Free at last, Free at last

Well, it's been 6 months+ since my last blog.  So much has happened since then.  When I first decided to revamp my book, "House Hunting the Smart Way", find it at smartwayservices.com I figured probably two weeks.  Then as I found more positive changes to make, I realized it would be around six weeks.  It is now going on 7 months and I'm "almost done".  All that is left now is to contact the 100+ real estate agencies that I "borrowed" pictures of listing from and invite them to share links.  Since I'm presently out of town (again), I'll wait until Monday or Tuesday to start that process.

As I said, a lot has happened, since my last blog in January.  With much sadness, I finally turned in my resignation to Home Depot.  Unquestionably, my time with Home Depot, was one of the highlites of my working career.  I started out servicing all the stores in Montana, Coeur d'Alene and Spokane.  Then I managed to cut it down to 3 days in the Kalispell store and 2 days a week at the Missoula store.  Finally, after 4 years of driving Hy 93, I decided the other drivers out there had their chance to kill me, so became full time with the Kalispell store.  Made lots of friends everywhere I went, and miss them all terribly.

Getting used to not working (I started working when I was 12) has not been easy, but I have found (or should I say Sherry has found) much to keep me busy.  A membership at the Wave (which I attend at least 5 days a week) helps me to get back into shape.  Still a long ways to go, but I've come a long ways as well.  One of the classes I take, lead by David Calebretta is Tai Chi. I highly recommend this to anyone.  David presents of form of it adapted and sponsered by the Arthritis Foundation..  Lots of moves to remember, but ever so relaxing.

Now another big change...Sher officially retired as of last Monday.  She, like myself, has worked most of her life, so this is a great change for the both of us.  We celebrated by taking, what was going to be a four day trip, but now has extended to 6 days (so far).  We tried something we've never done before, we rented a townhouse in Coeur d'Alene for 4 days.  Beautiful, beautiful place.  The owner, Vonda, has thought of everything possible to make your stay as comfortable and pleasing as possible.  If you are interested, contact me and I'll give you the info on it.  Located within walking distance to a beautiful beach on Lake Coeur d'Alene, another direction takes us to a well maintained park, and yet another takes us to downtown, where, particularily the night life on the steets would rival the same in Honolulu.  Very friendly people. This particular townhouse will sleep 4, so the cost would be less than $50.00 per person per night.  Try finding a motel for that, particularly in Coeur d'Alene.  In case you are wondering, there is nothing in it for me, other than sharing a great experience with my friends, in these recommendations.

As I write this, we decided to spend a couple of nights in Missoula at our favorite Motel, the "C'mon Inn",  If you've never been here, don't let the cheezy name fool you.  It's a bit pricey, so we only come here maybe twice a year, but if you plan far enough ahead to be guaranteed a room that faces the Courtside, which consists of a large swimming pool, various hot tubs and even a waterfall, you'll not be disappointed.

Driving from Coeur d'Alene to Missoula is normally a piece of cake.  And today was no exception except for the last 50 miles.  We drove through 4 storms that were right out of the Wizard of Oz.  I'm not sure, but I think I saw one of my old school teaches flying by while pedaling a bicycle.  The winds and the rain, each in only (thank God) about a two mile area were so hard, it was difficult to see and keep Sherry's little Hundai from joining the school teacher.  Then we would come out of it and the sun would be shining and just white, fluffy clouds.  A few miles later, we would see this grey wall up ahead, and here we would go again.

Aw, it's things like that that make life interesting.

Well, its been a long day and I''m tired.  So, love ya all my friends.  More in hopefully less that 6 months.

I believe some of the people in my head are here illegally.

I decided, due to all the changes with the economy, to pull my book "House Hunting the
Smart Way" off the market and bring it up to speed. I figured, oh, a couple of weeks. No big deal. That was a little over four months ago.
Granted, part of the problem is cause my eyes go out of focus for a while, every couple of hours or so. I tried to update the Moses thing by parting the cement floor at work with my head from six feet up. But the real reason is trying to get a working grasp on what's going on with the economy.
It's damn difficult to explain to folks how they still can get financing for a home without too much difficulty and still convince them that they are able to make demands that will save them thousands of bucks as they pay the thing off.
Even more difficult is explaining to folks how to live within a budget when our leaders have credit cards that have no limit.
But I also came to realize that, even with the funny, little stories I included, the over all book was, well, ahhh...BORING.
So, what to do? Well, take a click on this link http://smartwayservices.com and I hope you will get a bit of a kick out of it. In particular, get past the sales pages and look for the link that gives you the first chapter free (about half way down the page).

Now here's another FREE OFFER. The testimonials that I have listed on the sales page are getting pretty old (2007). For the next 10 folks that email me at: certifiedwarrantyservices@yahoo.com I will give you the url to paste in your address bar at the top of your search engine. This get you a free copy of House Hunting the Smart Way as an ebook. I will ask that you PROMISE me that you will actually read the thing and send me your feedback and any questions or suggestions. Also I will give you a code number and by sending that code number (specifically assigned to you) back to me, that will be your permission for me to use your FIRST NAME ONLY and your town in new testionials. Now I'm going to be totally honest and up front. As much as I want and will respect your candid comments, I will only (duh) publish the positive ones. Let's face it, what fool would try to sell a book ...well, you get the idea. But I will take all your comments to heart (unless they are so bad I have a heart...attack).

Thanks, and will back in a few days. My company is sending me out of town to see another specialist who is going to try to unscramble the inside of my head. Love ya all. Gary