Scott Stone

I think that it is sad that this is even a point of discussion. Why is it the situation is so dire that it even needs to be a topic of discussion of whether teachers should carry guns? It would seem that if parents were taking the time to raise their kids, and to teach them to be obedient, that most of the problems would be resolved. Any more, the kids are asserting rights that, legally, they do not have. Parents want their kids to have all the rights, and refuse to teach them the responsibilities that come with the rights.

Worse, I have had an employee do that. GRRR!!!

I listen to books on tape, motivational speakers, etc. If I have music, I start singing, and though I am not a bad singer, it is still embarassing. The books pass time for me better.

You know that if you stay up late to see Ron, that you wont be able to go to sleep afterwards, dont you?

Tahiti, Hawaii and France/Europe.

Yes it would... I had a 64 Ford F100. It had been my dads truck and sat in the garage because he did not want to take the time to get it running. I asked him if I could have it if I got it running. 15 minutes after he said yes, I was under the hood tearing out the heads for a valve job. I drove it for a year before my brother borrowed it and blew it up...without paying for it. Gotta love older brothers.

Just a little song I wrote, gotta learn it note by note, don't worry, be happy...

how about doing a 400k parking garage with cold water because he thought I would not want to spend the money on fuel? We had to do it over again for free. Or in another area of my biz not using the right anchors, thus not meeting specs and losing a 300k a year account. other than that, nothing major.

Employees that are always thinking for themselves trying to save me money. It has not happened yet...

there used to be a band called ten thousand maniacs. I was in the middle of them.

This is going to be one of those things that will turn into a religion/politics type argument. Everyone will think that they are correct and no one will give an inch in their arguments. Somewhere there is a happy medium. I think in this situation we all need to see where we are, individually, on the line and allow others to choose their own spot on the line.

Burning ants is no less cruel to tham than me having to take my 10 year old daughter to a Jonas Bros. concert. I had no clue that 20000 screaming girls between 10 and 15 could be so loud. When we walked out I felt like telling the parents waiting at the gate for their daughters they were cowards. Boy, I wish I would have taken ear plugs.

We have all seen the show dirty jobs, and a lot of us have been involved in cleaning things that were just plain nasty. So, in order, what were some of your dirtiest, nastiest, filthiest jobs, and just for grins and giggles, what did they pay? 1. Landfill Equipment, not too bad, until I had to crawl underneath, in the landfill, to clean the belly pans and bottom of the engine. Mind you, I could not clean the bottom until the top was done, and they did not move it between areas. $75 an hour 2. Pavement milling machine. Very tough. Had to do a lot of presoaking of the asphalt with diesel fuel to get it soft enough to pressure wash off. They supplie the chemicals. $45 an hour (Years ago when the standard was $40 an hour and fuel was less than a buck a gallon) 3. Garbage trucks, side loaders. Had to get EVERY nook and cranny for the city, and the drivers did nothing to help. They also wanted us to crawl underneath and clean the undercarriage, and would not lift the bodies. $18 each This is a start, so what are some of yours?

Dan, I am with those that say your posts are depressing. You always are down on things, whether it is your pricing, other peoples pricing, what needs to be done, it is always negative. Maybe potential customers are feeding off of that. I have an unusual target market that took me forever to break into. Once I did, it was about pushing our reliability, and willingness to correct problems, even if they are not there. On many of my jobs, I may not make $100 an hour, but, I can assure you that I am running a pretty successful business by most standards. Ron can probably easily verify that I am doing okay. I think that even in down times there are things people can do to romote themselves and their business. The problem is, you need to learn where the horses are, and not just the hats. There are a lot of cowboys out there with big hats, i.e BMW's, Mercedes, huge houses, etc, and no horses, living paycheck to paycheck, struggling making their daily bills and trying to keep up with the Jones's. And I know a LOT of people that, though they make over $100k a year, would balk at $275 for a house wash becaus ehtey do not have the extra cash.

Ouch, that is going to leave a mark.

Let me know when you are coming. If there is enough demand, maybe I can cook something up for the Phoenix roundtable. I am usually pretty good for up to about 100 people with the stuff that I have.

I use mesquite brickets and my own hand rub. It always gets rave reviews. I have done some pork loins for pulled pork, baby backs, brisket and tenderloin. They all came out great. I am real archaic how I smoke stuff. I use a stack to start the briquettes, get em good and going, dump them in teh fire box, and then put more briquets on top. Leave it in as long as I want, usually at least 6 hours, and then pull what ever out. Comes out perfect.

Do you have any pictures? Also, why such a small tank?

For what it is worth, I would tape record these conversations and get and keep all the records I could. You might just have a lawsuit because they stole your intellectual property. What is more, you never let all of your cats out of the bag. You let enough out to let them have confidence in knowing that you know, but not enough knowledge to duplicate waht you do.

INteresting thought, but if I was only making $20 an hour, I would go get a regular job. You are right though. There is too much negativity and too many people that feel that they need to ask questions and then castigate everyone that does not join their proper choir. From what I have seen, everyone on here has something to contribute. It might not be what they think that they have to contribute, but it is something that everyone can learn from.

Cash is good.

It will work next year if you just add 1 to the 1758/1757 number. Classic formula.

That is funny, I had terrible luck with Rapid Reels and great luck with Cox reels. You just cannot buy the bottom line cox reel and you need to specify what you are using them for, because they will sell you a different swivel. I prefer Cox.

The problem is the volume of oil they are selling is what is driving their record profits. That is why it is so insane. Incidentally, if you own any kind of 401k with a mutual fund, you are probably profiting off the increase in fuel prices.

Chris, do you know what percentage profits the oil companies make on their rip off??? Try 6 cents a gallon, not 6% but 6 cents. A 1.5% profit margin is closer than I would like to cut it in any business.