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Friday, December 30, 2005

It's cloudy off and on here this morning at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania but it's supposed to go up into the lower 40s today so it looks like we're in for a pretty good day.
It also looks like we're in for a very busy day here on the last post for this month and for THIS YEAR!
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As New Year's eve is tomorrow, Saturday, and New Year's day is Sunday the Computer and I will be taking off until Tuesday... Yep, we're in for a nice long weekend but we'll see you right back here in Tuesday morning.
As the New Years holiday is notorious for a lot of traffic accidents please make sure if you are going out for the holidays, and you must travel, especially if you will be drinking, please use another mode of transportation other than YOU driving, to get back home.
There's a lot to be said about Taxi Cabs and I know in and around our city every year many provide a FREE ride home to folks that have "had too much to drink."
Don't be a "hard head" and insist that you're all right to drive when you know in your own heart and soul that you are NOT...
I want to see you back here on Tuesday morning....
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This year they have released for the New Year's holiday a "Buzzed driving" campaign.
For the first time in 20-years, people in charge of spreading the word on drunk driving are adding to their message.
In addition to the "Friends don't let friends drive drunk" Campaign, the Ad Council and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have started a new message which is "Buzzed driving IS drunk driving!"
Please read the rest of this VERY short article here: Buzzed Driving Campaign.
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It's fun to go out and celebrate and "ring" in the New Year with friends and Betty and I usually go up to our Neighbors... Most of the time they have a big "bash" and we have a lot of fun... I'm not sure if we're going this year or not as Betty has been saying lately that she'd be just as happy with just her and I staying home and bringing in the New Year together...
That CAN be fun too if I plan it right! I hope she soon makes up her mind and let's me know for sure.
I don't drink anymore and our neighbor is only a few hundred feet up the lane, in front of our house, so I wouldn't have to worry about driving, even if I did drink, so that's no problem...
Be sure and make good, clear plans for your New Year's Eve.
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Lately I'm been pushing our new campaign for my best company program, Elements, and I've been suggesting that you can take a test drive for 3 months for only $5 Bucks. However in the last 3 days I've been contacted by 2 people that asked my if they can just skip the $5 buck test drive and go right into the program???  Of course you can....  You can go right to my personal Elements web site and join right from there directly into the company!  Just click here: Elements (While you're there, listen to the "audio message" from the owner and president, Jeff Charlton.)
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Check out many of the other opportunities on this site and pretty soon you'll have your own monthly income commission check coming in.  Believe me, it sure comes in handy this time of the year... Or you can join a few of them and make a full time home business out of the venture!
If you need any help or information about any of them just email me at: chuck@homebucks.com
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Well, I've got a lot to get done before I can even think about my long weekend so for me it's back to work and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Holiday Weekend!!!!!!!!!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...  
The Thracians were a warrior people who lived in what is today Bulgaria, from about 1300 to 500 B.C., when they were reduced to vassals by the Persians. They practiced polygamy. When a man died, he wives argued among themselves as to which one had been his favorite. The wife who was finally decided upon as the favorite won the privilege of being killed and placed next to her husband in his tomb!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Friday  December 30, 2005                             

Thursday, December 29, 2005

It's a bit cloudy here in Central Pennsylvania and they're calling for showers off and on today. Not too bad of a day as it is supposed to reach into the 40s today as well.
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I got a good bit done yesterday and a lot of WEB work done too... Unfortunately there is still a ton of work to get done here today as well....  I look forward to spending most of today here, in the office. By tonight hopefully I'll be on my way to getting caught up..  Boy, you don't realize how far you can slip behind if you take a couple of days off..
It sort of made me re-think about this New Years weekend. I was going to take a couple of days off as well but maybe I'll just hang around here and get a few things done...
I would also like to take some time to learn more about my new phone as well as my new toy, Scanport SP 500 Multimedia maker and player. This weekend would make a great time to "bone" up on just all that it can do and how to make it do it... 
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Since the cold spell broke a few days ago all of the ice has disappeared from the mighty Susquehanna River that runs through our back yard and it is flowing good again. It may still freeze up and stop flowing on top yet, but it will be later in the year. Sometimes we get away with out the "freeze" and that's just fine with me as I don't have to worry about the Spring thaw then. Boy, I'll tell you, when that ice breaks in the Spring sometimes it will jam in the "narrows" below us and the water comes up so fast that you think the house will float away.. It's done that several times over the years that we've been here and at the last minute the river cuts loose and the water drops as fast as it rises.... Phew! Those times are REALLY scary so you can see why I'm just as happy if the river doesn't freeze over...
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Today is Ted Danson's birthday and he's 58 years old... The reason I mention his as he is on my most favorite TV show of all times "Becker". Of course as with all the TV programs I've come to love they stopped making this one in January of 2004. So, all we have to watch is re-runs... However they did make 129 episodes so we have plenty of them to watch!!!
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The end of the month is approaching fast and I must get the end of the month
Once A Month Association stuff, the Newsletter and the Monthly Member Benefit Directory. I will also run the statements and write the checks etc... I almost forgot that job had to be done with the excitement of the New Year coming this weekend so I definitely will be working on Saturday and Sunday.... Oh well......  so much for the days off!
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With all that in mind, and the piles of work staring up at me from my desks, for me it's back to work and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...  
A single-celled animal, the paramecium, divides in two when it is about twenty-two hours old. If a single paramecium began to divide on January 1, and if all its offspring survived, its descendants would fill the volume of one cubic mile by March 7, and their combined volume would be as large as the Earth's by April 12th!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Thursday  December 29, 2005             

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

It's a beautiful sunny, chilly morning here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania! I'm all excited as it's supposed to climb up to almost 50 degrees here today! That's fantastic weather for this time of the year and I'm really looking forward to it...
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I've been wanting to put a new set of spark plugs and do a minor tune up to the Jeep for about a month now but it's been way too cold for that job.....  Hmmmmm..... it might not be today though... maybe I can grab some time to get that little job done... Boy I sure hope so because I doubt that it's going to stay this nice very long.
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Well, Betty and I delivered the last pile of Christmas packages to her granddaughter Jackie's house yesterday afternoon....  That's the last Christmas delivery for the sleigh, oops I mean Jeep this year and we can rap it up until next year..  All the kids were home at her house and they all liked their gifts or at least they seem to like them..
We visited for awhile and then went out to the Old Country Buffet for lunch... Seems that day before yesterday I received a call from the Old Country Buffet saying that I won a drawing for a FREE meal there! Sounded good to me...  I could have used it for dinner instead of lunch but lunch sounded good at the time.. I still had to pay for Betty's lunch but it was still a great savings and a wonderful gift! Wow, I should have played the lottery that day, maybe it was my lucky day for everything????? No, I doubt it....
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I checked out all the gas stations that we passed yesterday and none of them around here in our area have dropped even one cent.. I was going to fill up but I can hold up until we go out again. Maybe 'til then the prices will be on their way back down toward where they belong.... unless they're going to keep them up high until after New Years and suck some more blood, oops, I mean money out of us.....
I certainly wouldn't put it past them...
Here's a snippet from United News International: (M&C News)
"NEW YORK, NY, United States (UPI) -- Warm weather Tuesday cut the price of natural gas prices for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange by 6.6 percent.
The East Coast was set for more balmy 50-degree-plus temperatures this week, trimming
80 cents of the commodity's value to $11.46 per million Btu.
The weak price comes after last week's U.S. report of plentiful supplies in inventory and this week's unseasonably mild weather, more of which is in store for the eastern United States.
Other energy commodities also lost value. High-quality crude oil fell 41 cents to $58.02 per barrel and gasoline dropped $1.69 to $1.5336 per gallon.
Heating oil declined 1.66 cents to $1.6887 per gallon."

Geeez, I don't know where the heck they're buying gas for $1.54 a gallon but around here it's running around $2.19 to $2.25 a gallon.
Yep, even though the news says crude oil and gasoline prices are dropping, big oil companies are even ignoring that and keeping the fuel up where they can gouge us out of every cent they can...  Now, they're getting so bold they don't even need an excuse like the hurricane's or anything else...  Who's going to do anything to them....
Certainly not the "money grubbing" National Senators and Representatives down in Washington.... It wouldn't surprise me if they're not all on the "take." Why else would they let the "plundering" go on????  Darned if I can figure out any other reason...
If you've got an opinion, please email me at chuck@homebucks.com and I'll be glad to lay out your side of the story, here in this post..... (Unless you request not to do so.)
Until something is done, to me its seems like we're, all of us who use heating oil and gasoline, are being held hostage by the oil companies and if we need to buy it, by golly we'll have to pay whatever they want to charge us for it!!!!!!  (!@#$%^&*s!)
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Enough of my ranting today as I must get something done here before it's time for my daily trip to the post office.... so for me it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...   
When a vigilante organization raided a communist bookshop in Oklahoma City in 1940, it seized a number of publications thought to be "advocating violence" and publicly burned them at the city stadium. Among the publications picked for destruction were the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Wednesday  December 28, 2005            

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The beginning of a brand new work week.

We had a Cold Windy night but now it's nice and sunny and supposed to shoot up to a balmy 42 degrees this afternoon!
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Yes, Christmas is over for another year and we, Betty and I had a GREAT time! Christmas morning started off nice and calm but as the morning progressed and I began to load up the sleigh, oops..... I mean the Jeep with all the gifts for our kids and grand kids families the tension was building. It started to rain, I think Mother Nature got mixed up as it literally poured for hours..... 
I charged up the batteries for my regular digital camera, plus the battery for my brand new toy, Scanport SP 500 Multimedia maker and player. (A Christmas present from me to me!) Yep I was ready for making digital movies and plenty of pictures of all our stops..  (Loaded for bear, so to speak.... Wait a minute that doesn't fit, does it?.... Well, you get the idea.)
Everything worked out fine except that I found out that the camcorder on the Scanport SP 500 works great but not indoors without extra light...  Some kind of light bar that I'm not sure they even make for it until I get a chance to search for it... Otherwise it works perfectly... and maybe since it arrived only 2 days before Christmas I really might have been doing something wrong..... as I've only had time to study it to the point where I can get the thing to operate....
Oh well, the pictures all turned out fine.....  so we do have some sort of journal of our visits to the various homes... 
My original plan was to edit all of the digital movie clips and get them organized into a nice little movie and then burn it onto DVDs and mail all of the kids each a copy.... Now though I'm afraid that they will have to settle for a CD of the pictures we took... (better than nothing I suppose but a lot worse than I originally had planned for.)
We have one more granddaughter's house left to visit and she has 3 children so that one be a fun one!!! Children REALLY make the difference when it comes to Christmas gift delivering! I think we'll take care of that one this afternoon and that job will be done until next year..... Then it will begin all over again..... I think I'm beginning to get an idea of just how Santa Claus feels.... Only difference is, Santa covers a much, much larger territory!
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I sure hope your Christmas was as much fun as ours was. As Rush Limbaugh says, "I was having more fun than any man should be allowed to have!"
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It's hard this morning to get my butt into gear and back to work with all of the things that need attention.... I think a lazy streak has set in.... but I'm trying to look at the optimistic side and facing the fact that it's only going to be until the end of this week until it's another long 3 day weekend!!!
Let's look forward to that and work this week toward that end......
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Oil, Gas prices down as the U. S. Warms 
Yes, that was a headline two hours ago in the Sidney Morning Herald. This is a snippet from the article: "Natural gas and the weather are driving the market," said Steve Taylor, an oil trader at New West Petroleum in Sacramento, California. "Stockpiles seem to be all right. It all seems to be in pretty good shape."

Crude oil for February delivery fell as much as US83c, or 1.4 per cent, to $US57.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at $US57.84 a barrel at 6:52pm, Sydney time. Oil reached a record $70.85 a barrel on August 30, the day after Hurricane Katrina struck the US. It has gained 33 per cent this year.
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Yeah, Yeah,.... blah, blah, blah..... The oil prices SHOULD be back down where they were BEFORE the hurricane hit back in August when gasoline was about $1.70 a gallon, (and that was too much at the time!)
Big deal the prices are coming down a few cents.....  the rip off oil companies should be dropping the gasoline price like a "lead balloon"!
At any rate if you'd like to see the rest of this article just click here: Sidney Morning Herald    
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Well, we are at the start of a brand new work week and even though it's going to be a short one I have a ton of "stuff" that needs done so for me it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Tuesday!!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...   
U.S. patent number 6,469, titled "Buoying Vessels over Shoals," in the inventor's description, was "a new and improved manner of combining adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steamboat of other vessel for the purpose of enabling them to pass over bars of through shallow eater." The inventor whittled a model twenty inches long, but a  life-size version was never built. The inventor --- Abraham Lincoln!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Tuesday  December 27, 2005       

Friday, December 23, 2005

1 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

T.G.I.F.
It's supposed to go up to a balmy 48 degrees today and be sunny most of the day.... and it's sunny now so they are at least half right so far! Yep, looks like it's going to be a REALLY nice day today around here for a change!
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This is the last post before Christmas.... WOW did this year go by fast! Seems like it was just yesterday that I was signing off for last Christmas...
Betty has spent all day today wrapping gifts and the entire dining room table is stacked with them plus some are around the base of our Christmas tree.  Looks like it will take us all day on Christmas just to distribute them that's for sure......  That's the fun of Christmas though, and I really look forward to it... As we make the rounds on Christmas Day, we'll also be eating dinner at one of their homes..... As Tammy, Betty's daughter, was kind enough to invite us, I imagine that's where we'll be pigging out, oops, I mean eating......
Yep, it looks like we're in for a GREAT Christmas this year and as long as the weather co-operates we'll be in good shape.
If you are one of the many folks who will be traveling to visit relatives, please, please, drive safely.... I can't afford to lose a reader of this humble blog.... not even one!
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The Computer and I will be making a long weekend of the Christmas Holiday and we'll be taking Monday off so we won't be making another post here until Tuesday of next week. Yep, I plan on getting some work done over the weekend but very little and I know I'll not be working on Christmas as I am definitely talking that day off!!! Hot dog!!!
Those of you who will have some extra time, there are plenty of Christmas sites on the WEB to visit and enjoy.... Just run a normal search and type in Christmas into your search.... (Google or Yahoo, makes no difference.)  Tons of places to visit besides just advertising places....
Don't forget as you do your last minute shopping to drop something in one of the Salvation Army bell ringers pot. This money, unlike some of the Red Crosses collections actually gets to those that really need it!
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As we, Betty and I celebrate our Christmas here at the Blue Bird Cottage here in Central Pennsylvania we'll be thinking of you, my readers, as well and we wish you all of the Christmas happiness that you can handle this year and really look forward to seeing you back here next week.... Have a safe and happy holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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On that note as the holiday didn't start for me as of yet... I do have some things that must be done before I do get started on mine...... so for now, for me, it's back to work, and YOU, YOU Have a GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...    
A completely automated grist mill was invented by the American Oliver Evans in 1793. The mill performed all operations without human labor. The millers, of course, opposed it., and it would be many decades before Evan's idea was fully accepted. In 1805, Evans suggested using the evaporation of ether for refrigeration, and again was decades ahead of his time!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Friday  December 23, 2005             

Thursday, December 22, 2005

2 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

It's supposed to get a little warmer here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania almost up to 40 degrees. Also mostly sunny today and to prove it it's sunny right now..
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Only a couple of shopping days left before Christmas and everyone is getting nervous especially if they don't have all of their shopping done.
I know one year I did that and was out running around on Christmas eve hurrying from store to store trying to find some stuff before they all closed as they were closing early.. What a mess it was and I swore then that it would never happen again.. True to my word that was the last year that I pulled that trick.
Betty and I went out for awhile yesterday as she wanted to make a trip to the cemetery to decorate the graves. I was very surprised to find that traffic was pretty skimpy to what I thought it would be. I'm not complaining, just surprised.
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The wildlife and especially the squirrels and birds are starting to feel the affects from all of this cold weather in the last 3 weeks. Everyday now the squirrels are starting to come up on the railing of our back deck to look for any kind of food they can find to eat and take back to their nests. What they don't eat the various birds clean up... Each day now were putting out any thing from grains to wheat bread for them and they seem to like it all. At least their cleaning everything up. Of course I guess if you get hungry enough you'll eat anything.
Lately we have a falcon hanging around our neighborhood and the other day it even killed a rabbit and tore it up pretty good and finally when it was small enough the bird "carted it off" in it's talons. What a sight.
What really surprised me was that the falcon's "kill" drew about three crows and the falcon actually left the crows have some of it's dinner... I really didn't think a bird of prey would share, but it did...  No, I didn't get any photo's of it.... Man the falcon was REALLY "camera shy" and I couldn't get a glimpse of it when I had the camera in my hand...  Oh well, as it is hanging around in the neighborhood, there just may be another time.. and I may get a bit more lucky....
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There's a good gift for someone in your family that has any interest in wildlife... A good camera... Yes, I know it's a bit expensive so it would have to be a very close relative..  However, if you do consider it, don't forget to get one with a good powerful telephoto lens in it... They'll need that for ANY good wildlife shots... Believe me, no matter how powerful I get one for mine, I always wish I had one with more oomph... 
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The mail was lousy again yesterday and I'm finally getting caught up with some of the WEB site work that my customers had ordered from me so I guess I'd better get back to that and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...    
A single lightning bolt may give off 3,750 million kilowatts of electrical energy. About 75 percent of this energy is dissipated as heat, raising the temperature of the surrounding air to around 27,000 degrees F. and causing rapid air expansion which leads to sound waves --- thunder --- that can be heard up to eighteen miles away!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Thursday  December 22, 2005               

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

3 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

I know it sounds like a broken record but it's another beautiful sunny morning here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania. It's also still colder than the dickens.....  Today is the first day of Winter and I'm sick of cold weather already. We've been below average with the temps all month. We have not went above 40 degrees since last month!
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Christmas is just about here and you can sure tell it if you get near any shopping mall. The traffic is horrendous! You must "inch" along even in the parking lots... Unbelievable!
I swear that the cars and trucks are coming out of the woodwork as I've never seen that many at once until Christmas shopping time arrived and it seems to get worse each and every year.
Betty and I have all of our shopping done and what we don't already have is coming by UPS as I ordered it from the Internet. However, we have to fight to get through the traffic even to get to our favorite restaurant.
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No wonder the big gas companies put the gasoline up for the Christmas Holiday. It's the best time of the year to give us a good Screwing. Well, unless some other excuse happens like a hurricane or something....
Yes, I do think that Americans are a giving people and we just couldn't miss getting out and doing our holiday shopping so that we're not caught short for gifts to give away, and of course they, the retailers AND mainly the fuel companies use that fact against us.
But as usual we take it all in stride... and we'll bounce back for another round in January......
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I only received about 15 pieces of mail today and for me that's just about nothing... The regular mail is REALLY slacking off...  Come to think of it, we didn't get but one or two Christmas cards here at the home mail box either... Either the post office is swamped or people have stopped mailing even Christmas Cards... We got our card mailing done fairly early this year and we sent out a good bit.....  for us anyway... I'd say between 60 and 70 pieces...  May as well enjoy the postage prices this year as on January the 8th, 2006 the cost of postage is going up again! Gee, aren't we lucky?
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I predict that the post office will pretty soon price themselves right out of business. People will only put up with so much of all the price increases, especially when they have alternatives such as email... Shortly, as more and more families get computes, we will be sending all of our Christmas Cards by email. Why pay at least a half a buck to a buck for a card and another 40¢ to mail it.... almost a buck each when you can email nice ones with sound and everything for nothing more than it now costs to be hooked up to the WEB anyway?
I think instead of the post office constantly jacking up prices they should be finding ways to cut their expenses... Remember Ben Frank's wise advice, "A penny saved is a penny earned! It sure is true and I think the post office could trim a lot of "fat" and keep the prices right where they are..
However all of my talk on this subject is "moot" as it's already been decided and the price hike is "in the bag" so to speak.
All of the government agencies are going to have to learn to be more thrifty as they cannot continue to constantly raise prices. The public can only bear so much cost increases for any kind of service(s).
They are going to have to learn to operate like a business..... and that simply means that you cannot constantly spend more money than you take in..
All of the government entities are famous for that ploy. Spend, spend, spend and when everything is about ready to break, just raise the cost or taxes whichever is appropriate to cover the uncontrolled, wanton spending....
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I personally think the more government offices and agencies we can close the better.. We now have way to much government in our lives..  Too many people are depending on the government to take care of them, feed them, house them, take care of their medical expenses and just plain mother them.
People will soon forget how to take care of themselves and to stand up for their rights etc... and that would REALLY make the government happy!
They've already pretty much taken over our children's lives...  Remember what I said yesterday that practically as soon as our children start their education one of the first things they are taught is to call 911 even if their parents raise their voice to them!
The younger generations better soon wake up and take back their and their children's lives  from the government "overseers!"
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Well that's enough ranting on that subject..... I just hope I can get you to thinking about some of this crap that's going on today.... It's apparently up to us to teach our children and grandchildren values, as they will not learn them any more in schools..
It's getting that not only do the children have no respect for authority figures, and elders, but they really have no respect for themselves anymore!
Old time values are more needed now than any time ever in our history.... Do your share and I'll try and do mine.... Together maybe we CAN make a difference!  I sure hope so!
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Lots of work left over for me to get done from when I WAS getting mail, like day before yesterday... sooooooooooo for me it's back to work and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Wednesday!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...   
Slavery was a universal institution throughout ancient times. It was not even questioned in the Old Testament or in the New Testament!
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Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Wednesday  December 21, 2005   
         

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

4 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

It's another beautiful sunny morning here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania. It's cold but nice and bright.... We're still running way below normal temps here and have been for 3 weeks....  I'll be glad when it just get's back to normal!
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I heard again on the news this morning about another little girl that was kidnapped and killed. Man it makes you sick in the belly..... but I know not in all cases but some are caused by mom and dad just not keeping track of their children. I've seen kids at flea markets and malls literally running wild with not only no supervision but without mom or dad nowhere in sight. Many, many times I've seen this.. I remember when we were raising our children when we went somewhere I watched them "like a hawk."
I just don't understand how most parents are raising their children. The other day we were in a restaurant and this small baby sitting in a high chair started bawling and screaming at the top of its little lungs. Mom or dad was nowhere in sight. It was a buffet and apparently mom went off to get food and "abandoned" the little one plus two other small children in the booth as well.  Finally one of the waitresses picked up the child and tried to quiet it down but to no avail as she wanted mommy! Here it turned out that it wasn't mom or dad but just mom but there was another adult that sat down at the table as well. Why one of them couldn't sit there to watch the children and wait till one got their food and then go get their own food I guess I'll never know. Apparently they were too hungry to wait... Boy..... do you believe it?
When the piece about the little girl getting kidnapped and killed was on TV Betty mentioned that even the geese have more sense when they have small ones...  Both of the adults don't ever put their heads down to eat at the same time. One will always have their head straight up and on the alert for danger while the other eats.... Even animals have more sense than some humans....  Boy that's not saying much for us is it?
I can see why more and more children are being taken from their families and hurt on the streets, and what have you, as they seem to have no supervision at all!
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Another thing puzzles me..... The government has their noses poked into family business so much that around here one of the first things small children are taught when they first go to school is to call 911 if mommy or daddy spanks them or even yells at them.... In other words no control at all over your children.... Then last week we heard of a neighbor of one of our grand kids was summoned to court and faces 15 days in jail because her son had repeatedly cut school.
They, the authorities, take parental control away from the people with children on one hand and then on the other they want to prosecute them for their children's actions! Seems to me that whomever has made up the crap to take control from the parents should be prosecuted! Not the parents that control was taken from!
Oh well, whoever said the law was fair? Not me that's for sure!
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I was taking to Jeff Charlton a few days ago..... he's the owner/manager of my favorite and most profitable company, ELEMENTS. As Jeff and I talked he let me in on a lot of new things that are coming into our ELEMENTS business right after the first of the year and let me tell you that this company is going to EXPLODE with associates... NOW is the time to get involved with it and you can take a test drive for 3 months for only $5 Bucks! You'll be placed in the matrix and receive a FREE web site where you can watch your downline grow with FREE placements from the company and me! Make a resolution to do something for your pocket book this coming year and take a look at this deal.... Just click here: Test Ride
Don't put it off..... do it now!
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I have a ton of stuff to get done and Betty's headed for the Laundromat today and I must load the Jeep and take her down and unload it for her....  So for me it's back to work and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today... 
If 80 percent of your liver were to be removed, the remaining part would continue to function, and within a few months the liver would have reconstituted itself to its original size!
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Click here to comment on today's post. E-mail Chuck
Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Tuesday  December 20, 2005           

         

Monday, December 19, 2005

5 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

The beginning of a brand new week!
Right now it's mostly sunny here in Central Pennsylvania and it's supposed to be mostly sunny the rest of today with temps going all the way up to a balmy 32 degrees today! Almost enough for a nice sun tan..... (Ha!)
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The Christmas deadline is drawing closer with only 5 shopping days left. Boy can you ever tell it if you go out to any stores.... they are literally packed with long waiting lines to check out. A retailers DREAM! If you go shopping now you'd think that EVERYONE waited until the very last minute to shop for Christmas gifts as you can hardly navigate around the parking lots...  Lines and lines of traffic....
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Except for Christmas cards my mail is even slowing up with everyone in the business waiting until after the holidays to advertise their endeavors...  I guess you can't blame them but for me, I'm going to "step  up" my mailing starting tomorrow as I figure with everyone else slacking off, my advertising mailers should stand out like a "sore thumb!)
That's one of the ways I've found to survive in this mail order business..... sometimes it pays to to exactly the opposite of what others are doing and what is expected of you to do..  Sometimes it works and sometimes it don't but then that's part of the fun of being in business for yourself.
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The same way with any other advertising.... When others slow up or stop their advertising in the Summer months, I step mine up....  My mailings get more attention as there are less of my competitors mailings to compete with in their, my prospects, mail boxes! As I said, sometimes it works and sometimes it don't... but if you look at all of the successful dealers or most of them, you'll see that they advertise all year round....
Hey, maybe that's a secret as well!
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In spite of the bad weather on Friday, Betty and I did get to our favorite Chinese Restaurant and meet Betty's daughter, Tammy to help celebrate her birthday. As you can see in the photo to the left the nice Chinese waitresses made her a pretty, small, birthday plate and sang Happy Birthday to her. We all had a GREAT time! (Actually Winnie, the closest girl to me in the photo, is the one that made the treat for Tammy. Thanks Winnie!) Betty had a great time with her daughter, as she always does..... it made for a wonderful Friday afternoon....
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I received an Email from a Friend of mine yesterday with a quote from one of my favorites, Andy Rooney on just what he thinks of political correctness and I thought you'd enjoy it so here it is:
It's well worth the 2 minute read..... Finally someone who knows how to say it!
Andy Rooney said on "60 Minutes" a few weeks back:

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed.
Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry a-- if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.

I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!"

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else And if you don't like my point of view, tough...
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Personally I say ditto!!!!!!!  I've felt this same way for years....  Don't want to hurt any feelings but I think that most of the time.... these people don't care about hurting my feelings at all....
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That's about it for today, and don't you think it's enough as well????? (Ha!)
I've got a bunch of work already and waiting to get done, even before my trip to the post office so for me it's back to work and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...   
The first "horseless carriage" to be run by an internal combustion engine was built by the Belgian-French inventor Etienne Lenoir, in 1860. It ran on illuminating gas. Lenoir also hitched a similar engine to a boat, and produced the first motorboat. The so-called Lenoir engine wasn't efficient enough, and the inventor died poor!
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Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Monday  December 19, 2005           

Friday, December 16, 2005

8 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

T.G.I.F.
We just had a very bad snow storm/ice storm that lasted from yesterday morning until sometime early this morning and it looks miserable out side this morning here in Central Pennsylvania. It's all supposed to be over now however, and will be clearing up some time today. The temps are still extra cold however so most of what we got will be around here for some time to come! However, the sun just came out and looks like it may to be a nice day after all.
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Yesterday was Betty's daughter, Tammy's birthday and we are going to meet her this afternoon to buy her lunch, (guess where), and to give her birthday gifts. The good ole Grand Buffet, our favorite hang out..... 
The streets and highways around here were fine at 5 AM this morning but now they are re-freezing as temps are dropping at the moment. They are supposed to go back up as the morning progresses and the roads will get better and thaw out. So, by the time we're ready to leave to meet Tammy they should be fine... I hope so anyway.
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I seems that yesterday the federal government announced that they will release 3.1 BILLION dollars just to strengthen the levees down in New Orleans.
My question is Why?
Hasn't it now been proven that the town/city there is dangerous. Why rebuild something in a spot that can re-flood again at any time? Is it just me or does that also NOT make sense to you? That $310,000,000,000 dollars could go to a lot of things that this country needs more than a stupid dike to protect a town/city that shouldn't even be there in that location to start with!
Don't you think that it would be cheaper and easier to just move the whole darn town to higher ground? It certainly would make more sense.... at least it does to me!
If you'd like to read the one page article about this dumb deal just click here: $3.1 BILLION dollar deal.
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If you want to do some online shopping for gifts you'd better do it now! With only 8 days left until Christmas, shipping time is running out. Personally, I think it's fun going shopping for gifts for people at regular stores, however when I buy Betty "stuff", I always go online for them. The last thing I ordered for her was day before yesterday. I'm pretty sure there is plenty of time for it to arrive here before Christmas.
As long as you know what you want it's best to get it on line. Here's what I mean by that. Right before Betty's last birthday I knew that she was getting low on her favorite perfume, "Royal Secret."
I went on line to do some shopping and after I placed the order from a perfume company that specializes in selling just perfumes, I totaled up the figures to revel that I had saved almost 16 dollars by ordering a bottle of it online from them!
In my book, that's a darn big saving on just one bottle of perfume!
Also, when we go shopping for something in particular at regular "brick and mortar" outlets, sometimes you have to go to 3 or 4 different places to find exactly what you want at a decent price.... Most times in a few minutes, I can shop at literally hundreds of online stores to find "exactly" what at want a the best price offered!
With all the latest price comparison software we have, etc., it's simple and enjoyable to shop on line and get the best prices within, sometimes, seconds!
If you've never shopped online don't be intimidated as now days it's simple and very easy to do so.
It helps to know what you are looking for but don't let that stop you as you can still "browse" for things on line as well and come up with plenty of ideas.....
So, if you still have shopping to do, you might want to try doing it online. There is still time to get things delivered for Christmas as all of the delivery companies are working overtime to get that job done. Let's face it, this is the time of the year for them to make their money as well....
They, UPS & Fed Ex, don't bitch and moan like the post office does every year. They welcome the extra business as they are like the rest of us and know that they must "make hay when the sun shines!"
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Well, I guess I've "yakked" long enough this morning and have other things that need to be done that I don't have as much fun with, getting done as I do this post, so for me, it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a WONDERFUL Weekend!!! (I know, "yakked" doesn't look like it's spelled right, but that's what the 'spell checker' said!)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...
The family legend that made Betsy Ross famous was first told thirty years after her death. A grandson claimed that she had been visited in June 1776 by a secret committee, which included George Washington, that asked her to design and sew a flag for the new nation. There is no evidence to corroborate the story. Elizabeth Griscom Ross---"Betsy"---was merely the seamstress. The original American flag was designed by Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey. He was a lawyer, author, artist, member of the Second Continental Congress, the first native American composer, and signer of the Declaration of Independence!
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Click here to comment on today's post. E-mail Chuck
Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Friday  December 16, 2005                 

Thursday, December 15, 2005

9 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

It's a bit cloudy this morning as it's supposed to start snowing early this afternoon and continue to snow, then a mixture of snow, ice and freezing rain until tomorrow morning sometime. Yes, something to really look forward to.
It was ice cold here again last night in Central Pennsylvania and went down into the single digits again with the temps...  If I don't post here some morning, you'll know for sure that I've froze fast to the bed and could not get out here to my home office to write and post this blog.... Geez... I WILL be glad when this darn cold spell is over.. At this rate we're going to run out of coal long before the end of January!
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I've been searching to find out why every time I take the Jeep out for a ride gas prices have risen. When we went out yesterday afternoon the one station that was $2.09 a gallon on Monday, last evening was $2.25!!!  Another ridiculous ride at the gas pumps so the large gas companies can brag about record earnings for this quarter AGAIN!
Here's what I dug up on the subject:
Quote from AAA: "Local gas prices back above $2 per gallon. After gas prices dropped for several weeks, they climbed back above $2 per gallon in 49 states, including Florida, according to AAA.
AAA attributes the increase to higher energy demand due to cold winter temperatures and the approaching holidays.
Nationally, the average price of self-serve regular gasoline fell to a season low of $2.12 per gallon on Dec. 4, before reversing and rising 6 cents to $2.18 per gallon Wednesday, according to AAA's daily, online Fuel Gauge Report. A year ago, Americans paid $1.87.
In Orlando, the average price of self-serve regular gasoline reached $2.16 Wednesday compared with $2.35 a month ago and $1.89 a year ago!"
Now read the above again real slow.....  The price of gasoline is jumping by leaps and bounds AGAIN because number one, the cold weather. Wow! That's a good one.
Why, didn't the fuel companies expect cold weather? After all, it usually gets cold here in the northeast and northwest in WINTER!  Must have been some surprise for them so they had to raise gas prices.
I'm NOT going to say "raise gas prices again" as they still haven't gone down all the way to where they belong as yet! They should be down around $1.80 a gallon...
I predicted a month ago that when gas neared the $2.00 a gallon range the gas companies didn't want to let it fall below that as they want America to become used to paying at least $2.00 a gallon... NOT because it's necessary to be that high for them to make a profit but because they are HOGS and want to pull in and suck as much out of the American public as they possibly can!!!!  That's why....
Back to the quote... Take a look at reason number two for gasoline cost to be soaring again.... and I quote, " and the approaching holidays." hmmmmmmm......  the holiday's is approaching and that's why they need more money for gasoline and fuel oils.....
Why not call a "spade" a "spade" the approaching holidays, apparently according to the oil companies is another good reason to SCREW the Americans out of more money!!!!
I just wonder how much it cost them for our representatives and senators down in Washington to sit on their asses and keep their mouths shut about the "rape and carnage" the oil companies are subjecting their bosses, the American public, to?
I'll just bet it didn't cost them, the oil companies, a "drop in the bucket" compared to the billions they are screwing us out of!
Our home daily delivery newspaper just went up 5¢ more a day. Why do you suppose that is...  Could it be because they just can't eat the high cost of fuel to deliver it any longer? That's just one small example... We're not just getting screwed when we buy fuel for ourselves but EVERYTHING that comes to us by truck, and that includes about 99 percent of the "stuff" we use is, or soon will be, going up in cost to cover the extra fuel charges....  It's got to stop....  We've got to stop it...
At the end of this year, call your local newspaper and ask them to print how much income tax the large oil companies will be paying for the huge "extra" profits they reaped from us this year....
ExonMobil reported Third Quarter profits of $10 BILLION dollars! (Don't forget a billion is 1,000 million!)....  That's just for 3 months!
Shell reported Third Quarter profits of $9 BILLION dollars!
If it's like it was in the 70s when the fake lack of oil scare was perpetrated by the large oil companies and they made record profits but didn't pay one red cent in income tax, then they will pay nothing again for this year....
Yes, lets see what they pay now.......  and how do you think they get away with it? Think a little bit as see what YOU come up with.....
 
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Here I am, rambling again..... seems like that always happens when I get on the fuel subject... Hope you stayed with me until we reached here.....  If you have any comments at all, I'd love to hear them... Just click my email at the end of this post and drop me a note.. Well, I've just about used up my time for today and then some for this post so for me, it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...    
The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell!
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Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Thursday  December 15, 2005                 

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

10 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

Yet another sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania but colder than a Dead Witches *@%!" My gosh it's really cold as temps went down to near zero last night. I'll sure be glad when this cold spell ends! Thank goodness it's supposed to go up to a tepid 25 degrees today! (Ha!)
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I'm not built for this kind of weather.... and to recall one time I even thought of moving to Alaska! Thank goodness that stupid idea fell by the wayside. I guess at the time it wasn't that bad an idea though. It was around the time when they were putting the oil pipeline through Alaska and jobs were abundant. The pay was fantastic. The only thing that stopped me at the time was a wife and 4 children. They would have went anywhere I wanted to go, but the move without a job guarantee was out of the question and I didn't have the bucks to go up there and scout it out. This was back in the days when the mom stayed home and worked raising the children... Not like today when both mom and dad must work just to make ends meet!
To keep 4 kids in food, shelter, and clothing took all my time and I couldn't take off long enough for the trip even if I did have the bucks.... At the time I was working 2 full time jobs.... That left about enough time to get home and to get some food and rest and it was back to work again.... My main full time job had showers in the locker room and I could clean up, put some clean clothes on and head right to my 2nd job right from there. I didn't have to go home to get ready.. That saved a lot of time... that I really didn't have anyway..
It was tiring and very hard as both jobs involved physical labor.. In my main job I was a tractor-trailer mechanic and welder, and my 2nd full time job I was a tire "mounter" an balancer.....  I mounted tires for 8 straight hours! In our tire store where I worked we had 4 guys working on each car. They'd pull a car in and each of us would grab a wheel and mount a new tire, balance it, and and put it back on as fast as we could go. Then it would get pulled out and another car came in and it was the same all over again. Each of us had our own tire machine and they were manual machines as a manual machine was faster than an electric or hydraulic machine was. Yep, as the old saying goes, "quick, fast, and dirty."
It wasn't that bad, I was young and strong and didn't mind good, hard work.
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Betty and I are going to venture out for awhile this afternoon as we have a few errands to run and a couple of gifts that she wants to pick up. It's going to be a cold trip..  I'm actually thinking of buying some "long johns"... I haven't wore them in years. Of course as soon as I'd buy a pair this cold spell would end.... Hey! Wait a minute.......  hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.. that just might not be such a bad idea after all........
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That's one good thing about our Jeep though, it does have a terrific heater in it and once it's warmed up it will keep you nice and toasty inside. It's getting out and getting into the stores etc. that's the problem...  Then is when you really need the heavy clothing.
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I've got a lot of printing I must do today and a lot of mail to assemble so for me it's back to work and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day today! 
Don't forget, only 10 shopping days left until Christmas so unless you're all done, don't wait 'til the last minute as the traffic is really bad already.
There's still time to order stuff on line and get it here in time for Christmas but that "window" is slowly closing as well......  Keep up your good spirits!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...  
About 3650 B.C., an Emperor of China, Hwang Ti, noted that "all the blood in the body is under the control of the heart... the blood current flows continuously in a circle and never stops." More than 4,000 years were to pass before experimental data - William Harvey's, in 1616 - supported the theory that the heart functions as a pump and that blood circulates through the body!
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Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Wednesday  December 14, 2005     

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

11 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

It's nice and sunny here in Central Pennsylvania but it'll be another cold one as temps are not even supposed to reach the freezing mark today.... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....  too darn cold for my tastes...
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Betty and I had to go out and do a little shopping yesterday and while I was out I got a black and white and a color ink jet cartridge filled for my picture ink jet printer.... 
This is the first time I didn't buy new ones and had them refilled at a store called, Cartridge World. I sure did save a bundle though as the black one cost me $12.50 and the color one cost me only $19.00, plus tax of course. I got both of them for less than the cost of a new color one! That's what I call a GIANT saving!
Apparently Cartridge World is a franchise.... for more information check here: Cartridge World  I don't know who came up with the idea, but it's a darn good one..  If you have a popular cartridge, you don't even have to wait.... They usually have one on the shelf to trade you!
If you do a lot of printing like I do, you'll save a ton of money..  Most of my printing is done with my Laser Jet but I do print a lot of photographs and that uses a lot of ink....
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I stopped at the library an bought a GREAT "slightly" used book of only 3 bucks and rented the entire 2nd season of "Northern Exposure". Boy we just loved that program and these old episodes are GREAT as we don't remember much of them as it's been so long since we've seen them. It's like watching them "brand new" all over again.. It's great!
The book I picked up for 3 bucks is called "Years of Minutes" by Andy Rooney, (The best of Rooney from 60 Minutes.) I just love Andy's stories and now I've got an entire collection of them. Yep, I'm really going to enjoy this book. The last thing I picked up was an MP3 audio book called "Pirate" by Ted Bell...  I listen to a lot of audio books as I get to "read" many more books this way.. I have one playing in the background now as I write this post. Of course Audio Books are FREE to rent at our library and you get to keep them for 3 weeks, plenty of time to listen to them...
Yep, with a good TV, DVD player, VCR, Tape player, and Computer that's about all you need for enough "top-notch" entertainment for your entire life! Oops, I almost forgot, a GOOD library doesn't hurt either.....
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Our normal temperatures for this time of the year should be in the 40s and we've been running in the 20s to low 30s... Yep, we are in a cold spell and I must pretty much stay indoors in this kind of weather. That's okay though as I've got plenty to keep me busy here in the office.....  By the looks of the piles of work on my desks right now, I'd better get back to work, so for me, that's my plan, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Tuesday!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...  
Maggots were once used to treat osteomyelitis, a serious bone infection. During the U.S. Civil War, it was discovered accidentally that the larvae (maggots) of the blowfly helped heal open wounds by eating away the dead tissue and also be secreting healing substances. The osteomyelitis treatment used laboratory-grown sterile maggots. This method of treatment was discontinued only because analysis proved that urea excreted by the maggots was responsible for the healing process, and the urea could be synthesized inexpensively!
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Click here to comment on today's post. E-mail Chuck
Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Tuesday  December 13, 2005        

Monday, December 12, 2005

12 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

The beginning of a brand new week as it gets closer to Christmas! It's a bit sunny here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania and it's VERY cold with the temps down into the twenties last night and today's high is only supposed to be near the Freezing mark. I guess we're in for another cold one around here.
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Betty and I went down to our favorite Chinese Restaurant on Saturday as I had promised to make them a couple of signs announcing that they would be open on Christmas Day. If you live anywhere near us and aren't planning to eat anywhere on Christmas, you might want to try this place.. We love it there and to be honest with you if we weren't invited to eat at Betty's daughter's house we were going to eat there also. Plus, if you want to eat there click here for a 10% discount coupon, The Grand Buffet. It's not Dinner all day.. Stop around lunch, that's what you get and what you will pay for.... If you want crab legs and supper, or dinner as the Chinese call it, you'll have to stop after 3:30 in the afternoon.
This is the first year the owner, Ken, has put up a Christmas tree at the restaurant so I though I'd take a picture or two... I've posted one of them on the left..  I think he did a darn good job on it, what do you think?
He's all proud of it and even held the doors open for me so I could take the picture. He has it in like a vestibule area right where you enter the restaurant... Yep, good job Ken!
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Betty finally finished decorating our cottage over the weekend and we put just about all the boxes back into the attic. That job completely wore her out yesterday. This little cottage we live in just doesn't have enough room for stairs to get into the attic and the way it's laid out I can't even put in a set of "drop down" stairs so we're kind of stuck with the "trap door" and ladder method of access.
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Boy, with Christmas less than 2 weeks around the corner it really gets me to thinking about how things "used to be" back when I was young. Ah, yes, there are many, many things that are better now but there were also many, many things that I kind of wish were the same as they used to be as well.
Just to give you an idea here are some prices of a few things when I was a kid. I was 5 years old in 1948 when these prices were in effect:
First-Class stamp, 3¢
Gasoline, 26¢ a gallon - (When I had my first service station, I was 20 when I sold gas for 27¢ a gallon! Apparently it went up 1¢ from when I was 5 until I was 20! I'd say prices were pretty stable back then!)
Admiral TV/phonograph radio, $549.50
Average Income, $2,933 a year
Nash convertible, $3,100
Buick Roadmaster, $2,933
Chocolates, 92¢ a pound
Handmade things used to make popular gifts. I remember when my dad made me a wheel barrow so I could help him in the garden..  That was THE best gift that I received that year......  I think I was 6 years old...
Tree Bubble-Lites were first marketed in 1945 by Noma Electric Co.,. The heat from the bulb boiled the liquid inside to create the bubbling action.
I remember mom had two sets of these lights and they were her favorite lights. She had one set for each tree as she always put up two trees on a 4' X 8' "platform" where she also put a large "Christmas yard" under them.
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Wow, look at the time..... Gee, I'm really rambling on and on today...... As I still have a ton of "stuff" to get done before I head for the Post Office, I'd better get my butt back to work, and YOU, YOU, have a GREAT Monday!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...    
Back about 340 B.C., Aristotle observed that dolphins gave birth to live young that were attached to their mothers by umbilical cords. For this reason, he considered dolphins and related creatures to be mammals. Biologists agreed with him---twenty-four centuries later!
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Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Monday  December 12, 2005                      

Friday, December 9, 2005

15 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

T.G.I.F.
It's yet another sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania but a very, very cold one, and yes we did get the winter snow storm over night that they were calling for!
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I'm running VERY late with this post as I've been outside all morning shoveling and getting cleaned up a bit since the storm. I've sure seen much worse but for the first snow storm of the season, this one was a pretty good one..  I took time to snap a picture, (on the left here), to show you.
If you look close, in the background, you can see the ice on the river starting to form. I took this shot right outside our back door that goes out onto our deck..  They said that we got about 6 inches here in Dauphin which may have been but I only see about 5 inches on the back deck..  It's supposed to turn the blower on this afternoon and drift and that's already happening.. As I write this it's blowing like heck outside.
Our neighbor, Randy, came by in his "bobcat" and cleaned out in front of the Jeep and beside the Jeep big enough to park another car.... Thanks Randy! I took out my little electric shovel and cleaned up around the Jeep and the garage and made some paths here and there....
I still have to do the back deck but I thought I'd take a break and do this post first... I feel about half frozen and I must thaw out a bit before I head back outside....
The storm has passed for now and we just have to watch out for the drifting, as of now.. Looks like the snow will be around for awhile as the temps are barely above freezing for day time highs at the moment. We've been going down into the teens in the evening so like I said, we'll be looking at snow for awhile... Hey, maybe we'll have a "White Christmas" this year! That would be nice for a change....
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Looks like it's going to be a GREAT weekend for catching things up here in the office... I won't be able to do much outdoors and it's even too cold for me to take my "heart walks" so I'll be pretty much stuck inside....
That's okay though as I still have tons of stuff to load back into my main Computer after the problems I've had over the last few days with it plus the work that's slipped behind because of it, I won't have ANY problems keeping busy....
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I'd like to go out today and maybe get some lunch and just see how everyone else faired with the snow storm but I don't think Betty will go as she says she has too much to get done... She's right in the middle of decorating the house for Christmas. I didn't think she was going to do that much this year but once she got going it's hard to stop her!
She was going to give away a lot of our decorations and I talked her out of it.. I'm glad I did now or we'd be out buying more "stuff!"
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I'd better get this posted before the day is over and while I still have time to get some work done.... soooooo... for me it's time I get back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Weekend!!!!!
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If you get some Time Check out my new International $7 program! You'll be glad you did!
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today...    
Fourteen years before the Titanic sailed on an April day in 1912 on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, a novel was published called Futility about an unsinkable and glamorous Atlantic liner, the largest in the world. Like the Titanic, the fictional vessel was triple-screw and could make 24-25 knots; at 800 feet it was a little shorter than the Titanic, but at 70,000 tons its displacement was 4,000 tons greater. Like the Titanic's, its passenger list was the crème de la crème, and of course there weren't enough lifeboats. On a cold April night, the fictional "unsinkable" vessel strikes an iceberg and glides to the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of this liner, in the story by Morgan Robertson-----The Titan!
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Check out today’s “Joke Page”. (CAUTION! Some Jokes are “R” rated! Use your good judgment!!!)
Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Friday  December 9, 2005           

Thursday, December 8, 2005

16 Shopping Days Left 'Til Christmas!

It's a sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania but a very, very cold one! I guess it's to be expected this time of the year.
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Wow! Yesterday tur