This is the picture I was trying to upload. I guess the interior fixed its error.
I just tried to upload an image of my Brent and me when we were in Maryland, visiting my daughter and her husband when her first baby was born. The blog says that an internal error prevented the upload. I will try later.
I am watching Modern Marvels on the History channel and one of the commercial that just played was one of Magic Johnson--an athlete that I had held in high esteem because of what I have read and heard about him. He was selling the Rent to Own program as a source of "what's best for your family" because you don't need to worry about having no credit or even bad credit. I have known families that "buy" from this company and the things they invest in are huge TVs or stereo systems that they pay on until things get (more) economically difficult these things are repossessed--leaving them nothing for their years of payments. I have a hard time seeing Johnson hyping this company using the example of his mother working two jobs and raising a family at the same time. I just don't think that she was working to afford a 60-inch screen plasma TV for her kids to watch when they got home from school.
Most of the other commercials have to do with "spending smarter." Buy a new computer at WalMart because it's cheaper there. Buy a new car that gives you a year of gas so that you spend less on fuel that first year. Change your insurance from one company to another because you pay less--but EVERYONE can't cost less--eventually it would get to the point where it was free--or the next stage, where the company paid YOU to let them provide insurance coverage. No one talks about the fact that most elementary, high school and even college students need a 2-pound, 1/2-inch thick, 36-inch screen computer to do the word processing and simple internet communicating that they really need to succeed. Keep the car you already have and save the money you'd be paying on a new car payment--or even better, take the bus, your bike, or walk. Buy less so that you have less to insure.
People spend money on strange things--I am no different. When Brent wanted a metal detector--we bought him one. When I wanted to visit my sisters in Minnesota--we bought me a plane ticket. When Nathan needed motivation to finish geometry--I bribed him with a Wii. When a movie that we want to see first comes out--we pay full price and see it in the theatre rather than waiting for it to come out in DVD.
We drive old cars. We fly coach. We have never been on a cruise or to Europe on vacation. We don't wear designer clothes or live in a big house. Our biggest splurge is in keeping the house extra cool during the summer and in having a house with a pool so that I can swim when I want. Brent also lets me buy flowers to plant in our yard when it would be cheaper to keep everything grass and just mow it every week. We spend hundreds of dollars on meds and doctors every month to keep us sane and pain free and healthy.
We all chose our own poison, I guess . . . and if I had to chose only one, mine would be Brent.
I just tried to upload an image of my Brent and me when we were in Maryland, visiting my daughter and her husband when her first baby was born. The blog says that an internal error prevented the upload. I will try later.
I am watching Modern Marvels on the History channel and one of the commercial that just played was one of Magic Johnson--an athlete that I had held in high esteem because of what I have read and heard about him. He was selling the Rent to Own program as a source of "what's best for your family" because you don't need to worry about having no credit or even bad credit. I have known families that "buy" from this company and the things they invest in are huge TVs or stereo systems that they pay on until things get (more) economically difficult these things are repossessed--leaving them nothing for their years of payments. I have a hard time seeing Johnson hyping this company using the example of his mother working two jobs and raising a family at the same time. I just don't think that she was working to afford a 60-inch screen plasma TV for her kids to watch when they got home from school.
Most of the other commercials have to do with "spending smarter." Buy a new computer at WalMart because it's cheaper there. Buy a new car that gives you a year of gas so that you spend less on fuel that first year. Change your insurance from one company to another because you pay less--but EVERYONE can't cost less--eventually it would get to the point where it was free--or the next stage, where the company paid YOU to let them provide insurance coverage. No one talks about the fact that most elementary, high school and even college students need a 2-pound, 1/2-inch thick, 36-inch screen computer to do the word processing and simple internet communicating that they really need to succeed. Keep the car you already have and save the money you'd be paying on a new car payment--or even better, take the bus, your bike, or walk. Buy less so that you have less to insure.
People spend money on strange things--I am no different. When Brent wanted a metal detector--we bought him one. When I wanted to visit my sisters in Minnesota--we bought me a plane ticket. When Nathan needed motivation to finish geometry--I bribed him with a Wii. When a movie that we want to see first comes out--we pay full price and see it in the theatre rather than waiting for it to come out in DVD.
We drive old cars. We fly coach. We have never been on a cruise or to Europe on vacation. We don't wear designer clothes or live in a big house. Our biggest splurge is in keeping the house extra cool during the summer and in having a house with a pool so that I can swim when I want. Brent also lets me buy flowers to plant in our yard when it would be cheaper to keep everything grass and just mow it every week. We spend hundreds of dollars on meds and doctors every month to keep us sane and pain free and healthy.
We all chose our own poison, I guess . . . and if I had to chose only one, mine would be Brent.
