The last day of the month ….. and that means “pay day” for me.  I get to add some numbers in my checkbook before I subtract some numbers in my checkbook.  One thing that I like about this is the direct-deposit and direct bill-paying ability that this computer age has given us.  It was always a chore for me to make sure that my utility bills were put into the mail before the deadline date because it was so easy to just “wait until tomorrow” to sit down and fill out the checks.

It’s been well over 20 years now since my department switched to the direct deposit system and I can’t say enough on how beneficial that is.  Especially for the people who live a ways out of town and had to wait 2 or 3 days for the post office to get around to delivering their paycheck.   The same thing goes for the utility bills.  What a terrific convenience and stress-reliever that is.  I think that now I probably don’t write more than 4 or 5 checks a month.  And with my all-purpose debit card, along with my one credit card, I never, ever carry my checkbook with me anywhere.  I like the way the banks work this stuff now.  But I never have exercised the option of having my balance and activity online.  I am still a bit apprehensive about bad guys hacking into the database via my password and “borrowing” some of my money.

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Yesterday we had still another story about an extensive construction complex burning down, this time it was in Reno, Nevada.  It seems like every couple of months we’ve been hearing about such disasters and it always gets me to wondering why the developers don’t maintain a decent security watch over their site? 

This particular project in Reno has already had a couple of instances where thieves have made off with construction equipment along with contractor tradesmen’s tools.  Stealing a workman’s personal tools is a real blow to the poor worker because he has the least ability to replace his expensive, yet necessary equipment.

But to leave a nearly-completed project unwatched like that is a good example of the “penny-wise, pound-foolish” axiom.  Sure, the insurance will probably cover most of the loss, but not the lost sales/rental dollars that would be flowing through the bank account.  When you’ve got tens of millions of dollars worth of property exposed like that, I just don’t see why the builders don’t lay out a few thousand a week for an effective nightwatch force for a few months.  What a waste.

But let’s not waste any more time listening to me ramble on.  We need to get this equipment checked out while I go start the coffee.  Speaking of coffee, my post office-proof shipping boxes have arrived at the suppliers and I’ll be picking them up today.  We should have the Firegeezer Coffee Mug project all set up and ready to go on Monday morning.  Watch for the announcement.  See you back in the Day Room.

I thought I had gotten rid of these guys.  Really, I thought I’d heard the last of them.  I’m talking about those sleazy ambulance-chasers that keep trying to recruit me into helping them find “victims” of this year’s catastrophic disease, mesothelioma.  This horrible health hazard dropped out of the blue back in January when I started receiving carefully couched emails from people touting camouflaged websites and expressing their willingness to write articles for my “fine website.” 

I wrote about these oily characters in a January Morning Lineup HERE where I explained for you the various tricks they are using to sucker people into signing up for some free money.  And I followed it up in March HERE with an update.  If you haven’t read them, take time to do so because I think they make for some entertaining and enlightening reading.

Since then an entire legion of ambulance chasers has flooded the radio and television airwaves with an overwhelming barrage of scare-ads trying to harvest names of potential clients for this newly-discovered “disease” that is going to wipe out all of mankind in a most horrible manner.  Don’t tell me you haven’t been hearing any of these “outreach programs.”  They had left me alone for several months, but like that proverbial bad penny, “they’re ba-a-a-a-ck!”

Yesterday I received an email from this polite gentleman who I believe has never met me before.  His letter starts out:  My name is Jesse Herman, I am the Awareness Coordinator at the Mesothelioma Cancer Center…

Ahhhh, I got a letter from a colleaugue or yours earlier this year, except he was the National awareness coordinator at the same helpful firm.  Next, Jesse tells me what he’s up to:   Lately I have been reaching out to fire fighter bloggers in efforts of getting some of our free, unique information published. Your web site seems like an ideal fit.

Me, a perfect fit?  Obviously you didn’t take even a moment to enter “mesothelioma” in the Search box on the webpage.  If you had, you would have quickly discovered the disdain that I have for you guys as well as my reluctance to help you out in any way.  With such poor research practices, why would anybody choose to do business with Jesse?  Here’s a good one:  As you may know, homes built before 1980 likely have asbestos insulation in them…. Firefighers [sic] are obviously in a unique profession where you punch holes when necessary, among other things, that can put you at risk.

Now let me tell you something.  I’ve been living in houses since way before 1980 and I have never lived, or even seen, a house that has asbestos insulation in it.  And I’ll tell you something else, Jesse.  When we go a’hole-punchin’ we are wearing these things called SCBA’s.  I’ll bet you don’t know what that is, either.  And I went to that website that yesterday’s email linked to and you know what?  It’s maintained by the same law firm in Melbourne, Florida, that one of my letters from last winter came from.  I don’t think I’m going to bother answering this one either.

Ok, you hole-punchers.  Let’s get this equipment checked out.  I’m going to go start the coffee.  (Wasn’t that supposed to cause cancer at one time, too?)  See you in the day room.

This morning I’ll add another item to our list of ways to take advantage of the economic dip that we’re in.  Again, our purpose in these occasional tips is to utilize the opportunities that are presented when financial stresses create a change in operations for other people or businesses.

A pretty much nationwide situation right now is empty stores.  There is a lot of retail space available and some good deals are waiting to be made.  Why would you be thinking about renting store space?  Stick with me, here.

To begin with, I’m going to disregard the blocks of vacant commercial spaces in the older, downtown sections of many cities, both small and large.  Those places are vacant because nobody goes to that part of town to shop for anything.  But that’s normally a result of poor political decisions that have been made by the local government over an extended period of time and there’s not a darn thing you can do, as an individual, to change that.

But go to your currently viable shopping districts and look at what’s happening there.  With people spending less on discretionary purchases, a lot of smaller businesses and even some national chain stores are shutting down because their cash outflow has been greater than their cash inflow.  And for a shopping plaza there is nothing worse than having several vacant stores scattered around the center.  This is especially destructive in an enclosed shopping mall.  Once customers stroll through the mall and see a large percentage of the shops are dark, then they move on to someplace else to do their shopping and don’t come back.

So in order to keep the place looking alive and interesting, an aggressive shopping center operator will do almost anything to get somebody into a space.  Enter the store-rental scheme that is sometimes known as short-term leasing, or “pop-up” stores.  These are rental trials for one to six months for people who are starting a small business, or wanting to enter an existing business into a  high-traffic retail zone.  An ideal opportunity for the firefighter/medic who has a 2nd job going that he or his spouse are wishing to get more exposure.

These pop-up stores are nothing new, but they’ve not been very well publicized outside of the leasing business.  You’ve seen the seasonal shops that suddenly fill an empty store site, such as the Hallowe’en store quickly followed by the Thanksgiving Supplies store.  That’s what’s going on there and previously you had to be “in the know” to get one of those places.  But now, with so many storefronts coming available, mall operators are willing to make almost any kind of a deal just to get the lights on and some activity in the shop.

Not only is this a good way for the small-time entrepreneur to test the market and see if they can make it by being exposed to better foot traffic, but it is also an opportunity for a fire or ambulance company  to do some recruiting, for example.  Everybody’s looking for a good way to reach potential recruits and this one’s worth a shot.  How about parking a reserve ambulance in the store where passersby can see it through the window?  Then have  a display along with periodic demonstrations of some basic self-help procedures that people can do in emergencies.  And once they’re in there, pitch the recruiting.  Much like the annual open-house activities, except that it’s in a different location.  Let your imagination go here, you can probably think of some other ways to promote your department in that scenario.

And I’d be willing to bet that in the case of a volunteer fire or ambulance squad, the mall operator would be willing to let you use the shop for a month or two for free, or maybe charge a token fee for the utility usage.  Remember, their primary focus right now is keeping the lights on and the shoppers coming in.  Whether it’s recruiting or testing the market for your cottage business, here’s an opportunity worth thinking about.

But now, we’re thinking about getting this equipment checked out.  I’ll get the coffee started and then see you in the day room.

First off, I want to thank all of you who pitched in with advice on laptop shopping.  It was all very helpful and appreciated.  Besides answering my question about brand reliability, you gave me some other hints on what to look for, too.  One of the respondents wrote to me via email and added the Acer brand to the list of satisfied customers and I thought that was interesting.  Previously I hadn’t even considered Acer, but now I’ll add it to the list of potential purchases.  There are several readers who check in every other day and scroll back to get caught up, so maybe we’ll pick up some more suggestions today.

One thing that stood out (for me, anyway) in all the responses was that all of them were nothing but positive comments on a particular product.  Nobody set out to tear down a brand or complain about some particular shoddiness of a laptop.  They were all productive and helpful in their own way and that reaffirmed my opinion that our visitors are, by and large, serious contributors who are concerned with truly helping each other out and spreading respected opinions and information.  That makes me feel good and I thank you for that.

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Now for a mail-order coffee cup update.  I ordered a supply of cup mailers yesterday and they should arrive by Thursday.  So we’ll hopefully be able to start filling orders then.  But I sure did get set back on my heels when I learned what the postage costs for parcel post are now.  The minimum rate for a parcel that weighs less than 1 lb. (which these are) is $4.90.  That is just plain outrageous, but I don’t know how else to send them.  The private parcel carriers like UPS have even higher minimums, which I can understand since they don’t deliver to every house every day like the post office does.  But for an item small and lightweight like this, I was expecting something like a buck-and-a-half or a little more.  Well, be forewarned.  Unless I find some other way around it, I’ll have to tack on nearly $5 more just to have them delivered to you.  I’m sorry.  Anybody got any ideas?

I think we’d better get this equipment checked out now.  I’m going to go start the coffee.