Mike

:topic: This post is off the cleaning topic but... We recently bought a new vehicle. The way the state of Indiana charges for vehicle registration is by the value and year of your vehicle. The more its worth and the newer it is, the more your registration is going to cost starting from a couple hundred dollars to many hundred dollars. It's almost like your being punished for not trying a rust bucket that kills the ozone with its black smoke every mile down the road. I was talking to a friend in Illinois that told me the his registration for a new vehicle only ran him $50.00 (several hundered less then I had to pay) and he told me it was that way down south as well ...I just assumed all these years that everyone paid as much as we do for vehicle registration, so my long winded question would be, how much does vehicle registration average in your state? Does it matter if your vehicle is new or used or is it the same price for all?

Nearest one to me is 4 counties away. Thats what I get for living in rural town USA.

I am a new subscriber to the cleaner times magazine and I am very impressed with the couple issues I have recieved already. The question I have is about the buyers guide, it just seems to be pages & pages of company names / phone numbers. I cant find any information about the companies or even a web site to go to online to get my information so I was a little disappointed in it. Is it more of just a phone book? The magazine I have been very happy with though and glad I subscribed.

Look at all these names on this thread you dont really see anymore. Where are they now? (ok, so maybe I stole that line from VH1, but it works) :) I was reading some older post from the start of this BBS and it would be nice to see some of you that were new at the time chime in and let us know how things are going for you. By the way, this was a very informative thread.

Congratulations to the Eagles, unfortunately the Patriots will be there and it wont be pretty. Yes I'm a bitter Colts fan! :)

Thanks for the tip on the screws Henry. You gutter web site is layed out very nice by the way. The "helicopters" are very numerous here in the mid west during the spring time, you can go to a house and scoop pounds of them out sometimes. I think they come from the maple trees that seem to blanket this area. The thing about them is if they are left in there, they turn into compost, then by fall you have little maple trees growing in your gutters. I've never seen balls or toys in downspouts, but I'm still a newcomer to the gutter scene as well. I would enjoy learning more about gutter repairs, but its not easy to find so alot of it is learned by just going out and doing it to my mown gutters. I think I read an article you wrote while "googling" one day, have you wrote alot? Maybe you could put together a little "Gutter Repair" guide? :)

Celeste, I dont know if I could go hot tubbing in the snow... :lgcold: How are the plans for the roundtable going Beth? How many of you out there would be interested in attending a roundtable, you just dont have the time to plan one?

I've seen gutters damaged both with nails & screws holding them up because they went to long without cleaning. For some reason some people wait until they have little trees growing in thier gutters before they decide to have them cleaned, and by that time you know how much "gunk" is in them weighing them down. I can see how the screws would help because the nail holes would be wore out, so to prevent adding a new hole, you just screw in the old one for grip. Most gutter / roof problems lead back to gutters not being properly cleaned often enough.

For those of you that do not have an office, how do you handle invoices and other things you have mailed to you. Do you have it mailed to your home address or do you have a p.o. box?

We had 2 feet of snowfall during that storm. Thats actually record snowfall for a 24 hour period in Indiana. We do get our fair share of snow though. It took me all day to dig ourselves out that day so I could use your blade!

Howard, I'll make you a deal, help me find my driveway and you can have all my snow you want! This was my driveway 3 weeks ago.

You can find good snow boots that work wonder in wet conditions. They are leather up top, with laces for tieing, and rubber from the ankle down with no seams. Spray a little scotch guard on the upper leather, put some powder on your feet (this will help keep them dry and "stink free") gold bond works great.. and your in business. :)

To funny Robert, but I'm afraid to laugh as my wife is close by! We dont plow snow here but alot of people do. You can even make a good hunk of cash taking a snow blower and shovel out to do driveways and sidewalks. A friend of mine bought a snow blower this year and had it paid off after the first snow fall. Man I should have done that! Let it snow... :lgcold:

Does anyone know anything about old craftsman tools? I was given some old tools last week, when going through them I found an old fashion craftsman tape measure. I was wondering if someone could tell me how old it is or if you know anything about it? It has a handle that pops open in the middle to crank the tape back into the reel.

Hey Paul, welcome to the Board. I'm also a believer that hands on training and experience beats classroom training everyday. Not that classroom training is not a good thing to have, everyone should learn as much as they can to be a proffesional at what they do, but I would take up these offers from others. Beth & Rod, glad to see you are having success with your RT's. Have you ever thought about a once a year "The Grime Scene Annual Get together" were you could plan a BIG roundtable for everyone on the board here to get together and converse byy anyway other then typing. It could be a cookout type thing? That would take alot of planning. To get back on the original question, for those new comers to roundtables, that are interested in having one in thier hometown, where would you suggest they start?

Good info Rod, the relaxed atmosphere would be nice... to be able to sit back.. enjoy yourself... Share some ideas... ask some questions... Check out a new product... form a friendship or 2 or 3 and learn more about the industry. :beerchug:

Hey Rod, the tape is in good shape, I cant find any rust on it at all. The tool box was given to me from an elder family member. I also have wrenches in the same box that were used during the Korean War days.

It's good to see that at least here on this BBS we are allowed to voice an opinion and express it freely without critisizim.

I dont know if a trial membership would help much, since it's only $195.00. What I think is holding most people back, myself included is they are not sure which direction the pwna is heading and where they stand. What I think would help the pwna is the thing that started this topic, roundtables and or chapter meetings. That way other PW's can go to a LOCAL meeting, not shell out alot of money, and check things out for themselves, to see if they really do want to get involved with the Org. and see where they are heading. Limiting a non member to only come to 1 roundtable / chapter meeting would not be a good move as it takes some of us a little more then a 1 hour roundtable talk to become convinced that they are making the right choice. Sure, charge us a little more as a non member, but dont tell us we cant come because we already attended 1 meeting. By the way... GO COLTS! Almost game time...... got my ice cold refreshments and chicken wings!

I did not know that, thanks.

Thanks for the good information Scott, I've heard alot of good things about Steve and I wish I had a chance to make it down there for the roundtable. Let us know how things go afterwards. Maybe next time we can have it in Tennessee (in the middle) so us snowbirds can make it down too! Thanks again for the advice & information. More Great Suggestions, Thanks Beth!

I think the days of hiding behind a p.o. box should be long over, like someone had mentioned earlier, to even get a p.o. box you have to leave a name and address (not to mention here, you need to show a photo ID) so they have records of who is using the p.o. box and how to find them. For me it's just another way to seperate work from private life. I dont file my work papers with my personal papers, why would I want them to be sent to me in the same box as well? You can get a p.o. box for less then the cost of a cup of coffee everyday. I would also like to think I build a good enough relationship with the client that just because I may use a p.o. box, I wont get turned down for a job.

You bring up some good points, but about this point quoted above, I've seen many PWNA members say on various occasions that they joined the PWNA for marketing reasons. Because they feel the image of being part of the PWNA will make them more money. Which I really cant disagree with them, arent we all in the business to make money?

Actually this thread started out as a roundtable thread, not a PWNA chapter meeting thread, so thats why it was posted here to hopefully get guys fired up on having a roundtable discussion. The PWNA angle was brought up by PWNA members and BOD. I welcome their thoughts and ideas to the thread and I thank John & Everette for their good information, but to answer your question this thread was originally about local roundtables. Feel free to start a thread on the PWNA bbs about chapter meetings as I'm sure some good questions could be asked there also.

Thanks John & Everette for your information. I think the cost of food & drinks would have to be a given, and everyone should know going into a meeting that their food is not free. I agree with Matthew though, I think the left over money should go back to the local chapter to cover the invitations and advertising you spoke of and not back to the National chapter where the money could be used elsewhere. But thats a PWNA local chapter issue. Just my .02 cents from a non member. What my intent was from this post was to allow everyone who has attended or put on a roundtable to offer some advice to those of us that have not and are interested. Heck, even if all we get is a couple of us that wants to get together once a month, grab a bite to eat and shoot the bull it's a start. As you can see from the response here, aparently its not a popular idea to others but I had to try. If you'd like to email me the information you speak of that would be great. Thanks.