plainpainter

I've never seen an oil based product freeze in my life.

Here is an article talking about the unemployment report. Economy loses 85K jobs, unemployment rate steady - Yahoo! News Employers basically got rid of 85,000 jobs in December but November job losses of 11,000 got revised to actually 4,000 jobs being added, first time since the recession started in '07 that the country actually had a net positive gain in jobs. So I guess some industries are still shedding jobs and other industries are beginning to ramp up. 2010 doesn't look like it's going to be an easy year - if things do really improve and the news agencies get really positive, it won't be by the summer imo. So what are you guys doing to hedge your 'bets' for this year? I am adding another service to my company unrelated to pressure washing. As well I am increasing advertizing like 400% - and another website.

The question this thread brings up to me, is why do the supporters of percarbs over bleach always use that 'unnatural whitening' caused by bleach to support their rationale of percarbs over bleach - and then in the same sentence talk about 'neutralizing'? If percarbs is the better choice to clean wood with - why neutralize? The whole reason to use percarbs is to get that natural wood look - which you automatically alter by applying an acid.

Has anyone seen the Ashley Madison commercial on ABC about this guy waking up from an affair he regrets and gets down the stairway and sees the marriage photo, and the woman is his wife. And then the motto pops up, life is short have an affair. I couldn't believe my eyes! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen on network television!

Not to mention, William, not everyone shares the business knack. Most folks that invest in themselves to go to college to acquire a skillset that big business needs and then get tossed from their sales job, marketing, engineering job after 10 years of employment working hard for their companies are like fish out of the water when they are laid off. If the only thing folks did was wash houses or mow lawns or clean carpets for a living - then we would be a sad sad country. Guys who dedicate themselves to a company working 50-60 workweeks have no capability to fallback on anything - only very few individuals can. Sure I could have gotten a job at Starbucks or something - but I worked hard at my studies - I contributed my intelligentsia to engineering companies - that unemployment was well deserved every bit as my hourly paycheck was deserved, I paid for it, capitalism exists for the very reason I supported it. Without folks like me - who is going to network an array of computers together for a workforce - who is going to engineer a signal processing model to make navigation in cars safer.

Are you saying you won't take Social Security when you are 65?

That is just low, William. When you work at a company you pay for your unemployment - it is your insurance against layoffs. I proudly took 39 weeks of unemployment back in '02 after I got laid off. Larry don't be a dumba$$ and listen to guys like William. As well I am sure your wife would utter the phrase 'get lost' if someone even uttered to her it was shameful to take unemployment. Unemployment insurance is like health insurance - we all pay into the system and if god forbid we need it, it's there for us. William I am sure most people would rather work than collect unemployment, that's just insulting to folks who have worked hard for their little stamp in this world - and get tossed due to volatile economy. People aren't the like the rinds of oranges that you can discard into the dust bin when ever you feel like it.

Republicans seem to always want to get rid of unemployment benefits - at least the ones I always listen to.

That sucks, Larry, hopefully your wife enrolled into unemployment as soon as she got pink slipped? Imagine if Republicans were in total control - there would be no unemployment benefits.

Why would this guy be willing to buy a pressuretek machine for $3500+ and not willing to hire a professional to wash his home? I kind of think with some homeowners - the reasons for not hiring a professional go way beyond saving money and more to do with resentment of putting money into someone else's pocket - even though if they look at the whole picture, it's cheaper to hire a professional than the lifecycle of owning their own machine and maintaining it and the amount of time doing it themselves.

Biggest waste of money you'll ever spend - reading your description of the competition, you'll end up having to reduce your price dramatically just to procure work - you will not be a happy camper.

Man - that is so sad, I wish they had distributed gallons and gallons of jugs of whole milk that day for all the rescue crews who had to breath that crap. There is a good possibility it could have prevented this.

Here is a link to the herald Bay State jobless rate falls to 8.9% - BostonHerald.com Unemployment was at 9.3% in september in Massachusetts in october it dropped for the first time since June '07 to 8.9%. I feel as if the 'crest' has come and gone, the economy is on a slow road to recovery and we've seen the worst. Hopefully my opinions will soon be reinforced by positive data come 'black' friday - if indeed folks will be purchasing again. Although I have been able to maintain - it's tough watching friends who are use to running more traditional businesses watching them hardly able to make ends meat.

2010 is definitely going to be a much better year - and I am no pollyanna. It won't be a banner year for our economy - but at this point in time I think as contractors we're much more sensitive to improving business conditions than we are to absolute best economic conditions.

This guy is a broken record, he goes on and on and on and on....

A veritable walk down memory lane, posts since '05 and it's going to be '10 next year - damn how time flies. Seems that the longer I am in this business - the less and less interested I am in the technical/hardware aspect of things. Heck seems like my 20hp 5.5gpm pressure-pro machine is small potatoes compared to what everyone else is using these days, but compared to what folks were posting in those '04 and '05 posts - that would have been a big machine. Anyways - never felt like spending the money for an x-jet, even though it may have some application sometimes, like an easy stain strip - though far and few now a days. The Downstreamer has been fine for my house washing needs.

Read 'em and weep suckers....ha ha ha ha.....I am so well into my 1,000th idea how I am going to use this to promote my business!

Wow - florida has it really bad!

November unemployment figures are in for November for Massachusetts, we've gone from 9.3% unemployment in September to 8.9% in October - now we are down to 8.8% only a 0.10% downtick - but any downtick is a good thing. I'll take 0.10% per month any day of the week, that's 1.2% improvement per year - That's a real significant downtrend, maybe not fast enough for most, but I'll take it! Here is the report... Workforce Development

I'd make a good bobble-head, I had a friend who use to call me bowling ball head - LOL

The only thing this thread is missing is a picture of Larry in a bathtub blowing soap bubbles and holding his rubber ducky. LOL!

Well you know something - they made a reality show out of Orange County Bike Shop - I bet Ron's place is probably pretty hilarious. How about the ***** unite with *** to make an internet TV show of Ron's shop - we could follow him around yelling at people all day long.

Are there any 'native' chicks on this island?

Here is something I have done for homeowners in the past - dig a hole underneath that deck, a drain basin so to speak, strategically placed where most water will drain into. If you have to cover up the rest of the area with that fish pond membrane material so all the water that gets underneath there gets funnelled into the drain basin. This basin will be filled with crushed stone and at the bottom run a pvc pipe that runs out to the backyard. You'll have to dig a trench the whole way as it will be about 2-3 feet underground and hopefully you have a nice slope where this thing will eventually re-emerge and let the water drain out. Or you could bury a drain basket into the ground - lots more digging - where this could drain into. It's a lot of work - but it will work great, and any remaining moisture will easily breathe out the gaps between the boards.

Cretowood....end of story, nothing lasts forever anyways....