Here’s another of my recent batch of older photos. If the fashions and décor seem dated, remember my 15-year blog rule. Meet my best friend from my phone company days. This was at her place just north of Tonasket (WA) late one winter day. Our combined income in those days was pretty phenomenal. We ate in restaurants and took weekend tours to the Oregon coast or the Yakima/Okanogan Valley any time. Talk about your arts and crafts person, she used to make Tiffany lampshades. She smoked. She eventually moved further up country, married a cowboy and that is the last I heard of her.
[Author's note 2016: goes to show you, when you are consistent, it's a small world. This lady re-emerged in 2011 as one of my most trusted associates. She didn't marry the cowboy and went on to become successful in her own right. She became a higher up administrator in the old company and how has a retirement home in the valley mentioned, although like myself, actual retirement was years in the future at that time.
Our lives remained intertwined for a simple reason--we did not set out to become wealthy or property owners. We both remained independent and self-supporting. People who borrow money are fooling themselves to claim the same thing. By simply behaving, an activity that can be learned by anyone, our combined assets still remain "pretty phenomenal"--but that is quite different from stating anyone is rich. For a couple of kids who got no help from home, "phenomenal" isn't even the best adjective. And we both remain single.]
What is with all the rainstorms? It is not due to hurricanes, which we know because the news media isn’t building every minor Doppler glitch into another Katrina. There was a foot of water in the streets when I biked home after work. These are real tropical downpours and a car isn’t always the safest place to be.You may not know this, but working with shoes means standing up all day. Except for certain leatherwork, you have to be on your feet. I’m not yet 100% so I took the day off and did some minor work on the video cam displays. The screw-up with daylight savings has half the town guessing what time it really is. We just open the doors one hour “early” and that works okay. It would be hilarious, I think, to follow the logic of the people who decided to make the changes. Remember always that I view ignorance as just another form of laziness.
Still no word from North Carolina (that’s Theresa). I’m expecting some information about those advertising sheets with the business card ads. Checking around shows there really aren’t any left in this vicinity to use as a basis for comparison. There’s money to be made at it, but it is prudent to run some of the numbers before you get started. Some of these small ventures are self-capping in what you can make. The biggest barrier I see is the ease of startup. Why is that a barrier? Because anybody can come along and copy what you do. Ask any landscaper what his competition is like.
There is just nothing exciting happening these days. Sorry if all the doldrums get passed on to this blog. Generally, I’m pretty satisfied with how things progress but since I don’t read other people’s journals, I can’t make a direct comparison. I quit reading the standard political blogs and such soon after they arrived on the Internet.
[Author's note: the following is a blog for this date that originally went missing, it is included here despite any duplication.]
Gee, Wallace, let’s get a couple of these. Look, they are already gift-wrapped. What a steal at $24,000 each. This display is up at the Pro Bass Shop, where we intend to head one weekend to see the Christmas goings-on. Look at the bow on that boat. No, no, I mean the bow.
Strange as it may appear to non-writers, here is an entire blog entry that was misfiled. So today, November 11, 2009, you get two complete editions (the original was dated a week ago). Some may ask how it is possible to lose a blog but I assure you it does happen. I also plead the Hunt Brothers Defense. Also, it is not like this blog is the only thing I write on a daily basis. It is rare for specialized “portal” sites to impress me, but today I set up a system called Mygait. It claims to be senior-friendly and they just might be right for people who will never learn much software. It is a compact computer mounted behind a flatscreen and using a browser that overlays Windows XP (Home Edition). The logo says “Go”, with a big fat single button on the main screen.
It is a basic email computer with things that non-cerebral seniors would likely want. Email, weather, news and places for letters and pictures. The hard drive is 160 Gigs, I suspect it is a laptop drive. The downside is there is no optical disk drive, meaning no easy way to load drivers for your printer or digital camera. This is a $50 external add-on, so no big deal but they could have done better on that one.
ADDENDUM
Still undergoing recovery from recent medical work, I took the day easy and set up displays for the security cameras. That [security] project will keep shifting my priorities deeper into the software capabilities and new ideas for income. You see, Mr. T. is firmly in setup and installation, but I suspect the real money is in renting these systems in situations that could never afford a CCTV (closed circuit TV) arrangement. Financial cost projection is also my forte. One Internet connection per location can rent out as many as 32 cameras (since the bulk of data is processed by a video card, not the CPU).
Stay with me here. Take a small strip mall of eight stores. With closed circuit (old style) security cameras, that gets expensive. The recorder alone is $500. The mechanics of the installation mean sharing is unlikely since if the owner of the central unit moves, he’s taking his gear with him. That formula changes when the base unit is a $250 computer and the cameras are cheap. All I need is a locking cabinet anywhere on the premises. Let me commence to cypherin’.
Instead of a $2,000 installation, I sell the cameras only and rent connections to the security computer. The owner need only come up with a couple hundred bucks, and in theory could use the cameras on another system. I find one shop in the mall that already has Internet, and offer to pay that owner half his monthly provider bill. The computer I install is remotely accessible and rebootable, meaning minimal service calls. That would mean $400 per month gross income with very little overhead from one mall. The recording is done over at my place, something cost-prohibitive on this scale with CCTV.
I stress this is speculation and I don’t yet know the pitfalls. But you don’t have to be Rockefeller to figure out this system is lucrative. What I need to learn asap is the wireless camera setup, the remote command operations and the know-how to tie all this into my existing store area. There is no reason I could not run 48 systems in my existing space. Can we agree 48 times $400 per month is not bad for a one-man operation?
No system is impregnable but CCTV is all or nothing. It cannot be readily scaled to shops with minimal inventory and small budgets who want more deterrence than armor. Enter my digital system, and I’m not too careful about thinking out loud because only someone with my extensive background in complicated “line-up” circuitry should even contemplate this business. I did line-ups for the phone company for many years, including satellite and ATM circuits. Trust me, most of you have no idea how to read a circuit record or know that 60% of the phone company’s money is spent on keeping the paperwork in order.
Initially the operation would be a real headache. But $20,000 a month buys a lot of Advil. Getting back to Planet Earth, we still need a sale or two to get moving. The budget is zero dollars and everybody is scrimping. Keep checking back as it should not be long and up to a point, I’ll keep you informed. But really, this is not the way to start a business. I'm only along for the ride.
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