A retired Navy man enjoying life in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsyltucky. The Mrs. & I live comfortably but are serious about living within our means. We survive on our respective pensions, savings, investments & an online business selling craft & home decor items on Bonanzle & e-Bay. Much of my time is spent keeping up the joint, landscaping as well as lifting heavy things & taking out the garbage as my wife directs me to. My hobbies are wood working, crafting, military history & an HO scale model train layout. Recent years, add cooking to the hobby & keeping up the joint categories. Sharon can't cook to save her life.
Was drawn to this site when looking up information about poor reception on my Sirius Satellite Radio. The blog threads were very informative & liked what I saw. I'll be involved in using some of the other features. Will be adding images & links in the near future.
Dear OlsenPride, DearWebby ideas are great, learned something myself. In the past I have found that by the time the door seals need replacing, the rest of the unit is probably near the end of it's normal service life. The last time I bought a door seal from a reputable appliance parts house, it cost $400 and that was five years ago. I did not have a problem replacing the gasket, just was sure to remove any dirt & adhesive materials left from the old one. Getting it to fit snugly & flat required some patience. To make a long story short, about a month after replacing the door seal, the compressor motor conked out. Buying a newer, more efficient unit may be a better option. Nockmoi ... View related article.
Karen, Excellent points! Resume's serve the purpose of getting an interview. As a retired staffing recruiter & "Head hunter" I can attest to that. Keeping the elements of the resume' simple & to the point catches the eye of a perspective employer. The adage that a hiring manager only spends 15 seconds looking at a resume' is true when they see a page load of wasted words. Grammar and spell check are so very important in creating an impression even before you're interviewed.
Karen, I'm so glad you took the time to write this piece in these critical economic times. A truly wise person learns from the experiences of others. A wise reader will benefit from your efforts. Tom ... View related article.
I am not sure that pancakes & biscuts mean exactly the same thing down your way. By the way, Betty Crocker is a ficticious entity created by some advertising agency many years ago. A great product, use it a lot myself! Tom ... View related article.
Some kitchen sink drains have a vent device that is located right under the sink. It's a lousy design & I've only seen it installed in rural areas where building codes are not enforced very effectively. It is also sometimes installed on sinks located in an "island" counter. All house waste drains need to be vented to prevent the "glub-glub" sound that also can cause back-ups due to too much air in the waste pipes. Normally, waste water drains are connected to vent pipes hidden in the walls that go up through the roof.
If you have this undersink vent, it can get wet on occassion & mildew forms in it. Have someone who knows a little about plumbing to see if this is the case. They are easy to spot. A plumber can remedy the situation. ... View related article.
I had an aquaintence that was a pediatrician. She had an uncanny way of working with preschoolers with these types of behavioral problems. The solutions were usually quite simple or straight forward. This is all part of their training & worth a visit to a pediatrician to get to the bottom of it. I'm not against corporal punishment for kids but, only as a last resort. It does not look like it is appropriate in this situation. ... View related article.
Some great ideas posted but let me share what I know from over 15 years of recruiting experience. There is no rule that says a resume' HAS to be one page. A page & a half is a good size for an experienced professional or journeyman. If you are in engineering or a very technical field, a page & a half is enough to cover essential skills, experience & accomplishments. For additional pertinent skills I found preparing a series of "addendums" with project experience that is provided only when an interview is requested. That way specific & only pertinent skills & experience can be provided.
Yes, the typical hiring manager spends only about 15-20 seconds scanning your resume'. BUT if you write in easy to read bullet formats with succint language, you will have their attention. Succint means using as few words as possible to say a lot! That takes a lot of practice to write that way. That is why I always edited my applicant's resume's to show only what is important about their skills & abilities.
I could go on for hours about resume' writing having written several hundred successful ones. I'm not bragging that I'm the best resume' writer in the World but, number 1 & 2 make sure to send me a Christmas card each year (just joking). A couple of points not covered in Sandy's article; spell check the #$@& document! NEVER lie or misrepresent your abilities, employers see right through it. Don't understate your experience either. Always include in your "bullets" a couple of examples of where your contributions made a difference that either made money or saved money for your employer. That always catches their eye. Always quantify this accomplishment with a percentage, actual dollar amounts, time savings etc.
People & employers either consciously or unconsciously make prejudicial assumptions about you from your resume'. Do NOT include any information about marital status, age, hobbies, or affiliation with any non-professional organizations, especially religious ones. You have no idea how much damage this causes a person.
Remember this one fact about writing your resume'. The purpose, & the only purpose of the resume' is to get an interview with a perspective employer! Contact me directly if you want some pointers on writing an excellent "eye catching" resume'. It's a lot easier than you might think. Tom ... View related article.
A follow up on my last posting about Sirius Satellite Radio. I contacted them on March 28th to cancel my subscription. That was covered in my last posting. Today is April the 6th, & the reception problem has not been remedied. I called again this morning, spoke briefly to the tech support people (again, courteous but not any help) & was transferred to the subscription termination department. The customer service rep was pleasant & sympathetic & after a few minutes was able to make my account terminate at the end of my current subscription. There were a few glitches & spent a bit of time on hold but, to the rep's defense, he did check in on me every few minutes until he had the problem closing out my account solved. The call took about a half hour in all. So, bottom line, as of the end of my subscription in July, I am no longer a Sirius member. This is unfortunate because the programming is great. If you like music of about any genre, they have something for you & much better than terrestrial radio any day. My advice, if you live in a more rural area like I do, you will probably experience problems like I did. After laying out over $200 for the unit & accessories, it's all going to waste. More populated areas will in my opinion receive service on a much quicker order. If you plan to subscribe to this service, it is in your best interest to talk to neighbors to see if they have problems with reception in the area. Also, one last thing, Sirius/XM is experiencing serious financial problems & may file for bankruptcy protection. Before you subscribe, check online as to their current financial status to see if it has changed. Then, if it looks okay, take only a short quarterly renewing subscription. If they do fold, you will be out a lot less money. Hope this helps! ... View related article.
Being something of an old fashioned fart of a man, I recommend buying a pad of graph paper. Invest in a cheap tape measure if you don't already have one. Draw a floor plan to scale. Keep it simple like 1 inch equals 1 foot. Then, make an elevation drawing of each wall (straight on view) again to scale. Include all doors, windows, electrical outlets, built in items like the fireplace,knee walls, serving windows, bookcases, etc.
Go to your favorite furniture & electronics vendors & take measurements of the pieces you really like. Make little paper or cardboard cutouts to scale of these items. You can then "play" with all the many possibilities. Kept my wife amused for hours! Then, when we ordered the furniture there was little to do about where things went. We took dimensions on forty pieces of furniture & eliminated the items that were too klunky or, just didn't fit into the flow of the room. The whole drawing & cutting out shapes took me about 90 minutes. That 90 minutes saved me several compressed spinal discs & a hernia moving things to the Mrs' satisfaction! V/R. Tom ... View related article.
"F. Phillips hit the nail on the head! If you're in Maine, it's November, it's cold, the vent pipes for the plumbing sometimes get clogged with ice from condensation. If it's been cold & dry, the water in the sinks, tub & washer vapor traps evaporates a little quicker than normal. You may also notice the pipes & drains making an unusual noise when one of the vapor traps dries out. Pouring water into all drains will reestablish the "vapor trap" & the smell will stop entering the living spaces. ... View related article.
I once left a comforter in the washer & forgot about it for a few days. When opening the washer lid, I about passed out from the stench. When in doubt call Mom! Mom recommended using 20 Mule Team Borax with your normal detergent. Followed the directions on the box & it was as good as new after washing it only once. Great stuff & can be used for many other cleaning problems. ... View related article.
