The foliage wasn't as good this year as seen in past years, not so much for the actual colors than the scattershot timing of it. Usually the leaves will change in rough unison, but not this year. Instead the timing of the change has been far more random, as seen here in the Lakes Region. We still have quite a few trees sporting green that are just now beginning to change while others changed a couple of weeks ago, hit their peak color, and are now shedding their leaves.
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My dear brother and I were at the WP Parents yesterday, taking care of a number things that needed doing. John cleaned windows as I dealt with some minor computer issues.When he was done with the windows, we both tackled a semi-daunting problem with configuring our parents' new Sony media player so they could stream Netflix movies. This required replacing an existing wireless router (an early version of an 802.11g wireless access point) with a new one capable of connecting to the media player. I also helped the WP Dad finish assembling his new computer desk and getting everything on his old one moved over to the new one. This move also allowed me to untangle the rat's nest of wires that seem to grow all by themselves as time passes. (This always seems to happen, no matter how careful we are to prevent it. Maybe we've discovered a new universal physical law or a new twist on an existing one.)
The first movie we watched once everything was up and running was The Expendables, with Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, and Mickey Rourke. Lots of really neat explosions in that one! (A dislaimer: we watched that movie to test the system and make sure everything was working. No, really!)
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It looks like the conflict between Nevada and New Hampshire in regards to the Nevada caucuses has been resolved, with Nevada deciding to hold their contest in early February, negating the need for New Hampshire to move its primary to sometime in December.This decision by the Nevada GOP may have had something to do with a number of leading GOP candidates stating they wouldn't participate in the caucuses if Nevada didn't back off.
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In regards to yesterday's post about the supposed dangers of Smart Meters, here's another large study showing no link between cell phone use and brain tumors.Considering the RF field generated by cell phones is 125 times that of a Smart Meter (assuming the meter is transmitting 100% of the time, which it doesn't), I'd say the anti-Smart Meter folks have got some explaining to do.
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Reason presents a poll that asked Americans to state in their own words the biggest problems they are facing today. The three biggest in order were jobs, the economy, and debt/deficits/spending.One thing that wasn't on the list? Climate change.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Also at Maggie's Farm comes this analysis about the #OWS protesters and their lack of self-esteem. Most of them are young adults stuck in an extended adolescence with no real identity, many of them in college. As Bulldog writes:[Eric]Hoffer pointed out that blue collar workers rarely joined protest movements. Since they tended to join the workforce at a young age, they developed their identities earlier than protesters. Their self-esteem was in place and didn't require an outlet for juvenile behaviors.Indeed. RTWT.
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The We Are The 53% site is still quite active, with more posts from those who are the 53% paying the taxes for those 99%-ers who don't.***********
You have got to be kidding me.Is this yet another example of the failure of our educational system or is this guy just a moron?
Unfortunately the answer is probably both.
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It seems these days that if you want a shot at business success without all of the government roadblocks standing in your way, the place for you is Estonia.[Spaniard Naphtali Peral] says that he established his company here in only half a day, mainly online. The record for establishing a company, he adds, is only 18 minutes. In other words, the government doesn't say: Hey, Peral, who do you think you are, starting a company, just like that? No, he says, the state actually encourages entrepreneurship, and says things like: So you have an idea, Peral! Go for it! And then he says that it takes him 20 minutes to prepare his semi-annual tax return, and that when it was time to slash the government budget, Estonia's cabinet ministers started with their own salaries.I don't see anything like that happening here, even in my home state of New Hampshire which has less government regulation of business than most other states in the US. Starting a business in the US can be daunting, particularly in states with a heavy-handed bureaucracy, high business taxes and fees, and too many politicians more than willing to choose the business winners and losers. And since BHO has taken office it has become more so, with his blessing.
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This past Friday it became official: Deb and I are no longer small business owners.We sold our business to one of our customers, someone who believes she can put the time, effort, and money to grow it even during these tough economic times. Both Deb and I will be working with the new owner to help her do just that. (I'll be handling tech support for the computer systems used by the business.)
It wasn't that we didn't want to do it. Quite the contrary. But Deb wanted to go back to school in pursuit of a nursing degree and between her regular job, our business, and school, she didn't have enough time to devote to all three. Giving up her 'regular' job wasn't an option as we receive our family's medical benefits through her job (one she absolutely loves, by the way), and our business wasn't making enough money pay anything more than the bills, payroll, rent, and franchise fees. There was nothing left over to pay ourselves. And with my job the hours didn't allow me to put in time at our business except on weekends and some evenings. In order for it to grow we each needed to put in more than 40 hours per week, something we just couldn't do. So we had only three options: keep limping along, close it, or sell it.
We didn't want to close it as we had a group of customers we didn't want to let down. We didn't want it to just keep limping along because we knew that eventually we would have to close it, just much later. So the only option was to sell it. Fortunately we had someone who saw the potential and made us a reasonable offer.
Deb admits she didn't expect the sale to be so emotional for her, but the moment she walked into the business for the last time she broke down. So did a number of our employees (friends she made while running and later owning the business) and some of the customers who were present.
But the business lives on. The new owner sees this as an opportunity for her and we're willing to help her succeed in any way we can.
And so it goes in small business America.
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While I and many of my fellow conservative bloggers have railed against the Main Stream Media and their all but publicly announced left bias, my fellow Granite Stater Jay Tea goes to town against the NYT and their attempted hatchet job on Senator Mark Rubio of Florida.Then again, the Times lost all credibility years ago after numerous plagiarism scandals and episodes of reporters just making stuff up. You'd think they would have learned their lessons, but no, they pushed the Rubio story without doing any fact checking and now every claim they made about Rubio has been found wanting.
Is it any wonder why people distrust the media?
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One last bit of information before closing things out.Repairs to The Manse started last week. A plumber was in to fix the leak that caused all the problems, and the main contractor has had his guys put up, tape, and mud the new drywall on the dining room ceiling. Half the hardwood flooring has been torn up with the rest to be pulled up starting sometime Monday morning. Once the ceiling has been completed the new flooring will go in and then the walls will be repainted. If things hold to schedule the work will be completed in another week and a half.
It will be nice to have everything back together as it was before the Great Flood.