After my 83 year old father in law told us how amazed he was at how high-tech the house deal was yesterday, I confessed that I think technology has done as much harm as good for most people, and things have gotten too darn complicated. It just happened to come up that he was throwing out a 17-year-old Kenwood stereo system with separate components because he prefers his modern new compact Bose radio. Ironically, I lost an almost identical Kenwood system in the flood, and had been watching Ebay for something close to replace Old Faithful. He was so honored that I would want his old stereo, and I am so excited to have a real system the way they used to make them. Who knew :0
And Then There’s Low Tech
August 28th, 2010Sold in 7 Days
August 27th, 2010After I spoke at a conference of presidents of Chambers of Commerce in Lafayette, Indiana yesterday, my beautiful bride and I spent the night in Muncie with my father-in-law. While he was driving us to Indianapolis to do a little shopping today, I got a phone call from our realtor in Nashville, who just received a contract on our old house, for full asking price, one week after we listed it ( the same day USA Today ran a story about how no one is buying houses). We needed to find a Kinko’s, so my father-in-law used OnStar in his new Cadillac to navigate us to one, which was only 4 miles away in the Indy suburb of Fishers. The realtor faxed the contract there, I signed it, Kinko’s scanned it in, we then emailed it back to him, and continued on with our shopping. It is truly amazing how easy technology has made our lives.
The World’s Greatest Book Title
August 26th, 2010
Aftermath of the Nashville Flood, 8/25/10: “The Numbers”
August 25th, 2010The reason I continue to write about the flood is because it continues to affect so many lives, yet so few people – including many of those who live in Nashville but were not affected – understand how long it takes to recover. According to the Greater Nashville Chamber of Commerce, 2,773 businesses in Nashville were directly hit by the flood. Of those, 442 are still closed, including the Opryland Hotel and the Grande Ole Opry House. That amounts to 14,500 employees who lost their jobs, even if they didn’t lose their homes.
Feedback on the 8-24-10 issue of Work Is Not for Sissies
August 24th, 2010Marriage and Money
August 23rd, 2010From Dave Ramsey: There is a proven statistical correlation between the quality of your marriage, and the probability of your building wealth.
Aftermath of the Nashville Flood, 8/22/10: “Happy Birthday to Slash”
August 22nd, 2010
In another welcome sign of progress, Nashville’s Gibson guitar factory has announced that it is back up and running at full speed, cranking out about 250 guitars a day. The first one to roll off the post-flood production line was given as a birthday present to former Guns-N-Roses guitarist Slash.
Guitar Town is slowly rising again.
Aftermath of the Nashville Flood, 8/21/10: “A Special Thanks to Robin Roberts of Good Morning America”
August 21st, 2010From WKRN:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts toured flood damaged areas of Nashville on Thursday and visited with residents in Old Hickory. Calling the flood of May the “forgotten story,” she told News 2 she volunteered to come to Nashville and meet with flood victims.
“Next week is the anniversary of Katrina, and we’re going to be down there and I raised my hand and said there are a lot of hurting people right now, and Nashville is the forgotten story, and I just didn’t feel comfortable talking solely about the Gulf Coast,” she said. Roberts said she knows the Volunteer State didn’t get the national coverage it deserved.
“There was an attempted terror threat, the oil spill [and] I’m going, ‘Yes, and Nashville is underwater’ and it was disheartening,” she recalled. “I was in many ways embarrassed because as a nation, the media, we did send a reporter here, we did cover the story, but I agree, not to the magnitude we should have.”
Tennessee’s New Chancellor Takes $80,000 Pay Cut
August 20th, 2010Looks like public outrage did some good. Tennessee’s new under-qualified chancellor of our regents system, who was starting his new job at $385,000 a year, has now volunteered to settle for the measly $305,000 his predecessor made.
Should High Schools Be Providing Coffee for Students?
August 19th, 2010I saw on the Austin news last night that several Round Rock area high schools are providing before-school coffee shops to make school more pleasant for the children, and reduce tardiness. One parent said that providing cappuccinos and lattes helps the kids concentrate. (Guess I was underprivileged to have made it through high school without them). Yet these are the same schools that are struggling with their budgets. Hmmmm. Can’t imagine why they’re broke.