I Could Do Without Holiday Stress
I really could do without holiday stress this year. We all have this idea of what the holidays should be about. There is the ideal and there is the reality. The reality is we are bombarded with advertising that compels us to buy more than we can afford, want to give gifts to everyone even when you may not want to, and to eat far more than is good for us. Of course, all of this only serves to increase our stress levels, making our tempers short and forgetting the true meaning of a holiday. A holiday should be about fun, family and friends and not what you can buy for someone. But in order to change that we have to change the way we think and the way we interact with our family and friends and even ourselves.
There are the basic techniques of planning ahead, start your shopping early, shop online, ask for help and get yourself some exercise. Exercise will relieve stress and help you on the road to fitness. We all know our bodies are just machines and have to be maintained. But for those of us who are a little behind in the health department will need to start off small. My favorite thing would have to be swimming. I would like to do some body bag pounding but I would probably end up hurting myself. The swimming thing is more my speed and the best place to do that if you don’t have a heated pool is the YMCA. Our company recently offered discounted corporate rates for membership and I hope to make it a point of visiting two or three times a week. Yes, they have all these machines but the only exercise I can do without my arthritis kicking up is the swimming.
For more tips of stress relief you might want to read a little article I found: http://www.healthcarecolleges.net/blog/how-to-deal-with-holiday-stress/
Drivers Don’t Know How to Merge
I don’t know about other parts of the country but right here in Jacksonville most drivers cannot comprehend the basic premise of merging into traffic without causing of a problem than the increasing volume of traffic already causes. They go too slow or merge left all the way to the far side instead of just one lane at a time. Nothing drivers me more crazy than people who don’t merge correctly and drivers who don’t anticipate merging drivers by allowing every other person in. That is the number one reason why we have traffic jams. If everyone of us who could just do that one thing it really would help out.
I propose we teach little kids in pre-k, kindergarten and 1st grade the merging game. It is simple have kids line up two-by-two then go forward allow first one person on the right to go and then the next person on the left to go until the whole line is merged into one. You can do this to music and make it fun for the kids by increasing the pace and moving around the gym or playground and returning to two lane of kids after each complete merge by off loading them back first one kid goes to the left lane then the next to the right. Then just start the game all over again. If we start future drivers off early enough then they will pick up good habits before they even learn how to drive!
If wouldn’t hurt to start a dance craze called the MERGE-IT. Who knows we could improve the accidents rates in the country.
What Happened to Analog
What happened to Analog? With the recent mandatory conversion to digital signals for all television stations we were wondering what exactly happened to analog. I mean all of us with analog televisions have been forced either by cable or satellite or a digital converter box. And of course we have to go out and buy digital televisions to replace our digital ones. It sucks to have to change and I’m sure all of the television stations that so too when they had to purchase all new equipment. Then they had to get rid of that all equipment that is totally ancient, weighs a ton and in some cases even toxic. I bought one of those emergency televisions that runs on batteries a few years ago to use during the hurricane season. It is too small to really be get one of them converters so the only thing I can use it for is to get radio signals.
Come to find out the government only did this so that they can sell the analog signals to cellphone companies so that they can offer the 4g networks to their customers. The government can resell all of the analog wavelengths as well as all of the digital wavelengths to the television stations. Now, I ask you what will happen if we have a true emergency and all of the digital signals go out because of some sunflare or something? We know that the cellphones will go out as well. We will be reduced down to just trying to find some AM radio stations for our news or something.
Electricity Prices Are Too High
One of my pet peeves is paying high prices for a service when that company is already gaining enough profit to fund a small country. I am all for a company making a profit. Hell, I am starting my own business and would like to see a little profit come my way. But our utility companies, especially electric and water, are essential services and the companies who run them are supposed to be NON-PROFIT companies. That should mean that they operate on a “lean-budget” just enough to pay for expenses such as equipment, maintenance, employees salaries and to fund some research. And not those high executive salaries that seem to be prevalent around the country.
Now, our local company is supposed to be one of the lowest in the state but, of course, that is information from their website but independent agencies say otherwise. I wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more if they were actively encouraging people to participate in alternative energy solutions such as solar, wind, water and other things out there. But then again, that would reduce our dependence on them wouldn’t it? Now, the one thing I read that they do is convert an old dump to a methane generating plant. We might as well do some of that as the dumps are closed and producing the gas anyway why not use it to power some homes. In Florida, solar power would be the best solutions as we don’t have a lot of sustained wind here. Check Out this website to get started: http://www.freesunpower.com/easy_guide.php
We could also do some water projects as we are surrounded on three sides with water. However, for any great progress that kind of project will have to be done by big businesses. Yes, they will find a way to charge us for it but wouldn’t it be better to pay for a service that doesn’t contribute to our dependence on oil if it could be done by not polluting the air or water? Now, if you live on a lake or by a stream you can look into some micro-hydroelectrical projects. Read more at this site: http://practicalaction.org/energy/micro_hydro_expertise?utm_source=S000&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=C10105&gclid=CILUiZ29rKwCFQtU7AodDT0GEw
Now go out there and take charge of your energy needs by learning more and participating in these worthwhile projects. If you work out a viable and inexpensive solution that everyone could use let the world know. Don’t keep it to yourself……
Gas Prices Suck
We all know that gas prices suck and there doesn’t seem to be any end to their rising prices. What can we do about it? There are a couple of things but they are just stop gaps not really solutions. One is to keep track of where you can get them at the cheapest rates in your area. There are a couple of websites that you can bookmark and check when you need to fill-up:
http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx
You should carpool, if you can, plan your trips to get as much done as you can in one go, walk to work, ride public transportation, pay for bills electronically, go online to get books delivered to your local branch of the library instead of going to the branch that has them, plan vacations more close to home, if you must travel shop online for the best deals, and get a moped or scooter to travel more than a mile from home. Sell your gas-guzzling vehicle for a more economical one that gets higher gas mileage. Support your local inventors that come up with alternative energy solutions for your home.
We would love to support those local inventors and do-it-yourself people who come up with inexpensive solar, wind-power, and water-powered solutions for producing energy for our homes and vehicles. If you know of someone who has a great idea but just needs a little financing to get off the ground you should tell them about www.kickstarter.com which is a great source of financing for the little guys out there. They are a great organization that pools the efforts of everyone that pledge as much as they can towards projects they believe in. They are just not limited to the arts they welcome all kinds of worthy projects. And the ability to convert everyone to solar, wind or water powered energy inexpensively would go a long way in destroying our dependence of oil and also give this old Earth a break from it’s pollution!
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We hope you will join us in lively discussions about various things that may or may not be changeable. We all have said the words, “WHAT THE HELL!” when something has caught us unawares. We have even said, “what the hell” before we do something that we really may not want to do. We even use the phrase when we question what is really happening. Our discussions will start off on subjects that I am interesting in and future discussions will be about things other subscribers suggest. If you have a website that has interesting information and insights then by all means send us the link and we well investigate. If we inspire you to create your own website then I hope you will allow us to create it for you so check out: http://websforyou.info and http://blogsforyou.info