The Geo affair

Many of you are aware of my blog in October called car poll. Well, there still isn't a new car in my driveway. I am still driving my Geo Prism, and this little car has led to the question; "Why my family loves a good Geo Prism?".

Before we take this question further, maybe a little history is in store. Around 1996, Dondavid Powell, the auto shop teacher at Ricks College, told my dad about getting good deals on wrecked cars to fix up. This idea sounded good to my Dad as a way for his kids to earn money. Well, buying these cars was easy, and we were pretty good at fixing them, but didn't do too well on selling them. Not really a bunch of salesmen. So, me and my brothers would drive them with for sale signs in them trying to get someone to bite.

As we were buying these cars, it became evident that there was a hierarchy to how easy a car was to sell. On the top of the list was Honda and Toyota vehicles. GM and Chrysler which we got were not. The problem was that even broken Honda and Toyota cars were more expensive then we we wanted. Then Dondavid told my Dad a Geo Prism wouldn't cost as much, and they were pretty easy to sell. So, we bought a Geo and the rest is history. In total we have fixed up six Prisms. Two were sold and we kept four for me and my brothers.

It is now 8 years after the last Prism was fixed, and only Kensey has sold his. We now come back to the question of why my family loves them? It might be that we know that we can embarrass kids (or Michaela) when they ride with us. Or, maybe the mechanical refresher courses we get. Maybe the answer is to show how strong we are to not succumb to buying a newer car.

This last week, my car was able to demonstrate all of these traits as I took co-workers to lunch. Normally they try to stay away from my Geo, as they try to show off there own cars. But this time the Geo didn't fail to impress. As we drove down the road, one mentioned it sounded like an airplane, and he liked it because he felt he was going fast. I laughed and all of a sudden a cup holder popped out (the latch broke) and I was able to show my ingenuity by jamming a piece of paper to keep it closed. In the end, they couldn't get out because the door handle was broken, and I had to show them "The Door Handle Knack". Sheesh, you wonder if they really are engineers. And when they got out, they looked so happy to have driven in the car. Maybe they will drive with me again.

Why now is not a good time to own a house

To ever say "it is not a good time to own a house" is very questionable statement. The statement in this case is just a very generalized hook to get you thinking, and it probably is not true for many homeowners. A matter of fact, only a few home owners would say this is true, but don't chalk our landlord as one of them. If you haven't read the previous post (look down) then you wouldn't know our landlord was having problems. He is having problems with loosing money on his rental unit. Now when he tries to get an increase in rent, the tenant has lots of power, especially one who has a good credit score and the ability to buy a cheap house in a depressed market. Or we can go to one of the many vacant houses for rent on the market.

On a quick related note, I was talking with a source (who asked to be unidentified) who is starting to see an interesting phenomenon around the East Valley. Many people with good credit but owing more than there house is worth are buying in this depressed market and then filing bankruptcy. The expensive house falls into foreclosure while they keep the newer house with the cheaper payments and there is nothing the banks or credit card companies can do. Smart??? I guess.... Dis-honest??? definitely!! You do have to live in the house for seven years, and if you are late on any payments you have no recourse as the bank with attack you for all you are worth. But it is happening.

Ummm we are going to raise your rent..

Last Monday Michaela called me up at work telling me that our landlord just called, and said his ARM loan was increased and he would be raising our rent. "He said what" was my first reaction, quickly followed by "We just signed a contract in January, there must be something wrong". So, when I got home sure enough he wanted to raise the rate. Now, most people would have gone to there landlord demanding that they have a contract, and they could take legal action on this. Michaela and I had another plan. We called up the landlord telling him a rent increase was out of the question, and we would start looking for a new house immediately and hoped to get out by April/May. Well, that changed his tune and he was telling us we were still under contract. Sheesh.........

Old Computers

One thing about computers in my family is that we keep them. I think my family keeps old computers with the idea that they were important at one time. Well, I inherited this desire to keep all things computers and pack them.
Michaela is the opposite. She really likes to simplify her life, and old computers should be sent away (dump, recycle, donated, whatever).
So, this last week I gave in and sent two computers away. So, we are back down to ummm 4 computers for the both of us. If only I could find a way to cluster them all together then I could tell Michaela " I can't do family history because you know it needs so much power."

Reunion

What software do most people use for genealogy? If you are a member to the LDS church, the answer would probably be PAF. That is unless you are a Mac user, then PAF doesn't even register unless y0u are still on classic.
So, what about a mixed computer family like ours? Well, we have been using PAF, but with Michaela taking a Family History class she started testing other programs, and she came up with using Reunion on the Mac. She really likes it, and it seems to do everything that she needs for the class. Of course, me being cheap, asked if it saved enough time to offset the $100 for the program.
Well, she decided to go ahead and get the program. So, I even decided after much deliberation to move my family history there.

Weeds

So, from about the middle of January until now both Michaela and I have been busy. I am wrapping up my project, which releases Feb 21, while Michaela's semester is in full swing. Yep, we have no time. So, what did we do for Valentine's Day??

Well, we weeded our front yard together. Yep, we had weeds growing everywhere and with the time we set aside for each other it was decided that we should go a weeding. Anyway, it looks better and I sprayed some herbicides to keep them away after. Well, I should of checked the weather forecast, because that night a storm blew though and poured on my freshly sprayed area. Oh well, I will see how well it sticks before putting any more down.

So, not a good date??? Well, Michaela thinks we bonded better by pulling weeds together. Okay, I still took her to dinner, so it wasn't all attacking noxious weeds.

Watermarks

Recently we were sent some proofs to view. As I looked through them, I couldn't get past the very ugly watermark and my thoughts turned to how easy it would be to take the watermark out. Now, before I go on, photographers want you to buy photos. I understand this, but just look at that watermark. It is huge!!! So, I fired up poor mans Photoshop called Gimp and had at it. Anyway, five hours later I got it cleaned up. It took a lot of touch ups, and I would never say it looks as good as the original, but it can be done.