the-richmonds.net

Erg.  Sometimes I can be so dumb!

Our auto insurance bill has been going up by about $5/month every six months since we signed on with State Farm two and half years ago.  What started as a $120/mo payment is now $150 a month.  I decided to shop around.

At one point, I thought I was on Progressive's website and filled out a form with my contact informaton,  and the type of insurance I was looking for, including driver's ages and types of vehicles.  I hit submit and was taken to a screen that listed off a half-dozen websites of insurance companies that they recommended for me (third on the list was Progressive).  Only ten seconds later, as I was taking in the fact that I was NOT on a Progressive page, and was in fact on a cleverly disguised NetQuote page, my cell phone rang showing a toll-free number on the caller ID.  I always ignore numbers that I don't know.  A google search of the number showed that it was Liberty Mutual.  Two minutes later, another unfamiliar number called, turned out to be 21st Century Insurance.  Since then, my phone (which can go silent for days at a time) has been ringing at least once an hour during business hours.  Allstate, Farmers, you name the company, they've been calling.  And since I filled out the form, they're not "unsolicited" calls.  Hopefully they'll give up on me soon enough.  I don't like having a phone that rings this much!

Oh, and a simple conversation with our agent (who I had no intention of leaving, as he is family) got my bill down a bit.  Turns out we were missing a couple of discounts, and if we can hang on until October, we'll be getting a substantial discount for being accident-free for the three years that we will have been insured with the company.

Sometimes, the game of geocaching turns up treasures totally unrelated to the hobby.  Two recent hunts yielded such treasures.  Well, maybe "treasure" is not the best word.

While seaching for a cache near the old Goodyear Blimp hangar in Akron, I came across a purse near ground zero (in this game, "ground zero" refers to the GPS coordinates where I should begin my hunt for the cache).  It kind of appeared to be rummaged through an discarded, and there was almost nothing in the purse.  I recognized the Prada name on the logo, even though I'm a fashion ignoramus.  I knew it had the potential to be worth a tidy sum. If it was indeed a $700 purse, it would be worth cleaning up a bit.  Before I put any effort into cleaning it, however, I decided to research the authenticity of the purse.  Everything checked out on the outside, but when I went inside to check for the metal badge, I noticed a "made in china" tag sewed into one of the seams. I tossed it. :-)

On Tuesday, I went hunting for a newly placed cache in some woods less than a mile from our house.  I didn't find the cache (and as of yet, no one else has, either, so I suspect it is not there).  I did find a nice piece of 6x8 pressure-treated lumber though!  Brought it out and will cut it up to use as trailer blocking.

Note:  I just did a search for "Prada" and "Made In China" together, and came up with some interesting pages that lead me to believe that the purse may have been a low-end authentic Prada, as they've been sourcing out some of their products to the Orient in the last few years... I don't know what "low end" means with Prada, but it probably was still not worth cleaning up.  Oh well, the trash has ben taken away already!

The latest news from the world of annoying things:

The touchpad on our laptop does not let me left-click anymore.  One minute it worked, and as I was actually midway through doing some work on the computer two nights ago, the tap-to-click feature (which I use mostly) stopped working.  The left click button was also not functional.  Right click still worked, so I swapped the button functionality (I reinstalled drivers, etc., so I'm fairly certain this is a hardware problem).

Now I'll need to get us a USB mouse (unless a new touchpad is easy and comparabile in price), since all of the external mice that I have in my box-o-computer-junk downstairs are PS/2 or serial, and I don't have anything but USB ports on the laptop...

Book season is back in full swing again, after a couple of months off.  On top of that, without any solicitation for business on my part, business for Richmond Property Services has been picking up.  I went ahead and set up a local phone number and had some business cards printed off for RPS.  I'm also looking into the logistics and pontential of setting up a Thermadome distribution operation here in Northeast Ohio.  With some degree of uncertainty involved in the future of any one of those markets, it does not seem like a bad idea to simultaneously diversify my career options.

Rick has been very good to us, and has been encouraging me to pursue my handyman work on the side, knowing that is ultimately what I would like to be able to support our family with.  He is also supportive of anything that will work out with the Thermadomes.  Whatever happens, there will be a period of transition as things reach an "equilibrium," and for now I'm still committed to working full-time with Rick and the books.

For the last few handyman jobs I have done, I've made no profit; anything over material cost for each job went right into tools.  Last month saw added to the RPS tool arsenal a 10" chopsaw and a (constructed to the point of functionality, but still unfinished as of right now) ladder rack for the truck, among several other small tools and organizing items.  If I get the job I'm bidding right now, that will bring an air compressor and a finishing nailer into the garage, which should cover just about any future jobs that will come in (and I can start making profit with my side work)!

Our house has been losing water pressure drastically over the last four weeks.  I put a gallon pitcher under several of the faucets in the house and got no more than ¾ of a gallon per minute flow rate.  Toilets took 4 minutes to fill after flushing, and the washing machine took almost half an hour to fill.  The landlord sent a plumber over today, and he replaced a section of old galvanized pipe on the street side of the water meter in the basement.  In that mere two feet, there were four 90° elbows, two unions, and an old gate valve, all of which were pretty much 100% clogged.  We now have more water pressure than we've had in this house since we moved in a year and a half ago.  After taking Mason to the bathroom this afternoon, we were actually able to wash our hands with no noticable diminish in water pressure at the faucet WHILE the toilet was flushing.  Just for kicks, I turned on the bathtub faucet at the same time and got full pressure out of that, too!  Amazing stuff!  Yay for clean pipes!

I stumbled across this search engine and thought it was pretty cool.  I think it may be my new favorite....  It doesn't just search through indexed websites, but treats each search as a computation.  The results of that computation are presented in a consistent format.  Whether seaching for information on a particular location (city, state, etc.), measurement conversions, solving for a variable in a mathematic equation, or mapping logic circuits, I've been impressed by the results!  There were some examples on the homepage of other things it could do, but I haven't tried them all out yet.  This would have been a handy tool in high school and college for research projects!

Wolfram|Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine

Since we've moved in to our home in Massillon, we've been getting mail solicitations from First Merit Bank, with a branch located just one block from us.  The first few I discarded, since I was tied to Citizens Bank with the truck loan.  After July (the final truck payment), I did at least glance through the flyers when they came, but I had no reason to leave Citizens.  I was able to do all of my regular banking transactions through the local Charter One branch, although customer service with Citizens had been less than satisfactory (in my opinion) since I was dealing with them exclusively over the phone for any kind of account maintenance issues.

This past week, another First Merit flyer came in the mail, only this time it happened to arrive in a pile of mail that also contained a notice of Citizens' new policy change for each of our "free" accounts with them.  Turns out, they're instituting a $4.99 per month per account maintenance fee unless certain criteria are met as far as account balances, transactions, etc.  We will probably not meet those criteria most of the time, so it's kind of insulting to me to say "you don't have enough money with us, so we're going to take some away from you every month so you have even less."

I went to First Merit yesterday with the family, and spent around an hour with a very personable agent.  We set up two "Reality Checking" accounts and a savings account (which will actually be accruaing an almost 1% APY, as opposed to costing me $4.99 each month), which will replace the accounts we intend to close at Citizens before the new policies take effect in December.  It was also nice to know I will be banking with a locally owned and operated institution, based out of Akron and serving the Northeast Ohio area (Citizens is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland).  In addition to supporting the local economy, this will be nice in a few years when we go to look for a home loan again.... since I've sworn off of national banks after our very impersonal experience with Countrywide!

How much is my business worth to Citizens?  I'd say abuot $5 per account per month... How much is Citizens worth to me?  Certainly not $180 a year!  I don't think they'll be upset to loose my meager accounts to a local bank....

While unloading lawn clippings and leaves from my truck at the town dump area on Sunday night, a Jeep commercial unfolded just about 50 feet away from me.  A newer Jeep Commander backed up to the dump area, and the driver hopped out and opened the liftgate.  He dragged a bunch of leaves out that were just thrown loose in the back.  He then went around to the rear door on the driver's side, fired up a leaf blower and blew out the rest of what was in there.  Can't imagine too many people using a new SUV for the "utility" aspect of it these days.... leave it to a Jeep owner!

The flip phone (LG VX6100) that I got about 7 years ago (I remember we were living in Amherst at the time) was finally to the point where I didn't feel like I could rely on it any more.  The battery would just barely get me through the day off of a full overnight charge.  The external display worked most of the time but would go blank for no apparent reason occasionally.  The main screen started acting up a couple of weeks ago. I could still use the phone, as long as I knew the speed dial number.

I stopped in to the Verizon Wireless store the other day with my old phone and the "new" phone that I wanted to have everything switched over to.  I was fully expecting the guy to laugh me out of the store, because the new phone was the exact same phone that I already had (only with a lot less miles on it).  Steven gave me a couple of VX6100s that he and Ashley had before they upgraded to something with all of those bells and whistles that I don't want or need (no offense guys, I'm just kind of old-school with my phones, and I do thank you very much for letting me have your old phones!).

The guy at Verizon was actually very helpful; he copied my contact list over to the new phone, but told me up front that he couldn't copy any pictures or texts.  No problem on the texts, because I have that feature turned off for my number (I had been getting "spam" texts starting when I was filling out job applications online two years ago, and I had Verizon shut off texting because I didn't like paying $.40 every time one came in.  Not sure who these people are trying to win for customers by sending unsolicited text messages.  These must be the same people that sent unsolicited faxes back in the day!).

I was hoping to be able to retrieve the photos off of the phone though; there were some that I took in the hospital when Hannah was born.  (I've known all along that I could have sent these pictures to my email for $.25 each, but that would be upwards of $15 for as many pictures as I had on my phone.)  They guy at Verizon said, "I'll see what I can do for you" and took my phone out back for about 5 minutes.  He came back and apologized, saying that my phone was just too old!  He did suggest shopping around for a cable that could connect the phone to the USB port on my computer, and I could get the pictures off that way.  The cable has been ordered (for $1.71 plus shipping) and hopefully I will have those pictures shortly after I receive it!

So if I got 7 years out of my last VX6100, I should be good with this one and the next until Hannah goes off to college!  :-)

Before the weekend fades too much further into the past, I wanted to put up a post about the lovely weekend I had with Heather on South Bass Island (also known as Put-In-Bay, in Lake Erie).

I wanted to do something special for Heather's birthday.  Unfortunately, it fell in the middle of a work week this year (and she was working for her dad that week).  I made arrangements for babysitting for the weekend before her birthday, and tried to make a reservation at a Bed & Breakfast for two nights.  There are many B&Bs at Put-In-Bay, but the Arbor Inn was the only one that caught my attention.  We've never stayed at a B&B before, and this one seemed a bit more contemporary, with private bathrooms and a relatively "hands-off" approach by the owners.  I hadn't heard back from the Inn with less than two weeks to go until the weekend, so I told Heather what I was planning, why it wasn't going to work, and ran over a couple of other options with her to consider.  The day after I spoiled the surprise by involving her in the planning process, I got a call back from Arbor Inn and was able to confirm a reservation for that weekend with them.

It actually worked out well that Heather had an idea of what I was planning, because she was able to research and find a few places that sounded good for meals and things to do.  And there was lots to do, as it happened to be Put-In-Bay's Historical Weekend.

We drove up to Catawba Island and took the Miller car ferry across to South Bass Island.  This was the first time I had been on a car ferry since I worked at CIS and went to site locations on Long Island.  Part of the PIB experience is the golf carts used to get around the island.  Every other time Heather has been to the island, her family would rent a cart for the day - but they were only there for the day.  My last time to the island (which was my first time), her dad rented a "stretched" golf cart, with seating for 8! (There were 7 of us at the time).  I priced out the cart rental option, and even with the much better price that we would have gotten by renting one of the Arbor Inn's carts, it was still MUCH cheaper to pay the ferry ticket price and have our own vehicle available for us to use than it would have been to rent.  We also did not need to worry about making taxi arrangements to get to the Inn upon arrival or back to the ferry on departure.  It was also nice to have our car on Saturday afternoon when it was raining!

It was about 5:00 when we checked in, and decided to take the complimentary guest bikes from the Arbor Inn and go after a few geocaches around the island (yes, we're addicted to that foolish hobby!).  After getting Heather used to riding a bike again (apparently, it's not "just like riding a bike", as the saying goes - but it was an uneventful experience, with no injuries to report), and spending a couple of hours caching, we went to Goat Soup & Whiskey Tavern for dinner.

Saturday morning we started off the day with hot breakfast served at 9:00, where we met most of the other three couples staying at the Inn, and then we headed off for a day of activities around the island.  The weather was nice, and the scheduled weekend activities that we wanted to catch were in the afternoon, so we took off to do some caching around the island after walking through the vendor tents that were set up for "Art In The Park".  A couple of the caches called for us to go underground; we tried to get into Perry's Cave in the late morning after walking around the park, but were told to come back after noon - the Boy Scouts had bought the place out for the morning!  So we took advantage of the good weather, did a few more caches (including a couple at the state park), came back in time to catch the 1:30 tour of the cave, and then headed downtown to watch the parade.  According to our parade-watching tradition in 2010, we found a good spot right near the end of the parade route, and it started raining as the parade passed by.  Not as bad as it did for us in Dennison earlier this year, though - only for a few minutes.  After the parade, we went to Pasquale's for lunch, and split their pizza bianco (white sauce, garlic, cheese, tomato and spinach).  We went back to the Inn, rested for a couple of hours and then headed out to catch the Toledo Symphony in the evening.  We arrived to where the symphony was supposed to be performing near the Perry Monument, only to find the performance had been moved to the gym at the school that we had passed on the way from our Inn to the monument!  Got to the concert just as the first song was starting, it was standing room only!  After the concert, we went to the Crescent Tavern for dinner.

Sunday started off with hot breakfast at 9:00 again (the Inn serves continental breakfasts during the week, hot breakfasts on the weekend).  We checked out of our room and went off for a few more hours of exploring the island (yes, we found a few more caches).  Our last adventure for the weekend was a tour of Heineman's Winery and Crystal Cave.  The cave tour was part of a cache we were going after, although we got no geological information relevant to the cache while on the tour (I found what I needed on the internet when posting my found caches for the weekend).  We did enjoy the tour of the winery though.  I've seen the process on television, but to actually walk through the winery is a very sensory experience.  We walked away with a completely new appreciation for the wine-making process.  We also walked away with a case of Heineman Vineyards wine and grape juice!  When we feel like getting away we can uncork a bottle and remember the wonderful weekend!

We loaded back on to the ferry for the ride back to Catawba, stopped at Mon Ami Winery for dinner (and another bottle of wine for the memories!), and then headed back home to reality!  Yes, we missed the kids - but YES, we enjoyed the much-needed time away together.  We have already talked about making this a birthday tradition!