Giving Thanks

I just had a birthday. That's always something to be thankful for. But tomorrow is Thanksgiving. A day set aside for giving thanks to God for His abundance. It's uniquely American. No other country celebrates Thanksgiving - at least not on the same day we celebrate it in America. In some ways I'm surprised that the government still sanctions this holiday, but then for most people (at least those who don't work in retail) it's more about stuffing their pie holes and watching football than giving thanks.

To me, giving thanks is sort of like counting your blessings. An exercise that should be part of your daily or weekly routine, not just an annual event. (Of course the real trouble starts when people start counting other peoples' blessings instead of their own.) I personally feel so very blessed. I am certain that I am God's favorite.

I can't see into the future. (I never could.) I've made plans that didn't work out. I still do. I've imagined what my life would be like in a year, or five years, or twenty years and it's turned out differently. What I imagined twenty years ago is so very different from my present reality. The amazing thing is that my reality is so much better than what I imagined or planned. And for that (and so much more), I give thanks.

When is the Next Day Three Days Later?

Good question!! When is the next day three days later? When you ship with Useless (oops) United Parcel Service. Our repaired camera was shipped back to us last Friday marked for "Next Day" delivery. It arrived Monday around noon. This is their idea of Next Day??

The repair company had told us it would be there on Saturday, but guaranteed no later than 10 am on Monday -- at the very latest. When it didn't arrive on Saturday, we thought we could save time by picking it up at the UPS Terminal in Denton. Mark tried calling UPS customer service Monday morning before 7 am. He actually found the automated system more helpful than the person who finally came on the line. But because he had to leave, I took over the wait on the phone. I could see his point. It seemed that the only English phrase she'd been taught was "I understand" and then she repeated what I said. It was becoming pretty clear to me that she in fact did not understand, or at least understood very little. I was able to determine that the individual I was speaking with was located somewhere in "Asia-Pacific". That covers a fairly wide area, but it really doesn't matter. She wasn't in the United States and she didn't understand because if she did, she might have tried helping me instead of offering to have someone call me back in the afternoon. Her "I understand" became so annoying that I requested, demanded that she stop using the phrase. "Accept that you do NOT understand, and let's move on." We finally did move on -- to nowhere. She was able to establish that the package was not in Denton as we thought, but in Sherman. Okay, it wasn't on the way to anywhere and there was nothing we could do but wait.

More stress than anyone needed! Mark's first job was over an hour's drive away. He was so upset that he was halfway there before he realized he forgot his computer. I offered to take it to him but he said he just needed to come home for a minute. (He'd also forgotten to take his pills.) I rescheduled him for a later start time and he hit his reset button. I got on with my day while I waited for the UPS guy, who showed up just before noon.

We paid close to $200 to have the package delivered "Next Day Air". And we were just a bit disturbed that it hadn't arrived on Saturday. I thought that some sort of refund should be in order. This is where it gets ugly. I phoned UPS again. I selected the option for "Customer Service". The automated system asked me what I wanted, suggesting that I might want to say "Track a Package (a completely different option) or "Order Supplies". Did it occur to their system that I might have selected "Customer Service" because I wanted to speak with a customer service representative? I was connected to Sarah, who was located in the US of A. I was thinking that at least she would understand me. (Maybe.)

After we established that I had paid the shipper for the UPS charges, Sarah indicated that she would have to issue the credit to the shipper, not to me. I had no problem with that, I would just call the repair people and let them know to issue a credit to me when they got the credit from UPS. But that wasn't what Sarah meant. She meant I would have to call the shipper and get the shipper to call them to complain about the late delivery. Sarah was not going to be satisfied that my time was being wasted, she was intent on wasting Bill's time, as well. But the other thing is that I've already paid the shipper. Bill has my money. Where is Bill's incentive to waste his time calling UPS trying to get a refund for me?

Her next tactic was to inform me that I would have to contact the shipper because UPS had kept their part of the bargain. They had delivered it "Next Day Air" as requested by the shipper. She insisted that "Next Day Air" shipped on Friday meant Monday unless it was specified as Saturday. What kind of double-speak was that? If you have specified "Next Day Air" on a Friday, why would you assume that you had to be any more specific than that? The next day is Saturday. It is not Monday. Apparently if you ship something on Thursday, the next day is Friday. But if you ship something on Friday, the next day is Monday, unless you specify that the next day is Saturday. Sorry Sarah, the day after Friday on my calendar is Saturday. It's the same all 52 weeks of the year. SAT. UR. DAY.

Sarah was really astute. She sensed that I wasn't happy. She suggested that I contact the shipper to let them know that they'd done it wrong. Yes, she actually suggested that I phone up what may possibly be the ONLY vendor for this product in the United States and alienate him by telling him he doesn't understand how UPS works. It's very possible that he doesn't understand it. I know I don't. But I do understand alienating the only company that can fix the sewer-cam.

The bottom line is that I paid the "Next Day Air" price for "Three Day Ground" service. I am not a happy girl.

But I've learned a valuable lesson: When it ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY has to be there overnight - use FedEx.

An Alarming Weekend

We don't do intense grandparenting that often, so I was happy to volunteer to spend the weekend looking after the three grandkids in Oklahoma while my son took his wife away for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. There was no way we could arrive there before they left on Friday morning so we just planned to arrive about an hour before the kids got home from school. I was armed with knowledge. I knew where the key was. I knew what the security code was. And there would be a checklist in the kitchen for everything else.

We pulled into their drive around 2:40. Just about an hour before the kids are due home from school. Right on target. Except last Friday was "Expiration Friday". This was important to me because I trade options. And I needed to make sure that I had minimized or eliminated the possibility of an unprofitable call out on my positions. I was making that last trade as we pulled into the drive. It really wasn't possible at that moment for me to shut down the computer and restart once we were inside. The markets were going to close in 20 minutes and I couldn't risk a connectivity issue. I was almost finished. I could complete the trade in the car and then I'd be done. Mark set off to retrieve the key from the designated location. I was double-checking my positions when all hell broke loose.

The alarm had gone off in the house! I hadn't given Mark the security code. I didn't know he was going in. I only thought he was getting the key. Mark came back to the car and was going off with the same intensity as the alarm. I gave him the code and he disarmed the alarm. We took our bags (one for clothes - one for electronics) into the house. Before I could even set them down, my cell phone was ringing. It was my daughter-in-law. Had we set off the alarm? Hadn't we been given the code?

Yes and yes. I hadn't given Mark the code. My bad. But I didn't know he was going in. I thought he was retrieving the key and coming back to the car so we could go through the side door. But it seems the back door was closer and he opened it. It also seems that the alarm is programmed to go off immediately if anyone enters the back door. No delay to enter the code. If you enter through the back door, it is assumed you are up to no good, even if you have a key.

What I didn't know is that the alarm company had called their home number to see if everything was okay. Of course we didn't answer because we didn't hear it. We were either trying to turn it off or we were outside getting our bags. But just because we didn't answer, the alarm company was still not prepared to send in the SWAT team. They called my son's cell number. Which brings us back to why my daughter-in-law called. They were in an awkward position. They couldn't confirm that we were at the house. The last time they spoke with us, we were about 20 minutes away. The timing was right for us to be at the house, but they couldn't say for sure. Now that they had answers they were able to call the alarm company back, confirm that it was a false alarm and we were all fine. Until the next day.

The next day we took the kids out shopping and to a movie and then to Outback Steakhouse. A great day! And when we got in, I dutifully set the alarm to "Security:Night" as I was instructed to do. I realize now that this is something you do just before you go to bed, not when you're "in" for the evening. I came to this realization after one of the kids decided to go into the garage to get a popsicle out of the freezer. Again, the alarm company called the house. But this time, I could hear the phone. I answered it, explained that it was just one of the kids wanting a popsicle, gave them the "security word" and identified myself to their satisfaction. Another false alarm.

We got through the rest of the night without incident. But then the next day as we were leaving to take the kids to lunch, they all ran to the door with great enthusiasm. Then they opened it without disarming the alarm. It scared the daylights out of them and they all ran back down the hall while Mark disarmed the alarm system. It did not occur to me to wait until the security company called to confirm that all was well. I am not accustomed to waiting around for people to make sure that everything is okay. We were barely out of the driveway when my daughter-in-law phoned and told us we needed to go back to the house because the security company had called her and the doors were open and the cats were outside and about to be eaten by coyotes. We turned at the first side street. By the time we got back to the driveway, I was able to explain what had happened and reassure her that the doors were indeed closed and that the cats were safely inside. At this point, I am certain that she and my son thought that Mark and I were too old and too technologically inept to manage the security system (and possibly the kids). My ears were burning. So were Mark's. And perhaps they're right. And I don't care. Because now I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that those things are probably more trouble than they are worth and I don't want one in my house.

So all of you telemarketers out there who call me on a daily basis offering me a "free" security system, now hear this: You couldn't PAY me to take it. And woe to the next one who calls.

But if you think I'm unprotected, think again. I've got a really cool Smith & Wesson - blue steel with Pachmayr grips, and it's loaded.

Sabotage

The house Mark inspected yesterday morning was a foreclosure. It had been sabotaged. Not vandalized. Sabotaged.

It's not uncommon to see vandalism in a foreclosed house. Obscenities painted on the walls. Garbage everywhere. Shredded carpet. It doesn't actually prevent the bank from selling it; but it does allow the real estate investor who plans to flip it to pick it up for a lower price than he would have otherwise paid.

But sabotage is different. We've seen it a couple of times. We saw one instance of sabotage involving a divorcing couple. The husband (who no longer lived in the house) broke in and removed parts of the HVAC system and cut some wires so that things didn't work properly. (He ended up getting arrested.) Another time the people who were being foreclosed on left the house in pristine condition, but forced a tennis ball wrapped in a tee shirt into the sewer line. Bad mess and big expense for the new homeowner, who of course, immediately blamed the inspector (Mark) for not finding it, even though it's outside the standards of practice. (And that is why we now offer our clients a fiber-optic sewer line inspection.)

But the sabotage on this house was exceptionally bad. The previous owner had placed a rather sophisticated obstruction into the sewer line. Mark found it, but it took out his fiber-optic camera. The repairs to it will end up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000. Not to mention the call backs we won't be able to charge for. It will be a particularly expensive repair for a new owner, as well. It will chew up any roto-rooter type tools. The only way to clear it is to dig the line up and take that gadget out.

But this guy (I assume it's a guy) didn't stop with a sabotaged sewer. He cut a live cable and tucked it under the roof so it touches the downspout. Mark said that it would energize the downspout when it rained, meaning that if someone touched the downspout while it's wet, they'd very likely be electrocuted. I guess he's taking the attitude that "if I can't live in my house, someone else can just die there".

Now, if he's been that sneaky with things that can be detected, what has he done that Mark couldn't see? He could have put things into the HVAC system that would never be detected in a home inspection. He could fool around with gas lines. The possibilities are endless.

Personally, I think this guy should be charged with attempted murder. Clearly, the sabotage of the sewer line is intended to cost the new homeowner some grief and some cash. But what is the intention of the live cable?

The guy who is responsible for the sabotage seriously needs to grow up and stop blaming everyyone else for his problems. I can only imagine that foreclosure is awful. Especially if you have a young family. The reality is that I don't know anything about this guy, except that he was in financial trouble, lost his house, and then booby-trapped it. I hate to think that someone with his mindset has children.

But any of you who are considering buying a foreclosure (or any property) without having it thoroughly inspected are taking a serious risk.

Tea'd Off

I dom't drink coffee and I rarely drink tea. My tea drinking is typically limited to the British Club's Ladies' Christmas Tea and my granddaughters' birthday tea. When I do drink tea, it is fru-fru or "girlie" tea. Orange, raspberry or mint will figure into the name. But I really don't give much thought to tea. Even though I'm married to an Englishman and we have an entire shelf in our pantry devoted to tea, I don't even have to remember to buy it because Mark prefers loose leaf tea. Now, the only place you can buy loose leaf tea in our corner of the world is in a specialty shop. (Specialty shop = Exorbitant price). So we stock up on Tesco's finest when we're in England.

Let me say that Mark is good-natured. He rarely complaims about food or beverages, even when they're not particularly good. He seems to know which restaurant and coffee chains have good tea or good coffee and he orders accordingly. Far more sensible than ordering something you know you don't like and complaining about it. But he really does prefer tea for breakfast. So when we were at the Sheraton Suites in Atlanta this past weekend, he ordered tea for breakfast. The young lady brought the pot of hot water immediately. Then she brought the box with all the different tea bags in it and opened it for Mark's inspection.

So many colors! Yellows, oranges, greens. I could see some of the names as he flippeds through. Wild Sweet Orange. Berryblossom White. Green Ginger. Zen. He flipped through every packet in the box. "Do you have any real tea?"

I don't think this waitress had ever encountered an Englishman at breakfast before. She asked him what he meant by "real" tea.

"Real tea. Earl Grey, English Breakfast Tea. Something like that."

She took the box away and came back with two packets clearly labeled "Earl Grey Tea". Just what he wanted! But it did make me think about how challenging this part of the world can be for tea drinkers. Almost every hotel room comes equipped with a coffee maker and coffee. (Except for the W Hotel in Buckhead which comes equipped with a cocktail shaker.But that's a different story.) But they often don't have tea. Our room at the Sheraton did have a tea bag in it, but it was the Wild Sweet Orange, not the Earl Grey. We were relating the experience to my sister and her husband over dinner. Apparently Tony's mom just takes her tea with her. I think she may be on to something. I need to add tea bags to the car's emergency box. Just in case.

Monday Monday

Yesterday was Monday. Thank goodness Mondays are officially limited to one per week. It started out fine. I went for a walk. I wanted to get back into the walking/jogging habit, but there's always so much to do when I get back from a vacation that it usually takes me at least a week to get back into my regular routines. Yesterday was the first "back to normal" day.

As I came through the door I heard the phone ringing. It was Mark. He had forgotten his computer. I would have to deliver it to him in Allen. Even though it is 70% expressway it still takes over an hour to get there and back. So much for being in front of the computer when the markets opened. But it wasn't critical. I didn't have any positions that required a quick exit and the stocks I wanted to sell calls on could wait. No big deal.

So I loaded his computer in the car, grabbed my purse and my phone. Oops. It appears that I forgot to plug the phone into the charger on Sunday night and it was down to 10% battery. It would have to do.

I set off for the tollway when I realized that we drove the PT Cruiser downtown on Friday and it was out of gas. I looked and the needle was below the E. I turned back toward the Shell station. A bad habit! The Shell station closed several months ago for remodeling and hasn't reopened yet. I didn't think I could make it to Brookshire's so I headed for Bobcat Country and the highest priced gas in town.

I made it into Bobcat Country and pulled up to the pump. I couldn't remove the gas cap. I had the car inspected last Tuesday and they put a new gas cap on it because the old one didn't pass the inspection. (How does that happen?) As I moaned about my inability to get the cap off the nice man at the next pump asked what was wrong. "It's a new cap and I can't get it off." Fortunately, he could. But now I could see that they didn't actually affix the tether to the new cap the way they told me they did. I started visualizing leaving it on top of the gas pump.

I'm visualizing disaster, worrying about being late and somehow in all my frustration over the gas cap, I managed to press the buttons on the pump in the wrong sequence. I got a message that I would have to pay the cashier. I didn't want to pay the cashier! I wanted to pay at the pump! I'd just come back from an hour's walk/jog. I was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I wasn't wearing any make-up and it was still too early for sunglasses. I didn't want to go in the store.

But I had to. There was a big line at the register, so I had to wait a bit. And of course I got to see several people I knew. Worst of it was, they got to see me. Yikes!

In the end, the kid had to come out to the pump. He said my card was declined. "No, I just pushed the buttons in the wrong order." He reset it, it took my card and I pumped my gas. I was only 30 minutes behind schedule.

As I started driving away from Bobcat there was a strange haze that seemed to covered the entire town of Celina. For some reason, fog was rising. There hadn't been any fog when I went for my walk. There hadn't been any fog when I first set off a half hour before. Where had the fog come from? When I got out of town I could see it rising off the fields and becoming so thick that it was hard to see where to turn.

The fog stayed with me until I got on the tollway south of US 380 and then it was gone. Fortunate, because most people on the tollway don't actually slow down just because they can't see.

The rest of the trip was easy. I drove straight to it. And Mark came right out to collect his computer - didn't make me come find him. He even gave me breakfast money since we'd used all of my cash in the parking garage downtown, and by that time I was starving.

The rest of the day was fine! I just hope this was the only Monday I'll have this week.

Crush It!!!

We just spent a weekend "crushing it" with "Ry-Guy". It was a beneficial experience, well worth the $200 we paid to be there. Both Mark and I learned things we can use whether we decide to flip a house or not. If you are even remotely interested in real estate, rehabbing houses, or passive income rental properties you should go to one of these seminars if you get a chance. The company is Fortune Builders. (Click here to learn more.)

Even though there were about 200 people on Friday morning (that number dwindled significantly by Sunday afternoon), it was really high-energy and informative. We started out with a self-assessment to determine what we already knew, which was pretty little. Mark and I were both excited to see this because it's the same technique, called Learning Gain, that we used when we were corporate trainers. (We always collected the beginning and ending self-assessments and performed a calculation so we could show management how much the students had learned. They didn't do this step. I suspect they gauge their success by the amount of money they made.) Anyway, as a course developer and an instructor, I know how difficult it can be to keep a group that size engaged and energized, but Ry-Guy and his team did a great job.

But it wasn't just about high-energy. We learned stuff! We learned how to look for distressed properties. We learned how to determine an offer price for a property. We learned where and how to find private lenders. We learned some new internet marketing techniques and got some automation ideas to boost productivity. We also learned about some tax strategies - we can't use them, but they're good to know. And we learned about some useful apps and online resources we weren't aware of before, like "neat" for managing receipts using your cellphone.

On the downside (there is almost always a downside), they spent a bit too much time flogging their mentoring and coaching program, which involves making a "decision" to "invest" anywhere between $15K to $30K to jump start your business. We knew going in that this was never going to be our primary business so that effort was pretty much wasted on us.

There were a couple of other things that set me on edge.

1. Ry-Guy lumped Baby Boomers into a group that is considered technologically inept. Really? I don't want to say "You didn't build that", but innovators like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg built on previous technology. The internet was already there. I admit that I don't keep up with technology the way I did when I worked for Sun Microsystems, but I'm far from inept.
2. Ry-Guy set the expectation for people that a real estate inspection should cost between $200 and $400. For anyone who doesn't know, Mark and I own an inspection company - Yellow Hat Inspections. (Check us out here.) Our minimum price is $390, pretty close to the top of Ry-Guy's range, and we are competitive. But I'm thinking that we'd rather get our clients from Angie's List than from Ry-Guy. (Actually, we'd be delighted to have Ry-Guy's inspections. I just don't want to have to negotiate with him because I sense that he doesn't really value what other people do.) I already have to deal with realtors setting similar expectations. I've had some call me up to ask me "why is it so high?". High? It's nowhere close to six percent.

But back to the seminar - it was crawling with philanthropists. Everyone on Ry-Guy's team seemed to be starting a non-profit to make the world a better place. It got a lot of applause. It impressed people. It had me wondering about the tax advantages of starting a non-profit because there are so many wonderful charities that you can donate to without starting your own. And just for the record, you don't need to make a million dollars before you start giving back.

It may be our suspicious natures, or just a bad habit, but Mark and I often question why people do what they do. We wondered why these folks are delivering training if they're making a fortune in real estate. We also wondered why they are spending time promoting ebooks for $20 a pop if there is so much money to be made flipping houses. Wouldn't you focus your time and effort where you made the most money? But then again, I suppose if you saw a $20 bill on the sidewalk, you'd probably pick it up. The bottom line is that we learned things we didn't know, were reminded of things we did know and had forgotten, networked with people who have similar interests, and feel like we more than got our money's worth.