I am always amazed when I meet someone who lives locally but tells me that they can’t get any Internet Services where they live! When I probe them for more information they tell me that they can’t get cable Internet, and that the dial-up service that they have tried in the past was too slow. I can understand that – I used to have dial-up service and it was slow, but it was better than nothing! When we moved to this house and we got faster Internet I was really happy about it!
I think that DSL service is too limited for most people – I don’t understand how and why the technology of DSL only allows for service withing a short distance from the DSLAM location. I can’t imagine that very many people live within those boundaries! I do think that people who have children in school should have some form of Internet, even if it is slow. These kids are going to need Internet access more frequently as the progress through school. And mobile broadband is just too expensive at this point for people to be able to use that service for personal use.
My wife and I are trying to do a little bit of repairs around the house. Money is tight, so we have been doing some comparison shopping between the two biggest home improvement stores in the area. You know the ones I’m talking about – the big blue and the big orange. We frequently get coupons in the mail from the big blue, and we are frequently seeing commercials on television that claim that the big blue has the cheapest prices. Yet when we went to compare the prices of 2×4s we found that the big orange price was almost $1 lower per 2×4. When you have to buy 100 of them, that makes a big difference! So my advice to all of you out there – don’t believe the hype. Use your head, and your phone and call around for prices! You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save with some shopping savvy!
Speaking of the rodeos, Andy tells me that he has been thinking about buying some National Finals Rodeo tickets for next December. He found a NFR Tickets plaza online that is already selling tickets for this big event! Andy loves to vacation in Las Vegas, and he loves going to Rodeos, so this is a double the pleasure type of vacation for him! He has invited us to join him, but he said it will have to be “Dutch Treat.”
Well, going online and seeing the price of the tickets to the rodeo was rather startling! I’m not sure we could afford to go! I’ll have to give Andy a phone call and see what price range he was thinking of! And then we’ll have to iron out if we are going to be renting and sharing a condo, or staying in separate places. We enjoy Andy’s company and all that, but his finances are in much better shape than ours are in right now and he can afford to take great fancy expensive vacations. Until my insurance settlement money comes in we have to watch our pennies pretty closely and I feel rather uncomfortable gambling that we’ll have the money by then!
My wife had to run some errands today. No big deal, right? Well early this morning it rained out. It rained really hard! It didn’t last very long, maybe an hour, but it sure did cause some serious road flooding! My wife had to find several detours to get to and from where she needed to go! It sure added at least an hour to her travel time; detours on these winding country roads take you many miles out of your way to get around a road block! Detours can be very problematic around here!
I remember when I was a kid, my uncle and his wife picked me up and put me in the back of their station wagon along with their brood of 5 kids, my cousins and was taken to the Houston Rodeo for the day. It was a bit scary at first. Everything was so large and exciting, larger than life like. But after the first initial shock wore off I was good to go and really had a blast for the rest of the day that we were there.
I gained a new respect for these folks who really put their health and their lives on the line to entertain the public and compete against each other. I’ve never been to another rodeo, but I do think about it from time to time. Like when I’m switching channels and I run across a rodeo taking place. I stop and watch for a few minutes, enjoying a few good memories and then move on. Or I see some rodeo going on in a movie or television show.
I’ve heard that they are starting to sell tickets to concerts at the Houston Rodeo and I’ve taken a fancy to the idea of taking the wife and a few other select members of the family to witness this fascinating sport. We haven’t done anything exciting like that in some time. Now that the holidays are all over and done with we need something to pump us up again. The Rodeo might be just what we need!
