Ed Icionsub

Last night I read a post on Jerry’s blog about how many businesses do not have their street address prominently displayed. I think he makes a really good point. There have been several times that I had to go downtown and search for an unfamiliar address. That is so very frustrating, especially when you are trying to get to an appointment on time.

I call this situation a Nashville conceit. The merchants and professionals seem to have an attitude of “if they want me they will know where I am.” That is SO wrong!

A large portion of Chile has been devastated by a series of major earthquakes. My heart goes out to the survivors and my prayers go out to those who have lost family members or their homes. The earthquakes were scattered along the west coast of South America, and Chile’s second largest city was particularly hard hit. We are waiting to hear news reports of the damages and I’m sure the United States will send humanitarian aid right away.

One of the most interesting aspects of using the internet is that it is truly an international medium. I have been able to access newspapers all over the world, and participate in bulletin boards and discussions with people from a variety of different countries.

One of the most interesting bulletin boards that I found recently is based in India and helps the people having issues with various businesses as a public consumer forum.

One of my company’s franchisees is from India and he still has a lot of family there. He was in a meeting with me this morning and during a break he went online to check his emails and surf a few web sites. He showed me the consumer court India website and shared some of the recent posts with me. It was truly fascinating.

There are a variety of topics available for comments and discussions. I read the laptop computer forum and was very surprised to see how many complaints were lodged against all the major laptop manufacturers. It was a real eye opener and worth considering when shopping for a new laptop.

My sympathies naturally go out to the people in Washington DC and the surrounding states for the problems they are encountering as a result of two record setting snowstorms this past week. They are dealing with 3, 4 and even 5 feet of snow in an area that normally only sees 1 or 2 inches at a time.

I have family and friends scattered throughout the region and all of them are sharing stories of having lost their electricity, missing work, not being able to get their cars out of their driveways or garages, and many more nuisances and inconveniences. Thankfully, no one has suffered a life threatening emergency and no one was without electricity for longer than 36 hours.

In fact, my immediate family members are so resourceful and so well prepared for emergencies, that they all have generators, fireplaces and well stocked pantries and could ride out a storm for over a week, if needed. Most have utility vehicles with tires chains, bumper mounted winches and a trunk load of tools and equipment to make sure they can safely arrive at any destination once they get out on the roads.

My heart goes out to the people who are not able to be as well prepared. Some of them are due to complete denial and naivety, others are financially unable to prepare, and many just have no real experience with this type of weather and road conditions. They are just going to have to experience the problems for themselves and learn the hard way, which is why we have insurance and major regional hospital systems to take care of the fools and the unfortunates.

One of the benefits of living in Northern California was the close proximity to dozens of highly rated California vineyards. So I made the most of the six months out there by visiting a different vineyard every month. Every time I went to a vineyard I bought at least 3 or 4 bottles of their wines, and brought back a nice collection of wines when I came back to Tennessee.

Of course, I did not have any wine glass racks here, nor any storage system for the bottles of wine. So I had to research the different types of glass racks and figure out what would be the best solution for this house.

I looked at under cabinet mounts, wall mounts, ceiling mounts, and even free standing furniture. I decided on a wooden stemware rackthat mounts under a cabinet, and I modified the shelving in the kitchen pantry to store the wine bottles.

The Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland areas have been in the middle of a second big snow storm. The new snow is predicted to pile up and be about 30 inches deep. That’s a whole lot of snow for anyone on the East Coast!

I called my mom in Virginia to check on her and she is fine. She says the snow is beautiful, they are well supplied with groceries, and have gas on hand for the generator if they lose power. So far, their electricity is still on and they have been working on a puzzle that they got as a Christmas gift. So I’m glad all is well, and they are actually enjoying some quiet time.

All this fuss about groundhogs today. The big one lives in Pennsylvania and has seen his shadow. So we are all supposed to get 6 more weeks of winter. Yeah, right.

Pennsylvania weather has absolutely nothing to do with the weather in Tennessee, Texas, North Dakota or anywhere more than a few hours drive from the Mid Atlantic area. So, Georgia decided to get their own groundhog and let him predict the arrival of spring for the southeast. And this groundhog did not see his shadow. So we are all supposed to enjoy an early spring.

Well, the first day of spring on the calendar is exactly 6 weeks and 4 days following groundhog day. So, in my opinion, we only have 4 days to quibble about anyways! Four days is certainly not worth all this fuss.

Where I grew up  there was no such think as a Jack in the Box restaurant. I found my very first Jack in the Box on a vacation trip to Texas, back in the early 1990’s. I think it was in either Houston or in San Antonio, and it was impressive. Their menu had such a diverse selection of foods, and you could buy breakfast any time of day, not just in the morning.

So now, 18 years later, I have three Jack in the Box restaurants within a 5 minute drive of my house. I can buy breakfast for any of the three for just a couple of dollars and even have a breakfast burrito at midnight, if I want one.

Have you ever needed help with translation from one language to another? I find myself needing help reading a lot of posts that are in German.  Several of my Facebook friends are either in Germany or from Germany, and sometimes they post messages to each other in German. Me, being nosey, always wants to know what they are saying. If it is just a few sentences I can sometimes figure it out, but sometimes I need help from a translator.

When I did a search for that I found a web site that will translate to and from a lot of different languages. Some of their services are for a fee and some of them are free. From what I can tell, joining their site is free and worth checking out. You never know when you are going to need help understanding something written in a different language.

The news is covered with stories about the tragedy in Haiti. And there are dozens of organizations pleading for donations to help. I am really suspicious of some of these messages I am getting, about texting to different numbers to donate cash via cell phone, sending Paypal donations to people who claim to be missionaries. It bothers me that there are always this lower element of humans ready to take advantage of a natural disaster or catastrophic event for their own personal gain and cheating others out of what was intended to be rightfully theirs.

If you feel compelled to donate to the Haiti victims, check out the organization and make sure they are legitimate. There are lists of these on the white house web site.