Landline Discussion

My husband and I have been discussing this whole landline issue for the last couple of days.  He has done some research looking for different options.  It seems that the services available to us either take something away we really want/need or are more expensive.  Or they are not available at all to us as of yet.

Our conclusion?  We're going to stick it out for a little bit with what we have.  

You see our small city is starting to really grow.  All kinds of new things are going on: a new town center is being built with shops, offices, medical facilities, a movie theatre, townhouses, etc.; new developments (business and home) will be happening over the next 20 years out on U.S. 1 (though we won't wait 20 years to change phone service); new roads are being built.  

All this growth means, hopefully, better services and more competition.  We'll be holding out with the hope that the infrastructure will improve drastically over the next couple of years along with the prices/services available.  

In the meantime, we'll keep an eye out on anything interesting that can replace our landline (re: extra unnecessary expense), while still providing us with the internet services we require.  And we'll even look into replacing our paid security system with a homemade system to cut those costs--though that really is an entire other issue all together.  Maybe I'll touch on that issue later along with the costs associated with setting it up (*makes note to self*).

Paperless Office

Danny over at Daily Danny mentions how he has a paperless office.  I'm jealous!  I have so much paper that it's ridiculous!  I know I need to do better, but sometimes it's hard. 

Every week I print out pages and pages of lectures from my college classes.  While I also have them saved on my computer, it's hard for me to read them or refer back to them when I need them most--away from my computer.  I am thinking about "recycling" the papers by giving them to the boys to draw on or cut them into pieces for scrap paper.  But I know the best thing to do is find a way to NOT print them all out unless absolutely necessary.  Not only would we save money on printer paper, but ink, too.

The other papers I have a lot of are "important" papers.  Some actual and I'm sure there are some that are imagined important.  Danny talks about how he put them on CD.  And I'm thinking that's a great idea.  The only problem is that I'm still stuck about actually getting rid of some of the really important papers like tax returns.  I guess it's just some sort of stigma on my part that has been pounded into me--"KEEP YOUR TAX RETURNS!"  So when was the last time I needed them in an emergency?  That's right!  Never!  *sigh*  Maybe I can at least start with the less important papers and work my way up to the more important ones.

I really like his idea of returning junk mail to the sender.  Ha-ha!  I used to take everything and put it into their prepaid envelopes and send them back, but it took too much time.  It seems he just puts "Return to Sender" and throws it back into the mailbox.  Much easier and less time consuming!  Maybe eventually they'll get the hint!

Then there are the interesting things I've cut out of magazines over the years.  Such good ideas or articles I just cannot bear to give up.  All wasting space and cluttering my office with more paper!  It looks like I'll need to spend some time scanning all these to CD.

So it seems that I have another project to complete!  But this one will really clear up my paper clutter!  I might as well add scanning all my photos, too!  

Will It Really Work?

Everyone is trying to figure out how to fix the gas price situation--produce more oil, create new rules for speculators--but will it really fix the overall situation?

Sure we'll see lower gas prices for a while.  Until we start running out of oil.  It just seems like the normal cycle.  Prices become high...people complain and have a hard time...we start talking about what we can do to save gas and money by switching to alternatives.  

Then prices go back down and while some people are still talking about alternatives, others have forgotten because gas is cheap again or we've adjusted to the higher price change.

I'm not saying that we need to make drastic changes in how we live, drive, heat our homes, et cetera--because we sure don't--but we do need to at least think about how to make changes in the long term to make it better.  No matter what the gas prices are like.  Who wants to sit around wishing we thought of better gas alternatives once the oil is gone?

Until then I'll definitely be happy with lower gas prices when and if they come.  I'll still be using it.  My husband will still be driving his gas guzzling truck 114 miles every day.  But we may think about other options for the future when it comes time for new vehicles.  I can only hope they have better ones at that time.