Chuck's Daily

Chuck's Daily - Common Sense

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Friday, June 30, 2006

It's another sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania... Thank goodness... The sun is out and the mighty Susquehanna River is receding back down into it's banks where it normally is.
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Yes, the river crested yesterday about noon and immediately started to fall. It was a beautiful sight.. It came up within just a few feet of the side of our house and was very close to filling out basement... When the river rises to fill your basement it only takes a very short time... I don't care how big the basement is.
Our entire lower back yard was under water and some of the upper back yard..
The picture on the left I took about 3 hours before the river crested. I leaned out over the front of the railing on the deck to snap the picture. The water was just up high enough to start touching the poles that support the deck! Just a few feet from the back wall of the house! The "greenery" or plants on the left side of the railing, up on the deck itself are my tomato plants that I dug up and brought up 3 nights ago and put in buckets and plastic containers to try and save them from the flood.. I did save them from the flood. Now will they grow after I replant them when the river subsides back down within it's banks? Only time will tell... but I guess it won't hurt to "cross my fingers," do you think?
You can see how muddy the water is as we live only about 600 yards below where a good size stream empties into the river. It's the same creek that Betty's sister and brother-in-law live along about 5 miles from here. They are still stuck in their house as they must go over a bridge that crosses the creek and the water of the creek is up over the bridge! Even though the river is going down and so is their creek it's still not low enough for them to get out! They've been trapped back there for 3 days so far!
Knowing them, they are probably going "stir crazy" as they like going out to eat every day, twice a day.. All this time the brother-in-law has been cooking. He doesn't trust Betty's sister anymore to cook as, god love her, she has Alzheimer's Disease. She puts food on the stove to cook, and then forgets almost immediately that she is cooking something... That happened a couple of times until now her husband forbids her to cook at all.. Now, all she knows is that she is not supposed to go near the appliances in the kitchen.. and it's probably best.
She is getting so bad that if she did, god forbid, set the house on fire, she would get so excited, she may forget how to get out of the house...
Geeez.... I sure hope they find a cure before too long for that terrible disease. I once knew a retired school teacher that had taught for years and she was as smart as a "whip." she got that disease and within a fairly short period of time practically didn't even know who she was let along her husband and children... It was just terrible to watch her, knowing how active and smart she was before the disease started stealing away her mind.
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At any rate, it will take several days before the water in the mighty Susquehanna drops back to where it should be. Even with the thunderstorms that came last night and the ones predicted, it may slow up the decline of the water but it will still go back down.. To get the kind of water it took for a flood like we just had.... It would have to rain for days... just like it did and it would have to rain all the width of the state to dump that much water into the Susquehanna basin... Thank goodness that it doesn't happen too often..
Not everyone in the Susquehanna Valley faired out as well as us.. Although we had some damage, ours does not compare to some that other folks had. Can you imagine the damage to the these trucks in the picture above? Wow! Plus, the buildings in the back ground also have water in them...
The picture on the left is the parking lot of the Reading Comcast Cable office!
You know, these floods were quick to happen, especially from creeks which cause this one, but it wasn't like know one had warning of floods. The weather bureau was broadcasting day and night about the possibility of flash floods.. Wouldn't you think that if the company was located even near a creek they would have moved their vehicles to higher ground, you know, JUST IN CASE?
Oh well, when you don't take heed.... Things like this will happen and that's for sure....
I just want to post one more picture as it just wasn't businesses that got hit big, but people and others in regular homes.... Well, maybe not "regular" homes in this particular case...
The picture on the left.... would you believe that they are rescuing turkeys!
Yep, the poor birds got caught in their "HOME" right in the middle of a flash flood! Thank goodness for the rescuers!
Well, it's been quite a week around here in Central Pennsylvania I just wonder what the weekend will bring us??? hmmmmmm..... I sure hope at least better weather... I've had enough rain to last me the rest of the Summer!
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Today IS the last day of the month, and with all this other excitement going on I'm running behind with all of my regular work that's always due at the end of every month... such as the Once A Month Association, the Newsletter and the Monthly Member Benefit Directory, including the commission checks that were supposed to be done by the end of the last day of the month. Also, we are just about finished with this weeks bulk mailing and I am hoping to get it out even if I must "cart" it to the post office tomorrow, Saturday... Next week will be a short week as the 4th of July celebrations will be going on... I'm not sure if I'll be back here Monday or not.... Maybe Wednesday... but I'll try to at least make a small post of Monday to bring you up to date on the flooding... In the meantime for me it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT weekend!!! (I'll see you right back here on Monday morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
An American woman became the most famous reporter of her time. In 1889, Nellie Bly traveled around the world to "race" against the fictional male hero of Around the World in Eighty Days; she beat him by eight days. Accompanying her fame was a scandalous fact: Miss Bly traveled alone. When she died, in 1922, she was buried in an unmarked grave. (In 1978, the New York Press Club dedicated a stone to Nellie Bly at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City!)
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Friday June 30, 2006

Thursday, June 29, 2006

It's a sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania... However, it's just a bit late because after 6 days of rain, we are now in the middle of a flood here, at the Blue Bird Cottage!
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Yep, after all that rain, the mighty Susquehanna River must have said, "Hey, I give up, no more, now it's time to overspill my banks!" And believe me, that's just what it's doing...
Our back yard right now is completely under water and it's just about beating against the side of the house...
It's supposed to crest this afternoon sometime and it's supposed to crest between 20 and 21 feet... Keep in mind that the flood stage is 17 feet, so we are a good bit over that right now as I write this... It's no fun, no fun at all!
I'm supposed to go to my heart doctor's for an appointment this morning that I've had for over 2 months but don't know if I'm going to make it or not.. First of all, I'm not sure that I want to leave here when the water is this high, and second, last evening the "underpass" in Dauphin, (this is under where a railroad bridge crosses the man highway that runs around Dauphin), was flooding. That was a few feet of water ago and now it's much deeper... I'm not even sure yet if the road is open or not...
I'll have to check that before we head out if we do decide to go.. I'm sure not happy about the whole mess....
I snapped a couple of pictures last night right before it got dark around 8:30 PM. The water was just coming over the bank in the back yard.. When this picture was taken, the entire lower back yard was under water!
You can see how far the base of the flag is already in the water.. Right at this point, I'd say the water is about 20 feet from the house... Now, that's linear feet. I'm not quite sure how much higher than this it needs to get before it actually touches that house but I'd guess only about 2 to 2 and a half feet!
It's time to start "sweating" and that's for sure..
If we can trust the "river boys" from the weather bureau up at Penn State, I think we will be okay... But I certainly lost enough sleep last night and believe me the water is a heck of a lot higher now than in this picture!!!
If all goes alright, here today, and the water does crest this afternoon, I'll be back here tomorrow morning and let you know how we are making out... Stay tuned......
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All this mess couldn't have happened at a worse time as this is the time of the month that I should be working on all of my "end of the month stuff" such as the Once A Month Association, the Newsletter and the Monthly Member Benefit Directory, including the commission checks that were supposed to be done by the end of the last day of the month. That coupled with the everyday stuff that must go out constantly along with this high water flood stuff is really raising heck around here at our house...
Oh well, I can't complain about NOT being busy that's for sure! Hopefully sometime today I'll be able to begin work on the OAMA stuff.
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I forgot to mention that night before last, even though I was late getting on the call we had a great conference call from my main program and the one I make the most money with, Elements. The company is growing so fast it kind of reminds me of a brand new company that's just getting started and everyone is excited about it.. Everyone is excited about this because I think it's the new promotional man that the owner Jeff Charlton had hired for the company, Owen Brown.. This fellow has really got his stuff together and really brings excitement and knowledge to the program along with some great new ideas... With his suggestions and changes that he and the company have instigated over the last month, the program is REALLY taking off and becoming more easy to promote with each passing day.. I know it really has me fired up and I've been getting more folks to join than I normally do already... I look forward to our conference calls each Tuesday... I'm just a bit let down as we won't have one next week as Tuesday is the 4th but I think they make make it for another day.. I sure don't think that they will let it go for an entire week without a conference call...
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Come to think about it, that's probably why the gasoline is going back up... The 4th of July is just about here! Heck now the oil companies are just about as bad as the regular retail companies... They almost make up holidays for an excuse to have sales and sell products... Now the oil companies can't wait for another holiday that they can use for an excuse to up the price of fuel!!!
The American way... No, I don't think so.... It's not the American way to shove it to your fellow Americans... That's the way of a greedy company and persons that operate the greedy companies...
Let's hope that someone gets wise and starts to ease up on us a bit with some fair prices on the fuel..... All we can DO is hope... We have no recourse... It's like a utility company, like the light company.... If they decide to charge us double for our electricity, we can address the Public Utilities Commission... However, when the gasoline companies, aka, oil companies, charge us double we have no method of address... All we can do is pay the price and bitch.... That's our only recourse, at the moment... anyway....
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Well, the floods are here, the doctor appointment is almost here, and the work is piled high on my desks so for sure, it's back to work for me, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Thursday!!! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
The United States has about 3,600,000 square miles of land, and on it more than 3,600,000 miles of highway have been constructed....a mile of road to each square mile of land. The paved area is as large as the state of West Virginia!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Thursday June 29, 2006

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

It's yet another cloudy, rainy morning here in Central Pennsylvania... This is the 6 day of rain... and we're going to pay for it... Not only am I going to lose my tomato garden down near the river, but they are now calling for "massive" flooding and the potential for the river to reach 25 feet before "cresting." In my area, the flood stage is 17 feet... So as you can see, 25 feet is quite a bit OVER the flood stage.
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The last "flood" we had in September of 2004 it came up to the height of 24.4 feet and was within an inch and a half of coming through our doors and flooding over the carpet.. Of course the cellar was full of water and the back deck was even under water but it was close but not quite... We had about 6 inches of water at the end of the Cottage in the garage area.. But if it does reach 25 feet it WILL be in our house!
We'll just have to wait and see... The crest is supposed to occur tomorrow on Thursday so we won't have that long to find out..
Last evening I went out in the rain and went down to my tomato garden and dug up all of my tomatoes and brought them up to the rear deck. I put them in buckets, big plastic containers and anything else I could find.. Some of the vines got pretty well messed up and a lot of them broke off under the weight of the tomatoes. Betty was helping me and as I brought them up and put them in the containers she would pat soil in around the exposed roots..
I have no idea if they will even "make it" but I figure they have a better chance of "making it up here" instead of under the Susquehanna River! That's where they would be as of this afternoon.
I took the picture above, right before I began to dig them out to bring them up... It was raining when I snapped the picture.. The tomato cages are 5 feet high so that will give you an idea of how big some of the plants were... They have plenty of tomatoes on them and if you look hard you can see the little green fellows... Another couple of weeks and we would have been over loaded with tomatoes and sharing them with our neighbors... The river is right to the left of this picture and only about 10 linear feet from the tomato garden.. There are some pepper plants mixed in as well.. I has been raining so darn long that you can see some of the cages are toppling over as the earth is so darn soft...
As the larger plants were interwoven all through the cages it was tough getting the cages off them without breaking all of the vines and even some green tomatoes were just pulled off... They were not in that good of shape when I finally got them up on the deck in containers and by then it was pouring rain yet again, but like I said, if I would have left them in the garden they would not have had a chance at all! Tomatoes are pretty tough and if I can get them back into the soil before too awfully long, they just may re-root and begin producing again...
At least at the moment, that's the plan! Or should I say, that's what I'm hoping for!
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The river is getting closer to the cottage and it doesn't look good as it did rain most of last night and that's what they, the weather bureau, were basing their estimates of flood stages on.. Just how much additional rain that we would receive..
They are still not sure but I'll bet before the day gets too awfully long they will get it figured out pretty darn close.. We can hope they are wrong, but the odds are, they are usually right...
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The gasoline prices fell a few cents last week and now I see that they are climbing right back up... I knew that I should not have mentioned that fact that they were falling... Every time that I do, it seems it stops declining and starts to go back up almost immediately...
I ran a short search on high gasoline prices and so far I can't find out what excuse they are blaming it on this time but it doesn't matter as lately all of their excuses have been so lame, even the folks who used to believe them no longer do..
What's that old adage?
You can fool some of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time!!!
This is a prime example for that one! Even the "die harder's" don't believe any of the garbage that the large oil companies are spouting and even less of what the government is telling us that is causing it...
What good does it do... I guess not a darn thing... It just makes me feel better to do some bitching, but without the government's even little bit of help, and not even a slap on the wrist from the government for all of the price gouging, the oil companies can do anything they darn well please to and no one can do a thing about it except what I do... Bitch!
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Oh well, as you can imagine, I have a lot to do around here with high water on the way let along all the work that needs to be done here in my office so for me it's definitely, back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!! And if you need any rain at all in your area, maybe I can send you some of ours... we have more than our share!!!! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
In 1920, Eugene Debs was nominated for President of the United States by the Socialist Party while he was serving a prison sentence for sedition during World War I. He has been the only man to run for President from prison. He received nearly a million votes, or 3.5 percent of the total!!!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Wednesday June 28, 2006

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

It's another cloudy and rainy morning here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania... Yep, it's been raining for the last 4 days and it's finally showing up in the mighty Susquehanna River that flows through our back yard..
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When these rains started they, the weather and river people, were not a bit worried about the river rising more than a foot or so... Well, day before yesterday the river at Harrisburg, PA, was a bit over 4 feet and within the next 2 days it's supposed to go up to flood stage of 17 feet or maybe even above that... I'm not too worried as of yet about flooding here at the cottage however, that's not going to do anything for my tomato garden down by the river... If the river goes up to 15 to 17 feet the water will be completely over my garden and over all of my plants.. I have some tomato plants that are over 4 feet tall thanks to the tomato cages that I have them woven through.. All the work, money, and time I've got into the garden will be down the drain... Most of the plants are loaded with green tomatoes and some of them are pretty big.. If it could have just held out for another couple of weeks we would have been loaded with delicious, home grown tomatoes and also peppers that I have planted there... Normally, at this time of the year, unless we have a hurricane or something like that the garden is pretty safe....
I have no idea where the heck all of these rains are coming from.. I have heard nothing about the "tail end" of a hurricane or a regular excuse like that..
Heck I'm starting to wonder if Betty and I should start building an ARK! I can't remember when we've had such "hard" rains for so darn long.. Oh sure we've had hard rains already from thunder storms and such, but not this hard and long... On Sunday it poured down, I swear, for about an hour and a half before it finally slacked off. When it did slack off, it didn't stop, it just slowed up for awhile and then began raining hard all over again!
Last night it rained so hard, it woke me up several times...
When you live beside a giant river like the mighty Susquehanna, you don't want to hear it rain that hard for so darn long... It is NOT a good feeling...
I guess maybe I bragged about how nice my tomatoes were getting just once too often... hmmmmmm...... I wonder if it would have helped if I would have kept my mouth shut... No... I guess not, that's kind of like superstition, right? I sure hope that I'm not superstitious. (Ha!)
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I've been getting terrible headaches lately and I'm not sure why... I've tried to figure it out and the only thing that I've come up with is the fact that I'm in front of this monitor on most days for hours... I know, I've been on computers for years and it's never seemed to bother me that much but hey, who knows... There is still radiation coming from it and it's only about a foot or a foot and a half in front of me... Soooooo... I decided to get a LCD monitor... No radiation, and a good one is supposed to me so much easier on your eyes than a CRT monitor.... Yesterday afternoon I had to run out for paper and a few other things that I was running out of so I stopped in Circuit City and then across the street from them, Best Buy...
I understand that at this moment Samsung is supposed to be the best make computer monitor that you can buy as it is supposed to be way ahead of the others in technology. At any rate I spoke with a few younger fellows that sold monitors and they all agreed that Samsung, at the moment was the best. So I went specifically hunting for a good Samsung. I found one that was on sale at Circuit City, and one that really appealed to me, the Samsung SyncMaster 204B. It has a refresh rate of 5ms... That's the fastest they make at the moment and has a Contrast Ratio of 800! It's 20.1" and has digital AND analog hookups.. Yes, its a real winner... Circuit City had it on sale for $379.00 after $80 of mail in rebates... So I told them that I may be back and went across the street to Best Buy to see what they had... They had a much larger selection of LCD monitors that Circuit City did and they DID have a Samsung SyncMaster 204B monitor as well... They had it on sale at $389.00 after an INSTANT rebate! I already have a credit card for Circuit City but I didn't have one for Best Buy... So I asked them if they had any deals if I applied for a credit card... They said sure, that If I got a credit card approval I could get 6 months FREE interest... So I applied immediately for the credit card and I bought the monitor right there.. It came to $413.89 with sales tax.
Now I realize that it appeared that it was 10 bucks cheaper at Circuit City, however, I would have had to mail in 2 separate rebates to get that money back and you know that it may have been several months until I got it back... Also, when they charge you the full amount, even though you will be getting $80 back they charge you sales tax on the full amount that they initially charge you! So, I would have had to pay another $4.80 sales tax. Also, as I mentioned, I already had a credit card for Circuit City and could cut no deals with them like I could at Best Buy and get 6 months FREE interest which right there, unless you can pay for it cash would cost more for interest than the now, $5.20 extra that it was initially... That's why I ended up buying it there at Best Buy...
It IS a real beauty and even has the "Magic" rotation feature that you can watch it in "Portrait" mode or in "Landscape" mode!
Of course after I got home I found it cheaper on the WEB which usually happens but that's okay.... I'm an impulse buyer and when I decide I want something, I feel better when I just go get it and bring it home...
At any rate if you'd like to see what this beauty looks like and the specs on it just click here and have a look, Samsung SyncMaster 204B, and like I said, if you're thinking about getting a good monitor... it's even cheaper than I paid here!
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Do you get calls from telemarketers on your phone at home.. Don't they always seem to come at the most inopportune time? Well you can opt out of these calls and do it for FREE... I did a long time ago but it's only good for 5 years and you must do it over every 5 years... At any rate, maybe it's time you do it or renew it! Just click here: National Do Not Call Registry. Just go there and opt out but be aware, once you do it takes about a month until it takes affect.. But you can add up to 3 or 4 numbers including your cell phone... I just did it for all of mine and did it for Betty's as well...
I really think the telemarketing is going "out of style".... as there is so much on the WEB nowadays that, If you are interested, you can find it in a few minutes... You don't need telemarketers any more... The old "spammers took the place of them!
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Well, time is marching on as usual and I have a ton to get done as I screwed around an hour and a half to 2 hours yesterday evening setting up this monitor... I'd better get back to the "stuff" that makes me money seeing how I'm spending so much of it lately...
(I'll see you right back here tomorrow! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
The Vikings established a colony on the southwestern coast of Greenland that lasted about four centuries, from 982 to nearly 1400. The colonists routinely got their wood from North America by sea (there was none on Greenland), even though that land had not yet been "discovered." In the late 1300's the Black Death ravaged the northlands, the Eskimos attacked the colony, the climate grew colder, and the colonists finally died or left!
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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, Tuesday June 27, 2006

Monday, June 26, 2006

It's a cloudy, rainy morning here in Central Pennsylvania... and it's no wonder as it's been raining and storming for the last few days...
Matter of fact we had a pretty bad storm through Saturday night and early Sunday morning...
So bad in fact that it knocked this tree down out at the end of our lane... Yes, it was a "Jim Dandy" that's for sure.
The tree was a pretty nice sized one so it had to take quite a bit of wind to topple it over... I know our back yard has plenty of small limbs that blew down.. They are still there as the weekend was just nothing but rain.. It rained all day long here yesterday and so hard sometimes, and for so long, that it's no wonder that the weather folks had "flash flood" warnings out... Matter of fact they just took down the flash flood warnings just a couple of hours ago. If you look real hard in the picture above in the center of the picture, in the grass, about and inch from the center, you'll see a bunny rabbit sitting on his hind feet.. I took several pictures and he never moved. I guess he just liked getting his picture taken!
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As I could get nothing else done over the weekend out doors, I pretty much worked in the office all weekend.. I did get plenty done in here though.. I finally finished all of the small articles and did the paste ups for my small magazine/newsletter Chuck's Mail Order News & Opportunities and everything, it is now ready to print. I'm going to start the printing just as soon as I post this blog this morning.. Most of the folding is done on the dining room table and ready to load into the mailing pieces.. I just have about 4 more things to print and fold and I can start assembling and saddle stitching the magazines to get them ready for the circular stuffing... Hopefully we'll have them done by Tuesday or Wednesday morning at the latest.... Whew! As I promised a lot of folks who advertised and got some print and mail done for this issue that the checkers would go out early this week... When I must do a new magazine it does hold up things some as it's a pretty good job to get done...
I'm not complaining though, I'm just glad when its done.. Especially this week as the end of this week is also the end of this month which means all of my "end of the month" stuff must be done. Especially for the Once A Month Association, the Newsletter and the Monthly Member Benefit Directory, including the commission checks. I'll be glad when that's done.. It's a pretty big job each and every month.. That job, I must get started on toward the end of this week... That's another reason this bulk mail must be out of here by Wednesday!
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I ran into a few simple ways to save on gasoline that I thought I'd pass on... I know at least one of them that will help me, I've got to slow up some.... and actually stay at the speed limit instead of running a few miles above it... Even now though it seems like everybody and their brother passes me on the highway... I'm speeding and still getting passed.. Can you imagine what the tie up will be if I do the speed limit?
At any rate I've got to give it a try...
Here they are:
SIMPLE WAY TO SAVE ON GAS
To save money at the gas pump, just drive slower. Driving at 65 mph rather than 55 mph increases the fuel consumption 20% -- and driving 75 mph increases it by another 25%, according to the Federal Trade Commission! (That's a lot! Chuck)
Result: You'll travel the same distance consuming $2 of gasoline at 75 mph, or $1.60 of gasoline at 65 mph, or only $1.33 of gasoline at 55 mph!!!! (That's a WHOLE lot! - Chuck)
Also: Keep you tires inflated at the recommended pressure, and keep your engine properly maintained (regular tune-ups) to get the best mileage. And don't waste money paying for premium gasoline unless your car's owner's manual specifically recommends it!
There.... Just a couple of tips will maybe save us some money on fuel!
To compare fuel economy among cars go to: www.fueleconomy.gov
That will give you an idea where your "bucket of bolts" stands on gas mileage!
I know mine for the Jeep sure isn't that good!
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Well it seems like I just started this thing but the time is rolling on and this IS the first day of the work week and there is plenty still to get done in this office before I make my trek to the Post Office for my mail today..... so..... for me, it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Monday!!! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
In a twelve-year effort ---in a singular feat of original scholarship --- the Cherokee silversmith Sequoyah (ca. 1770-1843) created an "alphabet" (a syllabary of eighty-six characters) for the Cherokee language. His nation adopted it, and in just seven years was transformed into a literate society with a weekly newspaper. The sequoia tree is his living memorial!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Monday June 26, 2006

Friday, June 23, 2006

T.G.I.F.
It's a bit cloudy here at the Blue Bird cottage in Central Pennsylvania. We're supposed to have storms throughout the day here as we did all last night... I hate to even look out into the back yard as we have a lot of trees including pine trees and I'm sure the storms have blown down quite a few limbs so far... It's supposed to be in the mid-eighties this afternoon, not too bad unless we have a lot of humidity like we did yesterday..
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Oh well, it's going to be a very busy and exciting day here in my home office as my latest mailings are bringing in a lot of responses for my programs as well as some information products... I'm looking forward to a GREAT day... I'm also looking forward to a GREAT weekend as well... Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get some time off so I can get some work done out of doors, weather permitting. I have some mowing to get done and I'm still working on getting rid of the darn groundhogs at my tomato & pepper garden down at the river.
I did have some suggestions to build a fence around it which is a GREAT idea... The only problem with this is that where my garden is, it's under water several times a year when the river rises, (and it always does), and I'd have to take the fence down in the Fall and rebuild it in the Spring or early Summer... Just too much time and work..
I know, the next suggestion is to "move" the garden... That's a great ideas as well, but that's why I have it down there as that's where all the sun is and tomatoes need sun... Up here in the rest of our yard we have tons of trees which block out too much sun for the garden to grow properly..
At any rate I'm still working on the other suggestions like mixing up a concoction of hot pepper spray and spraying it around the garden and around the plants as ground hogs apparently HATE the hot peppers.... Hopefully my groundhogs hate it as well... Well, we'll see about that as I now have all the ingredients I need and am just waiting for all the storming to cease.
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I received an email from one of my associates that is in my downline in the main company that I promote, and the one that I make the most money with, Elements. He said that I should have more business information up here at this Chuck's Daily Blog site.
Well, as former president Nixon used to say, "Let me say this, about that!" I mainly put up this blog for fun and to express my comments about current events, government misgivings and just plain bull crap..
As I am in my own home business and most of that business generates most of my money from my multi-level companies that I promote I do mention them quite a bit in this letter. However, this is not my site that I have up strictly for business reasons...
For those of you who want to read more about my businesses and the products and services that I do offer go to my main site, www.homebucks.com
That's where most of my business related subjects are located including articles to help build your business etc..
Right now I'm setting up a lead generating page for leads for my Elements program..
Geez.... I wish there was a lot more time in a day... There is a lot of FREE information on the WEB to learn how to run just about any kind of business if you have the time to search and the time to study, you can get an equivalent of a master networking education.
I just wish I'd have had this kind of opportunity when I was about 40 years younger AND the sense to follow up on it!
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I can hear my "Weatherbug" on my other computer cackling and making plenty of noises so I go over an check what it has to say to me... I checked it and apparently they are calling for severe thunderstorms in my area today.
If you don't have your own Weatherbug, you should, as it not only keeps you up-to-date on the weather, it also keeps you up-to-date on any weather emergencies. You can get a FREE one for your own area by going to their site and downloading it. Just click here: WeatherBug and then DON'T click on "Free Trial" but go right below that and click on "Download Weatherbug for PC" or "Download Weatherbug of Mac", whichever kind of computer that you have... Then it will guide you through setting it up which is "easy as pie." You'll be glad you did! It took Betty about a week to learn what the heck that noise was coming from my computer and now if I'm not in the office, she'll yell to me, "You're getting a message from the WeatherBug!"
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I guess I have a ton of "stuff" to get done BEFORE my weekend starts, so for me, it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT weekend! Oh, and check out today's joke page.... There are some "Jim Dandy's" in there today! (I'll see you right back here on Monday morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
"Flower clocks" provided a unique and decorative means of telling time in the formal gardens of nineteenth-century Europe. A series of flower beds was laid out to form a clock face, with each bed representing a daytime hour. The beds were planted with flowers known to open or close a the prescribed hours. On a sunny day, the time on a flower clock could be determined to within a half-hour!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Friday June 23, 2006

Thursday, June 22, 2006

It's another beautiful sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania. Yesterday was the first day of Summer and I guess that's one of the reasons why they are calling for very hot and humid temperatures for here this afternoon and this evening..
Yep, we're in for yet another beautiful day here. I won't get much done outdoors unless it cools down some toward evening but I should be able to get a good bit done here in my office this afternoon.
I've sure got plenty of work to get to as I can't see and desk top at all on either of my desks.... they're both covered with piles of work!
That just makes me happy as a kid and a brand new warm pie on the window sill.
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I've been putting some mailings together for my Elements business because as fast as this program is taking off I don't want to be left in the dust... We had more folks on our conference call Tuesday evening then we've EVER had in the over 3 years I've been with the company.
I find it hard to believe but people ARE actually seeing opportunity when it hits them in the face this time.. I've been preaching about how great this Elements business is for 3 years now and I guess it took a new Directory of Marketing, Owen Brown, to join the company to come up with some methods that makes folks just take a second look at the business and say to themselves, "Hey, I can do this business!" The beauty is, anyone one can do it and any one can have a nice monthly commission check coming to their mailbox and it won't take forever and a day for that to happen! All they must do is follow a few simple directions. I also think that they should also join the company co-op as it's only $50 bucks a month extra and it does bring in lots paid members to the member's downlines! (All of the folks coming in by this method is of course listed as a "personal sign-up" and the member gets the "fast start bonus" of $20 bucks for each! I'm in the co-op but I also like to market on my own.. I like to build, build, build! Last week I was the runner up for the most folks sponsored on just one week and I'm looking to get that honor this week!
At any rate, if you are someone who has the "craps" of high gasoline prices and need more money, wants to quit living from "pay check to pay check" or just fed up with working for someone else, you just might want to take a look at this business.. I've been in several "brick & mortar" businesses in my life and I still can't believe not only how cheap it is to start this home business but also the small amount it takes to promote and build it!
I haven't even mentioned the products yet! I could go on and on.. All of the "brick & mortar" businesses I've been in I've had to invest thousands of dollars in equipment, buildings, and inventory BEFORE I even opened the doors... With my Elements business I can join the company, get my monthly products, and have the company co-op to promote and build my downline for less that $1200 bucks a year! And this is for a business that will net me at least $13,000 dollars a month! Unbelievable! I just can't stop talking about it.... hmmmm....
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Betty had to make a trip to the local laundry here in Dauphin yesterday to wash our clothes and she was down there for a few hours.. Meantime I stayed and got a lot of work done here in my offices.. She called me to come pick her up and load the laundry to bring home around 3:30 PM. 'Til we got home and got it all unloaded, it was after 4 PM so she said rather than make something to eat she would treat and take us out to eat... I was starving and it didn't take an engraved invitation for me to agree...
So down we went to our favorite Chinese Restaurant for dinner. Our manager friend, Larry, was back from Brooklyn New York, where he lives. He had gone home Sunday evening for a visit.. He had a letter that he wanted me to devise and write to the Department of Homeland Security for his niece in reference to her Green Card. Seems she had applied for it and took all of her required ID's to have her biometrics captured for her Green Card almost 4 months ago and still haven't heard anything about it...
Yes, when I first read a copy of her appointment for this meeting to have her "biometrics captured," I wondered what the heck they were talking about! I looked it up and would you believe that It means: The measurement of physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, DNA, or retinal patterns, for use in verifying the identity of individuals.
WOW! They used to just say bring in your ID papers and get your fingerprints taken...
I wonder who the "wiz" was that came up with the "biometrics" deal?
I devised and typed the letter and faxed it down to Larry for his approval... I really like Larry but he can drive you nuts as he is a perfectionist! He must have called me back last night 6 or 7 times with suggestions and comments about how the letter was written... Don't you think it needs a comma here or there, is it addressing the situation properly? Does it sound too harsh? I don't know if he finally just got tired of calling or he was actually pleased with the final results... I must have printed it at least 5 different times.. Today he wants me to mail it "registered," and "return receipt requested."
You can bet that I'm going to do that this morning before Larry thinks of anything else to add or change on the darn thing...
He was BEAMING last evening with pride as his wife, Judy, finally received her U. S. Citizenship certificate in a "Swearing In Ceremony" last Friday morning. Yep she's been filling out papers, studying and taking tests for over a year to attain it! Larry's been a Citizen for over 6 years and finally his wife is also. As their son, Anthony was born here is is of course an American Citizen...
When I see how hard these people have worked to obtain the honor of being an American Citizen and how some "illegal" aliens are just wanting that to happen with no effort on their part, it just makes me more angry about the whole situation!
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Looks like gasoline is still "inching" it's way down around here but VERY, VERY slowly... A penny or so every 4 or 5 days...
I just keep thinking of when it was going up.... Seems like every day it would jump several pennies and sometimes even more than that... Did you ever wonder why it NEVER comes down that fast?
Gasoline Prices Decline Again - Retail costs in the state of California dropped 2.7 cents in the last week, but they aren't as low as wholesale prices would indicate.
The retail cost of gasoline fell nationwide over the last week, but Californians continue to pay average pump prices that are higher than levels indicated by the state's wholesale fuel prices.
Nationwide, the average retail price of self-serve regular gasoline slid 3.5 cents to $2.871 a gallon Monday, the Energy Department said, based on its weekly survey of filling stations. The average is 71 cents above year-ago levels.
Click here for the story: Gas Prices Decline Again
Geez.... you wouldn't think that perhaps it just may be PRICE GOUGING do you?
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Time is just speeding right along here in my office and as I mentioned above I have a lot to get done, so for me it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
In another 2 decades, many of the books published between 1900 and 1940 will be useless. They are self-destructing, principally because of the acid in the paper and the pollutants in the air. Books made before the turn of the century were principally of rag content, and are holding up well. Since 1900, the shift in book productions has been to paper of wood content!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Thursday June 22, 2006

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

It's yet another bright, sunny day here, this morning, in Central Pennsylvania and with temps supposed to reach near 90 degrees by this afternoon it's going to be another warm one! Yep, another beautiful day ahead here at the Blue Bird Cottage today! I'm really looking forward to it...
I got so busy yesterday that I didn't even get time to go out and enjoy the weather at all until late last evening when I took some water down and watered the tomato and pepper plants in the garden...
Hopefully I'll be picking up some of the ingredients that I'll need to spray my garden in an attempt to keep out the dog gone ground hog that continues to eat my tomatoes...
If so I'll be taking the time to work on that late this evening as the sun starts to go down...
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Don't forget to get out tonight and enjoy the daylight as it's the longest day of the year! Yep, not only is today the first day of Summer but it's also the Summer Solstice...
I'll be out tonight, if I can, until it turns dark... Just to soak up the longest day of daylight this year! I try to do it every year and every year it gives me a good feeling...
Of course on the down side from now on the days will get increasingly shorter until the first day of winter which is also called the Winter Solstice and is the shortest day of the year... This year the first day of Winter will begin on December 21st... I'll feel better after that as well because from then on the days get a little bit longer every day until the first day of Summer and then it begins all over again!
We'll still have plenty of long days left until Fall arrives so they are not going to get instantly shorter that's for sure...
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Apparently some folks are still afraid of computers and the Internet..
I talked to a prospective customer on the phone the other day and he mentioned to me that he would like to be able to get into HIS back office on his Elements site but does not own a computer...
I asked him why not and he indicated that up to now he's never needed one, but if they weren't so expensive and difficult to operate he would consider getting one. Well, I said to him, first of all you've been in your own home business for over 10 years and you say that you've never needed a computer... The only reason that can be is that you are not aware of what a computer can do to help you run and operate your business. The time it saves you managing you mailing list alone is worth the price of a cheap computer... Whenever you want to send to a certain faction of folks on your mailing list all you have to do is run a "filter" on your data base to get those names and push another button to print the labels... Wow, he said, just to send out about 50 mailings it takes me over 3 to 4 hours to search them out and hand address the envelopes.. Not only that, I mentioned but by hand addressing your envelopes it doesn't even make your business look professional...
Also, he had no idea that he could search prices on just about anything on the WEB and save money...
As far as the cost of a computer now days..... Heck you can get a good used one that will be more than adequate to serf the WEB and to run a small business for less than $200 bucks and that includes a monitor!
He said that he was probably getting too old to learn how to operate a computer.... That's a bunch of crap I said.... With MS Windows being so simple, if you can use your mouse to point to a small picture and click it, you can open programs and pretty much operate your computer... In the old days when we had to type in all the commands, THEN it was difficult, but now days, with a graphical interface, it's so simple it's pitiful!.
At any rate, there is no excuse for anyone that has a small home business not to have a computer and the basic programs it will take to run a small business... Heck lets face it, if you are really watching your pennies you can get a FREE copy of an office program that's similar to MS Office for a FREE download from the WEB..
And when I first started on the WEB it costs me about $35 a month just for a slow phone connection... Now a phone modem connection can be had for as little as $4.95 for unlimited service a month!!!
Yep, no excuse now days....
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Well the time is moving on as usual on this nice Wednesday morning and I must get a lot done today so for me it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
Without a parachute, a Russian survived a 21,980 -foot fall from a damaged plane. Lieutenant I. M. Chisov fell on the steep side of a snow-covered mountain and slid to the bottom, breaking his pelvis and damaging his spine!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Wednesday June 21, 2006

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

It's another beautiful sunny morning here in Central Pennsylvania! It's supposed to go up into the mid 80s again today so it really looks like we're in for another GREAT day!
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I had a pretty good day yesterday in more ways than one... I had to go pick up some supplies yesterday afternoon and one thing was color paper... I was out of some colors and I had a few orders for a couple of the shades that I was out of... I really hate buying color paper at Office Max or Staples as it's almost impossible to get any kind of deal from them... Especially on color paper...
Last week I needed just an extra pack of one color and I stopped at Office Max and got it... It was $7.00 bucks... Pretty darn expensive and it just went up that high over the last several months...
In my Print & Mail service to other mail order dealers I offer color paper for an extra 1¢ per sheet of paper... Like if they order 400 Print & Mail on blue paper it would be an extra $4 bucks...
I made the offer and drew up my promotional circulars when color paper was $4.50 a ream or a hair less that a penny a page... Now, however, say a customer orders 1,000 copies print and mail.. The color paper alone costs me $14.00 and I'm charging the customer only $10.00 so I'm losing $4.00 on the order!
I've been shopping around and I think the only place that I may come close again is to order the paper by mail order...
I'm checking on that now but in the meantime I received two more orders over the weekend for color orders so I thought I'd try "Staples" which is only about another 4 miles out of my way... They had color paper for $5.95 or you may as well say $6.00 bucks a ream... A bit better but not as cheap as I must get it to hold my prices for my customers... At any rate, I bought 4 reams of the paper I needed and a few other things while we were there and on the way out of the paper section I saw a shelf that had a small pile of "orchid" color paper on it but had no price displayed... It was 24 lb paper and I usually buy the 20 lb as is lighter and as I use it in my mailings I must keep a close eye on the weight of my mailing package.
At any rate about that time a young fellow that worked there was walking past and I asked him how much the "purple" paper was.. He grabbed a ream and said he'd go get a "scan check" on it for me...
I guess Betty was wondering why I would ask him as we didn't need that color at all.. Any way the young fellow returned and said 50¢. I almost choked! What, I said, did you say 50 cents? Yep, he said... I said are you sure there's not a mistake on it? No, he said, me and the other fellow there both checked the price... Okay I said and while he stood there I started to load up the cart.. One after the other went into the cart... Betty said how many are you going to buy... I said I'm not sure but whatever is on the shelf as for 50¢ a pack, I was buying it all! Turned out that there were 10 packs there, 10 reams, or 5,000 sheets, or actually a full case! At 50¢ a ream, the entire case cost me only $5 bucks!
Geez.... even white paper is about $2.50 a pack or near $25 a case and that's the cheapest that I can find it...
Heck, even if I use this paper for some of my own promotional circulars I'll really save some bucks and my "stuff" will really look good!
Turned out the the trip to "Staples" was not great as far as the regular colored paper prices, but boy when I bought the case of 24 lb orchid paper, it more than made up for the other prices... and I'm really glad that I went there to check prices! Boy, you never know, do you?
Well, as you can imagine, that really made my day!
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Also, yesterday morning I went out to the kitchen to refill my coffee cup when Betty called me over to the window facing the river and said look at that... Wow! There were kayaks all over the place... I walked out onto the deck with my coffee and they just kept coming down the river... must have been between 100 and 200 of them.. I came back in and grabbed my camera to get a couple of pictures...
The picture above shows about five or six kayaks pulled together and one lone canoe... This was right off of our back yard. In all the years we've lived here I've NEVER seen that many kayaks go down the river at once..
We were a bit perplexed as usually we may see something like that on Saturday or Sunday but never on a Monday. I said to Betty that maybe they were on a long trip and we're camping out here and there going down the river...
When we finally left to head out for supplies yesterday afternoon it had just started to rain as a thunder storm had blew in to the area.. When I went down into the little town of Dauphin to mail some letters and pick up my mail by golly on the fair grounds, in the middle of Dauphin, there were a slew of tents that people were setting up and I recognized some of them as the folks who were out on the river... They were camping out all right and apparently their next "layover" was right in the town of Dauphin!
It was quite a sight seeing all of them coming down the river, I wish I could have gotten a better shot to show you but I'm sure you get the idea...
Looks like a bunch of folks were having a great time on a kayak trip down the mighty Susquehanna River over the weekend and some of this week... No telling how far down river they were going but it must be quite a distance from here to take another day "lay over" here in town... I should have stopped and talked some to them but we were getting pressed for time ourselves as I needed to stop at my bank before they closed for the day... Oh well, maybe next time...
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I had a friend of ours mail me some GREAT tips for getting rid of my Ground Hog problem down at the river an in my garden... I'll be trying a couple of her tips today and hopefully some will work...
Actually I can't wait to see if they do... If they do, I'll post them here as it's hard to find some good "Ground Hog" advice on the WEB....
I got more tips and advice from Kathy in one small email than an hour of searching on the WEB... She said that she had bought a book about getting rid of "critters."
Some of the tips sound like they do make sense... We'll see..... and a BIG thank you to Kathy!!!!
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Time is zipping by at a speedy rate here again and I have a ton of stuff to get done before my daily trip to the post office... Also, yesterday was Monday and that's my best day of the week for BIG MAILS.... I got almost a full bag of mail yesterday and haven't even got it all sorted as of yet so that will be my first priority as soon as I post this daily..... Soooooo.... for me it's back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT Tuesday! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
Every year, it takes the moon two-thousandths of a second more to circle the Earth than it took in the previous year, as it slowly recedes from the Earth. Long before the moon recedes to much more than its present distance, the sun will have come to the end of its existence as a normal star!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Tuesday June 20, 2006

Monday, June 19, 2006

The first day of a brand new week!
It's sunny this morning here in Central Pennsylvania but were supposed to have "thunder boomers" this afternoon and evening. The temps are supposed to reach the mid 80s which isn't too bad except that the humidity has set in and it's really uncomfortable now around here...
Well the Summer Solstice is going to be here in two days which is the longest day of the year and also the first day of Summer so I guess I should expect it to be hot and humid around here now....
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I made dinner out on the barbeque on the deck toward the river yesterday afternoon... It was hot and humid but far from unbearable.. I should have jumped into the river and cooled off...
We had plenty of action on the river yesterday. All kinds of canoe trips came down the river and plenty of bass boats filled with fisherman. We also saw quite a few kids "tubing" down the river.. At least 4 different sets of them. Now they sure looked like they were plenty cool... Yep, I should have took a dip myself... Only problem is Betty didn't want to eat out on the deck as she thought it was too humid so if I would have went for a dip, until I got the food cooked I would have been hot again. Oh well, maybe next time. (The more I think of what I just typed, the lamer it gets.... It's like the old saying of a little boy when his mom told him to wash up for supper, "Why wash my hands, they'll just get dirty again!" ----- You know, why take a dip, I'll just get hot again... Pretty darn lame, isn't it?)
Every year we get our share of folks tubing down the river and it's not always kids but older folks as well.. Heck about 10 or 15 years ago Betty and I and 2 of our neighbors went down the river tubing. First we went down to Fort Hunter about a mile and a half from here where I dropped the van off so we'd have a way back home and then we launched into the river right here in our back yard. It took us about 2 and a half to 3 hours to drift down that far as the river was very low and slow... The young neighbor fellow and his girlfriend REALLY got sun burned... Both were fair haired and really susceptible to the hot sun.. They had a heck of a time for the next few days until the burning and soreness started to subside...
We said back then that we would make the trip every year but that was the first and the last time that we ever went down that far tubing... I don't know why but it seemed like we never got the chance or just didn't take the time to ever do it again... Oh well, maybe this summer.... hmmmmm.......
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I did get some web work and some printing done over the week end... Mostly yesterday but still have plenty to do... I ran out of some of the colors of paper and must pick some up, hopefully this afternoon if I can get out of here to follow up on it... I do have a few other things to pick up as well.
My tomatoes have just started to come in... At least one variety did. I did get about 3 tomatoes from a couple of plants but now every time one of them starts to turn red something takes several bites out of it. Lately whatever it is also started eating the green tomatoes.. I had to toss about 10 of them away so far... Man, I wish I could catch whatever is eating them I'd choke it with my bare hands! There is a "ground hog" hole not too far from the tomato garden so it probably is one of them or more...
I've got to do something pretty darn soon or it will get all of my tomatoes.. I read on the internet that you can buy plastic netting that they claim is hard to chew through but easy to cut...
You can buy it in different size rolls. You are supposed to cut a piece big enough to go around your plant and it's supposed to let in the sunlight and rain and keep out the varmints... I just can't see why it would be tough for a woodchuck to bite through the plastic netting though... Unless they just plain, don't like the taste of it.. They may be saying that just to sell their netting, I'm not sure... I can't put out poison for them as it would surely kill the geese that stop in down there in the back yard and also the rabbits and squirrels that are around here.. I think the best thing is to get a professional trapper to trap them live and take them away but man the more I think about that, the more it sounds like it would cost a fortune!
I remember one of my readers had so much trouble with a ground hog in their yard but I can't remember what they did to get rid of it.. They really had a problem as "their" ground hog was digging his hole under their back yard, "above ground" swimming pool... Talk about a miserable situation...
If you got any ideas, I'd appreciate if you email me with them... I REALLY would appreciate it.... Hurry..... I've got to save my tomatoes!!!
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The morning is moving right along and the time is getting shorter and shorter, so for me, I'd better get back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT day!!! (I'll see you right back here tomorrow morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
Twenty-one people were killed by a wave of molasses in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1919. Over 2 million gallons of melted sugar, weighing 13,500 tons, had been stored in a tank in the harbor. The tank ruptured, for reasons never fully determined, and the wave, cresting at fifty feet, swallowed eight buildings!
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Posted by Chuck Rollason at, Monday June 19, 2006

Friday, June 16, 2006

T.G.I.F.
It's another sunny morning here at the Blue Bird Cottage in Central Pennsylvania and it's supposed to go up into the upper 80s this afternoon so it should be another GREAT day around here. Yes, I think that summer is finally settling in here in the Susquehanna Valley.
Looks like a GREAT day to get a lot of work done here in the office.. and I'm really looking forward to it....
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I'm at the point now that I must run the geese off in our back yard when hey stop in as their little ones are just getting too big and there are too many of them.. At this stage of the game if I let them "hang around" in the back yard too long I must "slip & slide" my way to the river when I go down there, if you know what I mean...
Yes, it sure doesn't take long for the geese to grow up and I'm sure that they will be flying soon and getting themselves ready for the trip south in the Fall. The only problem is that they DON'T fly south anymore and they stick around this area all year long... The last several years there is getting to be so many of them that they are fast becoming a big pain in the "you know what!"
Oh well, unfortunately they don't stay little forever!
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Yesterday when I took some mail out to our mail box to mail I glanced next door to see the neighbor fellow sitting on the edge of a very small sandbox that contained 3 of his small grandchildren.
Boy, did that bring back memories... Not only of my own children when they were very young but when I was very young..
My brother, who was 3 years older than I, and myself used to go "swimming" every day on our carport outside the house. I at the time must have been about 3 years old making my brother about six..
Dad was a contractor and built houses so he had all kinds of different tools and equipment including this "gigantic" mortar box that mom used to fill up with the hose and it became my brother's and mine swimming pool.
I remember sitting for hours at the end of that swim box pushing my floating toys up and down it and once and awhile taking a "swim" from one end to the other.. My brother, George, would tire of it much faster than I would and many times I found myself with the entire box and that was just fine with me.
Yep, I remember in the summer I couldn't wait until we would eat breakfast and mom would give us the okay to go swimming.
I never had a "store bought" swimming suit that I can remember back then. Mom would get flour sacks from the feed store. They were printed with all kinds of flower patterns and designs as the manufactures knew that a lot of folks used their used sacks to make clothing out of. Mom would carefully cut them up from her own patterns and make us several pairs of "home-made" shorts that would last us the entire summer.. Also, at the beginning of each summer, my uncle George, who fancied himself a fair barber would give my brother and I "wiffle bird" hair cuts that would last the entire summer as well..
All a "wiffle bird" hair cut amounted to was when uncle George would take the clippers and just literally cut all of our hair off, just like they do in the army! That's why they lasted all Summer until it was time for us to go to school or in my case, at the time, to get a side trim to go to church etc. Yep, with mom's homemade shorts and uncle George's "wiffle bird" hair cut we were in pretty good shape for the entire Summer.
I don't remember EVER wearing shoes or sneakers in the Summer as mom would always let us go bare foot. We only wore shoes to go to church or to go away on Sunday when we all went for a family ride.
Dad would drive and we would head out to the "Barbeque Cottage" that was on Front Street in Harrisburg where mom would buy us a pork barbeque and then we would have a "wet nut' sundae to top it off. We were then ready to go on our afternoon ride..
Getting back to the swimming box........
Many years later I was helping my dad move from the country into the city where he and mom had bought a house..
I borrowed the company truck where I worked to help him..
He still had a lot of his old tools and equipment that we moved to his basement.. We were out at his old place and I had just picked up this small metal box and threw it on the back of the truck and seeing this metal box reminded me of the "big" mortar box swimming pool when I was just very small so I asked my dad what ever happened to it..
Dad turned around and gave me a "funny" look and said, "Chuck, you just tossed it on back of the truck!"
I REALLY found it very hard to believe that that little mortar box was the big "Swimming Box" that my brother and I used to swim in when we were young.. Then it hit me, I must have been so small at the time that the box seemed actually REALLY big! It's funny how things stick in our minds that way...
I used to tell Betty about that big ranch home that we grew up in out there in "Blue Ridge Manor" and we were out that way visiting yard sales one day and we stopped to look at the old "homestead" as it was empty and up for sale, I walked over and around the house... It now seems very small.... But I was only 9 years old when we moved away from it... I still had it in my memory of when I was very small and it seems like a large house!
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Wow! That's enough for the trip down memory lane today.... If you get a chance check out my home businesses on this site that I'm doing well with.... Two that are REALLY doing VERY well for me are my $3 Bucks for Success downline builder that feeds the main Tape of the Month program, and also my Elements business. You can check out the promo circular for the Elements Business by clicking here.... Elements Circular
You can also hear an audio file that explains the business as well by clicking here: Audio File
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That's about it for today as I must get back to work, and YOU, YOU have a GREAT weekend!!! (I'll see you right back here on Monday morning! Okay?)
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Here's The Cool, Unusual Fact For Today..
When future U.S. President William Howard Taft was president of the Philippine Commission in 1900, Secretary of War Elihu Root cabled him to ask how he was --- Root had heard that Taft was ill. Taft, who weighed over 350 pounds, reassured Root by cabling that he was much better and that he had, in fact, just returned from a twenty-five-mile ride on horseback. Elihu Root cabled back; "How is the horse?"!!!
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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 June 16, 2006

Thursday, June 15, 2006

At present it's nice and sunny here in Central Pennsylvania this morning and as it's supposed to go up near 80 this afternoon so it should be a warm day as well... so far the humidity hasn't set in around here but that's supposed to change come the weekend. So I'm going to make a point of enjoying today and hopefully this afternoon I can finish mowing the yard as it may begin to get humid tomorrow and if it gets too humid I know I won't feel like working out doors.
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One of the state helicopters was here again yesterday spraying the river for black flies, "gnats," and the little pest population is finally getting to the point where it's getting livable around here. I take notice now when I go down toward the river to work that there are a few of them but nothing like there were last month when there literally were "clouds" of them and they would "attack" me with a vengeance.. Now it's actually enjoyable to be outdoors working, playing or just resting, again. I really missed a great shot yesterday for a picture.. Betty shouted to me that the chopper was out spraying again and I grabbed the camera to see if I could get a better shot than I have of it... I was standing at the steps that lead into the lower yard and the copter was coming right at me head on and when he got about 75 feet from me he saw me and I guess he didn't want to fly over me with the spray turned on so he pulled up short and turned the rig to the left and hovered there for a full 10 seconds. I think he saw I had a camera and was giving me the opportunity to get a good picture of him and his helicopter. Yes, he was that close! I could see him sitting at the controls. I went to take the picture and would you believe it, the darn batteries had went dead sitting in the camera over night... Until I discovered that, he was starting to move again and rose above the trees and headed up river a bit for another "sweep" across the river. Darn it! Why do things like that happen when you really have a chance at the best shot I could ever get of the darn thing... You can see above that I did get a good shot of it that time, but this would have been 20 times better as it was right in front of me and as I was standing on a slight bank, I was almost "eye level" with the pilot! Crap!
I doubt I'll ever get a chance like that again but just in case, my camera is always near and I'm checking the batteries condition more often!
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A friend of mine, Terry Thomas, from California sent me this. It's like a joke but the more I read it, the more sense it made and it turned from a joke into a "truism." So instead of putting it in today's joke sheet, I'm putting it right here in the post. You be the judge and ask yourself if you agree or disagree with the piece.
***Five million of our older Americans have not signed up yet for their Medicare, Part D, drug plan -- they are old and confused. We are NOT going to grant them an extension.
***However, 12 million illegal aliens are in our country and we are going to allow them to stay, protest, procreate, receive support monies, attend schools, avoid paying income taxes, have our teachers take 300 hours of ESOL (English as a second language) training at our expense, etc. etc. etc.
***WE EITHER REALLY DISLIKE OUR OLD FOLKS or WE MUST REALLY LOVE TACOS!!!!!!
So, don't you think there's a LOT of truth in that? It's a real shame, but it IS true.... As my dad used to say, "What the heck is the Country coming to?" Yeah, dad, I agree!
Oh, and one more thing..... I can do WITHOUT Tacos!
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A lot of our veterans of the gulf wars, both the first one and the current one are having problems just getting and being able to handle a job, here at home when they get back.. Many times it's from wounds received and also various diseases and maladies that they developed from just being in the war and stationed over there..
Some are receiving benefits because of their problems and many are over 60 years old now. However many would work under certain circumstances if they could get the help they need to train and find these types of work.
Maybe instead of worrying so darn much about the illegal aliens at times, and what we can do to help THEM, our government could find some time to help out some of our own guys and gals get needed benefits and training that they not only worked for, but fought for! You can check out a good article about the situation here: Supporting The Troops
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And our guys and gals fought for these people....... Vietnam revisited........
HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Vietnam's popular karaoke bars, renowned for hard drinking and prostitution, face tough new restrictions starting in July, according to a government decree.
The decree, issued this month by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and shown to Reuters Wednesday, bans karaoke bar patrons from drinking spirits, imposes fines for public drunkenness and limits the number of servers to one person per room to discourage prostitution.
From July 1, drinking spirits in karaoke lounges is subject to a fine of up to 1.5 million dong ($94), equivalent to a monthly salary of a government official. Public drunkenness in any place out of the home including in clubs and restaurants, is punishable by up to 500,000 dong ($31), the decree said.
Lounge owners would also be fined up to 4 million dong ($250) if they use more than one person per room.
Karaoke is not only recreational but also widely popular business etiquette in the Southeast Asian country of 83 million.
Last week, state oil monopoly Petrovietnam's financial arm ordered 21 officials to write "self-criticism" reports for not singing karaoke at a business contract-signing ceremony.
I just had to put that in before ending today's post... Talk about funny and weird customs... Boy I will say this, if they ever heard me sing I don't think I would be ordered to do anything for not singing karaoke... Matter of fact they would probably "fine" me if I DID sing! You can check here for the credits on this story: Ho Chi Minh City
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As usual the time is really moving along and I have several "piles" of work "staring" up at me from my desks to get done today and most of it before I head 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..
F. O. Stanley, who with his twin brother F. E. Stanley, invented the steam-powered automobile, drove one of the vehicles to the top of 6,288 foot Mount Washington, New England's highest peak, in two hours and ten minutes, in 1899. Four years later, the first gasoline-driven car managed to get to the summit in a little less than two hours. The following year, F. E. Stanley took a new-model Stanley Steamer up the mountain in Twenty-eight minutes!!! (Where are they now? - Chuck)
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Chuck's Daily - Common Sense Check out the new Elements Site! My best program!

Chuck's Daily - Common Sense

Check out the new Elements Site! My best program!