Margret Sloan

When I was a girl, my father would drive to the service station and an attendant would come out to the pump, fill up the car for you, wash the windshield and offer to check the oil for you while the gas was flowing into the car. If your tires needed air, he would refill the tires. All of these services were free with the price of the gas. If you needed the oil changed, a flat tire fixed, or a new headlight, the mechanic in the service bay would take care of it for you and not charge much for the little bit of time it took to put in the new parts as long as you bought the parts from the station.

Nowadays you do all of that yourself. Which is fine if you are handy with tools and have someplace like a covered and lit garage to work on your car. The rest of us have to resort to our own devices. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t afford to take my car to Firestone every time a little happens to my car when they are going to charge $100 for every little maintenance job. Last week I took in the car and asked for an oil change and a new air filter. The bill was $100. That’s absurd - I was expected to pay $35, tops.

I’ll have to find someplace else to take care of these routine maintenance issues for me, because I can’t afford the excessive Firestone charges.

A friend of mine is a convenience store manager, on the morning shift. I see her once a week or so, and I try to make a point to buy a few things from inside the store in addition to buying my gas there, as she gets bonuses based on the sales from sodas, candy bars, potato chips, and the other things they sell inside.

I was distressed to find that someone robbed her store last week. Thank goodness she was not working that night and the person running the store was not hurt, but it is disconcerting to think they my friend is truly in danger of being robbed or shot at any time. The thieves took a van and rammed the front doors with the van, then hauled the ATM machine and cash register into the back of the van and drove off.

This morning they are traffic bollards across the front of the store to prevent anyone from ramming the front doors again. Bollards are the tall round posts that re installed in the pavement and spaced a few feet apart to restrict traffic.

It’s a shame we have to resort to obvious crime deterrents like bollards in front of your place of business, even in the nicer neighborhoods. When I mentioned this to my boss, he thought getting bollards would be a good idea for our own building. With a little surfing we were able to find a website that provides all kinds of bollards - I never knew there were so many different types and uses - and we found exactly what we want to order. We will need movable bollard because of our landlord and the lease restrictions. That’s no problem, the same website carried movable and temporary bollards, too.

We used the website www.trafficguard.net because their site has color photos of the different types of bollards and clear, easy to read and understand descriptions of their products. You don’t have to be in the construction business to figure out which ones will meet your needs, and if you have any questions you can call their tool free number and talk to a customer service representative before placing your order.

The Forbes website has a special interest article called, “Female Drivers’ 10 Favorite Vehicles” with an article about how General Motors vehicle line director Mary Sipes incorporates a woman’s perspective into their design process. Auto experts say that women want different things from a car than men, and that safety, comfort, practicality and value are women’s top priorities.

10. Chrysler Pacifica
9. Hyundai Tiburon
8. Mazda CX-7
7. Honda Pilot
6. BMW Z4
5. Nissan Versa
4. Toyota Yaris
3. Hyundai Elantra
2. Kia Spectra
1. Honda Fit

The owners of a Honda Fit are 80.46% female. How’s that for dominating a market?

Several years ago I was heavily involved with a state-wide nonprofit group. Part of the reason was that I cared about and had been personally affected by that particular medical condition, but also because I do like to contribute to charities and I felt that I had some talents that they could use. But after 5 years, the makeup of the board and the leadership changed quite a bit, and I got discouraged with the bickering and sometimes heated arguments that precluded every single decision, so I took a break.

I still hear from quite a few of the people involved with that organization, and last night received a call from the new Executive Director asking for my input on some of the issues with pharmaceutical companies. Well, I always have an opinion and I’m using quite willing to share my thoughts on any issue.

He asked if I would be willing to participate in a pharmaceutical marketing research group that was being formed. I asked him for more details and agreed to think it over. I know that research groups play a big part in the marketing strategies for drug therapies, and that the outcome might well affect thousands of people and their health. So it is something I don’t take lightly.

The research company, Decision Resources, is well know in the medical industry. They research and prepare in depth reports and many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes 2, multiple myeloma and many more. My family has been touched by all of those, so I want to read through their website and see what I can learn about their studies before making a decision.

Is there someone in your life like my step daughter? When she calls or stops by, the first thought that crosses my mind is, “What does she want now?” or “I wonder how much this little visit is going to end up costing us?”

The girl cannot handle money. We’ve tried everything to give her a hand and help her, but she messes it up and doesn’t even appreciate the help we provide. She just sees her Dad as a walking ATM machine and I’m about to put an end to the endless cash flow from our pockets to hers.

I found a website that gives loans to people with bad credit, called Personal Loans Pro and next time she asks for money we’ll show her the website to apply for a personal loan instead of just doling out our cash. They specialize in Bad Credit Personal Loan and she can start managing her finances in a mature way and learn to stand on her own two feet.