Margret Sloan

We want to introduce our grandson to camping and have been waiting for the right time to take off a couple days from work. Now that we have everything covered at work, we are waiting for the right weather. Looks like we have a good chance of good weather this coming weekend. I don’t want to be sleeping in a tent during a thunderstorm, especially if that’s his first night camping.

We have a great tent, sleeping bags, cooler and plenty of fishing gear. Yesterday we stopped by Wal-Mart to see if we needed anything else to pick up and found a few things. I bought a couple flashlights and a can of bug spray. We’ll wait to buy the groceries until we get closer to the weekend and know for sure that we’re going.

So cross your fingers for us that we have a good weekend!

Gas prices have kept going up and are over $4.00 a gallon now in the Franklin gas stations. Closer to my house it hovers around $3.89 per gallon. This is a huge increase over last year’s prices of around $2.39 - I remember freaking out that it was over $2.50 in San Francisco. Now I hear that is around $4.50 after just one year since I was last out there.

My sister was sweet enough to suggest that we get a cash back or gas rebate type of credit cards to help save a few extra cents off each gallon of gas that we buy. I hadn’t really thought of that and decided to look into it. I used the credit cards club website to read up on the gas rebate programs and find a good card to apply for online. Their top four card recommendations for gas rewards programs are all types of Discover Cards. The one that caught my eye says that you get a 5% rebate on all gasoline and auto maintenance purchases. If you paid for an oil change lately you will know that the cost of an oil change has gone up about the same rate as the cost of gasoline these past several months. So you save on oil changes and other auto related things beside just gas, and 5% is a nice little sum to put back into your wallet at the end of the day.

Is it just me or does some “expert” come out every dang summer and announce that flip flops are bad for your feet? Personally, I’m sick of “experts” making broad generalizations on things in my daily life and then not being held accountable for their proclamations when proven wrong.

Like the “experts” who every year predict that this coming year will have lots of terrible hurricanes. Well, duh. Every year does have the chance that there will be terrible hurricanes, and if a hurricane happens to rip through your own neighborhood then you most likely will be calling that hurricane terrible and a few other choice names. But the fact is that not every year has terrible hurricanes, some years are worse than others.

I like flip flops. I have been wearing them since a little kid and they are my footwear of choice during the hot summer months and certainly better than going barefoot. There is not much difference between a pair of cheap flip flops and expensive designer thongs sandals other than the “design” and the price tag. I really don’t see how flip flops can be bad for my feet when I’ve been wearing them every summer for over 50 years.

Had lunch with Rhonda today and hashed out her plans for the house in California that she just inherited. Originally she was going to fix it up a little - spit and polish - and then sell it. It’s a great house on a marvelous lot outside of San Francisco in this west coast picture perfect town called Pacifica. But with the housing market in the tank she probably won’t get much for it.

Being on the coast, the house has suffered a lot of weather damage and actually needs a lot more work than just spit and polish. She met with a contractor while she was out there settling the estate and he went through the house to give her a detailed estimate for repairs.

The contractor works for American Home Craft Inc and seemed to be very knowledgeable and thorough. The most pressing repair is to actually replace all the windows, especially the ones on the western exposure. Since I just went through the same ordeal with my house, I was able to give her a few pointers about replacement windows.

We checked the references for American Home Craft Inc and they have an outstanding reputation in California. They have a nice web site, too, with good information on their services and the products they recommend. When they replace windows thay have a special window just for coastal homes, called Simonton StormBreaker Plus® windows, which are energy efficient and impact resistant. All their windows come with a lifetime glass breakage warranty, so that really boosts her comfort level with that brand.

Rhonda is going out to Pacifica again next month to get some of the work started. I have a funny feeling that she is going to like it out there so much that she decides to move there permanently, or at least for a few years until the housing market improves and she can get a good price on the property.

I forgot to congratulate the Detroit Red Wings on winning the Stanley Cup last week.

I was really cheering for the Pittsburgh Penguins to win, but the Red Wings won the 6th game in the series that is best of 7, so that clinched the title for them.

The Penguins had a Cinderella season with the hottest new star, Sidney Crosby, on their team. This kid is a remarkable talent and a thrill to watch him play. He makes it all look so natural and so easy!

The Red Wings are the team that played against my favorite team, the Predators, and knocked them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so I guess if we had to lose to somebody it was good that we lost to the team that won the whole shabang. So, congrats to the Red Wings!