Shopping At Sears

Last week I bought a new lawn mower. End of the season, good time to buy. Saw a sale at Sears Clearance Center. 20% off and another 10% off with their card. I knew what I wanter before I got there. 6.5 hp, large rear wheels, rear wheel drive, and rear bag.  It used to be that the grass shot out the side, then it was a bag on the back. Now they come with both.
They had a whole bunch there and I found one I liked. Had everything I wanted plus a hose connection for cleaning under it. That's something new. Good idea. I wonder if I can install one on my other mower. I have two mowers. The other one just shoots out the side. Good for my back yard. Don't need to bag, easy to push, don't need auto drive.
So the original price with tax was $ 575.00. marked down to $196. less 20%, less 10%, no tax. Total price was $160.  So I wheeled it from the store. Used it yesterday, works great.

Robins and Snow.

  

I was looking out the front window and noticed a Robin on the front lawn. He lands back here every spring and has done so for years. He is attracted by the last apples that fell last fall. It seems to be his morning snack every day. As I watched him, I noticed snow flurries again. The 6th of April and still we get snow.

Although I bought a new snow blower a couple of weeks ago, I am certainly not hoping for more snow. I can happily wait till next winter. My neighbour gave me a key to his shed so I could have his snowblower when I needed it. I have a 32" - it is extremely heavy, and it only throws the snow a few feet. Needs a new belt, and again, it is just too heavy to manoeuver.

My wife and son went over to Sears Clearance one Sat. and saw they were getting rid of all blowers. They had a whack of them. They took photos, then came back and showed me. I finally capitulated and went over for a look. By then, there was only three remaining. So I picked up a 27". What I liked most about it was the new feature. There is another switch on it. Just squeeze it and it lifts the wheels and front off the ground. I can just slide it to the next row. There was also one screw missing which is not a problem.




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Tablets Provide Better Print Reader For Older Demos

from MediaDailyNews

Newspapers and magazines may find the tablet a saving grace with older readers.
They have an easier time reading text on tablet computers than print on paper, according to a new study by German researchers -- which may speed adoption by older consumers who enjoy daily news reads, provided that consumer electronics marketers can alter habits.
Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany studied the amount of cognitive effort required to read text displayed on different media, including paper, e-readers and tablet computers. After dividing participants into two groups, one consisting of 36 subjects ages 21-34, the other of 21 subjects ages 60+, the researchers tracked eye movements and brain activity with electrodes to determine how much neural power was required to read text presented in the various formats.

The older readers displayed a lower level of brain activity when reading text on an iPad tablet, the study found, and finished each page of text three to four seconds faster, on average. The researchers attributed this result to the tablet computers’ bright, backlit screens, which enhance contrast and make it easier to distinguish text.
Younger readers showed no appreciable differences in the amount of time or mental effort required to read a page of text, regardless of format.

In November, a study published by researchers at New Jersey’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that tablets could help people with moderate vision loss read. The study tracked the reading speeds of 100 subjects with moderate central vision impairment when using iPads and Kindle tablets, versus print. Subjects reading text in 18-point font on the iPad gained at least 42 words per minute in their average reading speed compared to print, while subjects reading the same size text on a Kindle gained an average of 12 words per minute compared to their print reading speed.

Patients with the worst vision (which the study defined as 20/40 or worse in both eyes) showed the greatest improvements when reading on tablet devices instead of print text. People with the worst vision loss also said the iPad provided the most comfortable reading experience.

According to data released by Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, in August 2012 27% of American adults ages 50-64 and 13% of adults ages 65+ owned a tablet computer. Those figures were up from 15% and 7%, respectively, in January 2012, and just 4% and 2%, respectively, in November 2010.


Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/193115/tablets-provide-better-print-reader-for-older-demo.html#ixzz2KayFjLn2


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Hurricane and Walmart

 

First of all, I would like to thank Dixon Rice for inviting me to submit an article for his Blog. Wrote up some of my background and he added it to his site Wredheaded Writer on Monday. Why don't you slip over and see what he has to say? Lots of other guest bloggers.

Today, we are going to get our share of the hurricane. I don't imagine it will be anything like New Jersey. Normally it would have come straight up and hit us here in Nova Scotia. This time it took a sharp left turn and will come around to get us on the backside.

We have a lot of tall maple trees in and around my yard, so that means a lot of leaves to rake. Last Friday we had five bags of leaves and Sunday nine more. Here are some before and after pictures from Sunday. I'm hoping the high winds will blow the rest away or I will have to do it at least once more.

We used to have a Walmart here in the city, a couple of miles away. It had been a Woolco. A few years ago, they decided to close down and move to the industrial park on the way to the airport. Everyone was upset about it and my trips

                                                    there decreased considerably.

 

                                                                                   Now they have decided to return to the city. They will move into a defunct Zellers, which will be smaller than a regular Walmart. So everyone is excited about it as it will be within walking distance, which could be a bad thing.                          

 

 

FEW SMALL MARKETS

by C. Hope Clark

WHEN 100 FOLLOWERS IS BETTER THAN 1,000They call it a tribe. I'm not crazy about that word, because
fans aren't a tribe. They are good friends, in my opinion.
But anyway, let's talk numbers.

When someone says, "Follow me on..." so he can build up
followers on some social network, what does that mean?
So he has 10,000 followers. How many of those read what
he has to say? How many of those look forward to buying
his work? How many of those belong to his "tribe" because
they feel they have to because there are 9,999 other
people who do? How many just delete?

While gobs of followers sound good, we both know that
what counts is how many care enough to come hear you speak,
buy your book, or tell their friends about you.

Finding these "solid" fans evades most people, mainly
because so many up-and-coming writers are looking over the
tops of them, hunting through hordes of strangers to build
that elusive platform.

Start with the lowest common denominator. Start with who
you know. Connect with them, keep in touch with them, and
they become your best allies.

The point is that starting with people who love and trust you,
is a huge jumpstart. They not only buy your work, but they
talk you up with vigor to their connections. That's planting
seeds that spread roots everywhere!

Bottom line, don't overlook everybody you touch or who touches
you when you need a platform. You can start your garden in
well tilled soil or you can start it in new ground. Guess
which one will give you the best results?


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Money Spent

Cooler at night, cooler at day.

Made arrangements to talk to a guy about installing a heat pump. One of the nurses that comes to the house has one which is where I found out about it. I saw a compressor outside a neighbors house, so I went to have a look at it.

The guy came while I was tarring the driveway. My son continued with that while I went with him to discuss. We got the size all figured out, where to put the stuff, etc and then he told me I needed a 220v plug outside. So it was call him when I have the plug.

The nurse knew a electrician so I called the company. I was told the office staff was away on vacation so they were letting the electricians pick their own jobs. The guy didn't come for two days. When he did show up, I told him the what and where of everything and the easiest way to do it. Told me he couldn't do it that way, which made me wonder if I knew more tham him. Remember, I used to be an electronic tech. in the air force. and quite used to laying cables. On one of my jobs I was in charge of installing cables in a new hanger.

So I never heard from him for two more days. When he finally called, he said it would cost $750. plus tax which would be about $850. Not in my life. Pick their own jobs?

In the neantime, the other guy had been calling back to see if I had the plug. Told him the problem and he gave me the number of someone he just met on another job. Gave him a call.

He came right away. He would do it the next day for $200. total. He could do it the next day at nine o'clock. The next day he was here at eight forty-five. Did the job plus some extra and supplied the parts.

Now, I had been thinking about upgrading my electrical box. Circuit breakers instead of fuses. Thought I should do it while I had a hold of this guy. Talked it over, he gave me a good price and can do it in the first two weeks of Oct.

And that is enough renovations for this year. New kitchen, new bathroom, new electrical and heat pump plus some other smaller items. Last week my son asks, "Do you want to install the laminate floors in the dining and living rooms? I have five days off at Thanksgiving." My answer was we should wait till spring.


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Muggy and Hot

Muggy, muggy, muggy. That's the only way to describe the weather. It's 10 AM and I have to go for my walk in a little while.

I was writing for the last little while. "Li'l Warsaw #2" It's at Halloween, so I can have some fun with it. Bullets will still have to fly.

"Britain warns Ecuador it could enter embassy to get Assange." What the heck is going on there? Seems a bit overboard. Winning so many medals at the Olympics has made them go stupid. For any normal size country, this would be war. You can never tell how how such a thing would turn out. Chavez in Venezuels might jump right on that.

Cut my lawn yesterday. Always bag the grass in the front so it doesn't mess up the driveway. That grass was wet and heavy. Didn't have to do a walk.

Took my daughter to the eye doctor yesterday. Found a good place in the mall, lots of room. Afterwards my wife and her went shopping. She was happy about that. They didn't need me dragging around, looking bored. I sat on one of the benches and read my Kindle.



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