Window Shopper

We have contemplated moving several times since we came to live in the house we currently live. Every time we do that, it occurs to me why I hate moving. For one thing, we are not the spring chickens we used to be. Years ago, it was a whole lot easier to move from one place to another. For another, we have no help whatsoever. We must do this ourselves. ACK!

For what it’s worth, I will move when we find just the right place, right price and the right location. I will hate the process but I will do the deed. At some point, I would like to have the money so that we could hire someone to do the moving for us. Now that is a wonderful idea well worth exploring. See, I hate to pack and move because packing requires all those shipping boxes be packed and labeled. And what happens? For some odd reason, I tend to forget what’s in them. It then becomes a trial and error system to find the one thing I knew was packed but not where it was packed.

If we had someone else packing and shipping everything, it would be even worse, don’t you think? I mean, at least if I had to pack it, there is a slight shot I would remember WHERE. If someone else does it, there is no possibility of me knowing and then it’s a mystery to be solved. Hey, I can live with that! Mystery. I like it. Let’s move. When can we get started?

Earlier this year, the experts told us not to eat tomatoes because they caused people to get sick from salmonella. So many of us stopped eating tomatoes just like we stopped eating spinach when it was the cause of people getting sick from e-coli. Now, the experts said that it isn’t tomatoes at all. We could have been eating the things all this time. Instead, it’s jalapeno peppers. This time they have actually found the disease in the peppers.

Okay, I understand that we do not want to eat those peppers and we do not want to eat freshly prepared salsa that has the peppers in it. And for once, they appear to actually have a real reason to say this. But I have a real problem with all these stories coming out about this. First they do not want you to eat it. The sales on those products goes down, down, down. People stop eating that because of fear that they will get sick. Sometimes, like with the spinach scare, you never see that product as it was sold previously ever again.

I think we should take extreme care in what is put on the table, yes. I believe we should protect our families in this. However, we cannot run our lives on fear. That is exactly what’s happening with all these announcements. They said the tomatoes were bad. We don’t eat them. They say…OOPS! We made a mistake. In all that time we could have been eating the tomatoes that are really good for you.

Frankly, most of what we read or see on the news is one type of fear tactic or another. I do believe we must protect ourselves but we have to have some sense about this too. Please just take care. Buy what you know is right for your family. But for heaven’s sake, do not live in fear!

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.

With the ever increasing gas prices, it’s much harder to move goods and products across the county cheaply. In fact, the big ticket items will most surely go up dramatically and soon. You can probably already see the difference in the grocery stores and department stores. The biggest problem is the price of fuel. Gas prices are at an all time high but what gets missed in all of this, the price of diesel fuel is also extremely high, much higher than gas prices ever were.

This hits the truckers even more than it does the general public. Truckers move almost all of the goods and products in this country. When they raise the rates on moving products, it would be because of the higher gas and diesel prices. Trucking companies cannot keep their fees low anymore. They cannot exist on no or little profit so the bills for taking a load of goods and food across the country goes up dramatically. Where does it end? In the pocket of the consumer. And since we are all consumers, even the truckers, we all pay for the fuel prices that are causing all the problems in the first place.

And still, the US is dependent on foreign oil. Crude prices are at an all time high themselves. Yes, the price of a barrel goes up and down. You can sit there in your home, watching the news and hoping the prices will drop but is that realistic? Is it? Is it realistic when the middle east sheiks and oil profiteers are the ones controlling the prices and the amounts? There is no way they are going to be nice, is there. You know there isn’t. They LOVE it that we are hurting this much. We are a world power that is about to go to its knees because of middle easterners who control the oil. Is it possible for us to have missed it more??? Doubtful.

I suggest strongly that you brace yourselves for some very hard times. When the oil gets to pricey and we have nothing to put in its place, it is going to be a rocky ride. The middle east and the EU will start to write us off as a second rate power. Only if we can deal with our own oil can we stay in the world power status. That is not going to happen. Our shortsighted leaders have sold us out. This goes all the way back to before the 70s shortages. But we had a clue how it was going to be then. Why did we do nothing? We could have built more refineries, found more oil. Where is it???? And we are going to pay and pay and pay now.

Truckers who are feeling the crunch more than you are have decided to go on strike. I support this. They are protesting the high price of fuel. Frankly, I doubt that too many will do this but if it is possible, many truckers will shut down their rigs and not move for at least 24 hours. Some would like to park for a week. It would surely get the attention of the government.

Many truckers have the problem that if they start their truck, they are losing money. How can this be? Because everything they have to do to maintain the truck costs more and more, like insurance. Most truckers are paying out $600 to $800 per truck per month. The insurance is based on credit. If the trucker is losing credit status, he also pays more insurance which actually makes it a circle. Pretty soon, he cannot pay to run his truck so he parks it. That’s one more load that will not be delivered on time. If that continues to happen, the prices of goods and food will go up again.

It’s no better with the companies that have to maintain their trucks as well. In the case of the companies, there are the additional costs of individual pay, maintaining the fleet, insurance for each truck and trucker, the whole overhead. It is an awesome thing. I do not know how the trucking companies are making it. I suspect many have already fallen and there will be more to follow. When that happens, goodbye good prices for anything. It will cost yet more to move the freight and so it goes. More prices at the store. There is no end to it unless there are some stops put on those oil freaks over there in the middle east. Only then can we get a better deal at the store…..maybe.

I have no idea what most theaters that show movies look like inside now because I do not attend movies at the theater anymore. For one thing, I really do not like the seats. Most of them are too small. If that isn’t the case, they have gum on them, popcorn from the previous showing or whatever else the cleanup crew did not bother with. When people around you watch these things, they want to talk through the movie. If it isn’t that, they move their heads around so you cannot see at all. So I no longer go. I buy DVDs.

But, in my hometown, there was this awesome theater. They showed movies there but they also had live shows with celebrities coming in and entertaining people. I had the honor of being an usher in those days. We had a lot of good entertainers come to our town. For instance; Bill Cosby, The Smothers Brothers, Bobby Vinton and many more entertained us.

Now the thing I loved the most about this theater that I actually have not seen since, was the chandeliers they had. Those were awesome. They were hanging in the lobby of the theater and in the theater itself. Beautiful crystal that must have weighed hundreds of pounds each were hanging from the ceiling of the lobby. Smaller but equally beautiful chandeliers were hanging inside the theater. The only time you saw those was when there was a live act on stage. They would glisten in the spotlights. Sometimes, I wish that those days were back…if only for a little while.

This blog is about shopping. Lately, not everything has been about shopping in the normal sense. But it really has been if you look closely. Today, the post is going to be about trends in this country. That, too, is ultimately about shopping or the lack of it if you have no money. These days, many people have no “extra” money to spend on anything less than essentials.

I am very concerned which way this country is going. The housing market is bleeding out because of bad advice to homeowners on what types of loans to acquire. I realize that many of those people would not have homes were it not for the creative mortgages they got when they bought the house. The problem is that now that same creative mortgage is costing boatloads of money and most people are having the problem of not having the money to pay for it. Those lovely lending institutions that thought those creative mortgages were such a great deal for the people are now facing bankruptcy themselves.

Today is a good example of that. Bear Stearns was sold because they were getting so shaky that they would have gone under. The government helped to bail them out. The question here is: how often can the government do this before that hugemongus debt being carried by the government gets so big that even the government can’t handle it? How many more lending institutions and banks are on the chopping block in the near future because of bad judgment on the parts of the loan officers and the public who just have to have homes of their own?

Everyone who owns a car or truck is feeling the pinch of the prices of gas and diesel fuels. If you are not yet feeling it, wait for the prices in the stores to go up, up, up. They will if they have not already. Here in the backwaters of the state, we are definitely feeling the effects of that. Our local superstore (ha ha) has hiked many of the tags on goods and food just recently.

The local price of gas, while it may seem quite low compared to other areas, is quite high for those of us who are on fixed incomes, for those who have those low paying jobs that are the only thing available around here. For comparison, our lowest price of gas is $3.07 as of today. Yes, I know. Not as bad as yours. Please read the above problems here before you tell me how we have it so good. Most of the people who can even find a job around here get paid minimum wage and are part time. Live with that.

I am very concerned with the path our country is on. If we do not change that path, our very sovereignty may be at risk. At the moment, we are still a world power. Some day soon, we will not be. Why not? Because we are being attacked. Yes, attacked. From within and outside of our country. Attacked as in…the oil producers are not sending out as much oil as they could. There is a country that sends us poisoned items, things that are dangerous to us and our children, recalled items galore. What bothers me is that this is so blatant and the government will not shut them down!!! They should. We need to regather ourselves. We need to get a clue and fast or our country will be one of those that no one ever hears about anymore. Do you want that? I do not.

I love grab bags. Of course, I have gotten some real junk in them at times but there have been some really great stuff too. As you may already know, grab bags are those things that the stores cannot sell so they pack them up and put the bags out in a barrel or box for people to purchase. The price is usually pretty good. Most grab bags that I buy are about a dollar, sometimes two dollars. Yes, I know. Big spender.

But there was this one time that I was in a jewelry store. I wanted to find a nice ring but I got so interested in the gold watches that I just about forgot to look for the ring I wanted. Eventually, I saw the grab bags. Now, this was in a jewelry store. How bad could the items be? So, I bought one grab bag. I figured that if it was good, I wouldn’t have to buy another one. If not, I could buy a few more. Not bad. In fact, great. That way, I get some good costume jewelry, if nothing else.

I opened the bag at the store because the clerk suggested I do that. The bag was really light. It had a card in it. For once, I picked up a light one because it just seemed right instead since most people would likely think something great was in the heaviest ones. The card said I had just bought a GOLD WATCH. The watch was worth a WHOLE lot more than I paid. It was awesome!! Grab bags are fantastic!

It’s one thing to slam the veggies I like to eat. It’s another thing entirely to slam my fast food. Now they have a study out that says that fast food can cause liver damage. Well sure if you eat it 24/7 but who does that???? What the study said was that if you eat a burger, fries and coke and have no exercise at all, you will get liver damage if you eat that menu for thirty days. BAH!!!

For one thing, no one in their right minds actually would eat that much fast food. Or at least, I don’t think they would. Maybe I live in a dream world. When I was much younger, I would have eaten fast food most of the time so maybe they would do that. But after a while, ya gotta take a break from it. It gets really boring. At least with me, it was a variety of fast food. See, the study had people eating at the SAME fast food joint every time. Why??? Variety is the spice of life. You know, I do believe that except for people who are married. They do not need that much variety…except in eating fast foods, of course.

I know that some of you have not gotten your Valentine anything yet. There is still hope for you! Do not despair. The Valentine’s stuff is still there at the stores. Do not go home without it!!! Of course, the best things to get are the roses, the chocolates and the teddy bears for the wives and girlfriends. Hey, the guys love chocolate too. Ask me how I know. You might need a bit of imagination to get just that special thing for the guys……a beautifully prepared meal and candlelight would work.

For now, just get out there and get that special person something that shows that you care. Get a mushy card. Make that call. Tell them you love them. This is their day!!!

My dispatcher told me that I had a load that went to Nevada. Then, I had only been in Nevada a couple of times. Apparently, the company I worked for trusted me to go there (They did not always trust drivers going into Nevada so those people did not get a money draw when headed in that direction). But this load was going to Vegas, baby!

I really do like Vegas. After a while, I do get bored though. At first, I loved every blinking light I saw, every casino, every wedding chapel around. Before that, I had only seen the Strip on television and in movies. It was amazing. The Vegas hotels were all over the place, up and down the street. If you did not know where you were going, you would get lost in the lights and signs. Of course, I stayed in a hotel with a casino. It had parking for trucks. Very smart of the owners. The hotel was really cheap because they wanted you to gamble and see the shows. I did. It was awesome. And when I left, I still had my money in my pocket because I decided before I got there just how much I wanted to spend. That was all. I was happy. I had fun.