So far I have purchased two items off of our area’s couple of virtual yard sale sties that I have found on Facebook. A play kitchen for my two year old niece that she really wanted for Christmas, but didn’t get and a futon mattress to replace the old mattress that got ruined several months back. I got good deals on both items, both items in good shape and the people were friendly enough during the whole process.

This is so much better than driving around all over town looking for yard sales.

Got home tonight to find a foot of water in my basement, had to find a basement waterproofing company that made late calls. The company that I found was a life saver they were priced better than the national companies, and were right in my neighborhood.

Budget Dry got right to the house and took care of my problem, the staff was very efficient and friendly, which is hard to find at 8 pm any time. Check out their website at http://www.budgetdry.com if you ever need budget basement waterproofing any time of day or night.

I was very happy with the service provided and will be pleased to recommend this great company to my friends and family.

This weekend I was planning on taking a load of stuff to the local outside flea market that is still open since it hasn’t turned bitter cold yet. I have taken a good amount of time to gather up and sort a bunch of stuff, besides deciding on the price to ask and then tagging it all, and have the van loaded ready to go. So what really is upsetting is that the weatherman is telling us that there is a slight chance of rain coming our way. Not that I ever put any faith in what any weather person predicts, but it still makes me a bit uneasy.

I decided to go ahead and continue with my plans, but now I have to gather up some tarps to take along to protect everything in case it does rain. I’m afraid that I might only have those ugly blue tarps out back, I’d much prefer to have clear tarps so that people can still see what is on the tables and continue selling to the customers that still continue to shop even through rains. And I really don’t like the look of those blue tarps, never have, seen to many in the yards of trailer parks I guess.

I have always had a thing for Mindy McCreedy, she is always in trouble and I guess it is a pity thing more than anything else. Her latest trouble mark that more than ever before. She is trying so hard to keep her name in print and on the air waves that she will do anything to stay in the public eye, and that is simply pitiful a feel sorry for her more than anything. She needs to find a life and get out of the public life she is not made for the grind.

How does it seem that we always hear about movie stars and athletes that carry guns to the airport and get caught. How does someone with normal intelligence not remember that they happened to have a gun in the one bag they choose to carry on the airplane. The list of people who had this stupid moment in their lives is huge. John Smith of Nowhere USA does not try to carry a gun on the plane why do the celebrities think they get a pass on this law.

Got a flier in the mail today that actually caught my interest. Usually I don’t even glance at the junk mail and just toss it in the trash, but for some reason – maybe the photo of the rad bike on the front – I took a look at the flier from Progressive Insurance about their new program offering LoJack for bikes. LoJack is offering Progressive Insurance customers a $50 rebate and Progressive is offering a 20% discount in a partnership to promote this new stolen vehicle recovery system.

I didn’t know until I read this flier that LoJack is the only stolen vehicle recovery system actually operated by the police. Having LoJack installed gives bike owners more peace of mind that their bike is safe or will be quickly recovered if stolen. That along with the money saving incentives from both companies has me putting this flier aside and I’ll look at it again tomorrow with the thought of signing up for this.

There are only two places around here to get a nice selection of breakfast foods on a buffet. The place closest to my house is the Shoneys. They have a breakfast bar for about $6 but the selection is very limited. I can eat there once in a while and be happy with it.

The better place to go for a full breakfast buffet is the Golden Corral. They charge $10 but the selection is 5 or 6 times better than what Shoney’s offers. I could eat at Golden Corral every day of the week and have a completely different breakfast plate every day. Not bad for ten bucks, but it’s a 15 minute drive in the wrong direction to get to it.

There are maybe 6 or 7 different stores within 10 miles of my house where I can buy groceries. The store that is closest to me is a Food Lion. This store is the most expensive store for groceries, so I don’t go there much and try to buy only what is on sale.

The weird thing is that with all these different stores – some of them huge – that there is not one that carries all the brands and all the items that I want to buy. I have to go to 3 stores to get all my groceries for a well stocked pantry. That is so frustrating.

This is the big Labor Day weekend when everyone wants to have a last fun weekend outdoors. But unfortunately, the weather forecast is for cooler days and lots of rain. Today is not raining yet, but you can feel it in the air and you know that it is coming, sooner or later. Let’s hope we all get at least one good day out of the weekend to do things at the lake or the beach.

We are going to head out to the river and just let my daughter splash around in the shallow water by our favorite picnic spot. The river bottom is not too mucky and not too rocky at this particular spot. I cannot tell you where this special spot is – it is our family secret and we don’t want a lot of other people to come there and spoil it.

The mysterious “powers that be” have posted a sign at Bell Road stating that the road over the Percy Priest Dam will be closed Aug 1 through December. No reason given. That means the only way to the other side of the Lake is to take the interstate, and there will be no access to the welcome center and extremely popular park for 4-5 months.

I think they have to make major repairs to the dam and are keeping it quiet. There was a lot of activity with unmarked vehicles and men walking around with instruments a couple months ago. With Nashville’s flooding issues here the last two years, I suspect someone inspected this dam more closely and found some serious problems. Yet nothing has been said in the local press at all. Of course, our local press sucks.

I hope it is just to repave the road, but somehow I doubt it. And I hope they can fix it properly this time – it is an important part of our utilities grid and recreation here.

This summer there will be a lot of big movies that sound very appealing to me. I like to watch action movies in the theater so I can get the effect of the big screen. There are several action movies and superhero movies coming out this year. I will try to catch as many as I can, although the price of a theater ticket is getting very expensive. If I can only see one of the new movies in the theater, I hope to watch the new Transformers movie. That looks like its going to be a blockbuster!

I was just re-reading some of my older posts and just came across one that I posted last summer when I was complaining about the heat and humidity!  Well, all I can say is what in the world was I thinking?  This winter we have had an unusual amount of snow, which has wreaked havoc on everyone’s lives around here!  Schools are being cancelled a lot – it seems that they are closed more often than they are open!

And I was talking with Joe who tells me that their rescue department is being kept busy responding to calls of people who are being injured because of the snow – heart attacks while shoveling, people falling off of their roofs, and even people who stuck their hands in their snow blower in an attempt to unclog the blades and lost a few fingers!  Can you even imagine looking through the snow for someone’s fingers?  Good grief!

Our dog Crash went to the bank with me today and he had a boat load of excitement, as we pulled into the bank he spotted a huge deer in the field behind the bank, and on our way home he got to bark at cows and sheep, quite a bit of excitement for a little dog who does not get out as much as he would like. If he got his way he would be able to run loose to bark and pester everything that he sees. But he has to stay either in the house or on a leash when he does get outside and you can tell he hates to be cooped up and he lets us know every chance he gets.

As we were walking the dogs today Diva jumped straight up in the air and freaked out, as I got closer I noticed that we have a six foot long snake in our yard, add this critter to the herd of critters we already have and our zoo is growing rapidly. In recent days we have had a fourth squirrel join the three we already had and the rabbits are thick we even see a deer once in a while. All of this and we live inside the city limits of Nashville, I wounder how many animals we would have if we lived out in the country.