Spring is Arriving!!

Spring is Arriving…

After three weeks of cold (10-15 below normal – both highs and lows) temperatures, last Friday we hit 70 degrees for the first time this year.  I find it interesting that a cold front came through and our temperatures rose!  We’re in a stretch of normal temperatures.  Nice!

Now that we’ve reached the end of February, the threat of wintry weather is over.  We may get a spot of cold weather but it won’t last long. The robins arrived several weeks ago, our maple trees are full of buds, and the weeping willow is greening up.   Won’t be too long before Bradford pears, dogwoods, and azaleas start blooming. And then the pine trees dust everything with their yellow pollen.

February is the month where I work on getting the paperwork ready to turn over to our tax preparer.  This month has taught me that I really do need to work on my records year round.  I shipped out over 400 items from my eBay stores – twice as many as the year before.  Like it or not, I have a business.  <grin>

In any case our goal is to get our tax stuff over to our preparer by the first week of March. (I did good this year – he got our stuff Saturday).  He is also a sole proprietor and by the end of March he usually has enough returns for him to handle.

It’s been a long dry spell with no work  <sigh> but it looks like I may land a job at the Financial Services Center that Staples is opening in this area.  I’ve had two phone interviews and two face-to-face interviews so we’ll see how that turns out.

I still have a pile of paperwork to sort out to get my records in order.  But I’m going to have to get some more paper.  So much for a paper-free office!

I’ve been doing some latch hooking – I got a project about ½ done.  But it’s time to start working on one of the two graduation samplers I have to do this year…

I offer my apologies to those of you reading this who are stuck with more winter than you want.

Take care & enjoy,
Florence

Is It Time to Ditch Roadrunner?

Is It Time to Ditch Roadrunner?

We have had hi-speed Internet service from Time Warner cable for seven years now.  But the speeds we’re getting now are no better than dial-up.  For this we’re paying $45.00 a month?  One downfall of cable is that it is shared, and if the cable company doesn’t keep up with demand, customers will suffer.  It is really frustrating to have something that was so good turn into a piece of junk. <sigh>

That being said – I can get the normal high speed Internet if I get on at 2 AM.  It’s a little rough to do all the business I do on the web to do it at that hour of the monring consistently.   This also tells me that this is a Time Warner problem – one that they are not addressing.  

Once I can get back on the web – I’m going check out Netzero.  If I’m only getting 33K speeds from Roadrunner –I may as well go back to dial up.  It certainly will be cheaper.  Now I can get dial up because I held onto the modem from my old Gateway computer – I use it now to fax.  Now my hubby’s computer doesn’t have a modem….

It is a frustrating problem and one that I don’t wish on anyone.

I guess we could talk to our phone company about DSL (at least that isn’t shared).  The phone company used to be Alltel but when they split landline phones from cell phones – the Alltel name went with the cell phones and the landline became Windtream – sounds like it one of those RV trailers….

It’s been a little chilly around here – but is does get mild just before it rains – mild today – rain tomorrow.  But as we move through February, the  threat of winter weather diminishes greatly……

Take care & enjoy,
Florence