PLD

As is your right. But let me ask you this. How much would you have to charge to recoup your investment to *deliver* plywod into a ravaged area? Let's throw out some numbers from Atlanta to Fla.. 40 sheets plywood @ 17.50 = $700.00 850 miles RT @12mpg @ $2.50/gallon = $180.00 Ignore wear and tear. 1 hotel stay @ $100/night (right!) = $100.00 3 meals/day for 2 days = $50.00 Gross cost = $25.75/sheet or $1030.00 for the load. Now let's examine profits. 1 day down, sell for 2 hours, one day back. Total expenditure: 48 hours. $4000-1030 = $2970 gross profit $2970/48 = $61.85/hr What a *******! He's ripping people off almost as bad as those pressure washers. And that assumes that he makes it in 8 hours (instead of 36), can actually find a hotel to stay in (much less for $100), and experiences no mechanical failures, illness, road blocks, etc along the way. What if he gets there and finds 20 other people already there selling. And the going rate is only $50.00 sheet? Now your talking $970 ($20/hr) profit on a fairly high risk venture. Would you do it? Not for $970.00 I'd stay home and wash peoples houses for $100/hr. Anti-gouging measures only stifle supply. That causes shortages and highly elevated black market prices. Free trade enhances the opportunity for reward, fills supply lines, and gets supplies to those in need. Let me put you on the beach after a hurricane, rain pouring in the holes in your roof, all your windows busted out, no police to protect your belongings, and you can't even FIND a piece of plywood much less buy one AT ANY PRICE. $2000 (20 sheets) sucks, but realistically it is a small price to pay to protect/secure your belongings. And to get it delivered to your doorstep in the middle of a disaster area? Have any of us loaded up our tanks with potable water and headed for New Orleans? Offered to deliver 55 gallons of bleach to sanitize drinking water? Fired up the burners so people can take hot clean showers? Loaded up our reclamation systems and set up a make shift water purification plant? Nope. We are sitting at home making $60-100/hr and criticizing those who have gone to help AND make a buck. Which is more honorable? Go, make a profit, and provide help. <or> Sit home, watch TV, do nothing, and sleep well knowing you made a buck off someone with a roof. One last comment: Has anyone here ever ridden in an ambulance? gone to the ER? They make their whole business off profiting from those in desperate need. And have you ever looked the bill? Thousands and Thousands of dollars for a 20min ride. Never heard anyone kicking them about being profiteers. I have, however heard more than one person frantically awaiting their arrival and elated when they did arrive. It's all a matter perspective. If you want something delivered *now*, from a long way away, under terrible conditions, and with high risk of injury or death. It's going to cost you big time.

I'm a libertarian, but that makes me more RW than most so I'll chime in. I'm 100% behind you on this one. We can take over a foreign country in 3 days against armed resistance but it takes a week to get the national guard into New Orleans?!? For God's sake this was home turf AND we knew when and where it was coming ahead of time. GeorgeW, et.al. : Get the 101'st airborne into the city and put a stop the violence. Declare martial law in the affected areas (that only takes a pen stroke, what's your excuse for delaying that?!?). We can move 100,000 tons of materiel overnight, but we cannot move 10,000 tons of rock to plug the levee in a week? Hard, yes. Dangerous, yes. Massive in scale, yes. But we have pulled off a hell of a lot more, with less, under worse conditions. Stop the grandstanding, get out from in front of the camera, and DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE.

EPA, Greenpeace, DNC, Anwar, Florida coast... Shall I name a few more?

Many (perhaps most) stations do not own the gas. The "name" on teh sign owns it and tells them what to charge. They are paid a percentage that fluctuates with sales volume. As far as daily price changes, you should read a bit about commodities trading. Yes, today they are selling yesterdays gas. But tomorrow, they will be selling todays gas. Overall, a long term profits are determined by predicting the trends and not by day-to-day fluctuations.

You and I could not disagree more. Supply and demand do not respond well when tampered with. My family owns property in on the Florida coast. And during last years hurricanes plywood was running $100/sheet. Word of the prices had speculators loading up trailers and driving down to Florida to take a shot at making a profit. The state put a halt to that and was arresting "profiteers". The end result was that you couldn't find plywood anywhere at any price. Squeeze the balloon one place and it swells elsewhere. The gas attendant has to make a buck, play the employees, and feed his family. If 50% of his sales is smokes and beer and that goes to zero, then gas goes up. Triple rates during that once a decade event help pay for vacant rooms after a post-911 type travel environment. It also help pay for staff that end up working 48 hours straight, their additional costs for fuel, supplies, etc. If that business owner doesn't operate as profitably as possible, he may close. And if he closes, where will those evacuees stay then? "Price gouging" sucks, but it is a fact of life in a free captialist society. It costs alot more money to get a glass of water on the moon than it does by the seaside. Those who risk their money and time in an effort to make a profit off of selling water on the moon deserve to reap the rewards for tehir efforts. And lest anyone forget, I am being "gouged" to the tune of $3.50 a gallon as I write this.

More power to him! He took a risk with his own money and deserves to profit (or not) from his actions. I'm not buying the "email rumor" as the source of all evil. I think that's alot of spin by the authorities to slow buying and prevent hoarding/ artificial shortages. But the fact that supplies are marginal is a fact. My local station (that knows us on a first name basis) called yesterday and let me know that they would (and did) sell out of regular by 5pm. Their today truck was iffy and although it did show up, it was not till after 5pm...

I have often crammed all their stuff into that envelope and mailed it. Never thought about a box full of junk. Excellent idea!

Anyone every have their burner start putting out white smoke? Today, one of the employees complained that the burner started smoking badly and the water temp dropped a great deal. I checked it out tonight and the water was scalding hot (no actual measurement) but there was too much smoke. It's not entirely consistent smoke either. For about 30 seconds, it produced alot of smoke and smogged the backyard. Then, it produced almost no smoke from the stack, but a noticible amount from the openings where the coil enters and exits the housing. Previously, there has been no smoke except 5-10 secs after a cold startup. I visually inspected the fuel tank and filter and the fuel looks very clear. In fact, for a used machine the inside of the tank has zero debris, zero deposits, and not a single drop of water that I can see milling around down there. I'm don't think it is related, but I'll offer it up just in case it is. During my testing with an open HP hose thie evening I experienced a lot of surging/sputtering like air on the line and dark red rusty/muddy water discharged from the HP hose. The supply water was crystal clear and I was unable to locate any air instrusion into the supply lines (they are clear braided). I've never noticed this problem before and these problems cleared after about 3-5 minutes of running. Anyway, if anyone can help I certainly would appreciate it.

I'll give that a whirl. Is charging something I should do periodically? I assumed that with a 12v generator charging was a thing of the past.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. That was my thoughts. That volume and density of rust could only come from a large rust source and that eliminates couplers and joints. I'll start cool down as a new ops procedure asap.

I know this diatribe comes a bit out of the blue, but it started as a comment in a different thread. Since it would have hijacked that thread, I've relocated it and expanded it here. That said: It has been said several times in the past that someone should not even bother bid on a job because their price, speed, equipment put them at a significant disadvantage. I could not disagree more. IMHO, barring a lack of skill to do the job properly you should NEVER pass on an opportunity because you feel that your situation makes puts you at a significant disadvantage. Investigate your situation closely, see how you can improve it, work on your sales technique, and then TAKE ACTION based on what you can do now. With 3hp cold machine and a wand you may only be able to run 500ft/hr. Fine, bid $0.12/ft. You'll get a few jobs, lose many, and gather some money and experience along the way. When you can afford a 5.5gpm upgrade and then you can do 1500/hr. Now bid $0.05/ft and win more bids and make more money. Bottom line, take action. If you can't do better than $0.25/sqft and make a profit then bid $0.25/ft. If it will take you 2 months, then tell the customer you can do the work and do an excellent job but it will take two months. Worst case, you lose the bid. That's still better than not bidding at all, because at least you experienced and learned from the process one more time.

I've found that a pair of channel locks will wring that lip off in about 2 seconds w/o damaging the rest of the plug. IMHO, SS connections are less wobbly than steel because the barred doesn't corrode and shrink in size.

Ditto. And definitely put a QC directly into the gun. There are times when no lance is wonderful. Decks and vinyl fencing come to mind. And QC both ends of all your lances as well. I keep a 3ft, 3ft x20deg, 6ft, and 12ft on truck. Stacked I can get 24ft of (wiggly) lance w/o an extenda wand. I most often use these lances: none, 3, 6, 3+6.

Check and see if that isn't 900 + 15% of payroll...

Care to share your supplier? I run into this alot and have been very timid about using any type acid on stucco for fear of scarring the substrate.

On an even more trivial note: Did you know that you can actually die from DHMO poisioning? And no, it's not drowning. Drinking excessive amount of water (quite hard to do) severely dilutes the electrolyte levels in the body and causes a condition called hyponatremia (i.e. water poisioning). Mild hyponatremia causes intoxication (why have I been buying beer?!?). Severe hyponatremia causes cerebral adema and can lead to brain damage, paralysis, and sometimes death.

BE VERY CAREFUL!!! Every year, many people die from inhaling dihydrogen monoxide. It's also reported to be a large part of the problem for masonite disintegration. I personally have seen dihydrogen monoxide cause the structural support of homes (and even bridges) fail catastrophically. P.S. Dihydrogen monoxide was linked to the deaths of Mary Jo Kopechne and Natalie Wood. It has also been cited as a contributing factor in the sinking of the Titanic.

Been there, done that. One lady thought our guys and the tree cutting crew could "work around" each other...

From the specs I'm guessing you are looking at Northern Tool (or similar) and the 1511 is a belt drive, while the other (comet) is direct. IMHO, get the belt drive. FWIW, I have been using a GX390/T1511 for two years now without incident. A very good unit.

Anyone who quit and said that quittig cold turkey was easy was not a smoker. They were just a holder. Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Skydiving, bungee jumping, easy. Make a decision and do it (or don't). With quitting smoking you stand at that high ledge re-evaluating that decision hundreds of times a day. And that decision continues to rear it's ugly head for the rest of yor life. Every time you open a beer. Every time a friend fires up. Every time you pass the smoking section in an airport, restraunt, stadium. It gets less and less frequent as the years pass, but it never goes away... Many people do just that. Smoke till it kills 'em. People on oxygen (usually from smoking) frequently set themselves afire from smoking in a high O2 environment. 1 ,2, 3 hearts attacks and still smoking. The fact people have potentially deadly diseases, have been told by their doctor that it is the result of smoking and will kill them, and still continue smoking should tell you something about the power of the smoking addiction. It's far more than the nicotine alone. Smoking is a chemial addiction, with a physical component (hands) and oral pacifier. It also has a social component, offers the relaxation of deep breathing, requires periodic breaks from ones daily grind. It quells the appetite, encourages weight loss, and acts as a quick pick me up. Finally, being a smoker is like owning a Harley. You can find another smoker in any country on the planet and they will share their smokes, their matches, and their company as if they knew you... Support anyone who choses to quit. It's a very hard thing to do.

ROTFLMAO! :)

How about a link? Philip Doolittle a.k.a. Phillip Dolittle :)

What type of database?

Are you sure you wouldn't? What's the difference between you pulling your gun and having someone else do it for you? Passing a law is doing just that. Forcing someone to comply at the risk of death if they do not. Sound extreme? Go light up at the local gov't building. Very quickly, a large man armed with a gun will come and inform you that it is a non-smoking area. Now, openly a defiantly refuse to comply. Light another. See what happens...

I do think it a wise business decision. I just don't believe it to be the legitimate purpose of government.