College and the Middle Class

I could make this short and sweet and just say-forget about it! But if you have read other posts in my blog, you will know by now that I can't do that.
I can't say that when I graduated from high school that I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Ah Contrare! I didn't have a clue. I knew I wasn't interested in college. I joined the ranks of the full time working world and carved my career plan for life. I didn't know it at the time but that is another story.
My son was lost and scared upon graduating high school. (Weren't we all?) We went to college fairs when he was in 7th or 8th grade, he was always interested in art. He decided to try a semester at community college, after graduation. It wasn't a good fit.
He started to puruse Art schools. Prefering a suburban area, we checked out the Art Institute of York, PA. We had compared several schools for programs and tuition costs, as well as pre-requisites for acceptance. To visit the school, I decided to follow the GPS directions. That will never happen again. The estimated 2 hour trip had crawled onto 3 hours in no time. We road on every off-the-beaten path that existed between Lancaster and York. We were placed behind several buggies, (cool, but I didn't want to be driving behind one) and even re-routed (due to either a fire or a truck driving into a house, I'm not clear on that one). I was suprised to see that AI of York, looked like a two story office building. It was very small. We came in the back way, past the Shoehouse, past several farms, by a row of townhouses and then entered a small industrial park. The program seemed to be a good fit. I wasn't sure about the rest of it. I did my financial aide preparation over the next week. I was disheartened to see that PA won't give NJ residents state aide and vice-versa. I am a middle class wage earner. I worked long and hard to repair my credit after a bad marriage. I worked even harder on earning more money. Sometimes, I worked several jobs at a time, mostly working from home. In the past two years, after taking a second job, I was doing better than I ever had. Of course, I sabatoged myself with that one. My parents didn't put me through college. It didn't work that way. I figured it out on my own over a span of 10 years, but at least I figured it out. Right? I thought he'd appreciate an education, if he had to work for it. We were not eligible for any free money and a very minimal Stafford loan. I was told there was a parent loan (PLUS) that I should apply for. They said everyone was being turned down for them, because of the economy, and if I wasn't approved, he would be entitled to more Stafford Loans. Of course, I was approved. Someone out there decided that I could afford to pay back $60,000 in principal and interest. I am supposed to come up with an extra $600 per month, if my son doesn't pay it. No wonder this economy is bad. They garnish your wages over these loans. Or, my son, would be paying more than that back over a 10 year period. With starting wages estimated to be about $35,000 per year, he would have to live with me until he was 30. So in conclusion, it seems to me that you have to be poverty stricken or extremely wealthy to go to college these days. If you're middle class, forget about it!

on Windowizards

Even though the housing market has become a little (and I mean a LITTLE) more reasonable, I think houses are still overpriced. I wanted to move to a little "more house" now that my kids are out of school, but six months later and the economy being as scary as it is, I realized I can't afford "more house" even in townships with less-than-desirable school districts. I feel sorry for all the people that got suckered into overpriced houses with interest-only mortgages that they would never be able to pay when the principal payments became do. Greedy banks/mortgage companies and home owners put a hefty nail in the coffin of the American dream, not the President or the government (but that is another rant). So before I get off the subject, I decided to make the unusable spaces in my house, more usable. I had useless enclosed porch. (I don't understand why people do that.) This porch had custom made windows. Well not really windows, more like an outer single pain storm window and a custom built interior storm window with nothing in between. The whole room is on a slant. There is a good 2" difference from where the side wall touches the house and the front exterior wall. A challenge for any window installer. The front door was not the standard 80" door and the framework between the sidelites and the door where very thin. My brother used "Castle Windows" and was very unhappy. They put the wrong windows on his enclosed porch on the back of his house- but he learned to live with it. I researched Windowizards and read a lot of good feedback on them. The salesman came out and we discussed the pros and cons of replacing the doors and windows vs. turning it back into an open porch. I decided to go with the replacements. The windows were very nice and I very reasonably priced. I got 2 large sliders for the front of the house (at the salesman's suggestion)and decided to go with 2 regular pane windows on each side so I could put in a window air conditioner. I need to seriously think about the front door though with the 2 sidelites. I was expecting $1500 and it was really more like $3000. I decided to go for it, albeit painfully, but I thought realized I was putting these beautiful windows in with this old, drafty, wood/glass door in desperate need of TLC with a non-working lock. The carpenter was out about a week later measuring so everything could be ordered. After the carpenters visit, the salesman called to tell me since the framework around the door was not standard size, he wanted an extra $500. I said I didn't want the door then because it was so much anyway. We argued and guess what-I didn't pay the extra $500. The order arrived and was installed 2 weeks before the ETA. That was great. They did a beautiful job and the windows and the door look great. The space is now usable living space. Yea!! There was one set back. Two days after the door was installed I noticed all the wood on the base of the door jam was breaking off. Was this the result of the carpenter not getting his $500?? I sent the salesman a picture on a Saturday and Monday morning they said their service department would be out on Thursday to do the repairs. They were and I am quite happy with the finished product and my "new" room.

on Irish's Concrete

I wanted to put a deck on my house and I actually know a very good builder. He's just a little slow on getting back to me. I wanted a fairly large size deck, 20x18. I was going back and forth between using pre-treated wood or composite materials. I like to consider myself enviromentally conscientious, but this is a very controversal subject. On one hand, wood will decompose quickly and on its own. It would involve alot of painting and up keep. On the other hand, composite materials are basically plastic, they will be around for a long-long time, longer than us. They will scratch and fade and emit posionous gases/carcinogens that we are not aware of (look what has been discovered about water bottles and #5 plastics). The house will fall down before the deck will. Did I really want to spend 3x as much for this kind of deck? When the estimate came in at $12, ooo for regular wood, I decided to pursue other options. My builder suggested concrete. I went on line and found I liked stamped concrete. I called a few contractors and settled on a company called "Irish's Concrete". Joe Irish answered the phone right away. He was at my house the next day with a book that had a variety of styles and colors to choose from. It was March, so there season hadn't quite begun. I ordered a stone path stamp and the colors I wanted. Joe suggested a curved style to add character, in leiu of a rectangle. In a matter of a few days, I had a beautiful 20x18 patio and front walkway and they removed the "sidewalk to nowhere" that stopped about 6 feet short of the road in front of my house(?). All this in the neighborhood of about $3500. They were efficient and professional and very reasonable. I highly recommend them!!!! Five stars! I think there is a picture of my patio on his website gallery but it just shows the stamp and color not the whole patio. http://www.irishsconcrete.com/

on "Dollar" Rental Cars

Actually, this really isn't specific to Dollar, they are all sneaky rip-off artists but since I used Dollar, I'll pick on them specifically. You want to rent a car but you aren't really sure how far you'll be driving. You go on line and look for a budget. At Orlando International Airport, that low priced winner appeared to be Dollar. For a mere $63.10, I could rent a small economy car for two days. I made the reservation and put in my "frequent flyer" miles account, they asked, why would I question it? By the time you pick the car up and get the paperwork you are up to $86, this includes the $0.95 per day charge for accumulating frequent flyer miles. I was asked if I wanted to pre-pay for a tank of gas at their current price per gallon of $2.69. I declined thinking I wouldn't be using that much gas. After driving to my destination, I realized I just may use a tank a gas. I called Dollar the next day and asked if I would be able to bring the car back empty, they said yes, never mentioned anything about paying a whole lot more than the going rate. I returned the car having used about 5/8ths of the tank. The attendant goes in the car and hands me a receipt for an additional charge of $71.38 for gas. Virgin car renters-beware!

on NJ Junk

I took a week off and decided to do some things around the house. I removed wallpaper and painted my living room. I cleaned out my attic. I decided to replace my shed that was falling apart. Upon inspection of the shed, I realized that everything in it was destroyed, there were creatures and eggs and all kinds of lovely things living in it, as well as the cat that I scared, that went running. I decided to search Craigslist to find someone that would remove it and the other trash from the attic. I sent messages to two people. I then found a website for NJ Junk and sent them an email. I never heard from the two people I emailed on Craigslist but NJ Junk called me later that day. There were at my house 36 hours later. They pulled up in a very large truck. I thought it was way too big for what I had to remove. They gave me an estimate of $425. I thought this was high at first, but then I thought about the critters in the shed and all that was involved in removing the trash and decided to go for it anyway. They were quick, efficient and even swept up the concrete blocks under the shed. My trash, to my embarrassement, filled up the truck. Mark, one of the guys that came out, was very polite. The money was well worth it and I highly recommend them.

on Eddie B Plumbing

The company I used to work for used Eddie B's for their plumbing needs. When I had the problems with my toilet running, I called Eddie B's to come out. I also wanted a quote to put a water connection on the driveway side of my house. They were out the next business day. The advise I got was to buy a new toilet. They said they would want $325 to install the water connection and could be out in two days to do it, which would be a Wednesday. Wednesday came and went, they never showed. I called the office and was told they never scheduled it but they would come out the next day to do it. I wasn't available that day, so I said I would call when I wanted it. That was 2 months ago. I can't seem to get past the no-show.

on Harris Fence Company

I had my 4 ft green chain link fence installed by Harris Fence Company in 2001. It took too months to get the fence installed because it was summer and that is there busy time. I ordered it in July and it was installed in September. When I had the gate installed, I opted for a little garden gate instead of a big swinging gate. Seven years later, I was thinking about installing a detached one car pre-fab garage. I called Harris Fence to come out and give me an estimate on replacing the garden gate with a swinging gate. I called on a Tuesday. The gentleman that answered the phone said he would be at my house Thursday at 1pm. As it happened my daughter was home from work that day, so I didn't have to leave work to meet him. It's a good think. He never showed up. I called Harris's office at 2pm and was told I probably talked to Keith and he called out that day. He would call me tomorrow (Friday). He never called. I then changed my mind about getting the gate changed. Their loss. If the economy is supposed to be so bad...why don't businesses want business???

On Gutters

I didn't realize how important proper gutters are. I watched the water pour down in sheets above the front window of my house. A year after I had my driveway paved, the water started filling up in my basement. Their were several occassions in which I had to wet vac a few inches of water out if it. These were the times the sump pump decided not to work. It took me a while to realize what the real problem was. There was a drainage pipe from the gutters, on the front corner of the house. This drain just dumped all that water down my, now paved, driveway and seeped into the basement. Most of the gutters were barely hanging on to the house. I did my infamous- online -research and decided to go with a covered gutter, although there were very mixed reviews. Joe Salesman came out with his little bag of samples and his lovely laminated book. I didn't feel like playing the old "Bathfitters" game but I needed gutters ASAP. Joe Salesman pulled the old "I don't know if I can go that cheap, let me call my manager" bullshit that they so like to play. I called him on it, but I still overpaid. Apparently, the game is like this, you say "no that is too much money". They leave and if it is the right timing, you can get that price dropped to 1/3 of the original estimate. I didn't know that at the time, but now I am telling you. Trying to research gutter prices on line is a bit unrealistic. I tried this and got prices of anywhere from $1.60 to $2.20 per foot. I don't know if installation was included. I paid 3x times that amount. I got the LeafGuard brand gutters. The installers were on time and quick. They were here and gone before I knew it. I did not get the drain along the driveway and I don't have that sheet of water running down the front of my house. Part of the reason I went with this company, was that they were supposed to replace the rotted wood on the soffet that was ruined from being wet. I am pretty sure I had bad wood and they didn't replace any of it. I had them come out and told them the places I could see that were bad but they insisted there was nothing wrong with the wood. They said it wasn't rotted it was just marks from where the nails were on the previous gutters. I am happy to not have water in the basement, although right now, maybe I regret that because maybe the fleas would drown. But, with my luck, it is more likely they would float to the top of the water and make way for the rest of my house, instead of being confined to the basement. I have heard good reviews on "The Gutter Guys" but I have not had a personal experience with that company.

Don't buy American Standard toilets, part 2

I found out that, of course, American Standard has their own "specially" sized tank lever. It was my third trip to Home Depot, after discovering this fact online (which wasn't easy), that I found, in small print, a lever that says "for American Standard toilets". It actually fits and works. The plumber came out again and said if the water starts to leak from the shut off valve again, the pipe would have to be replaced. Yee-hah, something else to look forward too. Upon further research, I found a posting from a lawyers office from August 2007 concerning a class action law suit against American Standard for the same problems I was having. Go figure???? I filled out the necessary information but it is now a year later so I don't know what has become of it or if I can still put my two cents in.

On the Indestructible Flea

My basement was/is infested with fleas. Through much research, I am extremely grossed out and amazed at the strength of the cat flea. I also know much more than I ever wanted to know. Fleas can go dormant for two years! They hide and reproduce constantly. The live for 200 days. Even if you kill the adult in another week or two you have a whole new generation of infestation. One of the best ways of controlling a flea population after treating is to vaccuum. I have learned from experience this does pretty much nothing on a concrete basement floor. I ran out and bought enough of a product called "Hot Shot" to treat my whole house. I purchased this product because it didn't require you to put out the pilot lights. I removed the pets from the house, treated them and followed the directions on the box. It stated that you may have to do treatment again in 2 to 4 weeks. Twenty-Four hours later, I had just as many fleas as I had the day before. There were not any type of dead insects at all in my basement or anywhere else in my house either. In a long moment of anger I sent a letter to the manufacturer who promptly refunded my money. My next attempt was "Raid" fogger. In the mean time I was using a spray Raid flea killing product. The fogger did kill some crickets and the flea population seemed to dwindle but they were still there. Hiding in wait to attack....I have gotten into the habit of going into the basement wearing shorts so I can see how many fleas jump on my "glow-in-the-dark" white legs. Gross, yes, and it freaks me out too, but I don't know how else to know. I end up jumping around screaming and swatting at them, which, by the way is completely ineffectual. I took the dogs the vet because I thought the older dog was getting sick from the treatments. He gave the dogs cortisone shots and treated them with Frontline. He warned me that I will probably have to keep treating for six months. I was very disenheartened but felt better about the dogs being taken care of. I have managed to keep the fleas in the basement, although the vet did say if the dogs went in the basement, the fleas would bite them and die but that seems cruel to me, so I can't do it. This has all been very expensive ( I've calculated a good $500 so far) and not getting any cheaper as time goes by. What else is new? I have spent hundreds of dollars trying to exterminate these fleas. As a last resort, before calling a professional or moving (which I am seriously debating) I have purchased several cans of a product called "Ultracide". Ultracide claims to be professional strength, serious flea killer that lasts through a complete flea season, although I am not sure what that means. Is it like, winter, spring, summer, fall or is it the life cycle of a flea? I was so excited when the box arrived. At this point, I am broke and exhausted. I open the box, read the directions and start spraying. 24 hours passed. I went down in the basement, near the washer and dryer and stomped around a bit. They are drawn to the vibration of footsteps. Nothing jumped on me so I waited a little longer, afraid to get too excited. I walked to another section and nothing! The excitement I had been restraining all day was building, could this finally be over? Then I walked to the darker, far corner and boom; 4 fleas jumped on my ankles. My heart sunk. I grabbed a new spray can and went crazy spraying all over again. I will probably be dead before the fleas are from inhaling all that poison. If this is my last post...you'll know why.
UPDATE: Ultracide did not kill the fleas.
Another update: I called 2 exterinators today. One said they would charge $160 + tax to spray. The other said it seems like I have done everything I was supposed to do, so give it another week and see what happens. I put on a respirator and sprayed the basement like crazy with 2 cans of Ultraside for 880 square feet. One can is supposed to do 2630 square feet.
UPDATE: I tried Borax and it didn't do anything. The Ultracide seemed to "reduce" the population but didn't get rid of them. I then read that fleas like warmth and dampness. (I sure don't want them to feel comfortable.) I do have a dehumidifier in my basement, so I turned that on. Again, that seemed to help and there seemed to be less of a population. One of my dogs did run into the basement when the door was open ( I wasn't looking) and trotted all over the place. She picked of several fleas but they didn't drop off and die as the vet said they would. She was scratching like crazy for several days and I was getting bit again. I had eight bites accross my shoulder in a matter of minutes. I put Frontline on her again, 2 weeks earlier than I was supposed to. I won't let that happen again.
I did "bomb" again this weekend. I doubled the amount of bombs I had previously used. They are the "Raid Fumigators" and you don't have to turn the pilot lights off. I walked all over the basement in my white tube socks (that I bought just to test the # of fleas).I didn't think I picked up any but a little while later I did notice one crawling up the sock. I killed it, but the next day I was bit on my calf, so they are lingering. I don't like using all those chemicals but my washer and dryer are in the basement and I hate going down there. Maybe the answer is just persistence. You would think with nothing to eat they would die and I'm hoping that the colder weather might help but I'm not sure. I can't even get up the nerve to vacuum the concrete. I am so tired of being bitten. To be continued...

About Sam

We had a cat. He was not the nicest cat, nor was he the friendliest cat but he warmed up to some people. Unfortunately, I was never one of them, but I did my best to take care of him. For a few years he lived his life hanging out in the window, or hiding under things where he couldn't be found. He lived peacefully with our dog. Then my daughter got a scottish terrier. The scottie is a warrior, he wants to fight everything on four legs. His natural instinct was to attach the cat. So the cat, became more and more of a recluse. He took to hiding in the basement. As time went by, the cat got used to hearing the click of the scotties claws as he wondered around the first floor of the house. After awhile, he knew when the scottie was tucked away in bed and it was safe to emerge from the basement. I put a little door on the basement door so he could come and go as he pleased but he wouldn't go near it. I ended up having to block it off so the scottie didn't go through it and attach the cat. I felt bad for the cat and I tried to find him a home for two years but no one would take him. He was too old. It became a habit of his to yell at the basement door late at night for my son to let him out to wander. This wouldn't have been a problem if he wasn't so good at hiding and the scottie wasn't so good at hunting. So my son had to make sure he would return safely to the basement when he went to bed. The cat never "meowed". I swear he would yell an eerie "hello" and many people swear he could call my son's name. When this past summer came along, late at night my son got into the habit of sitting outside with the cat. He was not an outside cat, he was declawed, but he would hang close to my son, till one night he ran off into the darkness. I saw him the next day, hiding in the hollowed out tree in the back yard of the empty house next door. I called my son and told him where he was and he said he would get him when he returned him. He did get him, very late at night, and deposited him in my basement covered with lots of new friends.

On Identity Theft

Somewhere around 1983 I was a victim of identity theft. I left my purse unattended and my wallet was stolen. The thief knew not to charge more than $50 on my credit card at a time so no one would call to verify the transaction. As I recall, my credit card bill was 8 pages long by the time I got it. They had opened a charge account at Neiman Marcus, that one took a while to take care of. I even received letters about returns "I" had made to stores I had never been to. It took years to clean things up. You attempt to be careful after that. You watch and read all the information you get about identity theft because it has become such a big thing. My social security card is locked away. I do alot of things electronically. I monitor my credit card bills and bank accounts. I shred things with personal info. Can you ever do enough? A few years ago I received a letter from an old health insurance carrier. Someone in their office may have sold my information to a third party, they just wanted to let me know to watch my credit. Last week I received a letter from my mortgage company. An employee (now former) may have sold unauthorized personal information about me to a third party. This information includes my name address, social security number and other information they had on file, like were I work, my bank account, etc. Great! Here we go again. At least they offered to pay for a credit monitoring service although that alone is minimal in all the stress this could involve.

The Secret Price of Bathfitters

I know you have all seen the ads for Bathfitters. They are the distributor and installer of the one-peice bathtub/surround system. If you call them and try to get an idea of what they charge, it isn't going to happen. They insist that they need to send a sales rep out to you to give you an estimate. So you make an appointment and the rep comes out to your house with his little bag full of color samples and all kinds of brochures. The bottom line is they are trying to compare the cost of reconstructing your entire bathroom vs. getting the new one peice bath tub system. In 2006, their estimate for getting your bathroom re-done was $8000. The cost of the one peice bath system is a great savings at only $4000. Mind you that is only the bathtub/bathsurround. The best part of the visit is when you tell them that it is way too much money. They offer you a one time only whopping 10% off, that's a $400 savings but you can only have it if you sign up right then and there. There is a sucker born everyday.

On Poison Ivy

The house next door was foreclosed on several years ago. The owner didn't take care of the property. It was overgrown and falling apart. Someone bought it as an investment when the housing market started to get out of control. They let it sit for too long before they did anything to it so I think it became a bit of a money pit. The house was sold again and has been sitting for another year. They just put a "for rent" sign up which I am not thrilled about (not). Between our two properties is a small wire grid fence. Along my neighbors side, there is alot of plant growth. Miscellaneous and mysterious vines, weeds, bamboo, wild roses and poison ivy grow freely there. I am allergic to poison ivy. These vines will grow towards my yard because I am on the east where, we all know, the sun rises. They get to the point where they take over the driveway and either I have to cut them back or lose my parking space. Of course, their driveway is on the other side of the yard, where there are no evil plants growing (I really am a nature lover). This summer I had to cut this all back so I could find my car and my driveway. I forgot about the poison ivy, although it wouldn't have mattered. All the products I have for controlling poison ivy instruct you to "wash the infected area within 10 minutes of coming into contact with the plant". Considering the fact that it took me 40 minutes to cut back and dispose of the vines and leaves, I would have had to come in and wash up 4x, as well as change my clothing 4x....uhhh...not happening. So I had the rash, all over the place and it just kept spreading. Now if you do research on the internet, several websites claim the rash doesn't spread from the liquid in the rash that forms. I would like those websites to explain why it was showing up on different places of my body throughout the next 10 days. They claim it is the oil on the plant that causes the rash to form. In those 10 days, I thoroughly washed on at least 12 occasions. I seriously think there was no oil on my body. I didn't wear the same clothes and they were washed anyway, so that isn't the reason. I ended up getting my doctor to prescribe steroids, as nothing over the counter was working. Cortizone-10, Ivarest, Aveeno Anti-Itch Cream, were all a waste of money, none of these products soothed the itch or kept it from spreading. Benadryl was probably the only product that gave me any relief until I got the steroids. The internet also advised that steroid treatment had to last for a full 14 days. I took it for 5 days and was fine after that. I also tried rubbing alcohol, bleach and laundry detergent on the rashes, all that did was scar me. Fels Napha and aloe were the cures when I was a child, and then a dip in the Altantic Ocean or a swimming pool. I couldn't get to the ocean or a pool this time, so maybe it only works if you do all three. When I was done healing and got over my phobia enough to do something about the poison ivy I went out and bought a 1.33 gallon pump spray bottle of "Round Up" for poison ivy. I sprayed once, when I got they nerve and was disappointed when I didn't see anything happen. After a week I sprayed again and this time things started to turn brown. I figured "3's a charm" and hit it a week later. Although I am not a fan of spraying chemicals, I also paid good money to have my driveway paved so I could park in it and didn't enjoy my 3 week bout with poison ivy. The weeds are not presently growing on my side of the fence and I can't really say I care if the brown shriveled up dying plants are not attractive. Enough is enough.

On Vacuum Cleaners

We had three pets in my household. A white/calico cat, a mixed sheppard/border collie/rottie and a scottie. Scottie's hardly shed, but the cat and the other dog more than made up for it. There were trails around my house of white and black fur balls. I considered it a miracle if I had a vacuum that actually survived a year.When I purchased my house 7 years ago, I pulled almost all the rugs out. I still went through vacuum cleaners in less than a year. Then...I was introduced to the Dyson Animal. Pricey? Yes, but so worth it. I don't remember what exactly the "animal" part is. I believe it was an extra attachment to vacuum fur but I think it was lost within a week of buying it, so I am not praising that part of the vacuum, just the Dyson in general. I have had my Dyson for 3 years. I vacuum as much as every other day a week and I am always amazed at the amount of dirt it picks up. This vacuum gets two thumbs up.

On Working Women in a Man's World, part 2

My daughter was always interested in cars. When she was 10 years old she told me that she was going to have a garage when she grew up and restore all the cool muscle cars of the 60's and 70's. I always supported that. When it was time to go to high school, she went to the local school and freshman year she took the only classes offered pertaining to engines and cars. She had gone to the guidance office and told them she was transferring to vocational school for sophomore year so she could work on cars and brought home the paperwork for me to sign. She was always very responsible and knew how to get things done. A force to be reckoned with. The started exploratory shops in vocational school and was not accepted into auto mechanics since she had not attended freshman year there and wouldn't have enough hours to complete the requirements. Had she know that going in to, things may have been different. She ended up taking welding but she always said-she didn't pick welding, it picked her. She graduated as the "best" in the welding class, won lots of awards, made a mother proud. She also one a one year scholarship to attend night school at the vocatoinal school so she could take aut mechanincs. The day after graduation, she started a full time welding job at the local place that would give a female a chance. And beleive me, these places have no qualms about being open and telling you they won't hire you because you are a woman! A local Aamco Transmissions place actually laughed and her and basically threw her out when she went to apply for a job. What are you going to do? Go around suing everybody? Make them hire you and make your life miserable? She has worked in this welding shop for over two years and attended full time night school to learn auto mechanincs. She has been sexually harassed, by co-workers and by others that visit the shop, as well as by the guys in school. Some if it is more extreme than others. Not everyone she works with harasses her, and some have learned to respect her because she is good at welding. She has developed thick skin. She is very pretty and petite in height, two attributes that have worked for and against her in this man's world. Her boyfriend (and I) get more upset about the harrassment than she does anymore. But when we get back to the money thing...is she earning the same wage as her "fellow" welders.....uh....no...not even close.

On Working Women in a Man's World, part 1

Yes, we've come a long way baby. We're just not "there" yet. I'm not a feminist freaking out about the inequality in the working world, I am grateful that I was born and raised in the USA. I don't hate men. But I've had personal experiences in a man's world that I feel the need to share.
For 10 years I was pretty much the only female in a small manufacturing company. There were one or two female assistants that came along over the years, but they never stayed more than a few months. There was a guy in the office who did whatever he could to break them down, to make then cry and then quit. He never was able to get to me, he was terminated before I ever quit there. The owner of the business was definitely a full fledged chauvinist. But for several years he was decent and sometimes even very good to me. After the 8th year of my employment things started to go sour. My boss decided that I need to start my own business, one that would specialize in a part of the business we were currently in. I did all the paperwork and had everything going. He hired a man to take my current position and sent me out with one of the sales reps to "grow" my business. After a few months, he lost interest in the project and rejected every proposal I brought to him. My replacement wasn't cutting it and he wanted to get rid of him and put me back in my old job. I'm pretty easy going and went along with it. He laid off my replacement and I went in to clean up the mess. I found out my replacement had been being paid $20,000 more per year than I, for the same job. I questioned by boss about this, he couldn't use the old "he has a family to support" crap because he knew I was supporting my two kids and my ex did everything he could to not pay child support. As I recall his answer was something about thinking he would do a better job due to prior employment experience, blah, blah, blah. Guess what? He couldn't. I didn't get that $20,000 raise either. It took me two years but I found another job. He was angry with me for leaving and even after 6 years when we met at the funeral of a collage, we didn't speak to each other. That company went out of business a couple of years after I left, it just seemed to fall apart with the owner's sanity and what little integrity he had left. But that is not my story to tell.

Dont buy American Standard Toilets!

I bought my house 7 years ago. It is a very small bungalow. It was all I could afford in a single- detached home in this town that was known for it's good school system. My kids have always come first. The house was well taken care of by the previous owner. Sturdy and clean. They took good care of everything. I started having problems with the toilet recently. It ran alot. Then the clogging started. When I got to the point where I couldn't plunge it and I had to pay Roto-Router $195 to come out and unclog my only toilet at 10pm (which was guaranteed for 1 week, 8 days after they came it clogged again), I decided to listen and buy a new toilet. As I said, water is my nemesis. I used to use a different plumbing company to take care of the boiler on my heating system, I tried to call them about the toilet but I don't know if they went out of business or something, but I couldn't even get an answering machine when I called their phone number. Roto-Rooter is efficient anyway, they are good about showing up in a timely manner. I made an appointment to have them install a new toilet, not bothering to see what they charged, my bad. I went to Home Depot and asked the sales associate's advice. I was directed to the American Standard Champion 4.0. It rated a number 10 in a non-clogging competition or something.I bought it and a seat and the flexible piping to connect it to the wall. That came to almost $300. Roto-Rooter came out, installed the new toilet, took away the old toilet and the box with all the paperwork for the new toilet, helpful plumber that he was. That cost me $379. I was at work while this happened, I had someone at the house with the plumber and didn't specify that he leave the box and paperwork for the new toilet, again, my bad. After about a week, I started to hear the toilet run. It got to the point where it ran constantly. It kept waking me up all night, as my bedroom is next to the bathroom and I am a semi-light sleeper. I tried to call American Standard but either sat on hold for longer than I had time to (45-60 minutes) or was told thier call volume was too high and to call back at another time. Oh, and it does clog-don't beleive that non-clog #10 garbage, but I have been able to plunge. I had a different plumber come out about it running. This plumber told me it was the toilet, American Standard's are the worst toilet you can buy, he said. I needed a new toilet. After spending $875 on toilet situation so far (which I borrowed from my Heloc, so I am also paying interest on this) it was going to be a cold day in hell before I spend another $700 on another toilet. By they way, they recommended Koehler or Gerber, for future reference. At this point I am still furiously trying to get through to American Standard, to no avail. So I wrote them a lovely letter explaining the situation and asking them what they are going to do about it. It's been 3 weeks and I still never received a reply. I got to the point where I was turning the water off on the toilet so I could get some sleep at night. Bad idea....that shut off valve was not meant to be used like a sink faucet. One morning, after turning the water on the toilet and returning to the bathroom after 15 minutes, my bathroom floor was covered with water. Because I had been turning the water off and on, I knocked the packing loose so it was now leaking. I had enough. I tried to research American Standard online, hoping to find a phone number I could get through on. It was then that I found many complaints about the toilets running but they were all from 2004. I couldn't find anything more current and supposedly the problem was being fixed. I called Home Depot and was directed to the appliance department. I spoke to a very nice gentleman named Jim. who told me he had been selling American Standard toilets for years and never had a complaint about them. Hmmm... He asked me for the phone number I had been calling for he was going to call them on my behalf and get to the bottom of this. After that call, I called Roto-Rooter where I also got a very nice person, Lisa. Lisa didn't think my problem had anything to do with the installation but insisted that they send someone out to make sure. I left work to meet them and as usual they were very prompt. They explained about the shut off valve but didn't know what to tell me about the toilet running. They would fix the shut off valve and it was with either going to cost me $90 or $200 depending on the difficulty. I had to get it done so I agreed. I asked that they take the tank off and show me how to put it on so I could take it back to Home Depot. They said they would take the flushing mechanism out and I could return that. So while they were preparing paperwork in their van, I tried calling American Standard again. While sitting on hold, I called my brother-in-law that works for Trane. I knew that Trane had owned American Standard and thought that maybe he could get me a good phone number. I found out that Trane no longer owns American Standard but that he had purchased the same toilet and had the same problem. He told me to run my finger under the blue seal of the flushing mechanism and see if I felt any bubbles. He had had one that was keeping it from sealing properly. I had 6 bubbles. When the plumbers came back in I told them what the problem was and they popped the bubbles I had gotten to yet. Now the toilet runs about once every few hours of so vs. the constant flow before. It cost $90 to have the valve repaired. I FINALLY got through to American Standard the next day after sitting on hold for only 40 minutes, it was a miracle! I was angry and told them I had been trying to call for 3 weeks and had written a letter and never gotten a response. They are sending me a new flushing mechanism. Of course, I won't know how to install it but it is a start. I feel they should reimburse me for the valve repair. I feel they should compensate me for the stess- like maybe an all expense paid vacation in Hawaii.
UPDATE: The toilet now runs about every 40 minutes. I did receive an email from customer service at American Standard asking what color the flushing mechanism was because they think they know what the problem is. I replied and asked for the $90 and for someone to come install the new flusher....think they'll comply? They replied by saying they would send replacement parts and offer $75 towards the installation, if, I sent them a copy of the bill from the plumber and some form of truth of payment. I received the parts and decided to replace them myself. I turned the water off on the toilet removed the tank and figured it all out since the directions they sent were not for the parts them sent me. (suprise, suprise) While I was successful at installing the replacement parts and putting everything back together, I managed to break the tank lever. I ran to Home Depot, since I bought the toilet there, and purchased a Universal tank lever. I don't know how that one was supposed to work but it didn't for me. I ran back to the store, returned the garbage I had just bought and went to buy a different style. The first time we were there we had pushed the "help" button and no one ever came. The second time, we rang and a worker arrived, and not very happy about it. I came home with another one. This one seems to be too small for the hole in the tank. I am very frustrated and exhausted at this point, but Home Depot is closed now. I have cut my knuckles, my hands are chapped from being in water for too long, and now I have to pull the chain to flush the toilet.

On Information and Nutrition

T.M.I. Too much information. As a nation-we are inundated with too much information. So much information that I am confused. For example:I don't know anymore what is good for me nutritionally anymore.
Water was supposed to be the essence of life. You can live without food for awhile but water- that's a different thing. We need water. Eight 8oz. glasses of water a day. Even more if you can hold it or if you are trying to lose weight. I read that if you drank the number of ounces of water equivalent to the number of pounds you weigh, that you will loose weight quicker. You know if you weigh 150 lbs, you need to drink 150 oz of water to effectively loose weight. But wait, I just read in the October 2008 issue of "Woman's Day" that research now shows that we only need to drink enough water that is required to quench our thirst. WHAT?????!!!!! I read a lot of contradictory information like this in that publication. Especially since they changed their format recently. I've been a subscriber for many years but I'm tired of being confused so I am not renewing my subscription. I don't think I need to constantly here what the latest research is, I want to know the truth. I took statistics in college. I know how easy it is to manipulate a study. I never fell for the bottled water push. I never believed that there was anything special about the water in the bottle. But I did notice that increase in the amount of trash. All that waste from those bottles. Look what we've done now!
What about butter vs. margarine? For years we were told that butter is bad. If you eat it you'll have high cholesterol . You'll have a heart atack! Don't eat it! Margarine is healthier! But wait...I just received an email telling me that margarine is bad. It is one molecule away from being plastic. Do you want this in your body? I suppose the correct answer is not to eat either.
Meat scares me. Although personally, the thought of what I am eating freaks me out. Although I am not a full scale vegetarian, I am very picky about meat. I can eat a hamburger, (it's all ground up so you can't tell what it was). I can eat chopped up chicken. I have roasted the occasional chicken and then of course, turkeys at Thanksgiving for my family, but not without the occassional dry heave or being grossed out enough to pass on the poultry at the table. As humans we were meant to be carnivores, I realize this, but I still have a problem with it. But I digress, we went through the whole chicken "growth hormone" thing and mad cow disease. I guess we shouldn't be eating meat either with all the recalls. Salmonella poisoning. I guess we shouldn't eat poultry either.
We shouldn't eat processed foods. That's a given. We knew all those preservatives would catch up to us sometime. Maybe that is another reason people are living longer or maybe why some people look so good when they are getting up their in the years. Well that... and plastic surgery. I look at celebrities that are my age. I know that airbrushing does wonders but even so-take Demi Moore and Heather Locklear for example, we are about the same age. If you put us in the same room, you might think I could be their mother. You certainly wouldn't guess we are the same age. Even if I had the money, I wouldn't bother spending it on my looks, there are many more important things in the world that could use that money, poverty sticken countries, alternative energy, saving the enviroment, etc.....
I'm sure I'll have more to say about nutrition in the future.

Living by Murphy's Law

I don't live by Murphy's law by choice, but I know I have the freedom to choose. I have made the choices that have created my little disasters or made my life uncomfortable or stressed me out. I take credit for wise decisions that have enabled me to raise my children in a safe, comfortable enviroment. Sometimes things just happen. Maybe there is a lesson to learn with every mistake we make. Maybe it's just a case of: "If it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger". At this point, I should be Hercules. I've read the self-help books like "The Secret". You know the advice "think positive"; "Life is what you make it", blah, blah, blah. I tried. I think there are some things that are beyond our control. For example, when my daughter was on the way to school and her car slid on a freak ice patch and she hit two other cars, I didn't wake up thinking hmmmmm......I think someone's going to be in an accident today. I remember walking outside on 9/11/2001 and thinking what a beautiful day it was. I wasn't thinking that planes were going to crash into the world trade center. I didn't think that when I went out to trim all the plants that were growing over my driveway from the yard of the empty house next door that I would be covered in poison ivy two days later. I can't take responsiblity for making these things happen but I usually take responsibility for alot that happens.