I Drunk The Punch

Your Hired (back)...........................JUST KIDDING!

2009-02-21T18:17:00.005-05:00

Woah! How cold is it, especially in this day, to give back hundreds of folks, jobs that you just took away weeks ago.......and then tell them four days later your takin' them away AGAIN, but for good.

Damn! Now that's Indian Givin' at it's finest AND lowest. Shut up if your Indain (hotel or teepee). It's just an expresion that MAAAAY be undeserved....but is still debatable nonetheless.

Seriously. That is cold and does NOT look good for a company that should have the resources to make a call like this in advance and without getting the hopes of an entire community up, only to shatter them four days (FOUR DAYS!!!) later. It's not as if the world changed in FOUR effin days!

(In the middle of my chastizment, let me link to the article I'm referring.)

I have to ask. Was it for a weeks worth of praise and positive press that Rheem was hiring back 650 individuals at a time when people are scared? Couldn't Rheem management let the media know that it may be temporary and layoffs looming depending on the construction industry.

You fools had to know this more than four days before or after you brought these folks back.

How many had possible job opportunities lined up or in the works when you called them back and turned them down or ceased pursueing them because they wanted to return to Rheem? hmmm? Out of 650, I bet there were a few.

Nope. Rheem choose to REAM Baldwin County a new one. What A-holes.

William Ostan, Rheem’s vice president of human resources, “We very easily could have sent them notice without calling them back." Ughhhh yeah! DipShit. That's normally how it works.

It'd be like breaking up with a long-term girlfiend that really didn't want to break up with you. Then you calling her back a few weeks later, knowing she's not over you and that she's still wanting to be with you. Asking her to come back, rekindle things, and FOUR days later telling her you want to break up forever and the only reason you brought her back was to tell her to her face.

You idiots! That's stOOpid. That's immature and NOT a cool way to handle biznass.

Rheem may very well make a fine product, but Rheem really lost some cool points with this move and that's ironic considering they in the "cool" business.

Meanwhile, we have illegals jumping the boarders for jobs and welfare in the States and here we have a company taking the jobs to them. That's funny in a strange way.

Do Your Job, Parents! Make Sacrifices, Not Excuses.

2009-02-03T08:46:00.005-05:00

Here is the article from the Macon Telegragh that has led to this post. It amazes me that people will consciously decide to download a kid, carry that kid for 9 months (which gives them about 270 days to consider the future), then claim they can't provide for that little "tricycle engine" because of expenses. Anyway, I have posted the link below and "copied and pasted" the text below the link.

FINDING GOOD DAYCARE A TOUGH TASK FOR PARENTS
By Kandace Raymond Pritchett - Special to The Telegraph Buzz up!

Before motherhood I never imagined how challenging, stressful and scary it would be to find dependable day care for my child. I never dreamed most of my 8-10 hour workdays would be filled with worries for my child’s well-being.

For 2 1/2 years I’ve been trying to find the perfect place for my child to learn, grow and be loved. Now, I wonder if such a place exists.

My husband and I have been burned by bad nannies. Hesitant, but stuck with no alternatives, we turned to day care. As we researched facilities we became frustrated. It seemed the places where teachers seemed to genuinely care for the kids, spoke intelligently and provided a clean environment were limited or only offered half-day programs.

Our list of options quickly narrowed. We sucked it up and had to settle. The need for health care and two salaries eliminated our option for me to be a stay-at-home mom.

At our current day care, I caught a teacher mistreating my toddler on tape. Thank God my motherly instinct told me to watch the videotape from the monitor that day. She was “written up” not fired.

My daughter spends more time with her day care teachers than with us. My ability to trust others, who have a hand in raising her the way we see fit, is disappearing. Ideally, my daughter would spend the majority of her day learning, exploring and socializing; after all, experts say a child’s brain is fully formed by the time he or she is 5 to 6-years-old. Are my expectations too high?

I’m still desperate to find that perfect place.

Kandace Raymond Pritchett is a resident of Forsyth, GA

Kandace, what DID you imagine BEFORE motherhood? Did you imagine that you would have place to drop your kid off everyday for FREE? Did you imagine you would have folks lining up at your door each morning, credentials in hand, to sit, play and read with your child each day...out of the goodness of their heart?

Your statement that you never dreamed your 8-10 hour days would be filled with worries of your child, suggest you had 8-10 hour days PRIOR to bringing life into this world. So, you knew your schedule. You knew your options. YET, you decided to bring this helpless little girl into this world without a plan? REALLY?!

Has it occurred to you that HOME may be the perfect place for your child to learn, grow and be loved? It is nobodys responsibility, morally or lawfully, to love your child. It is yours. Unfortunately for your child, that perfect place may not exist, even at home, because you don't have the desire to be there or the desire to do what it takes to be there.

If you can afford a nannie, you can afford to cut your lifestyle. It may mean sacrifices. Smaller home, less eating out, one car, etc. My point is you are spitting in the face of the answer to your question.

You claim you and hubby did reeeeesearch on kid kennels and found the "good" ones were limited or only offered half-day programs. Limited to or by what? How much they were willing to provide the service for? Only offered "half-day" programs? Hey, it's business. Nobody watches other people's kids for fun. They do it for a profit and if there it a profit in watching kids all day, someone is doing it. Again, it comes down to whether you and your husband are willing to pay for that service.

Your options have never narrowed. You have always had the same number of options. You may have chosen not to entertain some of those options, but that was your choice.

THEN. THEN!...you claim to "sucking it up", like you did an honorable thing. That phrase usually is used when someone does something admirable, strong or brave. It is usually used when someone trudges on through hard times or picks themselves up from a tragic event and moves forward. THEY SUCK IT UP. You didn't suck anything up. You copped out! To top that off, you blame it on health care and needing two incomes. (sound the Gong now) Wrong!

We could discuss the health care if you'd like, but that would mean auditing your household income and budget, which I doubt you'd be willing to produce. But if your salaries don't allow for one of you to be at home, it's because you have CHOSEN not to cut your lifestyle. Again, stop ordering pizzas, cut the cable, get rid of car payments, become a true home ECONOMIST, have hubby get a second job, have a yard sale, stop buying labels, turn lights off when not in use, stop wasting money, etc.

You told us that you had evidence of you child being mistreated. Sure, mistreatment is subjective and your opinion may differ than others, but the fact remains that YOU believed it was mistreatment. Yet, you continue to send your child into what you believe may be a harmful enviornment? Dude, you need your head examined! Are you watching the videotape everyday now? Every minute of it? If you have time to do that, you have time to be at home.

It is a sad implied statement that you make that your toddler knows or has bonded with others more so than you and your husband. That has to be the case if daughter is spending more time with others than with her parents, right?

And your ideal situation does not even include YOU or your husband. Your ideal situation still involves your little girl be boarded by stangers.

No, your expectations are not too high. You can find exactly what your looking for...someone else to be your little girl's parents. It is called adoption.

Bounced From Church

2007-12-25T20:31:00.001-05:00

(Disclaimer: This is long!)

So I told you to come here to read about the reason we can't join First Presbyterian Church in Macon, where we were formerly attending. I'd like to start with how much we enjoyed the church and it's congregation. I don't know for sure that everyone we met were members or not. We attended for several months as visitors and everyone we encountered seemed kind and welcoming.

As Amy stated in on her blog, we actually attended a nine week class to learn about the church (history, philosophy, differences, etc.) and to let the pastor get to know us better. We both enjoyed the class, though we missed our Sunday School class equally. The Logos Class was led by Mr. and Mrs. Bridges, who were both very caring and compasionate people and good mentors for the class of young people, many of which were couples.

After completing the class, we were asked by Pastor Chip Miller to complete a Membership Application, which we did. Nowhere did it ask if we were leading lives in accordance of the teachings of the Bible. Nowhere did it ask if there were people poisoning their temples with chemicals like cigarettes or processed foods. The application did not ask if we were being good stewards of what God has blessed us like talents, skills, money, etc.

However, it did ask for our address, which we gave them. As it happens to be that Amy and I share the same address, we both gave them the same physical address on the app.

Several days later, Eric Ashley (Youth Minister) called to have a second lunch meeting with Amy and I. The first came may weeks prior, just for fun and fellowship. Anyway, the second meeting was to "clarify" something that he stated, "was no big deal."

Over lunch, Eric let us know that our living together prior to marriage was standing in the way of us becoming members. We would have to wait until after October 11, 2008 to join.

Knowing that co-habitating is not a sin, Amy was a little upset. Sure, there is the old phrase, "livin' in sin." But for one it's old. Second, it's not a sin. What the phrase implies is that the couple is "gettin' it on." Perhaps making such an assumption is a sin? So, Amy and I were mad that someone (we assume Eric and Chip) were picking one very small portion of our very large lives and making an assumption about it. Never did they ask why. Never did they ask IF we were having pre-marital sex. They only took one small portion of who we are and denied us membership to a church of nearly 1200 people.

The explanation was that 'by living together before we are married it may give someone else the impression that we might possibly be 'fornicatin'.

Eric said he didn't mind if we continued to attend FPC until marriage. Actually, he hoped we would. We just couldn't join.

Hugh?

So, if we attended, would it not appear that we were members?? I mean, if we got involved and attended every Sunday, wouldn't people that didn't know us assume we were members of FPC.

So really, Eric should have asked us to not come back until we were married. That way the image would not be tarnished.

This is obviously not one of my best post, rambling, fragmented and run-on sentences, etc. I'll just sum it up with the letters.

We had the last lunch, were "denied" and decided to visit other churches..After a few weeks Eric emailed the following....

Hey ya'll,
Just wanted to touch base. Haven't seen ya'll the last couple of weeks and wanted you to know that you've been missed. I also wanted to see if ya'll still wanted to move forward with pre-marital counseling in the New Year. I'm beginning to make plans for Jan and would love to set up some times to walk through some of that material with you. Let me know your thoughts when you get a chance.

I replied back...

Hey Eric,

We are looking at other churches in hopes of finding one we feel comfortable and welcomed in. Not that the members of FPC didn't....they did. We really enjoyed Sunday School too. It made for really good Sunday lunch conversation. But as you know, we have a problem with not being accepted as members based on our address. It seems to me that the church would have, should have, much larger issues to focus on than preventing two people that want to join from joining.

I can think of several areas of focus that would be much more important to concentrate on than the time and effort that has been spent on us.

You had the opportunity to get to know two young professionals, that give both our time and money to others, are caring, honest and kind. Two engaged adults that happen to share the same address for several reasons prior to our wedding, which is exactly 10 months from today. We will be the same people 10 months and 1 day from now, except for the fact that we will be married and 10 months wiser (or is it smarter?). To have the "red carpet" rolled out then and not now, seems insincere and not very loving. As if you only want what "appears" to be the best Christians.

We are sure there are no members that were perfect when joining. So was each and every member directed to make changes and upon completion of those changes and proof that nothing in their lives could be construed as "un-Christian" or against The Word, allowed to join?

Are the members that currently sin on a regular basis (oh, that would be everyone) constantly having their memberships revoked and continually attending reformation classes or 12-step programs in order to be re-admitted?

It seems your stepping over quarters to pick up pennies when your efforts could be spent on much more important things. And it bothers us, because it appears the church is more concerned with the image it's members project on the outside than what is going on within them and how they (the members) can have a positive effect on their community.

Eric, I could go on and on, as I'm sure could you. We understand the position each one of you finds yourself in and know that it must be awkward, especially for you, considering the responsibility of dealing with this has been placed on you. This will surely be a in interesting story in your pastoral career and hopefully you will gain a lot from it, which I expect is part of Chip's plan. Either way, we are not angry with you and wish you the best.

So...we will be getting pre-marital counseling, but most likely from a pastor at the church we do join.

Merry Christmas,

Troy

About a week and a half later, Eric left me a voicemail asking me to call him in hopes of having lunch and discussing some things that seemed to be heavy on my heart. I have decided to pass on the invite as it seems I would be wasting his minutes (his life minutes). They have made their feelings clear and I think they are wrong. Amy and I have not changed our position on it and would have a hard time feeling confident in their leadership knowing so much time and effort is spent on micromanaging the image of the church opposed to focusing on the true goal of the church.

Sometimes you gotta pick you battles. Are you gonna pass on great in hopes of getting perfect, even when you know there is only one perfect and it's not a person?
Even if living together was a sin, would it be a big enough sin to deny membership to a church? What are churches for?? Isn't everybody a sinner?

So, that explains more than you probably wanted to know. If anything else interesting comes up regarding this, I'll post a follow up.

Oh, Mrs. Bridges did email us, wanting to know where we'd been. Amy and I both replied with a short explanation, but we've not heard anything back from her yet.

Some Scary FACTS Uncovered About the Securities Mess

2008-09-30T08:46:00.008-04:00

Yo! You guys know that I'm a staunch Libertarian and am upset with both the Republicans and Democrats for decisions (both bad ones and ones that they had no business making) they've made.

BUT, Barack Obama scares me like no other candidate ever has. His Marxist, Socialistic tendancies have no place in the tradition of a self-supporting, capitalistic, "teach a man to fish...", limited government and individual liberties type of America our founding fathers fought so hard for.

As we watch the stock market rewind, reverse, whatever you want to call it... let us not miss some very important FACTS as to how we got into this situation. Obama has allowed, encouraged and even helped our mortgage market/real estate market tank. For this alone, he should not be rewarded with the highest office in our country. For many other reasons, he should not hold any office.

Congressman Marshall- You've Got It Wrong!

2008-09-29T23:47:00.003-04:00

This is a letter (the second of two) that I've sent to our Honorable Congressman Marshall. I've yet to receive a response to the first, but since the "bailout bill" didn't pass as presented, I thought a second letter was in order. Because, who knows what they'll try to pass next.

Dear Congressman Marshall,

I read that you were quoted as saying..."I just hope that the damage that was predicted to be done if we weren’t able to pass something, does not occur. That the experts were wrong, and that we don’t see the kind of terrible problems the expert said we would see if we couldn’t pass something.”

Jim, I trust you've done your due diligence. Yes, some experts have predicted the "collapse of our economy", that the figurative "sky would fall" and that a playback of The Great Depression would be certain if this $700 Billion rescue package did not pass.

However, many more experts, including Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors Brian Wesbury, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Bruce Bartlett and Legg Mason Capital Management CEO Bill Miller say the plan you voted for is not neccessary in order to stabilize our markets. The plan you voted for is not the only plan that could help solve some problems. WE NEED SOME PROBLEMS! You know...it's good for people to feel pain occassionaly. It helps us learn and helps us grow.

So many people are acting like there are only two options. Either commit to a ridiculous amount of taxpayers money and save the market OR watch the America we know disolve. That is a crock and a juvenille attempt to manipulate our elected officials, like you, into quickly passing a plan that is bad for taxpayers.

Sarbane-Oxley has played a large role in the mess we find ourselves in. The "Mark to Market" accounting rule has also helped lead us to our present situation.

If we could change the "Mark to Market" rule, back up these securities with FHA insurance and perhaps lift the taxes on Capital Gains, we'd see a huge turn-around and the majority of this mess would correct itself without handcuffing the taxpayer to debt we don't want. This is advice from many, many, many, many other experts.

Back to your quote at the top of this email. You refer to "experts" and all the bad they implied would happen if this particular piece of legislation wasn't passed. I suggest your listening to the wrong experts. Perhaps they have an agenda or perhaps they are just wrong.

You stood some pretty firm ground by betting your seat on this bailout. I am staunchly against it, am discussing it with customers and friends and will do what is within my power to make sure our tax dollars are not spent to solve this financial mess, regardless of the consequences my 401K or business suffer.

I know this is a stressful event and I wish you the best on finding a solution.

See you at the next race,

Troy Tarpley

Un-Happy Hail Repair Customers

2008-06-05T21:22:00.003-04:00

Apparently there is quite a bit of shoddy hail repair (if you can even call it that) being performed in Baldwin County (Milledgeville), GA. Below is a link and it has to do with PDR techs, roofers and tree guys alike. Obviously I'm only interested in the dent guys. Needless to say, many folks are getting the wool pulled over their eyes without the least bit of knowledge. Especially the ones that "know" it's not going to happen to them.

Post your praise and complaints here regarding your storm damage experiences.

Here's the link... http://middlegeorgiastormdamage.blogspot.com/

Fly-By-Night Hail Gypsys Swarm Upon Milledgeville, GA

2008-03-18T23:43:00.013-04:00

As is the case whenever there is a hail storm of any signifigance, the sucking sound of wind can be heard in the wake left by the mass entry of out-of-town dent guys chasing a quick buck made at the hands of unsuspecting body shops and car owners.

This is the exact situation I(a long-time Middle Georgia native)have witnessed over the last two days following the storms that brought hail and hail damage to the state of Georgia. Within two days rookies looking to score thier first homerun and veterans of the "in town fast....outta town faster" hail chasing community wound up in Milledgeville, GA. Paintless Dent Removal (PDR) is a craft where skill level varies as widely as it does between Tiger Woods and your Uncle Bob. They may both know how to play and play often, but one is actually proficient. Over the years some have polished their pitch and perfected their marketing skills to the point of convincing body shops that have never encountered such a scenario that every dent technician's skills are equal. With nothing to verify their claims, many boast that their skills are above average and use their years of experience as evidence.

Considering most towns rarely get hit twice in a decade, it is easy to play the game mentioned above. In a country the size of ours, these dent gypsys can afford to burn a bridge, only because they know they will never run out of bridges.

As an international award winning PDR technician (here's the story), the part that bothers me the most is that the shoddy work these guys leave behind, leaves a lasting negative impression on the community they burn and often the idea that PDR is not an efficient or effective method of removing dents and dings.

Body shop owners usually are caught in the middle and end up playing an unknowing role in their own role as a victim too. Most shop owners never see the kind of chaos that follows a major hail storm. With lines of customers impatiently waiting for claims, insurance adjusters overwhelmed with work and PDR companies blowing the phones off the hook, the body shops usually cave within a couple of days to an offer of a "helping hand" from an unknown stranger that lives who-knows-where hundreds or thousands of miles away. (Read what one body shop owner says in Nebraska about a similar situation. It's the last paragraph.)

These dent pimps ususally talk of all the storms they've worked, the hail they've seen, the shops they've helped, building a sense of ease and comfort in the shop owners mind without an ounce of hard proof. Months later, customers return with cracked paint, burned clear coat, broken clips or unauthorized holes in unintended places. This is where the shop owners find they've been snookered, but many months too late.

After the realization of being a chump sets in, the second round of repairs, at the cost of the body shop or car owner begins. Usually it involves painting parts of the car that should have never needed painting or replacing small parts that were broken while removing the headliner or trim pieces. Both are expensive and the hassel factor is high.

For this and other reasons, body shop owners should always use their local PDR technician. We all know that one local company usually can not handle the volume of work a large hail storm brings, but if the local dent company is hired to do the work, they can hire the sub-contracted dent technicians and provide quality control for the shops and car owners. The local guys have a vested interest in the long term relationship unlike the out-of-towners and will back up any work the subs do. If problems arise later (and they will), the locals boys are their to deal with it.

So Milledgeville, Eatonton, Lake Oconee and the rest of Middle Georgia, do your homework and track the local PDR technicians down. If your shop assures you of the techs they are using, remember...it's only because they believe the smoke they were blown.

Dent Tricks is a PDR company based in Macon, GA since 1998. We have repaired hundreds of hail damamged cars and thousands of dents. As the winners of the 2005 and 2007 International Dent Olympics in Clearwater, FL, our emphasis is on quality and customer satisfaction.

Please visit our website at www.DentTricks.com or call us with any quetions at 478-405-8000.

Stop Using Kids as a Weapon!

2007-12-20T08:06:00.000-05:00

Geez! It is so wrong to use children as a weapon. You would think that would be a tactic only the Al Queda or Taliban would use, but noooo. Americans use that same strategy on a daily basis.

Some Americans use children as a means to get into other American's pocket books and wallets. Some are just sympathetic enablers that really love children, like Greenpeace and PETA love animals. Others, just want control of our lives in order to have control of our money. Either way, it is wrong. (Sidebar: a lot of what Greenpeace and PETA do is wrong too.)

See, until the Fair Tax is made law, taxes are not voluntary. To pay taxes, I have to give away minutes of my life. Yep, just like you, I have to give up one hour of my life to work in order to earn money. So, to pay $100 in taxes, I may have to work three hours. Some people may have to work ten hours and some may only work one. Nonetheless, we all have to trade a part of our life for taxes.

What amazes me is the audacity some Americans have to say that I should give up a portion of my life to pay for something they WANT. Having children is completely voluntary. You have to make a concious decision to have un-protected sex....then follow through with it. That is completely fine with me. But apparently many Americans don't plan ahead and then look to the government to FORCE others to pay for their housing, food and healthcare. That's not right.

Well Troy, some people fall on hard times even though they did have a plan. It's not always a simple as you make it sound.

I know. I know. But the amount of people we have sucking at the teet of the government trough is completely absurd and most should be cut off without any more notice than a note wrapped around a rock and thrown at their front door.

To see perfectly fat people sitting on the front porch of government housing (welfare housing) smoking cigarettes during the day is insidious. I see babies being carried around in nothing more than disposable diapers by mommys using food stamps to buy processed fish sticks. Meanwhile, who knows where daddy is. Hell, who knows WHO daddy is.

You shot it Tarzan! You eat it!

Don't push childern in front of the television cameras and say that if they don't get national healthcare or government healthcare, we are insensitive and hate children.

People that bring kids into this world when they can't afford them are the ones that abuse children with the intention of abusing society.

As John Stossel would say..."Give me a break!"

Macon, Georgia's Bond Rating Is Increased! Whoopdy Doo.

2007-11-15T18:54:00.000-05:00

A recent article (Nov. 09) notified us that Moody’s Investors Service has raised its bond rating of our dear city of Macon . It seems to me, from comments I have read, that the many people are tickled pink about this and look at a favorable bond rating as a positive thing. I challenge that way of thinking for several reasons.

To understand what a bond rating is, we must first understand what a bond is. According to Princeton University , a bond is a “certificate of debt” that is issued by a government or corporation in order to raise money. The issuer is required to pay a fixed sum annually until maturity and then a fixed sum to repay the principal.

A bond rating is, an evaluation by a rating company (Moody’s) of the probability that a particular bond issuer (Macon) will default.

A bond rating is equivalent to a credit score, which most people are more familiar with. In today’s world it seems we, as a society, have been taught to run our lives based on our credit score. Not so long ago people and cities would save for goods or services they wanted to buy. In recent decades however, we have been conditioned to use debt as a tool to get what we want immediately. Like children on the cereal isle whining and pitching a temper tantrum, “I want it and I want it now!”, we run to lenders, instead of acting like adults and devising a plan to save and pay for those things.

Financial expert and best-selling author, Dave Ramsey, says a credit score is an “I love debt score”. Fair Issac, the inventor of the credit score, called FICO, backs that statement up with their FICO rating algorithm. Their website, MyFico.com, states that your credit score is calculated based on your rating in five general categories:

Payment (of DEBT) history - 35%
Amounts (of DEBT) owed - 30%
Length of credit (DEBT) history - 15%
New credit (DEBT) - 10%
Types of credit (DEBT) used - 10%

I added the word debt in the above for emphasis, because that is what it is. The word debt should always be substituted for credit because it forces you to think about what it is with your heart instead of just your head. You can not have a credit score without paying on debt, being in debt or having been in debt. A credit score is an “I love debt” score and the scary thing is that it is normal.

The whole topic of debt, whether it is for a municipality, company or individual could be argued endlessly one way or the other. But in a world where so many people and cities have too much month left at the end of the money, I do not want to be normal. I want to be weird. I want out of the land of payments. I want to build wealth, spend with a plan and be in a position to give. Debt takes those options away and at the same time, increases risk. This is true whether you are operating a budget for your family or your city.

So, a great bond rating does what? It allows, even encourages, our city to go into debt to get what we want and get it now. I suggest, we cut cost, spend with a plan and save for future purchases. I suggest we don’t worry about our rating, because it only serves a purpose if we intend on worshiping at the alter of debt. Fancy pants, academics and folks with lots of letters after their names like to argue that it is not always mathematically logical to use the “one payment plan” I am suggesting. They fail to do a sophisticated financial analysis that factors in risk (beta) along with taxes and inflation. I argue that if we used logic, people and cities would never find themselves being foreclosed on, filing bankruptcy, having property repossessed or not being able to make payroll. We need to have an “emergency fund”, pay for what we buy when we buy it and save for future purchases.

Macon Civic Club Needs to Re-define the Word "Help"

2007-11-15T18:34:00.000-05:00

I just read a news article at 13WMAZ.com (http://www.13wmaz.com/news/new_story.aspx?storyid=45578) regarding the Macon Civic Club. In it, the president of the club, Robert Woodcock, says a member of the club "misappropriated" $75,000 in funds. Using the term misappropriated in the context of the article is equivalent to calling illegal immigrants, undocumented workers.

Apparently a member of the Civic Club with access to funds, took money that did not belong to them, without permission and used it for reasons not stated in the article. That would be called stealing. President Wookcock stated he had no intention of releasing the thief’s name because the thief has now returned the money. Huh?? So, if your child shoplifts at Needless Markup and returns the high priced goods the following week, your okay with that??

The article actually quoted Woodcock as saying the authorities were not contacted because "the publicity would not have helped either party." Seems someone has their priorities and morals a little skewed.

I think he should define the word “help”. The fact that someone would steal is a serious issue to begin with. Add to that fact, the person stole from a charitable organization of which they were a member. Finally, to top that off, the person stole from friends and donors that had placed a certain level of trust in the thief. It’s horrible and for the robber to not incur normal consequences for their actions is a dishonor to the victims, but more a disservice to the criminal.

If this embezzler would steal $75,000 from charity, for any reason, then they will most likely steal a lesser amount from another victim for a “more important” reason in the future. They need to be punished for their crime and then allowed to make reparations. That would be the best way to help the person that chose to steal the money. Sometimes a little pain is necessary and good.

The fact that Woodcock is more interested in sweeping this incident under the carpet to reduce publicity is disheartening too. He seems more concerned with negative press than doing the best thing for the criminal, the Civic Club and the folks that make donations every year to this group. If he is willing to keep quiet about such a large issue within the organization which he has been chosen to lead, I wonder what else he is willing to do or not do in order to “look good”. Like myself, I am sure people are questioning his judgment.

Dave Ramsey Back In Th' Day

2007-08-03T00:15:00.000-04:00

I was going through some old boxes and what did I see. A little picture of Dave Ramsey looking back at me. I lived in Antioch, TN back in '96 and became a Dave Ramsey-holic. This man has had a bigger positive impact on my life and my future than my own father or any other man I have ever met in person.

I listened and learned. I still do. But, in '96 I subscribed to his Financial Peace Newsletter. This newsletter was a revenue source for The Lampo Group (Dave's company) along with his books, seminars, counseling, etc. But in '96, his company was still very small. These newsletters are full of great information, but not nearly a polished and professional as his materials today. That's why I love looking at them. I have the entire first volume. They are in great shape and you can see from Dave's mug on the front that the newsletter is not the only thing that became more stylish.

I don't think Dave mails out hard copy newletters anymore, which makes having these very special. I love them dearly and they are so special to me. That is why they will never be for sale. But..........they could be bought.

A Literary Attempt at Winning a Seven Cycle Custom Bike

2007-08-01T07:43:00.000-04:00

Outside Magazine had a advertisement on a contest to win a $9500 custom bike from Seven Cycles of California. The day before the deadline, I spun off the keyboard the following literary attempt. The essay was to be about why you "deserve" to be the one person to win this bike. Well, I hate the over use and misuse of the word deserve, but I wanted to participate, so below is a draft of what I sent them.

Discaimer:
Normally, I would not use the word “deserve” because it has become a point of contention with me and I feel it is over used, much like the phrase “fixed income” or the term “ADD”. I think of them as BS cop outs for folks that choose not to take on responsibility and happen to things instead of allowing things to happen to them. I usually insert the word “earn” in place of “deserve”, but since the essay dictates we use the word “deserve”, I will be happy to follow the rules and use the word in a context of my choosing.

Disclaimer Two:
The following information is correct and verifiable, but should not be believed to be the truth unless you take the time to validate the facts and statements for yourself or unless you already know them to be so. That being said…What you are about to read probably has grammatical errors but IS true!

Reasons Tarpley Should Be Blessed With The Seven

As a world renowned PDR champion, a former triathlete, a small business owner and advocate for living a debt free life, I can relate to Seven Cycles, their employees and their mission in a number of ways.

I live in Macon , Georgia (think Allman Brothers, Alabama Vest and old ass buildings from 18 something), the pre-season training ground for Abercrombie & Fitch’s Pro Development Cycling Team and home of L.H. Thompson (damn fine stems and posts). It is here that I have not only been introduced to the sport of cycling, but also honed my skills in the art of Paintless Dent Removal (PDR) to the point of being ranked the best in the world.

In 1998, I moved from another southern state to Macon , GA in order to start my little company called Dent Tricks. I chose the city because of its size and geographic relevance to my old college town of Boone , NC and the fact that I had a non-compete contract I needed to abide by. It was in this sleepy backwards city, where I chose to test my entrepreneurial skillz, that I was introduced to the sport of mountain biking. You’d think living in the mountains of NC I would have had mountain biking shoved down my throat, like a rookie on a porn set, but I was busy helping friends grow high altitude agricultural cross pollinated “plants” between classes and trying to learn how to funnel a beer without shooting it from my nose. Obviously I was less interested in building a better body than I was in building a better bong.

Back to living in Macon though…I met some friends that regularly biked on local trails and made weekend trips to Tsali, NC for world class mountain biking. They got me hooked and I bought my first bike ever from a local shop that has grown tremendously thanks in part to a new cycling club called MAX. I purchased a Specialized Stump Jumper and was stoked. I rode it for two years solid and watched my list of friends grow because of it. I was meeting and hanging with friends from teens to seniors and some of the seniors were kicking my ass on the trails. I found out that the hard core mountain bikers were spending about ¼ of their biking time on mountain bikes, but were spending the rest of their time on road bikes. WTF I thought? Come to find out, it really increases your endurance and as serious racers, that is what they needed more than the technical riding for competition.

I couldn’t see the fun in riding a white line for several hours under the blazing sun of Georgia , while staring at someone else’s ass with no whoopty doos or sweet jumps in sight. I just didn’t get it. I did want to increase my endurance though because I have this innate desire to be the best I can at whatever I decide to pursue.

This desire to be good at something is especially strong when it comes to my career. I founded Dent Tricks, a paintless dent removal (PDR) company in 1998. PDR is the art of removing dents from cars by massaging or manipulating the metal back to its original shape without damaging the original paint. It is a craft that takes years to perfect. I have twice (2005 & 2007) been ranked First Place at the International Dent Olympics. Competitors from all over the world compete in this highly specialized competition. Like Seven Cycles, I am not satisfied with pretty good. I want my customers to know they have the best available.

After a couple of years on a mountain bike and some encouragement from the roadies, I stepped up and bought another Specialized. This time it was an Allez road bike. New shoes, new clips, new helmet and now funny shorts. Hey, you wanna fit in right?

So fast forward to today, which is now ironically about seven years later, and I have shaved legs, many triathlon races under my belt and a room of race pictures, finishers medals and dent trophies. The problem is that about two years ago, I met and fell in love with a runner, not a rider. Since I also happen to run, I started doing more of that and less riding. As the time has passed, I have seen less and less of my riding buddies. I only see them at cook outs and parites now. My cycling legs are gone, I have no new stories of dog chases, hill climbs or bonking to contribute and an old bike that weighs about 26 pounds. To say the least, my motivation has waned.

Though it’s not quite fair to call myself an avid rider at the moment, I can proudly say I’m an engaged recreational rider. Amy and I were got engaged on April 26 of 2007. Another interesting twist is that cycling friends introduced us. Justin (former bike shop owner) and his wife Sandra set us up. Unbeknownst to them, Amy at the time was a smoker and had never participated in any type of sports at all. However, since we began dating, Amy (Google “amys running life”) has run the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego, several half marathons, many 5 and 10K races...and quit smoking. She is now an athlete. On top of that, she is interested in riding a bike!! There is only one thing holding standing in the way though…money.

Amy and I are on a quest to be debt free, including the house. We both earn a fair amount, but are choosing to put every extra dollar we can scrounge up towards debt reduction. So, vacations, gourmet coffee, Netflix and other luxuries have temporarily been halted. We cut the credit cards up long ago. Only necessities, like transportation, housing, food and import beer make the cut now. We are living like no other….so that someday we can live like no other, as Dave Ramsey would say. We are not living like paupers, only coming out on triple coupon Thursdays, but rather living by a budget and making wise choices with what we do with our money, because we want to start our marriage off right, which by the way will be October 11, 2008. I know, I know, but she is working on her MBA and wants to have that behind her before managing a wedding. Once we are married and debt free, we will both have a bike.

In the meantime, it sure would be nice to have a reason, no excuse, to get back on the road and join the cycling group again. Being a winner of another International contest and riding the hills of Georgia on the prize would carry with it the responsibility and moral obligation to live up to the honor of possessing such a gift. The challenge of riding to the ability of the bike would be made and it would be up to me to meet it. In the eyes of the world and all those riding Seven’s now, I would be expected to be a cyclist again.

The story of Seven Cycles and Troy Tarpley are not that much different. We both began with no reputation and through persistence, successful completion and above average standards rose to be the best in our industries. Seven and Tarpley are not the largest in our chosen fields, but recognize that helps set us apart. I don’t know that anyone “deserves” to have anything given to them for free, but if I won this Seven Elium SG, I would earn it by riding BRAG (Bike Ride Around Georgia) next year, promoting Seven Cycles to our bike club with around 200 members and encouraging my favorite shop to sell them. I think if you’re giving a $9500 bike away you should get a ROI (Return on Investment) and I look forward to being just that….T-roi.

If It Starts With Cancer, Where Does It End?

2007-08-01T07:15:00.000-04:00

I have decided to start using the "one stone" method of writing in order to maintain some sense of regularity with my blog. So, anytime I write a letter to the editor of The Telegraph in Macon, I'll post it here too. Sometimes I write in response to another writer and in those cases I may include their letter to better understand the context of mine.

Below is a letter recently published in The Telegraph that may make sense to many people upon first reading it. On the surface it seems good intentioned and written from a sense of caring for others. However, what it comes down to is using the government to take private property from individuals in order to give it to those "more deserving".

The second letter is my respone to the first.

Published June 16, 2007

Blood-related cancer research needs support

In the past 20 years we've seen enormous progress in research and discovery of new treatments for blood-related cancers, particularly in childhood leukemia and some adult blood cancers. Despite this progress, however, the prognosis for many blood cancers remains bleak, with hundreds of thousands of patients facing unnecessary suffering and death.

Our enormous progress is being undermined and could soon be reversed due to inadequate federal funding, just when we need commitment and conviction the most. Over the last four years federal funding for cancer research has been flat or declined as research has become more expensive. Reduced support for cancer research could lead to delays in the development of new screenings and treatments that could help detect cancer early and save lives. Some research groups have already terminated lifesaving clinical trials.

As someone who has seen too many lives lost to blood cancer, I don't understand how anyone would think our country can afford to curb its investment in blood cancer research.
Leaders in Congress say they are committed to funding the fight against cancer, but so far they have given it a lower priority than hundreds of other programs. The House of Representatives proposed a 1.5 percent increase for the National Cancer Institute, the nation's premier cancer research institution, far less than the average 6.4 percent increase for other health and education programs. With the increased costs associated with medical research, that does not even keep pace with last year, let alone the declining budgets of the last few years.

I urge Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, as well as Georgia members of the House of Representatives, to support residents here in Georgia living with blood-related cancer and those who will be diagnosed with the disease by committing to increase funding for cancer research - at a minimum, at the rate of medical inflation.

Simply put: The greater our investment, the more lives we will save.

Dick Brown is executive director of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Georgia Chapter.

Published June 18, 2007

Government not answer to all our problems

Blood-related cancer is a tremendously large health concern in Georgia, the United States and the world. I agree with Dick Brown of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Georgia Chapter, on that and the fact that more research would be great and help move us toward finding a cure that much faster.
However, blood-related cancer is no more important an issue than Alzheimer's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), suicide, heart disease, safe food, good education or secure borders. The problem with the following list is that only secure borders are a constitutional responsibility of government. The other issues are well-intentioned but should not be funded through force by taking hard earned dollars from citizens in the form of taxes. Period.

My feelings on this issue are not without compassion and empathy for those affected with any disease, including cancer, for I have lost family members to cancer and known many others who have had one form or another of the disease. My feelings don't change the fact that it is wrong to take from people what belongs to them, in order to pay for something I want, even if it is in the interest of others.

It is easy to forget people have individual rights that trump communities' (groups of individuals) desires. We live in a nation of law, not mob rule. Just because a community wants something does not mean it has the authority or right to force an individual to forego his or her rights. That would be mob rule, and it is wrong. On top of being sad, it is scary how this nation is willing to ignore or even detest the idea of individualism and individuals' rights, regardless of the reason.
Now, if we want to see more money spent on blood-related cancer research, or any other type of research, we should not push for government (which is well-known for its inability to handle money) to forcibly take more from those who produce. Instead, we should push for government to let American taxpayers keep most of what they earn and at the same time get out of the health-care business altogether.

Governmental regulations, endless paperwork and red tape stifle health-care providers and drive the cost of their services and products to ridiculous levels. If government would get out of the business of health care and let health-care professionals do their jobs, the health-care business and society would be much better off.

Taxpayers could afford to voluntarily donate money to research, and research could be expanded without the permission and regulation of the FDA, thereby finding solutions to cancer of the blood, the prostate, the breast, etc. We have to stop immediately thinking that "government" is the answer to all our problems. Government, more often, is the problem.

Troy Tarpley is a resident of Macon.

A Mission To Stop The Abuse (of a phrase)

2007-05-22T07:33:00.000-04:00

Assumptions could be made that most people do not "literally" have the ability to buy anything they would like. I would love to buy a 34 foot yacht, but I do not have the money....right now. The problem is, I don't realistically earn enough money to buy a yacht right now. That would mean my income is currently limited to not buying certain things others may be able to buy. Likewise, my income does allow me to buy many things others can not buy. I do not however say I live on a "fixed income", because I don't.

Very few people are forced to live on a fixed income and it "gets my goat" (http://www.drlaura.com/letters/index.html?mode=view&tile=1&id=11311) to hear people lament about the limits of their income. The phrase is over used and commonly associated with senior citizens. I love these people and enjoy hearing their stories and learning from them. However, many of them, including relatives of mine, made bad financial decisions over and over, thus limiting the lifestyle they could afford in later years. Still, their income is not fixed. Most "fixed income" people could unfix it by getting a part-time job or starting a business. Colonel Sanders didn't cook chicken commercially until he was in his fifties (http://www.kfc.com/about/colonel.asp). Mary Kay, the cosmetics queen, didn't start her business until she was pushing 50 (http://www.anbhf.org/laureates/mkash.html). All I'm saying is that people should ease up on the usage of the phrase "fixed income". Everybody has a fixed income until they decide to do something about it. Currently mine is fixed well belowe $170,000 a year. Well below!

For those few that are bedridden (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bedridden) I give them a pass. For those that are able, regardless of age...................STOP IT!

Road Trip In Support Of Th FairTax

2007-05-16T08:08:00.000-04:00

Well, I wish you could have been there. Amy (my fiance) and Justin (my buddy) drove from Macon, GA as did my brother and his wife (Ryan and Kiem) to a FairTax rally that happened to coincide with the second Republican presidential primary debate. The energy was crazy, the looks on the official debate attendees was priceless and the statement we made with approx. 8000 FairTax proponents marching and chanting around the Republicans and news crews was worth the looks on their faces.

You would have thought 8000 people wearing FairTax shirts and hats were dropped from Black Hawk helicopters. One minute there were news ferrets taping Republicans in suits and ties swapping spit out front of the Koger Center……….the next minute there were, from out of nowhere, 8000 people holding FairTax signs and chanting “FairTax Now”. A Romney campaign staffer, stopped me and asked with a confused look on his face, “where did all these people come from?”.

Hell, it wasn’t like it hadn’t been publicized. The FairTax.org group had been preparing for this for weeks. It was amazing! We did miss a couple of the big talking heads that we had hoped to see, like Herman Cain and Sean Hannity, but we did get to see Mike Huckabee, Neal Boortz and John Stossel. These guys have and continue to do a lot for this movement, as has Congressman John Linder and 60 co-sponsors. However, to see 8000 people drive from different parts of the US to be in Columbia, South Carolina on a TUESDAY NIGHT in order to show their support for the FairTax put a little lump in my throat. (No, not the kind that makes me almost gag when I think about the IRS and our current unequitable code.)

If I had my "druthers" and could have made one little change, it would have been that Dave Ramsey attended. I'm not sure exactly how Dave feels about the FairTax, but I would bet (with my blow money of course) that he supports it. His presence, especially in the company of some of his friends and cohorts, would have taken that entire crowd to another level.

I wish everyone of you could have made it along with a few thousand more. But, there will be another one and even if it is on the other side of the country…you should go.

There's No Way I'm Making Up For Lost Time (blogs)

2007-04-30T23:50:00.000-04:00

I'll just start out saying that since I last posted to my blog.....I've gotten engaged. Amy described the entire event in near perfect detail on her blog (http://30yofseeksmarathontorun.blogspot.com/) if your as interested as I know you will be.

She got one thing wrong. I did come back with that third beer. I put it on the table and told her I was going to the bathroom and would be right back with roses and a ring. She didn't hear that last part though. I didn't hear much as I carried the roses and ring from the back of the restaurant towards the front either. As a matter of fact I vaugely remember getting tunnel vision. It wasn't until I dropped to one knee that I remember hearing other patrons ooooing and awwwwing. I snapped back then and had the fortitude whip the camera from my back pocket in time for someone to snap a reenactment of the one knee event. Amy still had the contact jacked up inside her eyelid and I was just wanting to sit beside her and give her a hug.

After she returned from the bathroom, we laughed about the whole thing and then talked about the events leading up to "the moment" and talked about the ring. She has small hands anyway, so I knew anything over a 3.5 carat would be too big for her. HA! Realistically, it would have been too big for my savings account. See, I actually had a savings set aside for the ring. So, she has a paid for ring and I have a happy fiance. (how do I get that little dash over the "e" in fiance?) Since she probably won't tell you, but you really want to know, I'll tell you a little about the ring.

First of all, the center stone is and Emerald cut just under 2 carats. It is exactly 1.92 ct. with .25 ct. tapered bagets on each side. I purchased the Emerald cut seperately, but had it inspected and appraised first. The appraiser was the only GIA gemologist in Middle GA and gave me a report that listed the stones specs. An Internally Flawless, VVS2 that is I in color. Good Symmentry and Polish with no Flouresence and a memdium Girdle. And I knew what all of that meant. I know much more than the 4C's. That's remedial information. Grade school stuff now. I'd actually considered going to NY or even Antwerp to get a stone. But persistance and lots of looking paid off in the end. I purchase the two bagets through the jewelry designer I used to hand carve Amy's setting. We had looked had hundreds of settings in several catalouges and online and I knew which style she liked and several things about some similar styles that she didn't like. After much much research (more so on the main diamond than the setting) I came across Tiffany's setting that matched so much of what we both liked. And it is bad ass! Here, go look...
http://http://www.tiffany.com/expertise/engagement/engagement.aspx?style=emerald&ring=baguettes#
See, I told you so! So, I had Georgia Heard, owner of Gray Jewelers, in Gray, GA recreate it for me. I took her both pictures and lots of pictures of the similar settings and showed her what I did and didn't like about them. Three weeks later, I had it in hand. She did co-create this ring with Gregory Crawford, whom I've never met, but understand is a master artist with clientle David Yurman would pay for.

The entire ring process took many many hours of internet research and more hours of shopping and talking with diamond brokers. Most of which were full of malarkey (Exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive: “snookered by a lot of malarkey”). Nonetheless, it was fun and worth it once I was able to give it to my former girlfriend.....current fiance.

I'll try to remember to come back to this post and add the reenactment of the proposal and a better picture of the ring.

So, it took such an event to bring me back to my blog, but I can't promise I'll keep it up as regularly as I had been. Blog land is competitive and if you don't have an audience, it's hard to be motivated to make it a priority. I know, I know. If you don't make it a priority and keep it up you'll never have an audience. (long sigh)

I'm A Two-Timer!

2007-01-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

Yep! The time has come for me to admit it. It happened this past weekend in Clearwater, FL. I was there for a work related convention called The Mobile Tech Expo. What a place for a winter convention. Sunny skies, warm weather and healthy attractive looking people running and cycling all over the place.

My trip to Clearwater was not quite as planned. I spent the first night on the road and arrived in town at 8:16 am after driving all night from Macon, GA. I did stop at a Pilot truck stop somewhere in GA for a two hour nap and a refueling of high octane Columbian coffee. Nonetheless, I was tired. Not wanting to miss anymore of the show...I showered, changed clothes, scarrfed down some hotel lobby breakfast and headed towards the convention center, which by the way sits on the bluest water I've seen in a while.

As I walked through the doors, I could see the place was already buzzing. Vendors pushing theirs goods and services. Attendees grabbing any free goodies they could get while trying to look interested in the products being pitched. Oh, an old friend there. Hey, an old fiend there. People I've known and/or worked with over the years were everywhere. The Carolina guys, which were mostly old DW techs, the 'Bama loner with quick wit but rough edges, the California boys with their permanent sun tans, the 13 Russians that now run Chicago (i think they're "connected") and the Canadians that speak fluent Greek (it's French, but Greek to everyone else). I spent the first few hours catching up, listening to stories, meeting new people and talking smack. NAPDRT.org (National Alliance of Paintless Dent Repair Techinicians) was there and had a very informative meeting that coincided with them signing up new and obviously intelligent techs.

It was interesting to see how DW and Dent Zone were being treated. They both have some decent people that work for them, but unfortunately the agenda of the corporations supersedes the very few good guys that work for them. Years of abusing opportunities, technicians and body shops along with driving prices down in the name of making a big profit "this time", has come back to haunt them. (Does anyone have a tissue?) sniff sniff

Oh, back to the Title. (Pun Intended) Like so many conventions, most of your time is spent socializing. I'm no different. But, given the opportunity to break up that monotny, I took it. So out of the crowd I stepped. In the back corner of the ballroom we were in, I stepped behind some ropes and then behind a car. Not too many people if any were watching. That's when I got a little nervous though. I knew someone was coming up behind me. All I heard was, "Let's get it going!" Damn, this was it. I hadn't come completely prepared, but was going to make do. Hell, this kind of opportuntiy doesn't present itself all the time. So, I reached down and took my tool by hand. It was hard and suprisingly warm. Perhaps from the Florida heat. I noticed the slight curve it had and I was pleased. I knew it would go in nice and without any struggle. I made a couple of quick adjustments in order to see as much as I could in every position I was about to put my body in. Then, I thought about Amy. What was she doing? What would she think about what I was about to do? Would she be emotional? Aughhh! I had to concentrate, I couldn't think about her, not now. So, I slid my left hand gently up until I found the groove I was looking for. It felt a little tight. Nice. The more fulcrum the better. With a little caressing, I was able to gently widen the slit enough to get my hard rod in a couple of inches. Two inches would never get the job done though. I needed to get inside a little more. At least another 8 inches. The spot I was shooting for was within my reach and I was determined to make it happen. Pressure and all. It was a weird and surreal experience. Knowing people were nearby, just out of earshot, possibly watching. Freaky. The moment was intense and I was in the zone. I was using my body and my hands to manipulate my shaft to hit the target and within a few minutes I was there. Oh, it was beautiful. I used gentle but firm pressure and with rythmic movement pushed over and over and over. Push, release. Push, relax. Push harder, hold, hold, ease up. As I worked it and worked it, I felt I was coming closer and closer to a succesful completion. It's always a bummer to start so strong only to have the little thing go south and blow a chance of a lifetime. I wasn't blowing anything on this day. Other people were, but not me. I'll admit, I stopped for a bit. I was nevous and tired. Perhaps from the effort I was exherting or perhaps from the lack of sleep, but I could tell I only needed a few more minutes. A little more body thrusts, some light tapping here and there and some moving in and out. Closer. Further. Closer closer. Further. Here it was. The end was coming. Push a little more....a little more. Move back. Take a final look. Stare. Another one. NO, two pusheszzzzz. DONE!

I had just started and finished my award winning dent repair. See, as part of The Mobile Tech Expo, we PDR technichians from around the world come to compete in the International Dent Olympics. Every year, from many different countries, PDR techs throw their hat in the ring (for a nominal fee) to see who might walk away with the first place trophy for the best dent repair of all.

As I stated in the title, I am now a two-timer. That's right. I came in first place at the 2005 Dent Olympics and now tied for first place at the 2007 Dent Olympics. Ironically, the guy I tied with is also a two-timer now. He won in 2006 too. So, as nervous as I was and with all the excitement and considering the outcome, it would have been nice to have Amy there to help celebrate.

By the way, the description of the above dent repair is just about as honest as I could be. Normally, I'd leave out most of the little details and it would sound something like this....
I walked up to the car, pulled out my tool, slid it down inside the door and with gentle pushes, gently massaged the dent back to it's original position. So, I hope you enjoyed reliving a very proud moment in my life. If you'd like to see me in action, be prepared to pay... and please have a dent in your car.

Now I know how Lance Armstrong must have felt after his second Tour de France win. (i say with a smirk)

Capitalism Restrictions and Ignorant Crybabies

2007-01-11T08:42:00.000-05:00

(the following is in response to a Letter to the Editor from Mr. Williams published in The Macon Telegraph on 01-11-07.)
the link: http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/editorial/letters/16430138.htm

If not for time constraints or restrictions on letter length, I could argue several points in Lee Williams’ letter of response about “Liberal pollution”. I have chosen to touch on one.

Mr. Williams said near the end of his letter, ”…we have given our jobs to overseas investors…”. This is the type of statement that leads a reader to assume the writer lacks knowledge of economics, is immature or genuinely stuck on playing partisan games.

First, “we” have not given “our” jobs to overseas investors. The jobs belong to the owners of the company. The job skills belong to the employee. You can own your own job skills, but unless you are self-employed, you do not own your job. That job belongs to your employer and your employer has the right to give that job to someone else.

Second, since the employer owns “the job”, it would be another employee that you would expect them to give “the job” to, not an investor. I know it could be said that if you are an employee that accepts a job, you are investing in yourself or investing yourself in the company you are working for. In reading Mr. William’s letter however, it is obvious from the context that is not what he was referring to.

For a company to give an investor the jobs the company owns, the company would have to sell the jobs to the investor. In this case, the jobs would not be considered “given”, they would be considered “sold”. This is a remedial explanation, so I apologize for boring many of you, however it seems necessary to ‘break it down’ in this manner for some readers.

If people that think like Mr. Williams had their way and the United States restricted private companies from moving operations outside the states or overseas, imagine the negative impact it would have on the US. The backlash on America from other countries would be unimaginable. Toyota, a huge Japanese company could close down all it’s operations in the US. Manufacturing plants, dealerships, parts distributors, etc. Nestle, a Swiss company could close all of its plants, thereby affecting thousands too. If the US was arrogant enough to mandate American companies only have operations in America, our economy would suffer immensely.

We live in a global economy now thanks advancements in technology, transportation, communication and much more. To think in such a small manner shows ignorance. A favorite saying of mine is, “Change is not mandatory, because survival is not required.” To survive, you must accept and adapt to change just like the typewriter repairmen and the ice delivery men that used to supply ice for your icebox. There were not hundreds of homeless typewriter repairmen homeless when people stopped using typewriters. Neither were there homeless ice delivery men on the streets once the refrigerator was invented. You must take responsibility for yourself and not look to the government to force someone else, like a company, to do it for you.

Happy Anniversary To You

2007-01-06T11:33:00.000-05:00

(sing the below to the tune of Happy Birthday to You.)

Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to (anyone celebrating an anniversary). Happy anniversary to you.

I was just thinking about birthdays and the fact that if your not dead, you get to celebrate one each year you continue living. I guess that really is something good to celebrate, but is it really something everyone should celebrate? Let me ask it this way. Should it be celebrated by others to the extent that we normally celebrate birthdays considering you, I or anyone else really does nothing of accomplishment or deserving of a celebration, other than eat, sleep and breath, when it comes to birthdays?

Birthdays are something everyone has. Young and old, black and white, men and women. To have one, you just need to make sure you don't die. That's it! Don't die. Keep breathing. It's really not that hard. Provinding your parents did a half-way decent job of raising you, you should make it to your sex and race's average life expectancy. Don't play in traffic. Don't play with loaded guns. Respect the laws of gravity and don't jump off buildings. It's not really very hard to stay alive.

On the other hand, a wedding anniversary is something to celebrate for sure. A wedding anniversary is something everyone should recognize and celebrate. From what I hear and based on the divorce rate in America, staying married is not nearly as easy as living. It takes lots of things. I'm not married, but know it takes patience, commitment, equal goals and the desire to make your spouse happy amongst many many other things.

My point is....every year we make such a big deal over birthdays. To remember a childs birthday and celebrate it is fun makes sense to me. Hell, it makes sense to me to celebrate the birthday of someone that makes it to the ripe old age of 90. I don't think we should not celebrate birthdays for everyone, I just think we should celebrate wedding anniversaries more and recognize the efforts that go into keeping a marriage together.

I'd like to write more, but an annoying person that wants to give me money for my service keeps calling me. Probably because I told them I'd be there 45 minutes ago. Anyway, I've got to go for now, but will probably come back to this post later.

In the meantime, think about it.

Be Prepared. It's Gonna' Rain.

2007-01-04T09:29:00.000-05:00

Folks, it’s gonna’ rain! It’s a fact and you need to be prepared. We all live in a world where people get laid off, people get cancer, transmissions go out or insurance companies mess up paperwork. I’ve heard that the average person will encounter some major financial crisis every ten years. It could be something I just mentioned or countless other emergencies, but the fact remains….you need an emergency fund.

When my financial counselor, Dave Ramsey, is discussing this important issue, he’s often told that he is being negative. People will tell him to “be positive”. His response is, “I am positive! I’m positive life is going to smack you in the face and you won’t be prepared without an EMERGENCY FUND.”

He also says that women have this little place in their abdomen that relaxes when they know they’ve got a little money saved for emergencies. Most men don’t have this because we’re often times more risky (or stupid). However, when women know they don’t have an emergency fund, this “little place” tightens and causes them lots of discomfort. It makes their brow wrinkle, lips tighten and their overall attitude less than pleasant. It would be in your families overall best interest to get an emergency fund. Considering most divorces today are a result of problems involving money, I think this is good advice.

Don’t misunderstand me. This is not a new widescreen TV fund or a neeeeed to go to the Bahamas fund. This is a fund for emergencies (unexpected events) only. New tires, a new roof, even a new car are not emergencies. They wear out or break eventually and we know we’ll need to replace them. This is predictable so save up.

Ideally, we should all have three to six months worth of personal expenses saved in a good money market account as our emergency fund. But, start with $1000 baby emergency fund. Have a yard sale, take some overtime, do whatever, but get that emergency fund started. Cut up the credit cards and tighten your belt. It’s not easy…but it’s worth it!

One of my favorite sayings is, “There’s not room for everyone at the top, but there is room for anyone.” I get out of this, that anyone can succeed IF they choose to make the right decisions, work hard and never give up. One of the right decisions is to have an emergency fund. Regardless of your income, your circumstances, etc….you can do it if you make it a priority. It’s not easy….but it’s worth it.

Listen to Dave live every weekday on nearly 300 stations around the country, XM or Sirius satellite radio or for free on the internet at www.DaveRamsey.com.

(All of the above information and advice has been stolen from Dave Ramsey, whom admittedly stole it from your and my grandparents and God.)

Snowboarding HURTS!

2006-12-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday was about as hectic a day as any I've had in quite a while. It rarely fails that when I've got plans to leave town for the weekend, I'm bound to have the busiest day of the month...that day. This particular day was no different. I was meeting a group of friends for a 10 hour drive to Snowshoe, West Virginia. That's John Denver country bitch and we were going to tear up the slopes of Denver's home far away.

The ride was crazy because it included 6 (Robert Long, Matthias Blackshear, Jimmy Long, Chris Gore, Troy Tarpley and Josh Marsh) wired guys, 8 anxious boards, too many bags overflowing with insulated clotches and enough alcohol to open our own little club. Funny thing was the alcohol was consumed mostly by two guys, which made the trip all the more entertaining and difficult. Bathrooms stops were really like reloading stops. Piss some vodka out, take some vodka in. Red Bull cans dropping from the opened doors of the Tahoe like little rabbit droppings. Luckily, three of the 6 in the group were proffesional computer geeks, albiet drunk geeks, and had their laptops in hand to entertain everyone not driving with movies. Suprisingly, no porn. Now I know why DVD's in cars has become such a big industry. The cost/benefit ratio is not hard to understand. The benefit of keeping everyone preoccupied and quiet greatly outweighs the cost of a couple hundred dollars.

We left Atlanta around 8pm and drove all night, arriving in Snowshoe around 6am Friday morning. The temerature guauge on the car read 1 degree farenheit. We were told that when you calculated for wind chill it was near -20. Snotcicles were guaranteed! We checked into our plush tree bedroom condo on the slopes and prepared for battle. With our warm clothes on and our boards in hand, we headed to Starbucks for some energy. Thirty minutes later, we were set for launch. To the bunny slope I headed!

I locked myself in and shoved off for my first experience on a snowboard. It was a very very short experience. I made it about 8 feet at about 8 miles an hour before falling on my ass. It hurt a little the first time. By the 25th time, it hurt a lot. We were skiing on packed granular ice that was man made a few days before we arrived. This was not powder. In fact, I don't think Snowshoe knows what powder is. Anyway, the ice was to my ass what a meat tenderizer is to a steak. After two hours and many many attempts to travel more than 15 feet without another anal impact to the freezing floor I was now well aquainted with, I decided to move on to something a bit more challanging...like a "green" slope.

Suprisingly, that's exactly what I needed. The greens had a little less ice and much more slush. I was able to make the edges of my board hold a line while moving and NOT falling....immediately. I fell and fell some more the entire weekend, but the falls became more spread out as the hours passed.

Saturday, I woke with pain in parts of my body that I didn't know I had. I have muscles in my neck and didn't know that they could be exercised to the point of ouch, but they can. My left ass cheek and left forearm felt like they'd been sucker punched by Mike Tyson and all I could think of was getting my hands on some Aleve or Advil or Tylenol or bottle of Beefeaters. I settled for a venti Christmas blend and a blueberry muffin at Starbucks. After a little breakfast and working the stiffness out of my legs, arms and neck, I was good to go.

The rest of the weekend was about the same as far as snowboarding goes. I continued to painfully land on my face and continued to bitch each time, but I continued to get better and continued to brag about it too.

I'm now a snowboarder and look forward to going again, but I sure am glad to be home too. My awsome girlfriend was waiting with a smile, our Christmas tree was flickering through the window and the house smelled much better than that Tahoe.

Some pictures of our trip: http://drunken-snow-2006-4th-annual.blogspot.com/ and
http://picasaweb.google.com/cdgore/DrunkenSnow2006?authkey=GLmp6V6Eu-8

A Time For Thieves

2006-12-21T07:09:00.000-05:00

With the Christmas spirit all around, let's not forget to take precautions necessary to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our shit.

Just three weeks ago I came home from a trip to NC. This wasn't a pleasure trip for the sake of pleasure. It was a trip to my grandmother's home that was being sold to some strangers that will now make it their home, with their memories. We (aunts, cousins, brothers, etc.) were helping clean out and clean up the house for the new owners. While walking through the woods behind the house I noticed some handle bars poking out of some leaves amongst some thicket. With a little pulling and maneuvering, I was able to break the bike free from it's multi-year bondage of wood and vines. Whoa, this was an old bike. I had vague memories of playing with this bike as a child. It was a ladies bike that for a small boy was nutcracker proof, because it had the dropdown tubing instead of the dangerously rigid horizontal top tube. The bike had front and rear fenders, big flat pedals, fat white wall tires, a huge seat and little place to carry stuff on the back. The entire bike was coated in rust. It was a mixture of faint green paint and brown rust. The pedals were permanently locked in place as was the handle bars. The bike was just a relic, but a relic that meant a lot to me.

I asked permission to have the bike. My mom and her sisters, the rightful heirs to this old junk toy, figured it for trash or at least recyclable materiel, but I had other plans. Amy and I are trying to develop our green thumbs and have taken an interest in making the yard look nice and also reflecting a bit of our personal style. We had decided that the bike would look great in the yard as art. A rusty bike tucked off in the corner of the yard, hidden amongst some bushes and flowers. A sort of yard surprise. We'd seen something similar at a bed and breakfast earlier in the year and thought it was a very unique idea.

I hauled the old bike all the was back from Mt. Holly, NC to Macon, GA to see it's new home on Idleway Dr. (Ayers Rd.). A home for many years to come that would show off it's stylish body lines and be proud of it's aged look. I set the bike up in the corner of the front yard. I have two tall pine trees at the end of my house that have a huga azalea bush between them. I thought this would be a fine showplace and it was. For the last three weeks that old bike has welcomed us home, played resting spot for birds and obviously caught the attention of passersby.

Unfortunately for us, it caught the attention of a thief last night. The bike was there when we arrived home last night at approximately 10pm. We could see the bike under the glow of the Christmas lights on the front of the house. When Amy left for work this morning, it was gone. I don't think the bike would fetch much on the open market. About the only one that would pay anything for it would be an antique dealer or a collector of old bikes. Nonetheless, it was worth a lot to me and I'd pay a lot to have it back. I'm sorry I don't even have a picture of it or a name brand to mention. That had worn off long ago as has the character of someone in my community.

Use YOUR Money For Long-Term Care

2006-12-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

The following was a letter sent into the Macon Telegraph regarding long-term care and who should pay for it. This guy's ideas about being able to keep assets, yet look to others to pick up the bill is asinine.

I would like to direct your readers' attentions to an extremely important health issue not often addressed. Regardless of political prejudice or persuasion, long-term care is an issue affecting us all, impacting thousands of families in our area.

There are about 4,000 victims of Alzheimer's disease alone, living in Bibb County and more than 12,500 living in 21 central Georgia counties. The "Georgia Long-Term Care Partnership Program" has been adopted by the General Assembly of Georgia. As part of the "Own Your Future" campaign Gov. Sonny Perdue will send a letter to all Georgia residents between the ages of 45 and 65 encouraging them to plan for long-term care.

The partnership provides that certain assets of a person not be considered when determining Medicaid eligibility if that person is covered by an approved long-term care policy.
This means a person may be able to reduce the cost of their long-term care insurance and qualify for coverage under the state Medicaid program with out first being required to substantially exhaust their resources.

This is especially important since the Deficit Reduction Act which was effective Feb. 8, 2006, will require much tougher standards to qualify for Medicaid.

Thank you for providing a forum for the information our most deserving citizens need to maintain their freedom and dignity and protect their life savings.

Nick Nichols
Macon

The following is my response to his letter....

Nick Nichols letter regarding long-term care left me a bit perplexed about who should pay for services rendered. Here is what I understand his ideas regarding this issue to be. I’ll use an analogy.

Let us say that Nick’s mother has a net worth of $300K including her $200K home. That’s a home worth 200,000 bucks and another $100,000 in assets.

Now let’s say Nick’s mother needs long-term care that cost $40,000 a year.

You would think that she would use her money to pay for the services
she needs over and above what her insurance does not pay for.

So, first she would use her cash to pay the service provider for the food, housing, utilities, medical attention, cable, organized activities, etc. In the example, the cash would pay for about 2 ½ years of service. When her cash ran out, you would think she would liquidate assets for cash in order to pay for the services she wants or needs.

But, Nick seems to think that she should be able to keep things of value -like her house- in order to, I assume be passed to him at her death. So, instead of the house being sold and paying for five more years of services provided to her….the taxpayers pick up the bill so Nick can get his mom’s house. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Beneficiaries of long-term care should be expected and required to use ALL of their assets BEFORE looking to taxpayers in the form of Medicaid to pick up the bill. If you want to inherit your mother’s house, then you buy them long-term care insurance or pay for it out of your pocket, but don’t take money from me.

It seems to me that so many people today, especially baby boomers have squandered their incomes on materialistic crap and or consumable goods and services that have not added any value to their lives whatsoever. Many have little saved and are facing their geriatric years standing at the front door of Wal-Mart or working in the linens department at Macys. So, when faced with the fact that their inheritence could be spent on services to make their parents last years comfortable, they'd rather use government to pay for that, so they can get a house to help subsidize their retirement. That's wrong and if you do this, I hope the house you inherit comes with ghosts that haunt you or at the very least has a cracked foundation.

The 'War on Drugs' is an expensive losing fight

2006-12-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

I had the following letter published in The Macon Telegraph (www.macon.com) on December 1:

Billy Boney may very well be a good man, a loyal servant, an honorable citizen and an effective law enforcement officer. Unfortunately, he is not a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

Twelve-steppers say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That is exactly what most law enforcement officers do and have done for decades now, while wasting billions of tax dollars that could be used to fight violent crime, help people with addictions or secure our borders. Instead, insanity prevails and valuable dollars are thrown away trying to fight a fight that cannot be won.

Perhaps that is a large reason it is fought. Those entrusted with protecting citizens don't want to be told they "can't" do something. When the money spent does not come out of their pockets directly, it is easy to buck up and push harder against the failure we call the "war on drugs." It is a war based on stupidity. Prohibition does not work. The 1920s proved that with alcohol prohibition. It didn't work and it was ended. Alcohol has become a regulated and taxable product that millions of Americans enjoy responsibly.

LEAP is a growing organization of people from the law enforcement and criminal justice communities speaking out about the failures of our existing drug policies. Its Web site says, "Those policies have failed, and continue to fail, to effectively address the problems of drug abuse, especially the problems of juvenile drug use, the problems of addiction, and the problems of crime caused by the existence of a criminal black market in drugs."

Considering that in 1914, just before the Harrison Narcotic Act was passed, the government said 1.3 percent of the U.S. was addicted to drugs. In 1970, the government said the addiction rate was still only 1.3 percent. in 1996 the government said 1.3 percent of the population was addicted to drugs. It seems this fight is ridiculously wasteful.

I wish Deputy Boney, the law enforcement departments of Twiggs, Baldwin and Bibb counties and the taxpayers of these counties would visit http://www.LEAP.cc/ to learn a little about what we could effectively do to HELP citizens with drug addictions.

Our law enforcement and criminal justice men and women should be thanked and honored for their service to the citizens, but when something is wrong with a process or program, it should be fixed. If it is not fixed and it continues to burn through billions of dollars, those who participate should be chastised and held accountable. I urge everyone to visit LEAP's Web site and possibly change their paradigm on how to help addicts.

(A couple of small changes, like punctuation and adding a couple more words, were made to the above letter for this post.)

I just attended the funeral of my 24 year old cousin yesterday 11/30/06. He was an addict to alcohol and drugs and after years of dealing with depression, decided to take his own life as a means to stop whatever pain he was always battling. I've thought about this topic for many years and as a triathlete, marathoner and non-eater of partially hydrongenated oils (translation: healthy diet), I truely believe this "war on drugs" is doing more harm than good. I don't condone the use of drugs. I believe to abuse drugs is stupid, self-centered and unhealthy. I do believe in personal freedom though and believe we should all have the right to put in our bodies what we choose.

That being said...there is still a better way to solve the abuse of drugs than prohibiltion. That better way is explained at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition's website, www.LEAP.cc. Please read and listen to the information with the idea that our goal is to stop drug abuse and help heal those that are addicted.

Pack Rats Need A 12 Step Program

2006-11-28T01:50:00.000-05:00

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.