Is our government involved in bait and switch?

While President Barack Obama, speaking to students about alternative energy recently, talked about incentives for large companies to up their game on energy efficiency.

Every year billions of dollars--our tax dollars--in incentives are given to companies that pay little or no taxes of their own, in an effort to boost their businesses.

It is an ever-increasing practice business and government uses, at our expense. The benefit of tax incentives is often times touted as a benefit to consumers, but often times it isn't. Any perk for consumers is minuscule compared with the monetary gains businesses and politicians enjoy by the practice.

I can't help but wonder, what about the little guy? We should be so fortunate...

Recently, my husband and I were promised an Energy Star Appliance Rebate--$225 for the purchase of an energy-efficient washing machine. We spent a little more than we wanted to, but were lured in by the promise of the government-promised rebate.

I have begun to believe that all rebates are a scam. I can't recall the last time one actually paid as advertised.

Despite this being a government rebate, this one didn't deliver either. I thought a government rebate might be different. It wasn't!

Like the billion-dollar grants given big business, this rebate was an incentive to cut household energy costs. It was offered by the Obama administration and distributed by the states, and as we learned, sub-contracted to an outfit in another state.

We purchased our GE front-loading washer and matching dryer. We had been using a 30-year old pair--also a GE. We were very happy with the performance of the brand. Our machines were old, but still functional. They did not need to be replaced and we did consider waiting. But our decision was swayed when we learned the ones we wanted were on sale and there was a rebate being offered. We did something we haven't done since we retired; we purchased the appliances with a credit card. The decision to use a credit card was a difficult one.

Several months later, when we didn't receive the rebate, my husband contacted the Michigan company charged with handling the rebates for the State of Arkansas. He was told that we didn't qualify because we didn't write the serial number of the old washer on the application form and we didn't include the sales receipt. Also, it would do no good to reapply because the money had all been spent. Out of luck, was the way he put it.

My husband, who filled out the paperwork distinctly recalls the form said the old serial number wasn't necessary. The sales receipt was stapled to the form.

Is our government now involved in bait and switch?

Spring is by far the best season

The calendar says we are four days from the start of Spring, but no matter. In my mind, we have been there for days--weeks even.

 
Early this month, all the signs were there, despite cold temperatures designed just to throw us off. 

Still, it was hard not to notice the sun rising higher in the sky. Turning our clocks ahead only enhanced the obvious longer days. 

There was just something about the sound of the birds' song in the morning too, signaling a behavioral change. They began to scurry around looking for the perfect nesting material. They seem to sense that  Spring was and they were happy to sing all about it.

One of my favorite less subtle signs is in the plants. Nothing is more enjoyable than walking through the yard and scouting out those tiny green sprouts as they emerge from the cold, still leaf-covered ground. Here, my first crocus appeared on March 2.

Other buds also began to appear, like those pictured on the left: the redbuds, lilacs, and those big, fat, pink magnolia blossoms.

Today, things have advanced nicely. Springtime is unmistakable and it is a joy to behold.

Is there anything prettier than a new stand of daffodils in the spring garden?

The magnolia, though only a few years old, is magnificent.

I have even turned one of the blossoms into a screensaver on my computer. Pink is my favorite color and there is nothing more pink than one of these lovely flowers.


Waking up in the morning to start another day is always a joy, but there is just something almost magical about waking up on a mild spring morning. It is unlike any other time.

Enjoy!

NASCAR women from Arkansas have a great day

Mark Martin may be the man but Danica Patrick is the woman!

Not only did we women of Arkansas get to watch our native son, Mark Martin from Batesville, AR win the Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas, but we watched Danica Patrick make NASCAR history.

Mark Martin brings it home

It was great to watch Mark Martin back in victory lane, a place he has been 95 times before.

His #32 Dollar General Chevy owned by Turner Motor Sports finished first at Las Vegas, ending a long winless streak. Martin hasn't won since 2009 at Phoenix. He went without a win during his entire 2010 season.

Martin was in the right place at the right time Saturday, as led only one lap during the race--the only one that really counts. Taking every advantage, he was nearly out of gas when he passed Brad Kezelowski, the race leader, who cut a tire, allowing Martin to cruise to victory.

It was a first win for Turner Motor Sports who enjoyed a good finish last week as well when Ryan Newman brought the #30 car home in fourth place.

And for the ladies, the big news of the day

Saturday's race has made history, as Danica Patrick, driver of the #7 GoDaddy Chevy, finished the race in fourth place. It is a career-best finish for her, and makes her the first woman driver in NASCAR ever to achieve such a finish.

Patrick broke a record that has stood since 1949 when Sara Christian came in fifth.

Patrick said she was secretly hoping for a finish in the top 10, but instead it was in the top five. In reality, what she really accomplished was a history-making fourth.

Bluebirds are such scrappers

A Male Eastern Bluebird,
originally uploaded by rivadock4.

I have seen and even admired bluebirds who fight with other birds to protect their nest, but this was very different.

The other day, while sitting at my desk, I heard noises outside. My desk is right next to a window that faces east. When I glanced outside, I saw a female bluebird sitting on a low hanging branch of a young oak tree.

Normally, bluebird noises are among my favorite. They sing a very sweet song as if they haven't a care in the world. But this morning, that wasn't the case. The female seemed to be looking toward the ground, so I got up to see what all the fuss was about.

There was a real ruckus going on.

There on the ground, right below my window, which is about nine feet from the tree where she sat, I saw flashes of blue and rust tumbling all around, wings spreading wildly, as two male bluebirds were squawked and nipped at each other.

They were obviously suitors fighting for the lady's attention.

My husband made a bluebird house and nailed it to the very tree on which she perched. The winner would likely lay claim to the house, where he and his lady would build their nest.
 
A few minutes later, two more males and one female joined the fray.
The girls got into the dirt just like the boys. Everybody--all six of them--were  fighting.

This went on for some time, until there was only one male and one female left. The others flew away relatively unscathed. There are other bluebird houses in the yard, so I'm not sure what all the fuss was about. But, I look forward to monitoring their progress this summer. I can't wait to see little the little fledgelings peak their beaks out of the house. 

 * * *

The following day I related this story to my husband who, after spending some quality alone time in the garage, emerged with a new bluebird house.

In addition to the house worth fighting for, the bluebirds have taken over our  purple martin house in the back yard and three other houses in the front yard. There have never been nests in all of those places at once, but who knows, if they are fighting for a home already, this could be an up-and-coming neighborhood.

I am anxious to monitor their progress as the season moves forward.

Arkansas nickname to remain 'Natural State' as compromise fails; local officials had opposed - News | KTLO AM & FM and Classic Hits 101.7 Mountain Lakes Broadcasting Corporation

Well finally, something done by government pleases me. 

Arkansas nickname to remain 'Natural State' as compromise fails; local officials had opposed - News | KTLO AM & FM and Classic Hits 101.7 Mountain Lakes Broadcasting Corporation

Last chance for Dish Network

I'm pretty patient, but this is getting ridiculous. I warn you; this is a complicated story, but this is as good a place as any to document our problems with Dish Network. Perhaps it can help some poor saps like us who love to watch TV.

While watching television last night, one of my favorite nights for TV, a screen--similar to the computer version of what is commonly known as the blue screen of death--appeared. It said our signal was lost. 

This isn't the first time. In fact, we have had technicians come to our house before about this very issue. 

Sorry we used the Dish Mover Program. When we moved to Arkansas, we mistakenly did as we were advised. We left our dish at the old house and brought our receiver with us. That sounded like a great idea, until we realized all kinds of new equipment and new offers were being provided to new customers. Us loyal old-timers got the shaft. We still had the same old system. Upgrades were not available to us. 

And then it got worse. I have no idea how old the system was in our new house. It didn't work very well, so when it failed, we called Dish Network. I asked the technician about the new equipment and new offers for multiple room hook-ups. He said he couldn't do anything about that but advised me to cancel our service and re-apply as a new customer using my maiden name. I didn't think that was quite ethical, so we never did it.

This went on several times. The system would go out, leaving us without television for a day or two until a tech--always a different person each time--would work his magic. 

How much techs do really know about the systems they service? Once, our system went out because the ground wire beneath our house was fried, seemingly by a lightning strike. One tech said he disconnected it because we didn't need it. He said it would just keep getting fried. It seems to me that a ground wire is a safety measure. It fries before our house burns to the ground. That was also the advice from the next tech guy who reinstalled it.

Finally, a new offer for tried and true customers. We finally got an offer from Dish Network that they were going to take care of their existing customers. They offered us HD TV for life, HD Premium channels, free installation, and no charge for any of it. It would be an all new system if we signed up for auto pay and paperless billing. We did, despite a very cumbersome experience since the website wasn't quite up and running yet. 

Hurray, the new system was installed in September.  Two weeks later however, the television went blank again. We called again. Dish Network said they would send someone out again. I wrote about the experience in this blog under the post "Unhappy Couch Potato".

There is more to that story. When it was determined that our brand new HD receiver was faulty, our latest in a long line of technicians, was to install a new one. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong! The tech who came out told us he had a new one in the truck, but he would be in trouble if he gave it to us. He would have to order it. This was on a Saturday afternoon. He said it would arrive Sunday by UPS. I told him UPS didn't deliver on Sunday. He lives nearby--he should have known that. He said he'd call FedEx then. They don't delivery here on Sunday either. He said then Monday. I reminded him that Monday was a holiday--Labor Day. He said no matter what, he would install a new receiver on Monday afternoon. He even called on Sunday to say he would be back Monday afternoon.

It didn't happen. We spoke with Dish Network again who promised a tech would return Tuesday between 8 a.m. and noon. That didn't happen either. We called Dish Network again. Finally on Thursday night after ranting to Dish Network they promised to send someone else. Someone else came alright, at 8:30 p.m. along with the first guy who accompanied him. They brought a new receiver and after about 30 minutes hooked it up; we had television again.

The result was that we were out of television service for five days; we lost the programming we had recorded on the DVR. We put with up an arrogant woman telling us the technician was here, but no one was home. She refused to listen to me when I told her I had been waiting for five days to get this resolved. 

There's got to be a morning after. We were pretty happy until the next morning when, I noticed a bunch of wires dangling in front of the window. The wires, which had been neatly installed, affixed to the siding of our house had been ripped out. They were now dangling from the roof and blowing in the breeze. We were furious. My husband finished attaching them to the side of the house. Some installation!

Dish Network was conciliatory, didn't charge us for the days we were out of service, and gave us some movie coupons to make up for our bad experience. We even got Starz for three months when we were over billed on automatic billing. 

Deja vu. About a month ago, Starz ended and so did the promised HD Premium channels. We started to see some pixelation again, where the picture deteriorates into little colored squares and the sound also becomes distorted. It is what happens during a weakened signal, such as during a storm, right before the signal is lost completely.

All was well. We have had great reception during a recent snow storm, but when the skies were clear, suddenly, last night, with no warning, the signal died. We tried to reset the switches. Nothing! We unplugged the receiver and turned it back on. Nothing! We called Dish Network again.

Thursday, they are sending someone out to re-wire our house and align the dish correctly. We learned that when it was installed, it was pointed in the wrong direction.

My husband and I have been more than patient. As long time, loyal Dish Network subscribers, this is the last problem we expect to have with Dish Network.

Riding the weather roller coaster

This was the scene on Jan. 29th at Lake Norfork in north central Arkansas.

Everywhere you looked, people were outside, enjoying the first warm days that followed a cold and snowy winter.


The sky was as blue as the crystal clear water of the lake that beckoned boaters anxious to take advantage of the 70º weather. We even saw a girl wearing a bathing suit, as she sat on the sand near the water's edge. It was one of those late winter days that was certainly a sign of things to come. 

We just didn't know what exactly was coming.

After such a beautiful weekend, who could have predicted this would be the scene, just six days later, on the Friday night of Feb. 4. It was a beautiful sight as the snow gently fell.

In reality, it was predicted by local meteorologists. So, my husband and I were prepared. 


The beauty snow was breathtaking. There was wood to burn in the stove, the refrigerator was stocked up and   set out to simply enjoy the view.

Much to our surprise, we woke up on the morning of Feb. 9 to our third snowfall of the season. This one was more beautiful than the previous one. 

Interestingly, it crippled the states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma with record-breaking snow totals. And then came the record-breaking cold snap. Some temperatures reached well below the zero mark, making for transportation headaches and all the  ills.

At our house, we received just shy of a foot of snow. 

It was so beautiful. It began in the early morning hours and snowed all day. It was so lovely to look out the window. 

Again, this was predicted, so we were ready for it. Being retired, there was no place we had to be, except in our warm, cozy home, enjoying the beautiful wintry scene.

The temperatures are predicted to reach 60º again by Monday. 

I love the weather in the Ozarks. It certainly has been a roller coaster ride. There are 38 more days until the official start of Spring--a day worth waiting for. I can't help but wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us in those last gasps of winter.