It’s a flat tire kind of day!

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It’s a flat tire kind of day!

 My Ford Ranger truck seems to have a wonderful knack of attracting nails, screws, etc and producing flat tires.  In the six years I’ve own my little red Ford Ranger, I’ve had four flat tires.  Today’s flat tire was particular annoying because I was ahead of schedule!  I was doing great; I wasn’t late at all!  Oh right!  I was ahead of the curve.

I got this last flat tire right after I left Kent Elementary this morning.  I heard a clicking, thumping sound as I turned out of the parking lot.  I pulled over in the Starbucks parking lot and I couldn’t see anything at all.  I drove off again to hear the same sound and pulled over again.  This time I did find the huge screw and washer embedded in my rear tire.  I thought to myself at this point that, heck; I can make it home, not a problem. 

I turned the key in the ignition and off I went on my merry little way.  The clicking and thumping continued….then it was gone.  Uh, oh.  That’s not good.  Since that screw isn’t in the tire, it is out of the tire, therefore leaving a huge hole for the air to escape from.  Oh great.  I have only a few minutes before my tire becomes flat and I can’t go any further. 

I manage to make a left turn and then I heard the familiar thumping sound of a definite flat tire, riding on the rim.  Oh joy.

I pulled into a warehouse parking lot and found a nice level spot.  As I’ve said before this isn’t the first flat tire I’ve had or the first tire I’ve changed in my life.  I’m changed flat tires and I’ve swapped out my regular tires for my snow tires.  I’ve taken my snow tires off and put back on the regular tires.  I’m confident that I can change a tire or two.

Now changing a tire for me would be easy, right?  Not too tough of a job for an Eagle Scout, correct?  Easier than making money on the internet or photographing a bunch of preschool students, right?

 I rummaged around and found my jack and tire iron.  Well, I found my new tire iron but I can’t find the old tire iron.  Uh oh.  How am I supposed to crank the jack and get this tire changed?  Then I think to myself: I have a screwdriver and I can turn the jack screw and get this truck up quite quickly.  I can adapt and overcome.  I shall succeed! 

That was wishful thinking.  I discovered that I couldn’t turn the jack screw with a screw driver if my life depended on it.  That screwdriver wasn’t going to be the solution.

I had to find that old tire iron.  I cursed myself for not putting the tire iron in the same compartment as the jack.  Who does a stupid thing like that?  Obliviously I did.  One of my more brilliant moments (if I do say so myself) because I did find that stupid tire iron in the other compartment, not the one where the jack was, the one on the left side of the truck…the one I know I had looked in before.  If it was with the jack that would make prefect sense and you know I don’t like to make sense. 

Now with the recent discovery of the tire iron, I was positive that I could whip this tire change out in no time.  I stuck the tire iron into the jack and turned the screw.  Man, turning the jack was a lot harder than I remembered.  This was going to take forever.

Then it dawns on me that I’m using the wrong piece of equipment!  Inside my engine compartment, under the hood, is the crank I need to make this tire changing job a lot easier.  I popped the hood, took out the crank, insert it into the tire jack, jack up the truck, and changed the tire in ten minutes. 

What could have made this job worse?  It could have been raining.  It could have been dark out.  It could have been dark and rainy.  Heck, I could have been stuck on the freeway with huge trucks whipping by my head.

 To save yourself the same aggravation I subjected myself to, I recommend you have in your vehicle:

  • Cell phone
  • A pair of gloves
  • Flashlight/lantern
  • Jack and tire iron in the same area
  • Extra Food and Water
  • Warm jacket/warm blanket
  • Rain gear
  • Shovel
  • Tool Kit
  • Jumper cables
  • First Aid Kit

 You can never be too prepared especially with winter on its way!  Now get out there and get that vehicle of yours prepared for the winter season.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I look forward to your comments.

Washington State Unemployment 9%…how to cut costs if it happens to you?

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Man, oh man, are we for some rough times in this country of ours.  The Seattle economy is probably doing better than most areas of the United States, however, it is still pretty bad.  According to the United States Department of Labor, Washington State has a 9.0 percent unemployment rate in October, 2010.  The national average is 9.6%.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=unemployment

 How does a 9% unemployment rate translate into everyday life?  Everyone knows someone that is out of work, struggling to make ends meet.  You just need to look at the recent data on the economy and it is enough to make you jump back into bed, pull the covers over your head, and call it a day.  I was getting depressed reading about this stuff.  I’ve put in a few links that I pulled data from several websites about unemployment and the economy.

 Now, being self-employed for close to 18 years, I really don’t know about being unemployed.  Back in the early 1990’s, I did get laid off from AMR (the parent company of American Airlines).  That was the last time I had a “real job”.  I haven’t worked a 9-to-5 job in a very long time (since the AMR job).

Do I miss having a 9-to-5 job?  Yes and No.  Yes, I miss having a company pay my health insurance.  No, I don’t miss the ability to choose my own hours and my vacation time.  Yes, I miss having the chance to leave work and leave my work at the office.  Being self-employed, you always think about work.  You think about stuff you should be doing and thing you ought to do.  You are always thinking about your business.

 However, I’d love to have a business where I don’t have to get dressed up and go to work to make money.  I want the freedom to sit in my office in my pajamas and make money.  Yes, I’m back to my rant about making money online with a killer blog and enhanced website that practically prints money while I sleep.  Hey, who wouldn’t want that?

 How am I weathering this recent economic depression?  I have cut spending in both my personal and business life.  I have looked at all my expenses and cut everything I can. I trimmed my cell phone plan costs down by using a cheaper plan and by cutting off text messaging.  I’ve paid more attention to where we have the thermostat adjusted to as well.  Another simple change we have done is to switch out old light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (and I got those FREE from a friend!).

 While cost cutting is good, other expenses have risen.  Case in point, my health insurance rose $154 a month!  Now, I just received a new notice that my plan is being phased out.  I now have the choice of paying more for a lesser coverage plan.  Lucky me!

 http://www.esd.wa.gov/

http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.wa.htm

http://www.workforceexplorer.com/cgi/databrowsing/localAreaProfileQSMoreResult.asp?viewAll=yes&viewAllUS=&currentPage=&currentPageUS=&sortUp=&sortDown=&criteria=Unemployment+Rate&categoryType=employment&geogArea=5301000000&timeseries=&more=More+Areas&menuChoice=localAreaPro&printerFriendly=&BackHistory=-1&goTOPageText=&ID=45531

http://www.workforceexplorer.com/cgi/dataanalysis/?PAGEID=148

1983 Mercedes Benz 380SEL

~ K ~ 1 Comment

This past Halloween, I purchased an old 1983 Mercedes Benz 380SEL.  What drove me to do such a thing?

 I wanted a “hobby” car that was large enough for a comfortable drive, yet, wasn’t too expensive where I’d have guilt purchasing it.  I ended up with “Helga”, my 1983 silver gray, 4 door sedan 3.8L V8 (126 body style) with all working power windows, a working sunroof, working heater, and four decent tires (no spare tire).  I’m not sure about the a/c unit yet.  Helga doesn’t have any dents but she does have some issues inside the interior of the car. 

The previous owner was a smoker so I am washing everything in the car to get rid of the smoke smell.  I’ve washed the carpets, the seats, the headrests, and the roof.  I’ve spread baking soda to soak up the smell and did a Google search on how to get rid of the cigarette smell.  Slowly, it has been working.  Honestly, I’ll probably have to get it cleaned at a detail shop.

 The front seats need some TLC.  The driver’s seat is soft in the seat cushion and is torn.  The front passenger seat also has some flaws.  Ideally, I’d like to replace the bottom portion of the seats.  They are gray and I have been looking on the internet for either used seats or a replacement cover.  I suppose I could put some after market seat covers over the existing seats if I needed to.

Helga has 212,000 miles on her.  She reportedly had a different engine (not sure if it was a rebuilt, junkyard used motor, or a new engine) put in about 35,000 miles ago.  Transmission is a bit rough when she shifts.  Her engine is a little slow to response and she idles a little rough when waiting at a red light or when you first start her up.  It takes her a while to warm up and get going.  For a 3.8 L V8 engine, she doesn’t have much pick up and go.  In fact, she reminds me of my 1983 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbo Diesel (123 body style) when it comes to that pick up and go.  While the turbo did help the diesel, it was still a bit sluggish.

How much did I pay for Helga?  $700.00.  How much is Helga worth?  $700 to me.  However, the State of Washington Department of Revenue thinks she is worth $11,500!  I’m now in the processing of printing up For Sale ads from the internet to get them to be reasonable in their taxation of my car.  The insurance NADA book isn’t much help because their value is up there as well.  When you do look on the internet, this car is hard to find and not many for sale to compare it to.  The 420SEL and 560SEL were the larger and more luxurious models that overshadowed this model.

 Since this is a hobby car and not my primary method of transportation, the car insurance is actually reasonable with rate quotes around $161 to $225 per year.  I plan on driving her less than 5000 miles a year.

Making Money on the Internet?

~ K ~ 1 Comment

Truth be told…I’d prefer to be not talk to anyone during the whole day of work.  I’d like to sit in my comfortable little office, surf the internet, do some work, and not see anyone.  You can safely say I am an introvert in an extrovert’s career.  All of my “jobs” have me taking control and interacting with people to create a livable income.

The deal is…every job I do is that way.  My school photography business is me interacting with a vast amount of people everyday.  Look at my real estate business, again, I must interact with people and sell myself.

Jeez, I much rather sit at home and not have to see anyone.  Email is such a good alterative to seeing people face to face and having to deal with them.

Yet, I enjoy people!  I enjoy my friends and family (to a point).  I like to create a nice family portrait or make a preschool student laugh.  I love to show my real estate clients new properties and tour houses with them.

 What a conflicted individual I am!

So what does this have to do with making money on the internet?

 Well, considering I’d like to be a home body and do projects around the house.  I was wondering if I could have an internet business that produces some income where I make money without having to leave my home.

At this moment, I’m open to suggestions (serious and humorous suggestions are welcome) about possible internet businesses.  I don’t know anyone that makes a decent living or part time living as an internet marketer or entrepreneur so this is a new challenge for me. 

Ideally, I’d like to have an internet business that I can be making money wherever I am located.  If I’m on vacation to Kauai, I want to make some money.  Perhaps I’m in Florida visiting some UW college friends; I want to be making some money off my internet business during my visit.  Let’s face it; I want an auto-pilot business where I don’t have to be there to make the money.

If you know of a real internet business that fits these business goals of mine, please let me know!

I am wrong.

~ K ~ 1 Comment

I was wrong, I am wrong, and I’ll be wrong in the future. I have made mistakes and I’ll continue to make mistakes. I’m not perfect. And I’m sorry that I have made mistakes that have hurt people and the mistakes I’ll make in the future that will hurt people.

One of my greatest regrets is my failed relationship with my stepson that has lead to his current path of destruction. I’m not perfect and I made mistakes in how I raised him. However, I do remember that I had a very tough relationship with my father when I was a teenager. My brother also had a tough relationship with our father when he was a teenager. Mind you, my father and I never came to physical blows and I never had any physical confrontations with my stepson either. It was a verbal disagreements and heated discussions between my father and me. I think my stepson just doesn’t believe that I do love him; I just don’t love the choices he is making.

Am I to blame for all the problems my stepson has? Did I cause him to do poorly in school? Over the years, I went to a lot of parent teacher conferences, paid for math tutoring, sent him to summer school, and encouraged him to switch schools to complete his schooling. We went to Cub Scout camp together and canoed on Cooper Lake. We had some really times over the years.

One of my favorite moments I have of him is when after three years of his basketball team loses every game, they won! You would have thought they won the NBA Championship! It was a wonderful game to watch.

Was I to blame for him blowing off work? Did I not set a good example as an owner of a small business? Where did he think our home came from? How did he think we paid for his bedroom? He never had to share a room with his little brother or sister while he was growing up. He had his own bathroom and didn’t have to share it.

How did we pay for our family trips to Disneyland and Hawaii? Did we do it by skipping school, sleeping in, and not having a job?

So now I really have to dig deeper to find the answers. How did he come to hate me so much? Am I really that bad of a parent? Should I have put my foot down harder? All I asked was to pass high school and have a job (any job). When that didn’t happen, I wasn’t the one who kicked him out of our house. I must admit, I didn’t lobby for him to stay either. Seriously, one has to make an effort to do something…complete school, find a job, etc.

Tough love is hard. I can still love him but I refuse to accept his bad behavior. Things will improve and he will turn his life around. I have the belief that he will become a better person.

Motivational Quotes to get you thru the Day!

~ K ~ Leave a comment

Defeat – For Every Winner, there are dozens of losers…Odds are you are one of them!

Everyone’s Favorite Slacker Update

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Yes, it’s a KOTS update!

You’ll be pleased to know that KOTS is currently living with his Dad and still not looking for a job.  Well, he is still pretending to look for a job.  At least, my dear wife can stop stressing out on whether her son will be “homeless”.  As I predicted earlier, KOTS would never be “homeless” because of his loving family.  In all seriousness, this is not a sarcastic statement.  My wife had the misguided notion that KOTS would be living on the streets; I knew that would never happy at this stage of his life (he’s only 19 not 50!).

Really?  Why would I let him live on the streets?  We have a nice warm garage he could crash in.  Heaven forbid, I give up my hobby room (aka his old bedroom) so he could move back in, not pay rent, not look for a job, not clean his room or clothes, and not contribute to the family in anyway?  Is that selfish on my part?  Or am I being selfless by protecting the rest of the family?  Am I not the last guard that stands before the army of defeat?  Besides, we have a wonderful roomy two car garage he can live in.  If he lived in the garage, I could just pop open the garage door and air it out when it got too smelly.  Heck, I could just drag the garden hose in there, turn on the water, and wash everything out to the driveway.

Now if the garage idea doesn’t float by my wife and you other “caring, sensitive” individuals (out there in Internet Never Never Land), as a good idea, I propose we pitch a tent in the backyard.  It is June and the weather is getting quite pleasant.  I remember for two summers as a kid, I loved to sleep in the tent in our backyard in Bellevue.  It was awesome!  Why should I deny KOTS that same priceless experience?  Think of the wonderful memories he would have….waking up with the sun at the crack of dawn, the birds chirping, the soft summer breeze gently flapping the fabric of the tent.  A young man’s adventure in the wilds of suburbia; who wouldn’t want that tale to tell later in life?

Oh, how easy it is for you to judge me and strap the label of Mr. Insensative on me!  I don’t see any of you calling us or emailing us an offering KOTS a place to live.  Where are the calls and the announcement you’d love to have KOTS living with you?  Hmmm?  Why am I merely standing pat in my defense of the homeland with my desire to help KOTS grow up; to let him experience life at a point where he can still correct the course of his life before it is too late!  Yes, this forces him to learn and grow!  Am I a bad parent for wanting the best for him?  For him to grow?  Am I not the better parent than the parent that enables their children to live in the basement for years…to allow them to stagnant in their learning and life experiences?  I argue that I am the better parent for I help to push my child on a course correcting self reflection period.

However, KOTS is not learning that he must push himself to grow.  Instead he has moved in with his father, sleeps in, makes a meager effort to look for a job, and has fallen into the trap of being lost.  He’ll still sponge money off his dad and make no effort to help around the house.  Yet, I can safely say…it’s not my house!

Sex sells…but I don’t have any to sell to you!

~ K ~ Leave a comment

Hey, I had to get your attention with my snide comment about “sex”.  Yes, it is a shameless attempt to get my readership to increase by a whopping 100%!  Which isn’t too hard when you look at improving from 2 readers to 4 readers, right?

Surely, people won’t click on my blog merely because I add the word “sex” to the title.  I’m positive that they will be enticed by my witty humor and insightful comments about the world around me!  That is why my current (all two of them) readers love to read my blog!  Shouldn’t I do my best to increase my realm of influence with a shameless marketing ploy?

Of course, then we could get into the ethics of marketing…is it ok to lie to gain market share?  However, let’s not waste our efforts are futile discussions about ethics.  Rather let’s focus on increasing my readership.  If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below or you can drop me an email.  If your suggestion is good, then I’ll do it, take full credit that it was my idea and my idea alone that helped to drive traffic and readers to my blog.  If your idea sucks, I promise to personally write a sarcastic reply and shame you in front of the other one or two readers that happen upon my blog.

In review, my blog would be more successful if I focused on one or two subjects: Sarcasm and Everything else in the world.

Cream Cheese

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On a recent trip to Costco, I purchase a 3 pound block of cream cheese.  My kids love to have a toasted bagel in the morning with a good dose of cream cheese spread across it, melting slightly.

Hmm, I can almost taste the cream cheese now…in fact, I could do what I did earlier today.  I got the toaster out, sliced a bagel in half, inserted the bagel into the toaster, pushed the lever down, watched the heating elements start and made my way to the refrigerator.  I stood before the  refrigerator, opened the door, and looked for the brand new 3 pound block of cream cheese….only to discover it wasn’t in the spot I left it.

Hmmm.

I started looking on each shelf (making a mental note that the fridge is a bit bare) and I can’t find it.  I open the drawers…no cream cheese in the vegetable drawer…no cream cheese in the meat drawer….hmmm…where the heck did it go?

Then it occurs to me that I must have put it somewhere stupid like in the pantry or perhaps in the cabinet above the coffee maker.  I mean, that has happened before, where you misplace a bag of chips or place a can of corn in the wrong spot…so I continue to look for the missing cream cheese.  It is a 3 pound block of cheese; it doesn’t fit just anywhere.  It has to be here somewhere!

After about five minutes of searching, I still can’t find the cream cheese.  Then I remember we had a visitor earlier that day….KOTS!

KOTS has decided to take the cream cheese home with him.  What is he going to do with three pounds of cream cheese?  Spread it over himself?  This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed things “missing” from the house.  At first I thought I just had misplaced some food items or perhaps I just didn’t buy it at the grocery store.  No, I wasn’t losing them or misplacing them.  KOTS had decided that our pantry and fridge was his own private grocery store to raid and take what he likes.  It is very annoying to put it mildly.  I wanted to make a lasagna the other day…gone.  A huge box of  36 pudding cups for the kids’ school lunches…gone.  A nice steak for dinner?  Nope…it’s gone…instead you can have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!  Yum!  Yum!  Eat up kids!

Luckily, our food situation has stabilized and we now have food in the fridge for the time being.  Now, if I could just find those missing chocolate truffles…..

Your own worst bathroom nightmare!

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Ok, it has been way too long that I’ve submitted my two fans to my blog and I’m sorry about that.  I could give you all the stupid excuses…I’m busy at work, my kids are taking up all my time, I really like watching Tosh.0 on Comedy Central, etc.

A few of you have been asking about KOTS.  I don’t know if I have mentioned this before but KOTS was asked to leave the house by my dear wife.  Sadly, this was very tough for her to do but it was understandable.  KOTS brought it on himself with his lack of respect and his lying.

So my lack of writing about KOTS has been caused by two reasons: 1) It’s a sad situation and 2) He isn’t around to do stupid things to report.  However, this doesn’t mean he still doesn’t do a tremendous amount of things to generate numerous funny, life teaching situations for all of us to read about.

KOTS enjoys visiting our house for a number of reasons.

We have food, we have heat, we have a working washer & dryer, and we have a nice warm shower with clean towels available.  A visit from KOTS will more or less involve the above items.

We all like warm, comfortable showers and KOTS likes to use ours as long as he possibly can.  Since KOTS has moved out, the bathroom downstairs is clean, has toilet paper, the toilet is always flushed, and there are clean towels available.  KOTS likes to come back to our home and use it as a hotel.  He takes an extremely long shower (without turning on the exhaust fan…flipping a switch is just too tough for him), he doesn’t flush the toilet (ah, that just brings back so many fond memories), and his visit wouldn’t be complete without leaving his wet towel on the ground instead of placing it in the large empty hamper that is located right there in the actual bathroom.  As you can see, we have done an excellent job of making him a responsible adult!

I must admit that my parenting skills do come into question when I write about KOTS and his lifestyle.  It also brings into the “nurture v. nature” debate.  Is one a product of his enviroment or a product of nature (genetics)?  In the case of KOTS, I’m fully going to argue that it is a genetics thing!