We needed some gutters added to the front of the house and the telescope garage. When my wife started calling around, gutter people would not come to Horseshoe Bend. One gal, GuttersRUs quoted her $5.50/foot. They installed 74 or 75 feet of gutter. The bill was $600 for the gutters. When I called her, she insisted that she would never have quoted $5.50/foot in Horseshoe Bend. The bill also included a $60 traveling fee for coming to Horseshoe Bend. So why $6/foot in Horseshoe Bend? I suspect, they saw the house and decided that they could put the screws to us. Rhonda is a very trusting person, and tends to believe people. Never believe anyone until they have given you reason to do so. Fortunately, my wife had preserved enough of the emails for her to back down almost $200. Still way more than it should have been, but guttersnipes are hard to find that will drive 20 miles north.
On top of replacing the booster pump last week ($1250) and the loss of $70,000 in the recent stock market crashing*, it has not been a good month. So let me remind you, if you are going to buy something from Amazon any way, use the link on the right side of the blog. Also, I found out that PR firms are incredibly expensive, so promoting Lock, Stock, and Barrel seems to be impractical. (If you know, or have contacts with any radio talkshow hosts, I could use the help.)
If gun magazines were interested in gun history, I might sell an article or two, but I cannot find any gun magazines that care about this.
*To clarify, reduction in net assets. You only lose money if you sell. I am assuming my mutual funds did a lot of buying at the bottom. Still, for someone who grew up hungry, it is still a bit scary.
You don't lose money in a market "crash" unless you sell when it's lower than you bought, which would be dumb. When it's low, smart people buy.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. I did not sell. It was a major reduction in net wealth. Still a bit scary to someone who grew up hungry.
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