Valentine’s Day Gifts. . .

I hope everyone enjoyed their valentine’s day! What did you get? What did you give?
For several weeks my wife has been proclaiming she wanted a pizza cutter. So Wednesday during lunch, I ran to Wal-mart to look for one. To my surprise, they had a 2 for $3 special on pizza cutters, ice cream scoops, peelers, and kitchen scissors (why do we need a special class of scissors for the kitchen?) Anyway, I got her a V-day card and the pizza cutter and ice cream scoop. What can say, “I love you” more than providing the means for her to eat her 2 favorite food groups: pizza and ice cream!

Death is all around us. . .
The tornados that hit North Alabama were devastating to say the least. We learned, the one that hit over by Moulton was on the ground for nearly 20 miles as it closed in on Decatur. Fortunately for us, it lifted off the ground 2 blocks. . . yes; TWO BLOCKS from our house. If it had stayed on the ground a couple more minutes, we would have been in a bad place. It was an F4 that was about ½ mile wide according to the weather reports the following day. It is really scary to think about how close we came to dying. You can see the picture below of us huddled in the bathroom. Freaky Freaky Freaky. The next day, we learned a dear friend’s parents and brother were killed in Moulton by the tornado. What a horrible tragedy.

School Shootings on the rise. . .
Why is it that we are hearing about more and more school shootings these days? Something interesting about the shootings at the Illinois college campus is, it’s a gun free zone. If students would have had concealed carry permits, this creep would not have killed 6 and wounded 17. Do you own a gun? If not, you should. To protect yourself and your family and friends from these creeps. It’s been proven that anti-gun laws do not work. Those who want guns will get guns. Those who abide by the law won’t have guns. And they will get slaughtered. For goodness sake. Get a gun and take a training course on how to use it properly!

Get out of Debt. . .
We are working hard on paying off debt. While I do believe and have some faith in the US Economy ‘s long term growth potential, times are about to get tough based on everything I’m reading. T he best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to get out of debt and stock pile some cash, outside of the stock market.
You need to continue to invest in mutual funds for your retirement plans, but you also need to be saving cash in a separate money market account for emergencies which may arise during this coming 12-18 month period.

The Digital TV shift
In February 2009, broadcast stations will stop sending out analog signals (the kind your old trusty rabbit ears have been receiving for like 50 years) and convert to all digital signals. This will leave approximately 13 million “minorities and poor” people without a TV signal according to this article I read this morning. You know, this is probably the best thing that ever happened to them. The last place a poor person needs to be is in front of a TV set. They should be out working and going to school to learn something new so they won’t be a drain on society.