Do you still shop online even during ‘off season’ periods?
I’m sure everyone knows the peak retail shopping seasons, at least in America, generally run concurrent with holidays — most especially just after Thanksgiving in November (the legendary Black Friday frenzy every year comes to mind) and just before and after Christmas.
What about the rest of the year? Do you do much shopping, especially online shopping, during “off season” shopping periods?
As I’ve mentioned here before, I rely on commissions earned from various online merchant partners which I link to. That provides a significant slice of our monthly income, so I’m always happy to find people shopping online via links to my merchant partners ANY time of the year.
Two very well-known and trusted online shopping sites are Amazon.com and the ever popular eBay. I happen to be an affiliate partner for both sites. The good news is, both sites have a steady flow of browsers and shoppers pretty much year around. The bad news is, I still haven’t managed to drive steady, year around traffic to either site. But I’m working at it.
And part of that work is asking folks who visit my sites to tell me what sort of shopping they do and when so I can try to provide useful web links here and on my other sites for their (YOUR) online shopping convenience.
Family Christmas gift car really paying off for us
The month before Christmas, my wife and I “indulged” a little in a family present — we bought a new-to-us car. It’s not really new by any means — a 2005 Toyota Camry LX — but it solved some real transportation problems for us, and with the recent spat of winter weather it’s really paying off.
You need to understand that we replaced an old 1995 Ford Taurus that was literally taking its dying gasp. That was one of the worst cars we’ve ever owned, and the transmission we had replaced three weeks after buying it in 2006 was ready to fail and drop out somewhere on the street. That’s how bad it was.
Fortunately, I earned a bit more money than I anticipated, we did a lot of research and found this little jewel, just in the nick of time. We decided how much of a payment we could handle, we found the best used car dealership in the world, we even got auto insurance quotes that fit into our budget, and made the deal.
(Shameless plug: If you’re ever car shopping in Springfield, Missouri, go see our friendly dealership, Jamie Hathcock Auto Group, and you’ll be glad you did. They’re honest, good folks with good cars. But if they have an old ’95 Ford Contour on the lot they took in trade — RUN!! Just kidding.)
When the roads were snow packed and icy a couple of weeks ago, worse than they had been around here in about 8-10 years, our trusty little Camry (we call him “Winky”) kept us safe, warm, and mobile.
That’s one Christmas gift we gave ourselves that seems to be really paying off. Had to share about it!
Learning rules in nation filled with lawyers
My family and I have rarely needed to use a lawyer. My wife and I went to a lawyer who worked for the company where we worked when we created our wills. There was one occasion, probably 10-15 years ago, when we had to help a family friend find a lawyer. I was thinking about that recently in connection with some other writing, and I recalled the biggest surprise I got at the time regarding finding a lawyer out of state.
Not all lawyers are automatically qualified to work in all states. I suppose that makes sense, but I don’t know.
For example, let’s say you need a lawyer regarding a case in Oklahoma, but you live in Texas. I don’t know for sure, but I think you’d need to check to make sure your Texas lawyer was approved, permitted, allowed, or whatever, to practice in Oklahoma before you hire him/her. I’m guessing there’s professional courtesy among adjacent states — but that’s just a guess.
Sure, if you have Oklahoma City lawyers at your disposal and you’re looking for legal representation in Tulsa, you probably have no issue. But if you live in Oklahoma City and have a lawyer there you use regularly — you need to make certain he/she would be allowed to work for you if you find yourself facing legal needs in Seattle!
All this came home to us when we tried to help our family member find an attorney on the Internet. His legal need was in Colorado, he lived in Missouri, and we looked for a Missouri lawyer near him to help. The person we located was not licensed to practice in Colorado, but fortunately he had professional contacts with a firm in Colorado that was able to help.
Sort of amazing to me. We have a nation overflowing with lawyers — and there’s no official licensing or professional recognition among all the states. Go figure!
‘Real Subliminal’ products
