Marabel, I cry for you but who will hear me?

Marabel,—————————-I cry for you -
Marabel,———————————— no one hears me, I am sorry.
Rest in Peace, Dear Forgotten Soul.

If this ever happens again, SHAME AMERICA and SHAME THE WEALTHY and SHAME THE GOVERNMENT.

UPDATE. Marabel was finally laid to rest after contacts were made with her remaining relatives in Florida. She had a grave site waiting for her next to her parents. A small funeral was held for her and attended by those who were touched by her story and never knew her. She now rests in peace.

This is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard of. To think that it reflects what our society has become, should be a wake up call to everyone or anyone here on earth who still has or knows the word, compassion.

Try RAGU – PIZZA QUICK!

It comes in a small jar at your local grocer. What it is, is a mixture of pizza sauce, (I prefer the original style, they have different flavors) with spices that you spread on a slice of white bread and then toast in an oven or a toaster oven.  Toast until the bottom of the bread is just firm and not really toasted, unless you like your pizza crunchy. Let them cool slightly, (so you don’t get pizza mouth) then enjoy.

Kids love them because it’s like having a mini pizza with each slice. You can even get some grated cheese, sliced peperoni and some of your other favorite toppings to spread on them, to add to their fun and taste.

The kids will eat them up!  It’s great  at a small birthday party (buy several jars, but it’s still way cheaper than real pizza).  Help the kids put the toppings on their own slices and show them how to make funny faces with the toppings. Then you heat them for the kids and serve them. That way they get to build and eat their own little pizzas. Remember sometimes it’s the simple things that are the most fun and most remembered.

A jar is only around two or three bucks depending where you shop and should make about a dozen or so slices, depending on how thick you spread the sauce.

It’s a quick and cheep meal or even a great Bednight Snack. Not great nutritional value so don’t serve too frequently. But it’s just like mini pizzas and they say pizza has all the good stuff you need.

So Enjoy. Just add four pepperonis and light cheese to mine please! And by the way I like mine lightly toasted.

Bankruptnooption.

The Correct or Incorrect Job, Public Weatherperson

In the age of supercomputers and the internet, good old mother nature still throws curve balls, constantly.

With the help of computers, weather has become much more easy to track and follow, short term, but it seems as though it hasn’t become any easier to predict much past a day or two.

We watch the five day or weekly forecasts and make our plans to do outdoor things on the days that will be nice. One says rain, the other says sun. Now as the chosen days approach, the forecast starts to go south. When the selected period is almost upon us, guess what, you wont be doing anything outside now, because the forecast  has changed completely from days ago. Good or bad, it works both ways, because rainy days will turn to nice ones also. So they have not successfully predicted the weather for the period, but what they did succeed at, is tracking the weather and correcting the forecast, to fit the day and time for our area.

Name any other real 9 to 5 job, where you don’t always have to be correct in what you are doing. Sure, everyone makes mistakes in what they do, but hopefully not as frequently as mother nature changes her outcome for the weatherpeople. If any other person working a 9 to 5 job was wrong in what they did up to 50% or more of the time, they wouldn’t be working very long at all.

We all know weather can and will change, so we naturally don’t pin it on the weatherperson very hard at all. It really isn’t a bad career choice, if you are employed in forecasting for the public and not for NASA or businesses where weather is not only critical but also noted as having been foretasted correctly or not.

You can be a weather forecaster for TV, radio, news papers, internet news, etc., and make a very good career of it without having to be correct all the time, or worry about being fired just for making a simple mistake. Don’t get me wrong, you still have to do the job that they expect, getting it done on time and with all of the skill and knowledge of a professional, of which you will have studied many years to become.

So it’s not all peaches and creame, but if you do the job well and give it your best shot, then you probably won’t get fired if it rains on your bosses golf outing.

Bankruptnooption.

The Rising Trend of Military Suicide.

Check out the stats at  http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html.  Suicide is on the increase for all ages and groups with the military leading the stats.

Suicide is something as complex as each and every individual who attempts it. There will always be some people who make this choice in society and it will never end completely, because we are human. That’s the key and the suicide prevention lines and groups are hitting close to the answer. Unfortunately you can lead a thirsty horse to water but you can’t make it drink, is true. All of the options to bypass the tragedy, by having others intervene at the critical moment are a good start and some will opt to take it, but many do not.

Now lets just say you start training the horse to go to the water and get a drink before it is full grown. So when the horse grows up and you lead him to the water when he is thirsty, he will be more likely to drink. Parents and educators have less time than ever before to prepare our kids for the real world. So why not give them some education about real life, while they are in high school. Teach them about all the things they will experience in their lifetimes and give them the information they will need to get through the critical times in life and make the correct choices. Show them all of the options there are, for help with issues that will plague them.

Teach these young adults all of the difficult things that they may experience in their lives, and teach them all of their options for getting through them. Lay out their choices and let them know that you can get through even the toughest of things if you know what your options are. Show them all of their avenues they have to get help with each and every option, because there are many for each problem. Give examples of how others got through each and every problem and where they turned for help.

They teach classes such as sex ed and psychology in high school but they never prepare you to move on past the safe haven of those high school walls into the real world. College is the next stop and it is all about learning your career so you can get out and live life only to run into those obsticles. The training to help people make the correct choices and get help with the problems they will face in life is missing in todays educational system. Untill it is taught and reinforced by all educators and parents across America, the rate will continue to fluctuate as it does now.

Bankruptnooption.

FREE Government Cell Phone by SAFELINK WIRELESS, for Low Income.

The government and Tracfone – (Safelink Wireless) have stepped up to the plate and hit a homer with this one.

You get a basic, free cell phone complete with a wall charger and they supply you with a certain amount of roll over minutes per month, every month, to use as you wish. All Free and No Contracts Involved.

You can also buy extra minutes on a phone card, sold at local convince stores, shopping centers and many gas stations to add more time to the phone if you ever run out, or want more time before the next month.

The qualifications and amount of minutes change by state. You can see if you qualify for the free phone and sign up at their site listed below.

It’s real easy to sign up and not to bad of a deal, considering that it doesn’t cost you a dime and provides you with your very own 24-7 cell phone to use as you need.

The only catch is you can only get one per household. If you have two people in the same house who need them, then one of you just go purchase a pay as you go phone for $19 bucks and pay for your own minutes or split the cost. This is a very affordable way to have phone service between two people who really can’t afford contract phones.

So get them, but use them sparingly, keeping down the chit chat and you will never be without a phone again. It’s a real help and money-saver.

I haven’t heard of a cutoff date for getting the phones or a date when the free usage will stop, so go to SAFELINK WIRELESS.COM and see if you qualify.

You can completely register by calling them at 1-800-SAFELINK, or on their site at one of the links provided here. It’s Free, Completely Confidential, And A Big Help To Anyone Who Is Having It Tough.

Thanks for this one TracFone and Uncle Sam.

Reachout Wireless has just come up with the free phone offer also.

To get your Free Phone, CLICK on one of the following links. Then follow their instructions. SIMPLE!

www.safelinkwireless.com

www.reachoutwireless.com

Now Here’s a HOT TIP – REMEMBER — YOU CAN ALWAYS DIAL 911 FREE FROM ANY CELL PHONE, WHETHER THE CONTRACT or MINUTES HAVE EXPIRED OR NOT. THE PHONE WILL ALWAYS DIAL 911 FREE, AS LONG AS IT IS CHARGED, IN WORKING CONDITION AND RECEIVING A SIGNAL.

Here’s a few more HOT TIPS -

Those old unused cell phones are perfect for older more responsible kids and teens who have been taught how to use 911. Let them carry one with them when they go out and you will feel a little more at ease while they are gone.

They are great to keep as a spare emergency phone in your vehicles, or to take when you are on vacation also.

Give them to visiting out-of-town relatives who don’t have a cell phone to carry during their stay, and they will never forget it.

Give one to an older relative who doesn’t want a cell phone. Explain to them that 911 is free and they can keep it charged at home for an extra phone to use in emergency’s or they can carry it with them when they go out and it won’t cost them a dime. It could save their life!

You can also donate them to charities and recyclers. There are even a few organizations that take used cell phones and in exchange provide our active duty service men and women with free phone cards to use as they want. These programs may be hard to find locally, but are definitely worth donating to. Search “used cell phone donations’ in your search engine to find one near you.

Bankruptnooption.

Now Here is a Little Stress Reliever to Ease your Day.

World’s Meanest Dog: The English Cocker Spaniel?

An article in the Discovery news stated the above fact and gave test results that showed it and at the end of the article they also broke into animal training and how any dog could be bad without proper training, also admitting that over half their study group had poor training.

Listen up, whoever wrote that article is correct about the training and that goes for any breed. But the study was bull.

When any dog grows up in a family that treats them like one of the kids, punishing when bad and rewarding when good, you end up with good results. Although not every kid or dog will turn out perfect and that’s part of life. Some may have a little temperament, most just need a stern master and a stable household. No way, the worlds meanest dog by far, or the baddest kid either, with a little guiding love.

The English and all other Cockers are some of the most sweetest and faithful dogs there ever was. You just have to raise them from pup and let them know you are the big dog and your family will have a companion to the end. They are one of the easiest dogs to train.

Besides who can resist those sad eyes!

Read more about the  ENGLISH COCKER SPANIEL.

Bankruptnooption.

Hidden Talents – No Resume Necessary.

An unemployed man going through the paper, sees an add for a job at the circus. The add says “Wanted an individual with crowd appeal. You must be able to grab the attention of the crowd, to make them feel happy and welcome here before each act.” Apply at the front office.

Since the man was a salesman, he figured that the Ringmasters job of introducing the acts, was right up his alley. It sure seemed like something he could do. As a salesman, he was very experienced in explaining things to customers, while wording things to grab their attention. Then once he had their attention, he made it seem like what he was selling, was the best thing on the face of the earth. He would reel the customers in with his expertise and then let them know exactly what they were going to get.

“Perfect” he shouted, knowing all along in his mind, that he was the right one for the job. So he got all handsomely dressed up in his best suit and set off on his way. Only making one stop for coffee along the way.

Arriving at the circus office after a short drive, he quickly grabbed his resume from the passengers seat and opened the door of the car to step out. As he did, the wind surprisingly caught hold of the resume, whisking it from his hand and onto the ground next to the car, in one fast swoop. Not wanting it to get dirty or blow away, hastily he leaned from the car to retrieve the resume, forgetting the fact that he still had the hot cup of coffee between his legs, that he picked up on the way.

“YE OW” he screamed, leaping from the car like his pants were on fire, splashing coffee everywhere and onto the resume as well, just as the wind was about to give it another big push. The resume flew several feet farther as he frantically danced around the lot, patting down his pants, trying to stop the sensations he was experiencing from the hot coffee against his legs.

When the burning finally subsided, he quickly focused in on the resume, only to see it be blown under a car a few spots away. Wondering how he was going to reach it, he sprinted back to his car. He had an idea, the umbrella in his trunk would be the perfect tool for the retrieval process. Grabbing his keys he walked back and opened the trunk, reaching in to grab the umbrella. As he bent over, the wind closed the lid down on his head hard enough for him to see stars. He flung the keys down in the trunk, quickly grabbing and rubbing his head for a moment, then hastily grabbing the umbrella, he stepped back from the trunk slamming the lid in discus.

He walked back to the car with the paper underneath, bent over with the umbrella and when he looked to find the paper, it was gone, apparently blown away with the last gust. So he started what must have looked like an unusual ritual. He began to sprint from car to car with the umbrella in hand, dropping to all fours and looking under the cars as if he were kid with a base ball bat, looking for a foul ball that had gotten away from the game.

He sprinted around and looked under the last car but without luck. It was gone, and with his head hung low, looking like a prize fighter who lost his championship belt, he walked back to his car. He approached his car door slamming it shut, and there, laying on the ground behind where the door had been open, was his resume. He bent over and picked up the resume, finally it was back in his possession. Then he looked at it. Not to bad he thought, a few coffee stains, a little wrinkled and dirty, but generally looking better overall, than he himself did now. So he paused for a moment and then headed straight for the office door.

A older, portly gentleman greeted the man at the door with a smile, knowing all along, that he was the right one. He asked the man if he was the one who called, then introduced himself as the manager. Never letting the man know that he had watched him from the moment he pulled in to the parking lot, until he made it to the door. He invited the frazzled man into the building, offered him a seat, took the tattered resume and then began intently listening to the man as he told of his long career in sales and mentioned how he felt he was the perfect candidate for the job.

The manager left and quickly returned with some rags and led him through a long hallway into a large room with a dim light shining in the middle. He tossed the rags to the man stepping back into the surrounding darkness while telling the man to put it on.

Put on rags? The man was puzzled. But upon further examination of the rags he found it to be an old coat, so he slipped it on. He stood there for a moment checking out the jacket. He reached into the top pocket and found a folded handkerchief that he started to pull from the pocket. His face became all scrunchy as he realized he had just pulled a second one out that was tied to the first. He pulled faster and faster and to his surprise they just kept on coming. All the while he was slowly stepping backwards and then he suddenly tumbled backwards over a small stool, he hadn’t noticed. Huge fake gold coins flew from one of the pockets and landed everywhere. He was ok though, because the floor was covered with thick blue spongy mats that he hadn’t noticed either.

He crawled around and around, gathering up a thousand coins and what seemed like an endless supply of handkerchiefs, placing them next to the stool. Then he sat down on the stool to wait, but shot up into the air like a rocket when he felt something wiggle behind him on the stool. With quick jerky movements, looking like he was in a straight jacket, he reached around into a large back pocket grabbing what was inside, only to pull out a bunny rabbit.

Recomposing himself and with a huge smile for the bunny, he sat down, only to once again be launched from the stool. He rose to a loud ringing sound, and while quickly setting down bunny, he started to check the pockets for the loud ringing. To his amusement he pulled out a huge alarm clock from another pocket. Then he saw bunny hopping away, so he suddenly started to chase it, so he wouldn’t loose it. He dove in mid air landing on his belly and grabbed the bunny before it disappeared out into the surrounding darkness of the room.

He stood up and he heard what sounded like the manager laughing and he was getting closer. Just then the manager appeared and walked up to the man with a big smile on his face and told the man that he was perfect and that the job was his if he wanted it.

“Oh Great” the man said, “I always wanted to be the Ringmaster of the Circus” he exclaimed!

“Ringmaster”, the manager laughed, “Although I could use an extra Ringmaster, I am looking for a clown and your a perfect fit”.

“I’ll Take It”, the man said with a smile.

Bankruptnooption.

To bad most employers don’t have the skills to look beyond a persons resume or it’s format and more towards the person they are interviewing. The ability to rely more on the interview itself is now becoming more a thing of the past. Personal traits and characteristics should be more of a factor over, some of the easily learned requirements. Many job requirements can be easily and quickly learned by most people in very short periods of time. But you can’t teach a person to have the mentality that goes with a job even though they may have the training.

That’s why many positions you see filled, get posted over and over again. Many managers today do not have the people skills to begin to tell whether or not someone is right for a job. Whether they fit and have the true mental capacity to do it. That’s why they are critiquing resumes so harshly now and now looking at credit scores so heavily for the answers. But a credit score, or a perfectly drafted resume isn’t going to tell you if they are mentally equip to do the job or are happy with their career, though it’s all they may have done. You have to find that out by interviewing them. It’s that simple. No resume needed. Just a quick verbal rundown of their history and the things they know, along with some good general discussion, should be enough to let you know if they are truly right to consider for the position, with or without all the important skills that you require.

Buy em a Book, Send em to School and look what you get!

Bankruptnooption.

May America Prosper, Through Generous Means.

Case in point. A major credit company announced that they were laying off about 4000 more employees because of low PROFITS. About 75% lower than last year. Wow. They still made a 25% PROFIT and they still choose to lay them off so their profit will be CLOSER TO LAST YEAR.

Definition of PROFIT: the excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction or series of transactions ; especially : the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost, : a gain.

This company received from the government stimulus, $3,360,000,000.00 That’s almost Three and a half billion folks. Now wouldn’t one think that with the loan and them making a PROFIT, they shouldn’t be laying off 4000 workers. They should be accepting the lower PROFIT as a gain (which it is), that’s reflective of the tough times, and keep the 4000 employees until they actually don’t make a PROFIT and can’t afford to pay them another check. Then they should use the 3.3 billion to pay and keep the employees. Isn’t that what some of this stimulus money was for?

Shouldn’t the workers pay be budgeted into the earnings they made before they turned a PROFIT anyway? Shouldn’t the workers pay be coming from the 3.3 billion and only if they didn’t turn a PROFIT?

Why then are these companies being allowed to borrow from the stimulus package and still yet turn a PROFIT? Then increase that PROFIT by laying off 4000 more workers?

That boils down to the American public loaning them cash, to make a PROFIT and lay off more workers to make that PROFIT bigger. In other words your tax dollars just went towards laying off 4000 of your hard working fellow Americans and the company that did it just put extra cash in their pocket.

That is nothing but pure old, Wanna have more, Gotta have more, GREED and as long as these companies are allowed to keep borrowing money and increasing PROFITS by laying people off, then it isn’t going to get any better any time soon my friend.

Definition of GREED: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed.

I would like to see a freeze on layoffs, to the point of canceling the way they are giving out the stimulus money right now (and they don’t even know how the companies are spending it as of yet). Then putting a bunch of accountants to work , monitoring all companies earnings every quarter and only paying out enough to cover actual shortages if they didn’t turn a PROFIT, so they could continue to operate and keep all their workers. Then cut off the stimulus when they start to turn a PROFIT again, and so on.

Wouldn’t that be real stimulus and wouldn’t that be easy to keep track of also? With no more laid off workers the economy would slowly start to grow again. You would begin to hear that the unemployment rate is starting to decline at a slow and steady pace, then and only then would things begin to turn around for good and not just temporarily. I don’t care how much they give these companies, without a plan for the companies to abide by to use the money, they are going to just keep finding ways at the expense of workers and the economy, to stuff more into their own pockets, yeah, you remember — GREED.

When Henry Ford started out, he realized that he would have to employ many workers and that he must pay his workers a GENEROUS wage, well enough for them to thrive and well enough to enable his own workers to buy his own product, if he wanted to succeed and he did! He actually succeeded through GENEROUS actions, not GREED.

Definition of GENEROUS: : liberal in giving, : marked by abundance or ample proportions.

Please let American Businesses see the light and the wrong of being greedy.

May America Prosper, Through Generous Means!

Bankruptnooption.

President Obama at Notre Dame! but What a shame.

There are only a few ceremonies that most people will experience in their lives, and graduating from college, especially a highly ranked school such as Notre Dame, is a major event to say the least. That kind of experience is something most people will always remember, along with weddings and wakes.

Graduations are a special time in someones life, where family and friends get together to celebrate the achievements of their dear love ones. It’s a major stepping stone in their path to the American dream and full maturity.

Now you take an event like that, then add the President of the United States of America to the ceremonies, as the main speaker and the main guest of honor and you really have something that most people attending will “want” to remember all of their lives.

The president has more on his plate at any one time than most anyone around, we all know that. There are only so many minutes in any one day, for him to designate to the current issues on his agenda. I don’t know how it all started, but for such an important ceremony as Graduating from Notre Dame, to become clouded with debate over an issue, no matter how important or pressing it is at the time, is not only stripping such an important ceremony of it’s grace and dignity, but is entirely an inappropriate action, harming not only the cause it was intended to support, but the ceremony it interfered with as well.

Nobody likes or just puts up with interruptions, without carrying away in their active or subconscious mind, at least a small feeling of anger or resentment toward the one that interrupted or the idea they were trying to express at the time they interrupted.

It’s sad to think, that the future memories of everyone who attended that ceremony, will live on clouded forever by such a sad choice to exercise our American right to free speech. Free speech YES, but there are appropriate times and agendas for it, that in the end will not detract from the event it is tossed in to, or turn the people in attendance against the opinions being expressed about the issue.

Plain and simple, just like our mothers used to teach us and for the reasons they explained: It’s not nice to interrupt.

Bankruptnooption.

SUBTOPIC: LET’S PARTICIPATE AND COMMUNICATE AMERICA!

There is a Great need in this country for the government to create a discussion forum, that is carried nationwide by one free channel on television, so everyone can tune in, that moves across the country from state to state, in which the people in attendance can discuss or express their viewpoints about scheduled topics with the appropriate government officials handling those issues.

The scheduled channels, times, topics and meeting places would be advertised in every local newspaper and on the channel carrying it, in advance so more people can participate. This would help everyone in America to make choices about important issues that may or may not deal with them directly. It would make more Americans aware of what’s happening in America and we would become much more informed voters on issues that come to ballot.

Bankruptnooption.

We all need a little help now and then.

Enjoy and remember, People need help too!

Give A Squirrel A Helping Hand @ Yahoo! Video

Bankruptnooption.

Closing dealers, open an Automall – Autopark.

For all you dealers who are being let go, don’t take it lying down. Fight back. Here’s how.

Get together with many others in your area and start up some chains of Automalls or Autoparks.! Yep you heard me right, Automalls or Autoparks.

It’s not a new idea by any sense of the word and a few dealerships are already somewhat half set up this way.

First sit down together as adults, not squabbling children and throw the idea on the table. Now see what will work best for everyone, by either splitting items up between Automalls or by just keeping everyones Automall the same plan as the others. You can even group together monetarily as partners, or just as friends and advisors. Now here’s what I envision. Remember you will build up to it, adding new things all the time.

I want to see these dealerships turn into very small used car sales lots, splitting the inventory between the group. Now don’t get rid of your repair garages, because they will be needed for prepping and repairing ALL, yes I said, All makes of cars. Your garage will become your very own General Auto Repair Facility, After market part Installation, and Customization Center, for your Automall.

Good. Now let’s start to get some people in the doors. First off, the group will subcontract with several local stores in the area. You will be subcontracting with your local auto parts stores, your local tire stores, your local stereo, car alarm, and window repair shops, your local performance shops, detail and customizing shops in the area as well. Now if one chooses Murray’s and one chooses Auto Zone, then you sort that stuff out, or host both, I don’t care what you choose, but figure it out for the good of all, Bottom Line. Just remember the more you pattern your malls with the same selections, the better your chances of success, when working together as a chain.

The large main lots at each Automall, will become with the help of some easily fabricated steel buildings, small rows of Walk through, sidewalk covered, strip malls (sort of like an art or a street fair), but only permanent, with a small front for each of the companies you choose, to sell items for their main stores by displays, catalog and computer monitors.

Someone comes in and goes to the Local performance shop outlet you chose and buys a set of headers from the catalog or display, at a small discount because you stock only display merchandise, keeping all the general stock at the mother stores. No warehouse, no parts storage, except for your General Garage items used frequently, so they don’t have to be shipped from the part stores. Customers can go pick up their merchandise at the branch that has it, nearest their house, have it shipped from the branch right to their house, or the parts can be quickly delivered to your General Auto Center for installation by your trained mechanics. Tires, Shocks, Mufflers, stereos, alarms, the list is endless. Anything Sold or Installed on any car A-Z and Anything Repaired on any car A-Z, All in one location. With sales commission for the Autopark too. Still Good.

You can even go so far as having a store front on the strip, to host the first public – Online Shopping Internet Store. Complete with computers and a sales staff, to help the customers in finding parts at the online companies you choose to host, then phoning in the orders for the customers. The items are either shipped to their house or your General Garage for later installation, after you notify them the parts are in. That type of store will become a franchise deal in the next several years. You subcontract with the stores you choose to host online, like JC Whitney, that don’t have real stores, or just a couple. Now, you are an Outlet for a lot more businesses than your mall could ever accommodate.

Now lets get the customers satisfied and happy. I know most customers, dad’s, mom’s, etc., wouldn’t mind waiting around to get their new car stereo or ground effects package, installed on their ride, in your General Garage, if and only if, there was somewhere that had all the necessities they needed, while waiting. Also things to keep the kids entertained, as well as having somewhere to water and walk the dog. Now that you are becoming more family orientated and customer friendly, which is part of what keeps them coming back, you need to expand into your old spaces.

So hence forth Your New Food and Entertainment area, located on your mall grounds, in the old building.

First off we need to set up a contract with one or two types of fast food places for variety and put in a Dairy Queen. Give them a place near the front of the lot to operate. How about your main showroom. You don’t need that anymore because the used car management and sales staff will have their own out building on the corner of the used sales lot, to do business. Besides we can make the drive through pass right in front of the restaurants, right off the main road, convenient. Have some outdoor adjoined seating around the restaurants, where they can eat and feed Fido a few scraps at the same time, just like they do at home. All the people driving by, will see others with or without their dogs sitting out and enjoying food or ice cream and it will become a magnet, just like the lines in front of the ice cream shops pull you in.

Let’s clear out a space behind the Food Court and expand more now, next to the your General Garage Facility, so that after they eat, the customers can stroll to the Entertainment mall! The Entertainment mall will house; TheAutomall Arcade – All Racing Games All The Time, The Car Toy Store – From A-Z all car or driving or racing related toys with (hobby centers too) and The Go Cart Run, with Radio Controll + Slot Cars tracks as well. Don’t forget to include a couple of places like The Car Collectibles, or The Racing Merchandise shop, or an Auto Interior Store, (your wife and daughter will love setting that up), with all the goodies that the gals will need for the insides of their rides. Just make sure you post every shop you promote, on the “YOU ARE HERE” MAP BOARDS located in the different sections of your Automall. We want NO ATTRACTION OVERLOOKED!

Now let’s go a little further and subcontract with a local car wash facility and a local oil change shop and put one of each, right next to the used car lot to help them out. Make them easily accessed from the main road and by an access road from the Garage as well. Let’s make a few deals with the states we are in and attach to your new (metal constructed) used car sales office, a DMV, or Secretary of State office, to service all of your customers State driving needs. Don’t forget a small Taxi Stand by the General Service Garage and Remember to serve your community, by keeping a couple of parking spots Reserved for Ambulances that are between calls, so they can park and save gas. With paramedics parked on site and chatting with the people who wander past them, everybody feels more at ease with the huge crowds you will develop. Besides it will help lower your insurance rates as well!

Now that you are in good with the state and your local city, you can subcontract a local driving school to join in the fun. The sky’s your limit, you decide what’s next. Maybe a small playground or small kiddie carnival rides, under a movie screen, in an old fashioned Drive In Movie setting, showing movies on the huge screen mounted on the side of the fast food court, that faces the main parking lot, with cruise night being on Friday or Saturday night. Just don’t build the monkey bars over a cement pad, like when we were kid’s, or you might have to add a couple more spots for the ambulances.

You see, with a little imagination and creativity, along with that good old American, Go Get Em Attitude, I know you guys will be around a long time. Who knows, when things pick back up and the manufacturers realize, that they acted too quickly, by letting so many dealers go all at once and they need more dealers to keep up with the new demands, maybe they will beat a path to your door so they can have their new line of cars sold by the best Automall or Autopark chain around! How about that for a turnaround, hey! Sure beats a regular dealership any day! Plan on Expanding. LOL.

I am going to stop here and let you continue my Automall Dream idea, with a group or chain of dealers that are closing around you. I hope you all join in and even if you have to sell a few dealerships for capitol, to make one mall or park. Just work together and play nice and fair, reasoning things out for everyone involved. No Greed Allowed. Remember, All For One, and One For All! I wish you all, Full and Complete Happiness and Success, on your New En devours.

Now go get it done and I’ll be seeing everyone at the Automall or Autopark.

P.S. I’m Looking for a position, so someday I can retire happy also!

Bankruptnooption.

Eliminating Dealerships, and Why?

Almost 800 Chrysler and 1100 GM dealers, will have to become creative or go out of business by October of 2010. Maybe sell some used cars or another brand. Maybe branch out into more service or create Auto Parks, that’s what I’d do, because I sure wouldn’t go under. More about that idea in the next post for all of those unfortunate dealers.

They will be getting the pink slips from the manufacturers. Supply and demand rule how many cars will be sold at any given time, so why give them pink slips. Why not just let them sell what they can or downsize  or fold on their own, if they can’t make it. I don’t get how putting them all out of business, will streamline and help the manufacturers, when the dealerships are privately owned in the first place. What is it I am missing?

For now many will just turn out the lights and call it quits. Sending their employees packing to the unemployment lines of America, where they will become more of a burden on an already ailing economy, and that can’t be good. Things will eventually get better and there will be a larger population also. Sales of everything will go up and more and more people will again be added on, to sell the items.

Dealerships will always strive to sell the most they can from each location in the future, before adding others again. They will strive to remain lean and green this time around. But more will definitely be needed again, so why cut them now? Let them sink or swim at their own pace and we won’t loose as many, or have to replace as many later.

With these cuts now, we will have thousands of people from dealers, who will only add to the statistics before things get better.  Things will only turn around when companies realize they have to accept the profits for the number of employees they do have and not lay more off. That will become the turning point where unemployment numbers start to decline steadily and America gets going again.

Less profits and no more workforce cuts to keep profits up, is what is needed to change things. I feel they are wrong to cut their privately owned sales teams by this many and send them to the unemployment line. This can’t be good for anyone and will only hurt the economy more, just when we need these kind of cuts less, so that things will start to turn around.

What do you think about the dealership cuts?

Bankruptnooption.

Grainger, an Awesome Parts Store that turns away the public.

If you are the type of home owner who repairs a lot of your own stuff and you ever need parts, Do Not Go To Grainger.

You can walk in begging for the part and willing to pay them in cold hard cash, only to end up being sent out the door packing. They are well known through out the industrial and commercial business world out there, and they stock a lot of things that are hard to find.

But as a homeowner, Do Not Go There. Period. I don’t know if they ever sold to the public, but their way of doing business restricts anyone not associated with a business, from buying anything there. I feel that in this day and age, to refuse to sell to the public, when you are actually just a retailer and not a genuine manufacturer, is not very nice, but also a bad business decision to boot. Their bottom line could increase considerably, if only they sold to the public. I don’t know their reasoning behind it, but I know they sit there and do nothing, when they could have bailed out many people by selling them the parts they needed, that only they carry.

I know this first hand. That is my experience with them and I have tried to purchase something there several times, because they were the only place that carried what I needed locally.

If the reason is fear of returns, because customers say it will work and then return it, they could simply say, no parts sold unless they are a direct match, and or the salesman approves the replacement part. Period. This would not only solve their return issues, but allow them to be more of a driving force in the economy and to the towns they are in.

I hope that some day they reconsider their ways of doing business.  They loose out on many sales this way and until you hear the big announcement on your nightly news, with all the new advertising to go with it, I wouldn’t go there. As a retailer in America, they are not very friendly or supportive to the public in the cities they do business in, or elsewhere for that matter. So for now, if you search high and low you may be able to find the parts you need, but you might be looking at several hours of long distance calls and a few hour drive just to go see if they are indeed the correct parts.

Now if you need that knueter valve thing y on Christmas Eve, so you can fix your furnace and save the cost of an emergency repair service call, at 10 times the normal price, then you better just stay home and tell grandma and the children, that they better wear a warm robe tomorrow morning to open their presents, because it may be a little cold around the Christmas tree, Thanks to your present from Grainger.

Even the homeless must pay rent? WHAT!

In New York, the homeless shelters are charging rent to the individuals staying there. I can understand maybe as high as $50 – $100 bucks a month to cover incidentals like water, electric and such, but a whopping $345 , for a room for two people to share that’s no bigger than a jail cell, you have got to be kidding. Oh yea, they expect you to save up money from your checks (no job no shelter) so you can get your own place to live after six months is up. Unbelievable!

You can only stay there six months and in the room, you are not allowed much more than your clothes. No TV. or Radio, and then they slap a curfew on top of all that. For $345 bucks. Ridiculous. They are making people pay so much, that most of them say they are unable to save little to nothing after paying the rent, plus buying all of their food, clothing, personal hygiene items and such.

These are supposed to be public shelters that help people, who are having a tough time financially, and they go and dip off the top of every persons monthly earnings, rent like that, and for what they are giving. These people would do better in a cardboard box in a warm climate, behind a Red Cross building somewhere. At least they could save some money then. (Why isn’t the Red Cross creating or finding shelter for those who need it? There’s people living in tents out there!)

These shelters are usually subsidized by tax money or government programs that are paid back to the states and cities. So why the heck are they Raking these poor folks over the coals, for anything that they can get. This should be outlawed and in my opinion, any place caught doing this, should have to answer up to the States Attorney General, as to why they are gouging these poor folks.

There are people out here hurting right now, many without jobs much less a home to stay in anymore. For cities to charge rent like that to someone who is down on their luck and hurting and homeless because of the economy and not because they just weren’t trying, is absurd, unjust, uncalled for and seems a little unamerican also.

There is an economic crisis going on right now, not only in our country, but around the world as well. Don’t they understand what that means? Millions are now homeless and jobless. Millions more will walk down the same path, before this all gets better! And they have the nerve, when the government is bailing out GM and Chrysler to charge these poor people rent like that, when they don’t have much more left, than the clothes on their backs and a job that didn’t earn them enough to keep them out of a shelter anyway. Bull———- That’s just not the American way, or is it?

Bankruptnooption.

Greeting The New Neighbors and What We Expect.

Well with so many people moving around now days and so many houses being bought and either lived in or rented, how are we greeting the New Neighbors these days?. Maybe a pie or a hand shake across the fence or a simple wave. Probably not. But we should at least say Hello just to be friendly.

In days of past, New neighbors were welcomed into the community, with open arms, just as if they were long lost friends returning from a failed expedition. There were huge dinners, parties, or celebrations, along with many gifts of welcome called house warming gifts, to help make things easier for them until they get set up. So how did your neighbors welcome you when you arrived? Tons of fanfare or lots of stares?

Welcoming new neighbors is one thing in society that we do not have much time for these days, with all of our deadlines and errands to run. Also, now days people seem to move in and move out so quickly, that we never really get to know the ones that left, if they were worth knowing, before more are moving in. Maybe that’s the real reason for the lack of enthusiasm over meeting the Newbies, or part of it anyway.

Yes it is a rough position to be a Newbie, because all of the pressure is on you. You have to live up to your neighbors expectations before you usually get more than a wave. Oh sure there are always those who are the exceptions to the rule, some that you can count on stopping by when they first see you. The ones that will wander by to invite you down to go swimming and lend you some swim trunks before you are out of the car, or have anything moved in yet. Then there’s the type that will pause while passing by, to warn you about the others, along with all of the things you should be made aware of. They will let you know, just what the people who moved out before you, had to deal with. These are only the extremes.

In general, most of your neighbors will fall towards the middle of those extremes, thank goodness, with the welcome r’s doing just what society has taught them to do at first. The welcome r’s will watch or peek out the window or stand on their porch with another neighbor they know, while scrutinizing your every move and judging you by everything they see. If the Newbie gives them a polite wave because they see they are being watched, the welcome r’s will generally always give a small wave back in return, while trying to look as if they weren’t watching at all. So for the opening ceremonies there isn’t much more than that. Simple isn’t it. Newbies, don’t forget you also, can walk up to your neighbors and make a polite introduction, to help break the ice. After all you are the New Neighbors.

Now on with the game. The neighbors around you will start to flex one way or another. You either end up with neighbors who would have rather lived next to an empty house, not having anything to do with you, except letting you know that the parking spot your in is theirs, or whatever it is you are doing wrong. Now on the other end it will seem as though you have found a new lost friend, one who is always in your back pocket, even inviting themselves over for dinner on occasion. They know all and tell all, about who does what or who to watch out for. These are more the types of neighbors you will end up having.

What it all boils down to is that the welcome may not be big, but you just became a major part of their lives for good or bad and time will tell if you can measure up, so that things will go smoothly between you. You have to figure out their personalities real quick and either become some degree of friendly to them and associate a little, or let them be the loaners they want to be, hardly giving them a wave once a year around the holidays. So here is my recommendation to you, the New Neighbor because, the key to everyones peace and happiness is all riding on you!

Treat your neighbors the way that you would like to be treated. Don’t act any worse than you would expect new neighbors of yours to act. Stick with mostly small talk and keep it friendly. Try to remain nice in all cases. Try to stay center-line on things and issues that generally don’t matter to you anyway. Save having to put your foot down for the major issues that can come up. If you are lucky there won’t be any. In other words lets learn to choose our battles appropriately. Stick to the ones that are important to you for one reason or another and don’t use your pride or ego as a judge of those either. If it really is important for a major reason, then pick up your legal papers and fight it out. Otherwise, most things that are not worth fighting over, will only lead to more trouble in the end, so settle. Even if you have to show you are always the bigger person, just settle on all the little things that really do not matter. You will end up feeling like a parent with children around you, but things will move ahead much more easier and they may even learn how to settle from your examples also. Lead by example.

Thats the key, just try to keep things moving ahead on a steady course and if something does crop up, then deal with it immediately and tactfully, staying fair and honest. Just don’t ever come across like the big bad wolf or you may end up trapped in your new cage —-I mean house forever, with the Hatfield’s or the McCoys living next to you, when you can’t afford to move again.

By the way, for the neighbors who are getting the New Neighbors, this makes you New Neighbors as well. Now that we are All New Neighbors Together, we will be expecting the same from you, that you expect from us Newbies. So, don’t let us down, and we won’t let you down, either. Good, Now that we all know, who we all are,—-

Can I borrow a cup of sugar? Thanks Neighbor!

Heres to gettin to know ya!

Bankruptnooption.

MOM — Happy Mothers Day.

MOM,

M — You have the MOST unconditional love, I will ever know in my lifetime.

O — ONLY you could love me that much.

M — MAY your heart be filled with love, the way you have filled mine.

TO THE SPECIAL WOMAN IN OUR LIVES.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.

Bankruptnooption.

Update on: Government scares hundreds for a picture.

See original article, Government scares hundreds for a picture.

Update: The pictures ended up costing over $350,000 for everything, including fuel for the two airplanes. Hollywood could have made a 30 second commercial for that price and not flown the planes at all to do it! What a shame and waste of good technology.

But that’s not the story now, the story is they did hand someone their own resignation to sign, who was titled an Aide, White House military aide Louis Caldera. He is to resign on account of it, taking the blow for his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Aid said it was his fault and apologized for it. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spent time apologizing also. My question is why should the aid be the fall guy. Shouldn’t the boss get it, after all he is the one who is supposedly in charge isn’t he?

Workers are just that. They have overseers that are supposed to keep an eye on them and those people are the ones in charge. Workers should be given an extra chance over a boss because they aren’t the bosses and don’t know everything or they would be the boss.

I don’t care where you work, there should be fair justice served, especially when it comes to important positions. The ones in charge should have programs of checks and balances set up, so that things like this could not happen in any department. I feel the boss should be the one let go for not running things correctly in the first place. It’s to late for a safety net now, which they are planning to put in place. The damage was already done.

So now we all know that fall guys are here to stay and things are not changing as fast as some would lead others to believe. Otherwise it never would have happened.

I hope that this is corrected and I also hope the safety nets are set up for every department, like they should have been, to prevent unusual things like that from ever happening again. Those programs or safety nets should feed information completely back to the President, because I imagine it must have been very embarrassing, for the Commander and Chief, to not have know about the flight through restricted air space, no matter how lame a reason for it.

Even if it was supposed to be his birthday surprise, he should have been informed. Trust me, he will get a lot more practice at being surprised, because he not only works in the Government, but he is a Dad also, and that’s always full of surprises.

Bankruptnooption.

Heaven will be Happier now. Dom Deluise Passes

I look back at these historic outtakes from one of Dom’s movies with Burt Reynolds and it takes me back to younger years, where there were less worries and less stress. I had a friend back then who sculpted his humor from Dom and we were the same way that Dom and Burt were. Always laughing and cutting up. He was just like Dom and I think that their personalities came from the same mould. Dom always made us laugh and everyone said he always had nothing but a kind word for everybody.

We would take the opportunity to watch any of Dom’s movies together, whenever we could and all I can say is, “that man provided a lot of joy for everybody and also for a couple of friends who grew up together, while watching him”.

Loosing Dom is rough because, he was a great guy, a great comedian, a great actor and from what I learned about him in my lifetime, he was an exceptionally kind individual, who had the ability to make people happy, much like my friend Don aspired to be.

Although I never met Dom or knew him personally, I feel I have lost a friend and I’m sure that my friend Don, feels the same as myself and millions of others, who will also miss him.

I guess that Heaven needed someone up there, who could shed a little Happiness in these gloomy times, and I know they chose the right man for the job.

Bankruptnooption.

NASCAR Journalist David Poole, No longer among us.

ESPN wrote a wonderful memorial of Dave. To rewrite one would be senseless. Theirs is prefect.

Click here to view it.

Bankruptnooption.

Cities making money on your fence, at your expense.

Have you done anything around your house lately, like put up a privacy fence or a shed? Those are just a couple of things that most homeowners do to their property. So a lot of cities jumped on the band wagon and made those items, non permit items because the inspectors were so overworked and the cities wanted to give their residents a little break.

So what happened? Things got a little slow with home sales coming to a crawl and the inspectors needed more work. Also the cities needed more money, because of the economy. So guess what? Before you do anything to your house or property you better call the city and speak with someone about your plans and don’t forget to ask them if you need a permit, because I bet you will.

They can hit you with big fines if you don’t get one and you should have. So check first.

Just like the police giving tickets at the end of the month, the city’s have realized the possible revenue they can make from inspecting everything. They are making you pull permits for the free bees from the past and they are adding many new items to the list also, depending on where you live.

Especially since property sales have have picked up over the past year. People are buying auctioned and foreclosed homes at a record pace and every single one requires at least one inspection. Most of them will have items that need to be repaired and there goes the money for permits. I heard of one person that bought a home that needed a lot of work. So you figure the city would give him a break for buying what was a piece of junk and fixing it up. Think again.

They charged him almost $1000 combined in permits, occupancy inspections (C of O’s) and charges for a couple of things he had to have reinspected or didn’t pull permits for. The city’s now have realized that permits, like traffic tickets at the end of the month, are an easy money maker so beware.

You would figure that with the way the economy is, they would be working with the homeowners that are buying these older houses in their cities, just for the fact that they will be inhabited again and not remaining empty eyesores that are being vandalized to the point of demolition. You would think they would be giving discounted permits or waving permit fees altogether to have them renovated faster.

Isn’t this still America? Why are they taking advantage of people who are trying to get ahead by owning their first home and helping the economy to get stronger again. I guess America or no America you will never be able to fight city hall.

I wonder if any one in state government is keeping an eye on this gouging that the cities are doing?

Tip of the day. Always agree with an inspector even if you know for fact they are wrong, and thank them kindly no matter how rude they are to you, because inspectors not only have the power to make the repairs rough on you, they have big ego’s also and they can and will cause you trouble.

The Inspector is ALWAYS RIGHT, and you CAN’T FIGHT city hall on their level, because they all work together. Even if you know you are correct.

Bankruptnooption.

If you know your inspector is wrong or you feel the city inspection fees are to much or too many, them leave a complaint or fight your case from the next higher level. The Michigan Attorney General. This Is Sill America Isn’t it? So tell your State Attorney General.