’s a great way to save space especially on your latest CD or thumb drive. It comes with a digital certificate that allows you to exchange files with someone else without the problem of forgotten passwords. You do not need them! With the digital certificate, the only one that will be able to open the file is the person you sent it to. You can relax. This software has no spyware or toolbars in it. It’s licensed for non-commercial use. Now that’s what I call secure!

Thought I forgot about the contest, didn’t you. Nope. Here it is. All you have to do is download and install the FREE software and then decrypt the message! That makes you eligible for a chance to win these fantastic prizes: Honda Scooter, gas cards, Wii games, bicycles and much more. Just head on over to www.DecryptandDrive.com to get the details I have not told you yet. What? You think there’s a string? Well, yeah. You can’t win if you don’t enter. And you are still a winner because you will have that great software for free.

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As you may know, I posted my hometown video yesterday right here on this blog. It’s for a contest to see just who can make the best hometown video. I entered that on the 18th, I think. My husband is also entered into the same contest and frankly, I think we both have prize winning videos to show off. If you click on the link at the beginning of this post, you will get to my video. If you stay here and watch this video, you will see my husband’s hometown video. He has a rich imagination and loves things with special effects. Since we are still just beginning to learn how to do these things, this is a pretty good special effects video. At least I think so! So, here is my husband’s video. That’s him beaming in!

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Frankly, I just have to comment on this. A while back, I did a review on the “other sub shop” which wasn’t as much a review about their product as it was about their operation. I actually have no idea what their product tastes like. I went to the website and had a nightmare time trying to access small details like how much something is or how large it is. No information of that sort on the website whatsoever. And I actually thought that someone might want to know this. The page views on that post were slim and none. Nobody cares about that place at all from the look of it.

Now we come to Subway, the sandwich shop that I do know a bit about. I have been eating Subway sandwiches for years. I drove a truck starting in 1984 and somewhere along the way, I discovered Subway. They like the idea of having you pick out the toppers so that you will be satisfied with their sandwich. I have been that for years. Now the price is getting up there. I can’t say that I believe that $7-$9 is a good price for a sandwich. My goodness no!! But the fact that you can have the toppings you want is a good thing.

But I do have a gripe about them. This is a silly gripe. I know it. But it is so strange too. Now since I no longer travel all over the country, I cannot tell you if this little practice is all over or just peculiar to this area or even this store. The last time I talked with the manager from the store we go to, it was a while back but he was a strange puppy. And now, strange is the order of the day at that store. Or maybe I am just being that way. Who knows. But here it is….TADA!

These people at this store are making the sandwiches upside down. I know. You were expecting something important, weren’t you? But I just figured that if I was paying out the amount I have to pay for these things, you would think I could at least have the thing right side up, right? Do you realize that if you had all those ingredients at home, you could make the thing for less than a couple of bucks? Yet, they want to charge you at a minimum of $5 for the list of 8 sandwiches that are apparently basic enough to be on that list. Then you have the rest of the menu which is much more or a little more. In either case, if you order a sandwich, it’s going to be built upside down.

With the OTHER sandwich shop, on their website, I could not find any evidence of prices or sizes of sandwich. A similar situation is happening with Subway in some ways. We asked for a brochure on the list of sandwiches available. No prices on it. None. If you are wanting to know what’s on that list of 8 sandwiches, you have to go into the store to see what they are. Not in the brochure. I have NOT been to their website so don’t tell me it’s there and I should quit griping. My actual gripe is about how they are building my sandwich. Now you may see this as asinine. I probably would too except that when you order certain types of bread for your sandwich, most of the real taste for that bread is in the top of it!

One more argument on this and I will shut up…..about this. When I want to eat a sandwich, I want to taste the whole thing. It seems to me that if you get those tastes in the correct order it will taste the way you want. If it is changed, then you do not get the same result. I am telling you that the sandwich tastes different. So, you go to build a sandwich and put in the cheese and the meat first. Know what’s next? The TOPPINGS! And why are they called toppings? I don’t know. Maybe because they belong on the TOP of the sandwich, hence calling them TOPPINGS!!!! Am I being anal? Maybe but I still have the right to have my sandwich built my way. If they don’t want to do that, I don’t have to go there. Sigh. I want to be able to have it my way because I am paying for it. Is this going to hurt business that I want the blasted thing done right? Is it SOOOO hard to turn the bread around and make it right? Come on here. It takes NO MORE TIME to make the thing the right way than to make it the other way. There is no excuse for this other than people who simply want to be different. And frankly, I doubt seriously that the whole food chain is doing this. If I am wrong, then I guess Subway lost a customer. That stinks.

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I like the word autumn better than the word fall. Autumn sounds like a fun time, full of hay rides and campfires. Fall sounds like someone had an accident or just the leaves coming off the trees. We usually have some awesome scenes of autumn here. This year, it is not quite a colorful as it has been in the past. As I understand it, that’s because the trees did not get as much rain as they needed to produce such colors. But there are some pretty scenes here nevertheless.

On the other hand, we do have some winters that are worthy of comment. A few years ago, we had the snow and the ice and the cold. Now, I realize that some places have all that and often. My daughter called from Iowa last year and let me know that the winter was not planning on leaving anytime soon. She was getting tired of it all. It had snowed fairly often for most of the winter. The cabin blues can really get to you. But we do have some reasons to get ready for winter a tad early this year. With that in mind, perhaps getting out that car cover for your really nice ride would be in order. We have plenty of homes around here that have no carport or they do but there’s already a car in it. So covering the car is a good idea especially if we do happen to have a bad winter. And of course, getting the lawn furniture in is also a good idea or cover it. Drain the pool. Pick up the toys. Get the yard mowed one more time this year. That pretty much takes care of it. Oh, I don’t have a pool to drain, toys to pick up or lawn furniture but we do have a car. Not too bad.

Oh, I do NOT want to think about winter. Frankly, I was just getting used to the idea of spring and summer. And now autumn is upon us already. This year is going by so fast, I am not ready. We do live in a tourist area, you know. They did not stay. But it seems that more and more are moving here. Some of the stores are much busier than they ever were before so the secret is getting out, isn’t it. This is the place to come for a better place to live, at least for the weather. Well, there was that one tornado that came through here earlier this year. Ah but don’t be concerned about that. It was only a 123 miles for it’s travel. And we are recovering from that nicely.

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This project was born out of a contest that I entered a while back concerning a person’s hometown video. This was a work of love that I did not actually think I was going to be able to do properly. The truth is that I had no idea what to do for a video like that. And then my daughter sent a wav file of her friend’s singing. He had sung as a personal request at a party for someone. He said it wasn’t something he would pick for himself but he did like the song. When I heard it, it was the answer to my dilemma. I had the basis for my video in hand. With his permission and a good deal of footage from around our area, the My Hometown Video was born.

It has now turned into a sort of travel brochure for our area. Some local people have seen it and loved it because it shows a positive side to where we live. I enjoyed doing the work on it with much thanks to my wonderful husband who took a lot of the footage with our camcorder. He could walk to places I could not go. Also many thanks to the guy who did the singing on the video, Mr. Kenny Ray Jackson, a wonderful singer/song writer, though he did not write this one. It will be familiar to many of you! Here now is My Hometown Video.

If you enjoyed this, please give me your comments. If you want to visit, please check out traveling in Arkansas! It is amazing. By the way, you can also tell me if you didn’t like it. Just be kind. That’s all I ask. If you are not kind, I delete!

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Checking out some of the places in the country where the fall colors had already been happening, I noticed that we are now getting some of our fall colors too. And the leaves are dropping quite a bit. We might not be seeing the same fall colors that some of the other areas are since we did not have the level of rain that appears to be required for the more beautiful and colorful leaves. Ours are starting to color, then going brown and falling. Not good.

Anyway, it’s time to start getting ready for winter. I do not even believe I’m saying that. You know, I was waiting for spring this year and it seemed to come slowly. Then summer happened but not as hot as it was in the last couple of years. That was a blessing. At least I think it was, not so sure now. Fall is happening a tad earlier than last year as well. That could be bad news for the propane tank we nurse through the winter every year so that it does not cost us a whole lot just when we don’t need to spend out that kind of money the most.

Now that I have talked your eyes off about my own problems. as I was going to say, it’s about time to get ready for winter. If you live in an area like ours, you will just now be thinking about taking in the kids toys or gathering in the outdoor grills and other things that you enjoy during the spring, summer and early fall. Don’t forget your outdoor furniture covers. This could be a harder winter than most. Those nice chairs and lounge chairs might fair a bit better covered for the winter. If you have not yet done it, you might want to drain the pool too. When the leaves begin to fall, that pool with all the water in it isn’t going to look pretty for long. I know the kids want one more day to play in the pool but the reality is that it’s getting to be too cold for that already.

Sometimes I wish we lived further south since my sis in Texas is likely feeling the 70s in the daytime and probably 50s at night. Our temperature is going into the upper 30s tonight. Brrrrrrrr!! I could use a whole lot more spring or fall and much less of the winter. As a kid, I loved the winter. Snow and ice were my buddies because then I didn’t have to go to school. But now, that’s just another hazard to look out for. It’s a heck of a thing, getting older.

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The last post I put up here said that shopping is so different and yes, it is. For one thing, people who usually buy things at a more upscale store are now inhabiting places like Wal*mart and other discount stores. We can tell that here simply by the larger numbers of people at the store these days. We live in a tourist area. Usually when the season begins, you can tell. In the fall and winter, we can go to the store and find a nice parking place right there in front. During the tourist season, there are few parking places unless you get there just right. So, we have a plan. My husband goes in and does the shopping while I find a space to park. Then I watch for him and pick him up since he would not know where to look for me. That has worked for a while now. It is now into the latter part of October. The tourists all stayed or that’s what it seems like anyway.

Today’s shopping was an experience. My sister and I went to the store to resupply Mom’s house with food. She and I had to navigate around a lot of people there. She likes to buy beef so we headed that way. Now we, my husband and I, sort of gave up on eating beef unless it’s something special like a roast that we get once in a great while. Most of the time, we eat ground turkey, chicken and other things. We tend to leave the beef alone. My goodness, it’s like trying to buy diamond rings when you check out the prices of the meat these days. I think I am going to stick with the turkey and chicken. At least with a diamond ring, you would have something to show for your purchase. The only way I could ever see my beef purchases was to look at my backside in the mirror. Ugh.

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With all the problems concerning the recalls from China, with the situation with gas pains at the pump, though that’s getting better, we have had to change the way we think about shopping trips. Have you had the same problem? For instance, before even though it was going to take more gas than we planned, often we would find a reason to go to the store. We forgot something essential to a meal, it was going to be storming the next day, no time since we had to work. All the excuses in the book. Heading out to the store seemed to be at least a two to three times a week event. Since the gas prices went up, since the goods and food prices went up, we simply did not have the money to be spending on frivolous trips to the store anymore. Due to that, I think we developed a different attitude which is saving us more money.

In the past, we were aware of how far away the store is but when you have a food emergency….. The reality is, there is no food emergency. You simply wanted something so you went to get it. We did that. Now, we have decided to plan when we go, what we get and what we can do without. I realize that many of you are doing that and have been but maybe you let your plan slip a bit over the years like we did. But now is a great time to get back to the basics. We have and it has changed many things. Especially now when Christmas buying season is upon us, it is so important to seek out the best deals, save as much as possible and feel better about our trips to the store.

One of the more basic ways to save money on shopping is to do it online. The resources here are amazing. You can find nearly anything you want. With the auction sites, the discount stores that are online, the only online stores that have amazing discounts because of the low overhead, the sales that you would not know about except for the research that you did, these are all good ways to save money. If you do more of your shopping online, you save that gas for a true emergency. Saving money by not using as much gas is fantastic because it will show at the pumps and the oil companies want you to keep driving.

For those who work, this is a great opportunity to pack the store trips into your time out. Perhaps you can take a few moments at lunch time to do your shopping and eat at the desk. Yes, that’s a real pain but I found that getting away from the work environment did wonders for my thinking abilities when I got back. I was more fresh to do the afternoon part of the day. Yes, it can be a difficult way to do things but it is possible. Now, if that store is on the way to work and home, easier. Stop right after work. It might mean going home a few moments later but the shopping is easier too. Or do it in the mornings when you are fresh. There are ways to save the money on driving. You will certainly be able to work your own ideas out. There are as many as there are gas pumps, I am pretty sure.

How much can you pack into a single trip out to the store? If you have not tried it, you will be amazed at how much you can cram into one trip out. For instance, the other day we had to go to three stores, the doctor, the pharmacy. And while we were out, we also were both working on videos that my husband and I were making for a contest. We packed all that into one trip. To really appreciate just what a long day it could be, you will have to understand that most things are not right next to each other. This trip includes many, many miles of travel, no matter which thing you are doing. I did not keep track of the mileage but we were gone a good share of the day with our errands. You know, one of the benefits of all that, as long as you do not go to the fast food places, is that you might get to lose weight with all the activity. I am counting on it!

So, even though prices for gas are falling right now, we save money by conserving how much we do in a single day. Having done that, unless there is some type of unexpected occurrence, we will be able to stay at home for many days. That saves a lot of gas. My husband and I have already noticed a difference in our gas money extending farther than before…for both reasons. The price is lower but we are doing less driving too. Frankly, I believe that the best way to get the big oil companies to sit up and take notice is to hit them where it hurts them most, in the wallet. They have done their best to hit us there. You know the old saying…payback is a b***h? I agree. It is. And it’s their turn.

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