Pack Rats Need A 12 Step Program

Amy and I drove to Gastonia, NC on Friday to help my mom pack everything she owns in order to move to Georgia. When I say everything she owns, I mean everything. The Paul Mitchell plastic makeup bag that she got 8 years ago and has never used and will never use. The identical one from Este Lauder that she never used and will probably never use. We packed her five old ass ugly folding lounge chairs made of plastic strips that she never used. I take that back. She used one every few years for herself when she sun bathed at pools that don't have chairs or resorts that don't have them either. We packed throw pillows I've never seen in my life that were circa 1968. They didn't match anything we ever owned growing up and didn't match anything she owns now. But, she wanted them along with alllll her other throw pillows.
She wanted her broken 4yr. old grill....."because it's the only one she has". We packed more candles than Yankee Candle has. I should have told her Georgia has electricity now. We packed chairs that exceeded the number of people she knows. Some were for little little kids, which we have none of in our family. Lots were broken. Some would slash your ass open from all the shredded paint. We packed curtains I think she bought from Nellie Olsons mom on Little House On The Prairie. She had a couple of lamps from there too.

Now I know she's leaving a home that held many great memories, but she's still got the memories. She doesn't have to have the flea market crap too. Anything that is of real monetary value makes sense. Anything that is not of any real monetary value but holds very dear sentimental value and can be used practically could be kept. Other non vauables that hold sentimental value and can be genuinely displayed are fair game too. But, multiple wicker bathroom size waste baskets need to go to the Salvation Army. She doesn't see her problem as a problem. She sees other people compulsiveness as a problem, but rationalizes hers.Well, we packed it ALL. Mix matched, out dated, out of style, broken, faded, new and all. It's safely packed away in a 12' by 20' climate controlled storage unit until she decideds where she's going to live.

I'm the oldest of three sons and probably the least sentimental of the three. Therefore, I accept that I may be hammering the issue a bit too hard. However, when I see crap that could be transformed to cash, I ask myself this. If I had the cash, would I spend it to buy the crap now. If the answer is no, then it needs to be sold, because effectively that's what's happening. Everyday you keep crap, your choosing to buy it instead of getting the cash and doing something better with it. No, no, no. It's not all about money. There are other factors. Storage space for the crap. Clutter the house or rent a storage building? Style. Do you want your home to look like a flea market booth or have a nice sense of some sort of style that defines you? Psychological. You need to mentally and emotionally let go of things. Only then can you be open and have the time and space for new things. Space, emotions and time are all limited. You can't hold on to 100% of the past unless you want 0% of a future.

I really think people like my mom need a program to help them let go of stuff. I know there's the show Clean Sweep and I'd love to have them help her, but for regular everyday pack rats, there should be a 12 step program, like Alconon or Jenny Craig. She could have a sponsor that she had to call if she wanted to buy something new. She'd have to purge one thing she already onws first. She'd have to have an inventory of all her stuff and be able to tell you where everything is. She'd have to be able to put her hands on anything within three minutes. Maybe I should hire her a professional organizer. They could help clear the clutter, because Lord knows, her boys can't.

Thanksgiving 2006

It started with a Wednesday evening fiasco. Yes, it was my fault too. See, if it's not been said here before or in my girlfriends blog, I'm frequently late. No, no, no. I'm most all the time late. It's likely my biggest fault. Time and I have a very casual relationship and it's not conducive with other relationships, like work or Amy.

So, back to the story. We, Amy and I, had planned on leaving Macon, Wednesday evening, after I finished working. 5:30pm was our original daparture time- though we hadn't counted on the millions of cars traveling in the same direction towards Atlanta. That is where you'd find the busiest airport in the United States and it happened to be one of the busiest travel days in the United States. 5:30 was not a sufficient time for us to be where we needed to be. So, when we left at closer to SIX pm, I was not looking like a knight in shinning armour.

We hit the first traffic jam about 40 minutes after we left the house. If we had nowhere to be at any particular time, it may have been fine, but.....we were running in the Thanksgiving Day Marathon and Half Marathon the next day and we HAD, just HAD to pick up our race packets by 8pm or.............we couldn't run. Well, not officially. We weren't going to run if it wasn't official either, because we're official runners. So, we had to get these packets.

Traffic jam after traffic jam kept pushing us further away from making that 8pm cutoff time and the car was filled with tension. Very very little was said as we drove towards Atlanta. You could almost hear the digital clock ticking off the seconds. A couple of times we saw the traffic lighten up and we'd approach speeds upwards of 55 mph. But then, screeeeech. Brake lights again.

fast forward.....

We made it to the hotel in downtown Atlanta at about 8:15. Amy jumped out of the car, ran across the road, jumped in front of a bus and shot through the front door of the Sheraton. She looked left, then right, then asked some obvious runners with packets where the packets were. They directed here and as the packets were being placed the boxes, she snagged both of ours. Not at the very last minute either. That had already passed. But, it was done and we were in.

It was time to carbo load. We were staying at a friends condo across the street from the Fox Theatre. It's pretty cool to look straight down from floor 16 and see the famous Fox theatre and all the lights of Atlanta. So, before heading up, we headed down the street to a little Italian place for some good food and lots of water. I had two big bowls of pasta and we both had dessert. We were both tired and still coming down from our tension high and now very full. We made it upstairs with all of our gear and got ready for bed. Both of us had been hydrating all day, so both of us had to get up several times during the night to purposely dehydrate ourselves. When 5am rolled around, we were ready to run.

A coffee brewer mishap, trying to decide what to wear and how to shed the excess clothes, where to meet after to run, etc. kept things a bit hectic, but soon Amy was off to the MARTA station to catch the train to the start of her run. I left a few minutes later with the car, in search of Turner Field, the start of my run. A couple of wrong turns and about 45 minutes later, I made it to my 10 minute away destination, but with plenty of time left to spare. Hey, I was early!!

We both had a great run. Amy posted her report here: http://30yofseeksmarathontorun.blogspot.com/

My run started well, but at about mile 8, I realized my double socked feet, were getting blisters from the rubbing of socks. I stopped and took off one pair of socks. At mile 11, the hills let me know they were not affected by the weather and didn't care that it was a holiday. They were on the job and doing what they are supposed to do- make us climb. I had wished more than once that I had opted to run the Half instead of the full 26.2. My first half was great. At 13.1, I was at 1:58. But, there were more hills ahead and I was not in shape to take on more hills at the same pace I'd just run the first half in. I thought incorporating some walking into my run would help, so I did. I think I incorporated about 8 miles of walking into 26.2 miles of running. My time sub four marathon disappeared fast. I could not get legs to keep running, though I did convince them to not stop moving. People I'd long ago passed, were passing me. Then, I'd pass them again, when I sarted running....again. This leapfrog type running method became a game in itself. It helped the miles pass, by concentrating on who I was passing that had passed me five minutes earlier.

fast forward agian....

Amy waited on me at mile 25. I saw a cop blocking traffic next to a hot spectator in the distance. The 25 mile marker was next to them and another freaking hill right behind them. As I got closer the attractive spectator announced it was the last big hill and before I passed her, I noticed it was my very own girlfriend. She was going to be my personal pacer. She ran with me and cheered me to the finish. I was glad she did and I was glad it was over. Those hills kicked my butt.

Really, it's still sore.

13WMAZ Failed To Provide Consumer Service In Consumer Report On Dent Repair

Man! If you have a question on a medical procedure, wouldn't you ask a doctor. You would not ask an insurance agent. Same goes for a stain in your new carpet. You'd ask a carpet cleaner, not the sales guy at a carpet store. These may not be the best examples of what I'm leading to, but you'll see where I'm going when I get there.

One of our local news stations is in the process of testing products for the benefit of it's viewers to.....1- See if the product works as claimed and 2- Provide the viewer/consumer with better options IF they exist.

13WMAZ, in Macon, GA, recently tested a product by Simoniz called Pops-a-Dent. Lorra Lynch the reporter and Ben Jones, whom she had assist her with the report tested the product with the assistance of two auto body collision centers. Keep in mind, this product claims to remove minor dents and dings without paint or putty and in just a matter of minutes. This is not what collision centers do. No more than surgeons help people with minor scrapes or little boo boos. There are specialist that do nothing but remove minor dents and dings without painting them and those people are called Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) service providers. I happen to be one of them.

Anyway, Lorra Lynch and Ben Jones took this television gimmick to H&H Body Shop and Harrisions Body Shop and at each facility had two employees test the product and evaluate it. None of the four people that tested the product could get the product to perform as claimed. None! Yet, two of the four gave it a thumbs up. What?! One of the thumbs up people is a friend of mine too. The funny part is one of the shops is a customer of ours and has us, Dent Tricks, remove all their minor dents and dings. They've used us for years. Yet, no one thought to call the dent repair professionals. The guys that remove on average 27 dents a day, six days a week.

Now, at first I thought Lorra may not be aware of PDR professionals and that perhaps, Ben -who knows us- forgot to mention that there were people that specialized in this type of repair and that maybe we'd be a better choice for the product. So, I called Ben and asked why they didn't call on Dent Tricks or some other PDR service provider to test a dent repair product. He claimed that he did suggest to Lorra that she call us, but that she had already set up meetings with the collision centers mentioned above. Okay, as a consumer reporter knowing your story is headed down the wrong path, I'd think you'd call, explain and cancel an appointment if it were in your viewers/consumers best interest. According to Ben, Lorra opted not to do that.

So the segment went like this.......
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local_story.aspx?storyid=31451

Notice at the end that Lorra leaves the viewer with the impression that they can try the $20 gimmick that was just shown not to work OR she says you can spend hundreds of dollars at a collsion center to have the dent repaired.

Auggghhh! She totally ignored information offered to her that would have actually helped her viewers in Macon and the Middle GA area. The most effective and viable solution to minor dents and dings would be Paintless Dent Removal. It works and is about 1/4 the cost of a collision center. Most repairs take less than an hour and your factory finish and warranty remain intact.

I followed up with Lorra, her news director, Ben and the "Talk Back" line. I'd hoped they do a follow up and give the viewers a helpful consumer report as a consumer service. As of yet I've only heard from Ben, with his regrets and a suggestion that we perhaps do something in the future regarding hail damage during servere weather season and how PDR can help. I'd look forward to that, but really look forward to the follow up on minor dent repair from Lorra.

That's straight from my heart!

Whaaaa La! We reap what we sow.

As I watched the results of both local, state and national elections come in, I felt proud that so many people actually gave up the time out of their day to spend the 45 minutes to vote. That is precious time that could have been spent watching Stupido 60 or CSI-Philidelphia. That was admirable considering it's a privilage and not a right to vote. The sad part was that so many people don't study the candidates prior to casting their vote. They don't know squat about the folks running for Insurance Commisoner, the Senate or for God's sake...the Governor. We all see the ads on TV and know our parents view, but have a problem making a change. Change is what we need though. We've had the two party system for all of my life, my parents life and so on. It flips back and forth- a term for this party, a term for that party. Still, we continue to see our government grow larger and larger, more liberties taken away from us, more money taken away from us as our freedom wanes.

If you look at the Democrats website (http://dnc.org/a/party/stand.html), you'll see their 6-Point Plan for 2006. Scary thing is that only one of their six objectives is Constitutional and that one is security. The others are non of the federal governments business. It's just not. Not the governments responsibility to make sure you have health insurance, retirement, energy indepence or economic prosperity. These things would be nice to have and it would be nice to have an organization willing to help individuals achieve these things, but it is NOT the governments responsibility. If you forcibly take citizens money in the form of taxes to pay for these things, that's theft. Legal theft! It doesn't matter how good you intentions are. It's no more "right" than if I stole your money at gun point to give to a single mom to pay her rent. Good intentions, but wrong.

The Republicans are no better. Taking liberties with Homland Security and failing to take action on Tax Reform. Their platform (http://www.gop.com/media/2004platform.pdf) is extrememly long (long winded) and full of rhetoric soundbites. Continually adding new lines of blah blah blah jibber jabber to already strung out and continually confusing legislation. Their changes to Social Security, HSA's and Education are just as bad as the Democrats. These are things that are NOT Constitutional responsibilities of the federal government. So, they too are trampling on our constitutional rights.

Still, we go to the polls and put them back in. It's like their on the same team, just split into offensive and defensive. But they are still one team in opposition to the Constitution and the citizens of the United State's rights.

So, Nancy Pelosi is going to be the Speaker of the House. Great! Everyone that voted for one of the two parties deserves her. For all those races to be so close (near 50/50 in many cases), tells me the two parties are very similar. Both bad.

To ingnore the Libertarian Party's platform (http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml) and their candidates is ignorant and short sighted. It's simple and easy to read and hard to argue intelligently any portion of it. It is fair and upholds the Constitution of the United States.

So, next time, whose turn will it be? I guess that depends on what you do with your bucket of lemons over the next few years. Who will make you feel like they screwed you the worst? Who will you choose to punish next time by voting for the other party?

They can both take a long walk off a short bridge.

Ahhh, the last day to be inundated with ads by people that most likely will violate the oath of their office and our Constitution. I'm so glad the end is in sight. It makes me thank God I have Tivo now, that my PO box is next to the trash can and that nobody has decided to use XM as a campaign outlet yet.

It amazes me that the public continues to vote for "the lesser of two evils", because voting for the candidate that they think is the most qualified or seems the best choice, is "throwwwing a vote away". If you took all the voters that SAY they believe this Libertarian candidate is incredible and impressive, but voting for him may take away from this other candidate, thereby helping the one I definitely don't want to win. If you took all those voters and actually got them to vote their principles, a great change would take place and we may see a stop to the madness we've become so accustomed to.

Starting in 2000, I decided to always vote based on my principles, regardless of the possible affect it may have in terms of swaying a vote towards one candidate or another. I'm not going to waver and play the strategic voting game. I'm willing to accept the consequences of my actions. It's not like I'm going to lose a limb, have my pet taken away or never get to watch The Biggest Loser again. It may mean, I can't get an abortion or have to give up 60% of my income to support lazy welfare slugs. It may mean I see our national security disintegrate and illegal aliens flood our cities. It may mean I see all private schools be taken over by government or that I see the rights of two consenting adults of the same sex put in jail for loving one another. It may mean lots of things, but I'm gonna do what's right.

I believe that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose. This is part of the "Statement of Principles" of the Libertarian Party. Their platform and more can be read at
http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml .

If you play the lesser of two evils game, your thowing your vote away, not me.

Boring blog about Dent Repair and getting into it.

Today was a woozy. It started out with a trip to the Lexus dealer where I had my first job. A "ride along" was meeting me there too, at 7:30am. A "ride along" is someone that pays us to ride with me for a day and ask me questions. Yeah, for real.

See, people interested in getting into Paintless Dent Removal (PDR) usually have very little information or experience with the field except for what they can read on the internet. A PDR school charges anywhere from $5K to $30K, possibly including some tools. In my opinion, that is a pile of money for almost anybody, but expecially someone trying to begin a new career and in need of stretching their dollars as far as possible. In many cases, these people have no clue what a typical day is for a PDR technician or what we go through for the money we earn. We decided to give them a chance to find out, BEFORE spending 10 or $20,000.

So, Alex met me and watched me remove the first dent of the day. 20 minutes and we were off to the next job of the day. As we traveled to Warner Robins, Alex quized me about PDR and told me a little about his past work experiences. We had a very busy day, including both retail and wholesale. He was able to watch me negotiate the "higher" price I quoted than the price of a competitor for a repair. I got the job and the higher price. He was able to experience first hand sales techniques, the "delivery" of the finished product, the transactions, etc. Most importantly though, he was able to ask a verteran of the industry anything he chose to about PDR and getting into it.

We finished the day off at Enterprise with several repairs. Alex didn't seem 100% committed to jumping into this business, but he was a lot more knowledgable regarding every aspect of the business. He also said he was going to do a lot more research and forward his findings back to me for review. it was a great day and I believe very educational. Alex was our 8th "ride along" since we began this program and we're sorry we didn't offer this years ago. I know of over ten people in the Middle Georgia area that have paid thousands of dollars over the last few years to learn PDR. None of these people contacted us for any information and none of them are PDR technicians today either. In fact, we've purchased two seperate sets of tools from a couple of them for pennies on the dollar. Sad.