This was just a quick idea that popped into my head. Now that Christmas is over and families are starting to take down their trees I have noticed a few people giving theirs away for free; they either want a new tree or a real tree next year, or it just is not feasible to keep up with it until next year.
Anyway the thought occurred to me that one might collect these trees store them for the next 10 or 11 months, then sell them at a reasonable price to the frugal or give them to the needy. The revenue generated from sales could be used for philanthropy. If someone did this long enough and was perceived as a legitimate non-profit organization I think more people would be willing to donate and buy trees from the organization. Ultimately it could almost be like renting a tree with the option of keeping it and embracing the spirit of giving at the same time.
One problem is that it could require a lot of space and for an inventory that only turns once in a year and all within one months time. It would also call for a lot of work in December and January, but nothing but sitting on the shelves the rest of the year.
For all I know, someone might be doing this now. I have never heard of them. Of course, recently I have not been much of a Christmas tree person; I feel like it is more of a family activity.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Vroom vroom erhmmmm; ahrrrrrrr errrr kush kiih
My nephew got a hotwheels wall track for Christmas. First of all it is totally awesome, but he is too little to operate some of the mechanical aspects. Therefore, they must be left off. He also does not like to share, which makes me very sad.
Hotwheels have always been cool, but somewhere after the time I stopped playing with them they started making some awesome tracks. I had some track pieces when I was a little boy, but nothing that was as cool as what they make now. As far as I know there was nothing motorized available and although the loops were around, I do not remember them actually working very well. Well he has a loop and it works awesome, except for the fact that it is rubber-band wound up and therefore only works one time before needing to be re-wound. Which is ultimately the problem, he does not understand how to get it prepared for a car. He doesn't have anything motorized, but after playing with what he does have for a while, we went to the website and I saw some cool tracks that I would love to play with!
I am starting to wonder if I have any of my track pieces left, I know exactly where I last stored them. I may have decided to throw them away though. Also wondering if I still have some hotwheels from when I started "collecting" them. I know I gave some to my other nephew for Christmas a few years ago.
I may have to start collecting track pieces and one day build one of the world's largest automated hotwheels tracks. How awesome would it be to come home to the sound of hotwheels racing around the track, one that reaches two stories high? I actually did go to a Goodwill today looking for track pieces, but they only had city pieces. I thought about it, but ultimately could not settle for anything less than track pieces. I did pick up a pair of hotwheels Ford Mustang '92 and '13 from Wal-mart; I probably still do have two more Ford Mustang hotwheels cars somewhere, no matter what has happened with the rest of my collection I am certain I did not get rid of those.
Well I think it is time for me to get back to it.
P.S. for those that may have never played with cars before vroom vroom is the sound a car makes when shifting gears erhmmmm is accelerating or cruising at top gear and ahrrrrrr errrr is squealing brakes and finally kush kiih is shattering glass/crashing.
Vroom vroooom vrooooooom.
Hmmm. Vroom vroom can also be revving the engine.
Update 1/4/2012: I have since been to several stores to see if I could find the awesome wall track I saw on hotwheels.com, Mid-Air Madness, no luck; however, I did manage to find two more Ford Mustangs and I grabbed 3 cars from the HW Racing collection that are supposedly "great for tracks". But wait, I am not finished I also found a loop that I initially thought would go good with my nephews wall tracks, although I am beginning to have second thoughts, not sure if I want to share! I also did not mention that I initially bought a wall track and a hotwheels garage with a drag strip on top for my nephew for Christmas, but since he had so many more toys than his older sister's coming to him already, I did not give him the wall track and I have been toying with the idea of keeping it for myself or to give to one of my other nephews eventually. I was playing with my nephews toys while he was out of town, trying to decide if I wanted to open up my toys and build a bigger track, I decided against that, but took a picture of my toys to share.
Hotwheels have always been cool, but somewhere after the time I stopped playing with them they started making some awesome tracks. I had some track pieces when I was a little boy, but nothing that was as cool as what they make now. As far as I know there was nothing motorized available and although the loops were around, I do not remember them actually working very well. Well he has a loop and it works awesome, except for the fact that it is rubber-band wound up and therefore only works one time before needing to be re-wound. Which is ultimately the problem, he does not understand how to get it prepared for a car. He doesn't have anything motorized, but after playing with what he does have for a while, we went to the website and I saw some cool tracks that I would love to play with!
I am starting to wonder if I have any of my track pieces left, I know exactly where I last stored them. I may have decided to throw them away though. Also wondering if I still have some hotwheels from when I started "collecting" them. I know I gave some to my other nephew for Christmas a few years ago.
I may have to start collecting track pieces and one day build one of the world's largest automated hotwheels tracks. How awesome would it be to come home to the sound of hotwheels racing around the track, one that reaches two stories high? I actually did go to a Goodwill today looking for track pieces, but they only had city pieces. I thought about it, but ultimately could not settle for anything less than track pieces. I did pick up a pair of hotwheels Ford Mustang '92 and '13 from Wal-mart; I probably still do have two more Ford Mustang hotwheels cars somewhere, no matter what has happened with the rest of my collection I am certain I did not get rid of those.
Well I think it is time for me to get back to it.
P.S. for those that may have never played with cars before vroom vroom is the sound a car makes when shifting gears erhmmmm is accelerating or cruising at top gear and ahrrrrrr errrr is squealing brakes and finally kush kiih is shattering glass/crashing.
Vroom vroooom vrooooooom.
Hmmm. Vroom vroom can also be revving the engine.
Update 1/4/2012: I have since been to several stores to see if I could find the awesome wall track I saw on hotwheels.com, Mid-Air Madness, no luck; however, I did manage to find two more Ford Mustangs and I grabbed 3 cars from the HW Racing collection that are supposedly "great for tracks". But wait, I am not finished I also found a loop that I initially thought would go good with my nephews wall tracks, although I am beginning to have second thoughts, not sure if I want to share! I also did not mention that I initially bought a wall track and a hotwheels garage with a drag strip on top for my nephew for Christmas, but since he had so many more toys than his older sister's coming to him already, I did not give him the wall track and I have been toying with the idea of keeping it for myself or to give to one of my other nephews eventually. I was playing with my nephews toys while he was out of town, trying to decide if I wanted to open up my toys and build a bigger track, I decided against that, but took a picture of my toys to share.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Ugh
I stole the title from a former co-worker, she constantly posts it as a status on facebook. I think it pretty much sums up how I am feeling right about now. My only problem is I like to show my work a little too much, so there is no way I could post something like that to facebook without explanation. Where to start though?
Well I woke up late this morning, not that I had a lot to do today. I did not, unless we want to talk about the things that I probably should be doing, but have not shown much initiative to do. Like find another part-time job or do some deep cleaning in this house or perhaps exercise. Instead, I just went to McDonald's and then headed over to my brother's house. Only I was surprised to find he was not there but Elba was, she is like the nanny (except when she goes to my brother's house to watch his kids she usually brings Jayden and Mateo too), which meant I decided to eat the breakfast I had brought to share with my brother and his son, Maxson. I forgot it was Thursday (not Friday) anyway and Maxson is in school until 10:45, he gets to spend the day at home on Fridays. So after I ate my enormous breakfast, big enough for 2 adults and 1 child except for the hash browns I ordered got left out, I found something on television to pass the time. Except, I found a movie and I have this problem where I like to watch the entire movie. Seriously it is a pet peeve if you watch a movie you watch the whole thing, if you fall asleep you watch it the next day or at least soonish. So I started watching Slumdog Millionaire and my brother asked me to do something and so I stopped watching it to go do that, it does not matter that I have seen it before; there is this feeling of emptiness inside me now just knowing I did not finish watching the movie again.
I did not finish what he asked me to do either, but I think it is almost done. Anyway, while I am doing what he asked, he goes on a DVR rampage and he is freeing up space. It just so happened, I had just decided to record a few "That 70s Show" episodes so he starts asking what is going on here. It was kind of funny there were like four episodes coming on in a row and I just pressed record series, he said "there's so many, is this something you are recording? Oh okay." Maybe you had to be there. Seriously though, if I had realized it was going to come under scrutiny within an hour of pressing that record button, I would have never done it! I just thought my brother might actually like to watch the show with me, but if not I would enjoy it; it is funny after all.
Then I spent way too long taking in news over the internet. Checked e-mail, craigslist, yahoo. etc. My brother left while I was doing this, but he handed me a rental agreement that was scheduled for today and said here try to take this early. I asked, "When, like right now?" To which he replied, "Sure, if you can."
Up until this point it had not been either an especially bad or good day. I did not jump up right away and take the jumper delivery, which if I had it might have been better for me at least I wouldn't feel solely responsible. See the problem is it started raining and jumpers/bounce houses aren't really a rainy weather activity. They really do not even have much demand in these 60 degree temperatures. Nevertheless, it was sprinkling outside and I called the customer about 3 hours before it was supposed to be delivered. She did not cancel, which at first I thought was good, even since I initially thought she probably was going to. I set the jumper up and it was sprinkling off and on the whole time. Then I collected the money, she asked me then if she got her money back if it rained and I told her that was not something we do. She still paid me and I was on my way. On the car drive back to my brother's it was more of the same; sprinkling never really raining heavy.
I arrive at my brother's home and was greeted by Maxson, Jayden, Mateo, and even Elba (She doesn't speak and hardly understands English). Maxson is just being silly and wants attention and Elba is trying to tell me or ask something. In the process of trying to communicate with Elba, Maxson smacks me a good one right in the balls (which is starting to get annoying I did not see him do it to know his intentions, but his sister's have started feeble attempts at kicking me between the legs for their own amusement; sadly he got me better than either one of them has). All I understood from Elba was "hermana" so I guessed she was looking for Maxson's sisters. It was about time for them to be home, so I made an assumption. I still wonder why she wouldn't have just said their names.
I called my brother to ask him if he was picking up the girls, and we started talking about the rain and the jumper delivery. I relayed him everything I've shared here. Apparently he was a few blocks away and it was really coming down. I stepped outside and it was still sprinkling a bit, but not really coming down. He told me we would wait for the customer to call, but I was getting the impression he would have rather I did not set it up. I looked up a weather map to see what was going on. It appeared to be moving North and it was not going to be over soon. I am already feeling like I screwed up and all I really did was what I was told.
Then he comes home and we start talking about the delivery. He goes over what all was said and he is not feeling good about it. He starts lecturing me on what to say to customers when it might possibly rain. Don't get me wrong the experience or training I get in that moment is invaluable, but it also sends a clear message that I screwed up. He decides to call the customer and offer to pick up the now soaked bounce house and return half of the money (the customer also rented tables and chairs and they kept those for the party). Basically they paid normal price for the table's and chairs and I got a bounce house wet and made two trips to the delivery. The company books might show revenue from this deliver, but it will cost more than was collected. I spent about 5 hours on the delivery so far and the tables and chairs still need to be picked up and the unit is not completely dry. I spent 2 hours already trying to clean and dry the unit some. It was hardly getting anywhere and I was afraid it might keep sprinkling, so I rolled the unit back up and put it in the garage.
My brother left the house on a date with his wife or something, I am assuming (he did not tell me). I eventually just left his house, probably should have called, but I am tired and I just wanted to be home. So I have not even spoke with him since picking up the wet unit. I probably should have just brought it to my place and put it in the garage or something, but I did not know he was not going to be home.
I stopped at Wendy's on the way home and they did not give me a receipt, straw, or napkins. Which is no big deal, but damn why must they forget those things today?
Well I woke up late this morning, not that I had a lot to do today. I did not, unless we want to talk about the things that I probably should be doing, but have not shown much initiative to do. Like find another part-time job or do some deep cleaning in this house or perhaps exercise. Instead, I just went to McDonald's and then headed over to my brother's house. Only I was surprised to find he was not there but Elba was, she is like the nanny (except when she goes to my brother's house to watch his kids she usually brings Jayden and Mateo too), which meant I decided to eat the breakfast I had brought to share with my brother and his son, Maxson. I forgot it was Thursday (not Friday) anyway and Maxson is in school until 10:45, he gets to spend the day at home on Fridays. So after I ate my enormous breakfast, big enough for 2 adults and 1 child except for the hash browns I ordered got left out, I found something on television to pass the time. Except, I found a movie and I have this problem where I like to watch the entire movie. Seriously it is a pet peeve if you watch a movie you watch the whole thing, if you fall asleep you watch it the next day or at least soonish. So I started watching Slumdog Millionaire and my brother asked me to do something and so I stopped watching it to go do that, it does not matter that I have seen it before; there is this feeling of emptiness inside me now just knowing I did not finish watching the movie again.
I did not finish what he asked me to do either, but I think it is almost done. Anyway, while I am doing what he asked, he goes on a DVR rampage and he is freeing up space. It just so happened, I had just decided to record a few "That 70s Show" episodes so he starts asking what is going on here. It was kind of funny there were like four episodes coming on in a row and I just pressed record series, he said "there's so many, is this something you are recording? Oh okay." Maybe you had to be there. Seriously though, if I had realized it was going to come under scrutiny within an hour of pressing that record button, I would have never done it! I just thought my brother might actually like to watch the show with me, but if not I would enjoy it; it is funny after all.
Then I spent way too long taking in news over the internet. Checked e-mail, craigslist, yahoo. etc. My brother left while I was doing this, but he handed me a rental agreement that was scheduled for today and said here try to take this early. I asked, "When, like right now?" To which he replied, "Sure, if you can."
Up until this point it had not been either an especially bad or good day. I did not jump up right away and take the jumper delivery, which if I had it might have been better for me at least I wouldn't feel solely responsible. See the problem is it started raining and jumpers/bounce houses aren't really a rainy weather activity. They really do not even have much demand in these 60 degree temperatures. Nevertheless, it was sprinkling outside and I called the customer about 3 hours before it was supposed to be delivered. She did not cancel, which at first I thought was good, even since I initially thought she probably was going to. I set the jumper up and it was sprinkling off and on the whole time. Then I collected the money, she asked me then if she got her money back if it rained and I told her that was not something we do. She still paid me and I was on my way. On the car drive back to my brother's it was more of the same; sprinkling never really raining heavy.
I arrive at my brother's home and was greeted by Maxson, Jayden, Mateo, and even Elba (She doesn't speak and hardly understands English). Maxson is just being silly and wants attention and Elba is trying to tell me or ask something. In the process of trying to communicate with Elba, Maxson smacks me a good one right in the balls (which is starting to get annoying I did not see him do it to know his intentions, but his sister's have started feeble attempts at kicking me between the legs for their own amusement; sadly he got me better than either one of them has). All I understood from Elba was "hermana" so I guessed she was looking for Maxson's sisters. It was about time for them to be home, so I made an assumption. I still wonder why she wouldn't have just said their names.
I called my brother to ask him if he was picking up the girls, and we started talking about the rain and the jumper delivery. I relayed him everything I've shared here. Apparently he was a few blocks away and it was really coming down. I stepped outside and it was still sprinkling a bit, but not really coming down. He told me we would wait for the customer to call, but I was getting the impression he would have rather I did not set it up. I looked up a weather map to see what was going on. It appeared to be moving North and it was not going to be over soon. I am already feeling like I screwed up and all I really did was what I was told.
Then he comes home and we start talking about the delivery. He goes over what all was said and he is not feeling good about it. He starts lecturing me on what to say to customers when it might possibly rain. Don't get me wrong the experience or training I get in that moment is invaluable, but it also sends a clear message that I screwed up. He decides to call the customer and offer to pick up the now soaked bounce house and return half of the money (the customer also rented tables and chairs and they kept those for the party). Basically they paid normal price for the table's and chairs and I got a bounce house wet and made two trips to the delivery. The company books might show revenue from this deliver, but it will cost more than was collected. I spent about 5 hours on the delivery so far and the tables and chairs still need to be picked up and the unit is not completely dry. I spent 2 hours already trying to clean and dry the unit some. It was hardly getting anywhere and I was afraid it might keep sprinkling, so I rolled the unit back up and put it in the garage.
My brother left the house on a date with his wife or something, I am assuming (he did not tell me). I eventually just left his house, probably should have called, but I am tired and I just wanted to be home. So I have not even spoke with him since picking up the wet unit. I probably should have just brought it to my place and put it in the garage or something, but I did not know he was not going to be home.
I stopped at Wendy's on the way home and they did not give me a receipt, straw, or napkins. Which is no big deal, but damn why must they forget those things today?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)