“The RoseBouquet”

Yes, I got my miracle last week with my car. It is repaired and it only cost me for the parts, ($150.60) These fine Christian men, Barry and Joe, donated two full, long evenings of their time to take the big parts apart and put the new parts in. Praise God!

I must beg for another extension though on the photo story of my ceramic tiles in my basement. I got the last patch buffed and ready for t he waterproof silicone, only to discover that the bottle of that which I thought I had, apparently I don’t. Instead In found another patch under the stairs that needed some tile pieces, so I laid those, and got a start on some general clean up. Carried out two garbage bags of discards.

There’s still a long way to go with my organizational cleanup but mood is now upon me! I am gungho to get at sorting and pulling out what needs to go to the back alley bin and what needs to be sold or given away.

I have just one Saturday before I am committed to being away at some other weekend events, so I sure hope the “up-n’-at-it” mood will not dissipate in the meantime.

Did you have a holiday yesterday? I understand in the USA, it was Presidents’ Day yesterday. Some provinces in Canada here have declared the third Monday of February as Family Day.

So how did I celebrate it? Well, I thought ahead. I had planned to spend the holiday in the office cleaning up a lot of odds and ends, particularly older computers that were not working out. I’d promised a working one for my cousin Gary. I resolved to get that done on Monday at the very least. So I called my brother Tom, my only immediate family member in this city or province, and asked if he’d like to celebrate with a home-cooked meal. Naturally, he was in favour of that. So I made deer steak and peroggies supper on Sunday afternoon, and took it over to his place at 5 pm for supper.

Then yesterday, with a clear conscience, I spent the day at the office, and had Gary come to pick out and take home the computer he preferred. Then I potted some plant slips, and carried out the frames (carcasses) of 3 other computers that I later loaded in the car, plus a monitor and some other odds and ends. I didn’t get all the house-cleaning done I’d like to, but that’s going to be my Wednesday morning agenda now.

This morning I pulled up at the side door at SarCan, which accepts electronics for recycling, and unloaded the car full of stuff in mere minutes with their help.

If anyone else drops off a used computer, it has to be at least in working order. I don’t want to give so many hours to this non-profitable activity any more.

(Sigh!) It does seem odd to be doing ordinary mundane things like cleaning up, when in other parts of the world life is very scary and unpredictable. One country after another is flaring up with political unrest and while some seem to win their freedom, others are shot down by the very leaders that ought to be concerned for their welfare.

Have you noticed too, how many more earthquakes and ‘natural’ disasters have happened in just the last couple of years? And they are more severe than ever before too.

I can see how the hearts of many nearly stand still for sheer fear. However, as a Christian, though I ache for all those who are suffering such tragedies, I do not fear the future. Instead I take courage from Jesus’ promise that when we see earthquakes increase, and more and more wars and rumors of wars, then we should look up expectantly, for our redemption is near!

Furthermore, I am of that camp, which understands the Bible to say that just as Noah and his family were lifted up above the world flood, so the Church of true believers will be raptured up, and we will be unscathed by the awful events coming in the tribulation. Then, when Jesus returns with both feet on the Mount of Olives, we will come with Him as his bride and consort, to reign with Him. Ah, and then the world will see 1000 years of peace. No war or quarrel or disagreement of any kind, for everyone, whether they do it willingly or not, is going to bow down to Jesus, and obey Him completely.

Normally, I try to avoid partisan comments as I don’t want to divide my friends and readers, but it just seemed that this morning I ought to state where I stand.

Business-wise I can report that last week I became convicted in a time of prayer about promoting a business venture that had so much New Age content that I was embarrassed to encourage friends to join it. Even though it has great potential for making money, I decided that since I teach others to run their businesses on ethical and moral standards, then I need to set an example, and bow out of this one. If I don’t think ULC is safe for my friends to join because of the impact it might have on their spiritual lives, then why should I try to draw in strangers?

Though yesterday was a holiday I did have mail when I got home. Including a check from an affiliate program. Not terribly big, but it reminded me to count up how many affiliate programs I could be earning from if I worked my sites right, and the count comes to 14! So I feel affirmed that it pays to stick with doing business in ethical ways, and if the Holy Spirit prompts me and says, “This is not a good one,” then I need to ditch it.

I think I finally have it clear in my mind and down into my bones, that the way to get steady, passive income is to spend the long time required to set up good affiliate sites that gently pre-sell visitors to accept your recommendation of your reliable affiliate products. Once that ‘oil well’ is pumping nicely, you don’t have to pay it much more attention. Just some maintenance work, while you get other wells pumping steadily.

Now to do that!

My apologies, but I looked at the photos I’ve taken of my floor so far, even with the grouting done, and I decided that I’d like to wait until I’ve done the buffing and tidied up in the basement. I could always do a before, during and after photo story, but the present state is not the best I can do yet. That said, I am rejoicing that I got the grouting done on Saturday. A major milestone!

Car Troubles! Last Wednesday morning I was frustrated at the sticky driver’s door again, and the smell of anti-freeze. But I knew I couldn’t open the cap under the hood to add more, so I decided to drop by at the service station where I usually go when in need. The mechanic was willing to add my anti-freeze from my jug, but he quickly spied a leak of it in the “cracked head.” We went inside and the desk man looked it up and said it would cost $1100 and they couldn’t fit me until this week. Oh?!

I went on to the office and reported this “prayer request” at the staff prayer meeting that morning. As in past crises, I just committed it to the Lord, for I knew I didn’t have that kind of money to spare. At least not that much!

The next day I was alternating fever and chills and feeling tremendously weak so I stayed home and slept fitfully. But I forgot to let the people at the office know. About 1 pm. Penny came over from next door to see if I were lying on the floor, or whatever. I wasn’t in pain, but my muscles were all like ghee. (Fortunately it was all over by the next morning).

Later, about 4 pm Joe was at the door, asking for my car keys. He and their friend Barry wanted to look at my car. A while later they were both at the door with the keys and said that they could take the motor and transmission apart and fix it for me, and I would just have to pay for the parts, but they had to wait until they both had time, which would be this week Wed. evening and all day Thursday.

Wow! Thanks! It took until a while later for this miracle to sink in. What should cost over $1100 is only going to be $100 or less.

That got me to thinking over the weekend, how I’m well practiced in exercising faith in a crisis, but how about also asking for and expecting miracles in the more minor things that I treat as if they are all up to me? I decided to exert more faith on some other issues too.

You will rcall that I said I don’t talk about the weather much, but yesterday I spied an unusual snow/ice formation and it was warm enough to pull out my camera and get a few shots of it. Someone had dug up the layers of ice on the sidewalk near their property and piled them up. You could see the different spells of fresh snow and cold and then a few milder days, and then freezing again with fresh snow. I thought you would find this interesting too, so here it is.

I would like to give a belated, but great big Bouquet of Thanks as my Valentine to you dear readers who faithfully read this RoseBouquet each week, even if I don’t hear from you that often. It’s so nice to know you are there, and willing to listen when I brim over with things from my heart and mind.

Sometimes it feels like I’m just telling you all that goes on in my life, and that this must sound rather self-centered. I do hope you find something interesting or even useful in my chatter. It might be nice to make it more interactive, but then we all have to make room for that in our already crowded lives, right?

I stand amazed at all that I manage to squeeze into my already full life. Obviously, my life is not made of glass or steel, but of something that stretches and expands. May it never go S-P-L-A-T!

Except for losing one day to sickness last week, I’ve been busy at my usual routines, and learning to add more and more quality pages to my web business sites, confident that I’m on the right track, and this work will pay off sooner or later.

Thanks again, for being my “always there” friend.

Sometimes you will see a program recommended that has the potential to make you some money, but you may hesitate and hold back for fear of - well, many unknown factors, and perhaps mainly that you do not think you are internet savvy enough, or since you have no website you can’t do it.

A website or blog is definitely a huge asset, but as I explained to one friend yesterday, there are still other methods you can use to market or “pass on” a good deal, and to gain from it financially. Here’s a few;

1. Create invitation or business cards to distribute generously - get out to meet people!
2. Create flyers (with more information) and take those door to door in your neighbourhoods.
3. Use your free accounts at social networking sites to broadcast the opportunities.
4. Use question and answer forums to ask or answer questions connected to your opportunity.
5. Pay into an advertising pool and let others do the work, while you get your share of return-on-investment.

In all the above, be sure you include your coded link so you get the credit when others sign up! Like this: http://bouquet.theCustomerAdvantage.com

Burr-rr! Our deep freeze temperatures are back, and my fingers are just warming up from being so cold they HURT! I am definitely tired of these bitterly cold days and pining for spring. The forecast is for temperatures around 0 again on Thursday, but I saw a weather map and there is a dark, foreboding COLD up north of us in the Arctic regions, and it keeps rolling down on us!

My car doors and gate padlock were frozen shut on Sunday morning… I won’t go into that saga now.

I must stop whining or I will depress myself!

Saturday was a nice mild day. It was so nice the snow was melting and water dripped from my roof. I caught nearly a 10 gallon pale full for my plants.

I also got enough narrow tiles at the ReStore (Habitat for Humanity’s left-overs store) to finish up all the gaps and patching I needed to do on my basement floor. Got that tiling all wrapped up too!

I started on the grouting of the tiles done in earlier sessions, but didn’t get finished. I even took a few pictures. (Wait until next week. I’d like to show the finished state as well as the messy work-in-progress).

This coming Saturday I hope to finish that all up, and then - on to my organization and cleanup binge for the next few months. How I hope I have the wisdom and coolness of heart to really clean up well. My place should look attractive enough so that I will feel more comfortable about inviting friends over.

Of course, then I’ll have the problem of trying to make time for all that hospitality, right?

Last week I confessed my problem with the “little foxes” - today I must confess that over the weekend I did not make a wise decision. It was purely my own fault.

I’d promised to fix up a used computer for my cousin Gary, and since his birthday is today, I thought I’d try to have it ready by Sunday and I could accept his mom’s invitation to come for lunch and set it up for him. But I had not got it ready last week here at the office. There just wasn’t enough time. So Friday I took it home by car, and what held me up from getting that grouting done was that I was installing two different operating systems on that computer over and over again.

Each time the installation went well, but when I tried to login after a reboot, it was stuck at a Grub command prompt. My goal was to try to get both Ubuntu and OpenSUSE 11.3 on that hard drive - because it was big enough, and it would give Gary a chance to try out both and decide which he liked better. Each installation try took about an hour, and once I had got past the settings stage, I could go do other things, but it was sure crowding my time. Mind, I was making notes and learning from my experiences.

When Anna called to confirm I was coming for lunch (she loves to cook), I told her that it depended on how it went with the computer. By late evening I convinced myself, that I would do just one more installation over there, and it would all work. (I know now that I just wanted so badly to have this turn out right and that I’d be done with this project for good!)

Sunday morning in my bath I had an idea that I thought would solve the problem for sure. So I hurried out to do one more installation between 7 and 8 am. Oh no! It didn’t work out. However, when Anna called again to confirm, I assured her that I’d come and it might take me an hour or two, but I’d get it working for Gary.

I should have said, “No, it’s not ready yet. Sorry, but it will have to be some other day.” I didn’t.

I enjoyed the lovely lunch and had a good time with both Anna and Gary, but after two more installation tries, it still was not working out right. By that time I was pretty sure there was a bad sector at the beginning of the drive where the bootloader has to go. I may have to replace that hard drive.

Anna and I went back to church for for the Semi-annual meeting and the pies that followed. She’d even baked an extra one so I didn’t have to bring one.

So I lost the Sunday afternoon I would have liked to spend answering personal correspondence and preparing valentines cards to send out. But I know it’s my own fault. I cannot blame anyone else.

I do know one thing deep in my heart: I must get out of fixing old computers. That’s so time-consuming.

A major part of my business is building and promoting my affiliate websites, and lately I’ve become aware of some new programs that have great potential. If you have lots of friends and know how to network, you do not even need a website to promote some of these.

One that doesn’t cost to join, and that is going to take off like ‘Google’ or ‘Facebook’ have, is The Customer Advantage. (Thanks to Barbara in Arkansas for the tip).

There are in fact, several ways to take advantages from it. When they start offering daily specials for 50-75% or more off of some product or service in your area (probably only North America at first) you will be able to get things you would normally shop for anyway, but at great savings.

2. You will get a 5% rebate on your purchases through The Customer Advantage.

3. If you invite others to sign up under you, you’ll get 5% from their purchases too!

Take a look; bouquet.theCustomerAdvantage.com

There’s more detail here; www.online-shopping-guides.com/The-Customer-Advantage.html

They say that Canadians talk about the weather more than any other topic; therefore I try to avoid talking about it if I can think of something better to say. However, after that milder spell last week, the cold air mass has moved in over our prairies again, and it is stingingly cold!

On the radio, they said this morning it was the coldest day so far this winter. (-34 in Regina, with windchill making it feel like -40C!) - And I’m thinking, “Isn’t January behind us? That’s when we have the coldest days of the year!” So I’m hoping that it will only get better from here on in.

Probably not permanently, but it is suppose to warm up by about 20 degrees today. That’s not above 0, mind you! But -18 is not nearly as bad as -29 on my weather station. By Thursday, they forecast that it will be +3C but with rain and show showers. Oh-oh! That means ice storms again. Accidents everywhere!

I don’t want to imply that we have the worst place in the world, for I heard too, that many of the States south of us are experiencing snow storms like they haven’t seen in ages.

And who is wishing they lived in Egypt right now? Maybe coping with weather issues isn’t as unsettling as living in political turmoil.

At my place this last Saturday I laid the last of my ceramic tiles in my basement. Well, except for three partial tiles and a couple of little corner pieces. The trickiest part was that I had deliberately break up some tiles and piece them in a mosaic effect where the floor slopes to the drain hole in the floor, and in a stripe where a row of full-sized tiles would not fit. This coming Saturday I plan to do the water-proof grouting and then I can say that huge project is done! Behind me!

Then I’ll move on to my organizing agenda. On Sunday afternoon a friend invited herself over, and I was terribly aware of the mess and disorganization all around us. That’s where my Saturdays will start to focus next.

Do you feel more hopeful too, now that we’re in February?

Last week my time was preempted a number of times by friends who needed help. I had to set aside my own agenda to help them. One of them paid well too. I did pretty good at it until Friday night, when something that I thought would only take me a couple of minutes when on and on and I realized that I was stealing from my bookkeeping block of time, and that was important as well.

Suddenly I lost it. I emailed the friend/client for whom I was doing this “small favour” that I quit! (I was undoing his mess).

By Sunday morning I was feeling ashamed of my outburst, and when I checked, he was contrite too, so we apologized to one another and are back on good terms again. In fact, I stayed up until 1 am on Sunday night to fix his messed up web page.

King Solomon wrote in the Bible about those “little foxes” that come to spoil our vineyards.

Well, yesterday I was setting up a couple of new email addresses in my KMail, and suddenly most of the other older ones were messed up and not able to send out. What?!! I spent hours on it, and still don’t have it all solved, so there is something else to fuss over today.

I really feel like I’m having a plague of “little foxes.” Does that ever happen to you, or am I the only one?