H.I.T.S.
Well, my fancy work station/computer cart arrived last week (even though, according to my online account, I had no orders). What’s really great about online purchases is that you can track the timeline of everything, rather then waiting and twiddling your thumbs for something that’s “out of stock” and never arrives. I think back to another large chain with a local branch that went out of business a few years ago. When my wife and I were just married, we ordered a couch from there that had a special-order fabric. This was in pre-computer and Internet days.
We were inundated with calls the following week, asking whether we wanted extra warranties, upgraded cushions and fabric protection. The couch failed to show up within the six weeks that was promised.
Three months after we had put down the deposit, we received a call, telling us that the fabric was on indefinite back order. I know that, as consumers, most of you can recount similar horror stories.
Anyway, the 80-pound cart that I ordered arrived and, to my disgust, the invoice attached to the box quoted a price of $190 — instead of the $144 discount price I’d received via e-mail the night I ordered it. I now have to do battle with the company to try to get the correct price by calling them. At least, the item is exactly what I wanted.
Again, by shopping online, I could get a clear picture of it by zooming in on the photo on their Web site. To me, this is far better than the old days when you ordered something from a catalog and it came looking nothing like its picture.
I now have my laptop and printer, along with powered speakers and lots of guitar books all in one mobile and very nice-looking package. Everyone who has seen it so far has been impressed, although Carl Micarelli has been teasing me that I now need a laptop with a bigger screen.
He also mentioned that he was recently at the Apple store in Shadyside and how impressed he was with the large Apple monitors and the clarity of the picture. You can learn more about them at a href=”http://www.apple.com/ http://www.apple.com/ end
This week, I put gas in my Scion, as I usually do every couple of weeks. I was amazed to find that even the cheapest gas was nearly $4 a gallon. I told Mrs. Schulze about it, which prompted her to remark dryly, “Yes! Duh! Where have you been?”
I later looked online at articles about hybrid cars at a href=”http://www.hybridcars.com/ http://www.hybridcars.com/ end
and it made some interesting reading. I’ve written many times before, though, that none of this is a real shock to me, as when I came here from England in 1978, gas prices over there were around $2 a gallon. I doubt gas prices will ever go down again. In fact, I’ve predicted since this started a little over a year ago that gas prices would eventually exceed $5 a gallon. This will obviously have a major impact on the auto industry, since it’s not only about the cost of filling your tank up.
As happened in England, the larger cars that did less than 20 miles to the gallon dropped in value at an incredible rate, leaving many owing more on their cars than they were worth. My own tongue-in-cheek plan is to wait until my Scion is worth three times its value due to its frugal gas consumption and then swap it for a brand new Escalade.
Since I only drive about four miles roundtrip each day to teach at the store, I could probably afford the gas.
We filmed a new H.I.T.S. show last week, and it was right up my alley. We showed all kinds of cool music-related Web sites and also showed one of the actual $25,000 Eddie van Halen FrankenStrat guitars, kindly loaned to us for the show. You can see pics of the guitar on the Internet at a href=”http://www.evhgear.com/ http://www.evhgear.com/ end
. Doren seemed to really love it, since it’s not often you get to hold a guitar worth 25 grand!
Make sure that you watch this show and also visit us online at www.bloodylimey.com
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Last week, I used the long weekend to change my oil. For those of you who like to tinker around with your car, you can now find a whole array of devices online like this at a href=”http://www.toolsource.com/larger-capacity-fluid-evacuator-7400-p-94419.html http://www.toolsource.com/larger-capacity-fluid-evacuator-7400-p-94419.html end
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This lets you change your oil from the top just like Mercedes owners do. I’ve had one of these for some time now and they work well and are really easy to use. With the price of oil changes rising, along with gas prices, it might be worth investing in.
Finally, while looking online for current heating-oil prices, I accidentally found this page:
a href=”http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=fs-109-1-132 http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=fs-109-1-132 end
. Look at the prices of oils in 2004/05! They quote gas in November 2004 at $1.97 a gallon and a barrel of oil at $47.30. It’s not all doom and gloom, however. We’ll get through all of this, somehow.