JohnF

Years ago my bro went to work for a quality furniture refinisher so he could learn to refinish his guitars nicely. He turned me onto refinishing old furniture while he was at it. He made me promise to steer clear of valuable pieces though. Anyway, I was amazed at how pretty some of the pieces came out when I took away the solid cover stain that used to be popular. The real grain on some of the pieces was gorgeous. We still have a set of three nesting tables in our livingroom. I get lots of comments on them. Originally they were covered by an almost black solid finish. It doesn't always work out so well though. Some of the pieces look like crap when you expose the grain but it's fun seeing what you get. I didn't stick at it as stripping the little grooves and fancy bits properly was a pain in the butt. JF

You're wise. When I got the new Calcutta last summer I asked Garry 2rs for some help with setting it up. He showed me stuff I'd never have figured out for myself. I'd have busted something for sure if I'd tried doing that myself. It's just not intuitive at all. JF

I know a lot of long time salesmen who have a copy of that hidden away somewhere. It's something of a classic as long as you read it with an open mind and keep applying the sales context. A number of companies with sales forces have been known to hand out a book called The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer. I have a few copies packed away. Look for books by Tom Hopkins. Some of the stuff is a bit dated but he nailed a lot of principles that still apply today. "How to Master the Art of Selling" BTW. Be careful about the books dealing with cold calling and telephone selling (Hopkins) as the new Do-Not-Call laws are problematic. Brian Tracy on psychology of sales. "The Psychology of Selling" Zig Ziglar was an incredibly successful life insurance salesman who wrote a bunch of stuff (books and courses) on effective sales techniques and self motivation. A tad outdated now but there are certainly pearls of wisdom throughout his stuff. Another oldtimer to watch for is Og Mandino - "The Greatest Salesman in the World" Dale Carnegie - "How to Win Friends and Influence People" "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive" - Harvey Mackay Stephen Covey - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and other books by him These are all books and authors who get frequent mention in real estate sales circles but they're appropriate for lots of different types of sales. I would have to dig into my storage unit to see what else I have. When we moved I had no room to keep my books out where I could get at them. JF

There are literally thousands of books about sales and the psychology involved. I've read a bunch of 'em. You'd be doing yourself a favour to pin it down to a particular kind of sales (real estate, cars, insurance, etc) and then look for recommendations from there. There are lots of sources for recommendations in each field. In my field alone (real estate) there are thousands and more coming out every day. JF

Congratulations, Ryan, to you and the rest of the family. Glad to hear everything's good. JF

Condensation (i.e. excess humidity in house) is always a result of inadequate ventilation regardless of where the moisture is coming from. Obviously if the source is severe pipe leaks or flooding of some kind that's going to show up quickly. As someone mentioned in today's new homes an air exchanger is almost a necessity. I wouldn't build a house without one. Barring spending the bux for installing one now you'll have to figure out how to improve the ventilation by keeping windows open a crack when possible and by running exhaust fans regularly. There's always a switch just outside the bathroom that controls the bathroom fan. That's what it's for. Some other things my new home customers have learned. 1. A lot of live house plants make a lot of humidity 2. Is the house closed up tight for long periods of time, like when everyone's at school and work, or if there are elderly folks living there who don't ever open the doors or windows. Even normal door opening through the day can be a big factor. 3. A hot tub in the basement (or elsewhere) that has water in it all the time. 4. New concrete lets off a huge amount of humidity for a long time requiring extra ventilation for the first few years. Think of how sloppy cement is when it's poured and then think about how much goes into a house (foundation, floors, grout etc). Where does all that water go when the concrete cures? 5. Aquariums 6. A lot of showers and laundry for a big family or a bunch of clean freaks. My two boys would have 2 or 3 showers a day when they were in hign school. We gave up on trying to keep real tile in the bathroom tub surrounds. Give some serious thought to how you control your home's ventilation. It's tempting to try to conserve that nice (expensively) warmed air but resist it. Not only does it retain moisture but it also retains nasty things in the air you breathe. If you can possibly afford it get an air exchanger system installed. That should address all your problems and it will also contribute a lot to the comfort level of living in the home and later, when you decide to sell, the air exchanger will be an attractive feature to buyers. JF

Got one of those last summer. Only got to use it a few times before the docs strapped me to a bed but I liked everything about it except the price of spare reels. Looking forward to trying it on other rods this summer for different applications. Only had it on the Cumara that I bought but I suspect it will feel pretty darned good on some other rods too. JF

You'll have lots of support here Ryan. Keep the faith. JF

Bleah!!!!! I tried flippin' some little soother baits that I made to my new grandson. You'd think he'd be old enuf to go after them by now (7 days) wouldn't you? I even made 'em barbless so I could throw him back when (and apparently if) he bit. His little gums are still pretty soft, and he's outside the slot anyway. It just isn't fair. You get trout, bass and warm (ish) weather. I get snow, cold and completely disinterested game. See you & Buck in the spring. JF

They're just being good sports. I think they wanna have a parade for our boys just for making the playoffs. That's very sporting. JF

So are they gonna create a special green roof tee for you Albert? I can see a sparkling rainwater pool with a grassy verge and a tree for you to nap under while you dangle a line for Roof Carp. JF

Before you get too excited about MagicJack make sure there are local numbers available. A lot of our friends and relatives ran into this in our local market. I'm not sure if they've been able to get local numbers yet. There are a number of retailers selling the MJ and I'm not sure if some might have numbers while others are out but I wouldn't think that situation would last long anywhere. JF

This is what celebrity should be about. Too often we only think of professionals as nothing more than money-making entertainment machines when what we really need are role models and real heroes. This story shows us that we can have both. In the case it's hard to say who is the role model and who is the hero. Perhaps it's a little bit of both of them all rolled into one. Good for them both for sharing their lives, trials and successes with each other and the rest of us to give a wonderful composite hero/role model. Thanks for telling the story, Ryan. JF

Matt's (the proud father) generation in our family have been pretty inventive about coining grandparent handles. Wendy's folks were renamed Granny (yeah, I know, boring) and Bumpa (that's inventive) but the prize goes to Matt and his brother for naming my Mom Gabby. That's what they got out of Gramma and boy, did it catch on. She's now only known as Gabby by half the population of our town. Even her old friends call her Gabby. She loves it. Wendy and I are just going to wait to see what the little guy comes up with for us. Anything will be good. Here's a pic of the little prince. I'll get him a better hat for fishing, and some polarized shades. I've already got a couple of rod setups ready. One's a short ultralite spinning rig and the other is a 4'6" rod with a Pfleuger Underspin trigger reel, like a hybrid baitcaster/spinning reel. I don't think he'll be ready for real baitcasting for a few years. He may actually be happier with a Spiderman rig (or whoever the superhero of the day is when he's ready) but these others will be ready for him. JF

I was afraid my wife was going to try to steal him at the hospital last night. She's floating on air right now. I don't think sending him home will be the problem for a while. It will be more about her letting him go home. JF

What a great gift. Our first grandchild, a healthy beautiful boy, arrived yesterday at 3 pm. Everybody's doing great. Dunno who he looks like. Don't think there's anyone in the family with a face like a big red whithered apple and no teeth. I was holding him last night and he made an awful variety of faces at me like he was trying to poop on me but I didn't mind. He's not very smart yet. He kept trying to get his hand to his mouth but he was all wrapped up like a "burrito" as my son described the wrapping job when the nurse showed him how. I snuck one of his little hands out in the open but he just kept trying to munch on the burritoed one. Holding him is like holding a little furnace. He'd be a handy little guy in an ice hut. I have a pic of me holding him here somewhere. Maybe I'll post it later. JF

I wonder how she'd feel if she was told she had to use the same locker room as the boys? JF

I think we sometimes forget that marriage is a partnership. It's not just about what suits us personally. The first time we were invited to go on a holiday in Mexico it was about the last thing I wanted to do, but I knew my wife really wanted it, so I sucked it up and agreed. The first few days were every bit as boring as I figured, although I discovered there a lot of topless sunbathers just down the beach. That brightened the day somewhat. Then I realized the food was excellent - another bonus. But I was still bored sitting by the pool every day. I started to wander around the pools and the beach meeting new friends, some of whom remain good friends 15 years later, folks from all over Canada and the US. This was getting better all the time. So I started looking at my other options. There were tours to be had very reasonably priced. I've always thought guided tours were kinda tacky but it turned out that there were lots of fascinating things to be seen not far from Cancun. There is a huge amount of Maya culture to be seen, from pyramids to entire cities that have been lost in the jungle for years but have only recently been unearthed. Coba is one of the newest locations to be made accessible and it's incredible. Unfortunately the pyramid at Chichen Itza can no longer be climbed but the one at Coba is open. It's about 300' high and a very steep climb. Not for the faint of heart. Then one day I participated in a swimming pool dive experience, free, just to put on the gear and paddle around the bottom of a 5' pool. Too cool. And that led to a 3 hour resort course and an easy dive in 30' of water on a gorgeous bit of reef absolutely covered in exotic fishies and a whole bunch of Southern Sting Rays. We even saw a Nurse shark in the distance. This turned into a 10 year obsession for me including diving the Yucatan cenotes at least a few days on every holiday. Cenotes are caves btw. And they're beautiful. Intimidating at first but once you learn to do it right (i.e. with extreme care) it's amazing. This one little adventure led to me meeting folks and diving with them all over the Great Lakes, but even better, the Florida Keys and up the east Florida coast. To learn to dive safely and well I made a number of trips to quarried in Pennsylvania (Dutch Springs) and Ohio (Gilboa). The Gilboa trips became more of a gathering of friends than dive training. So don't be afraid to share your holiday time with your spouse. It turned out that I had more fun in Cancun than my wife ever did just because I put a little effort into it. And she still thinks I do it for her. JF

Me too. I'm like a little kid down there. Unfortunately we've gotten out of that mode since we've been going to Cancun every January. I'm hoping that our new grandson who's due any day now will be my excuse for some more trips back to Mickey Land. I even enjoy the drive down there. Not so much the drive home. And you're right. It's smack in the middle of great bass fishing country. In fact it seems to me a member here wrote about hiring a guide and doing some fishing there a few years back. Sure, it's tacky and cheesy and expensive, but dayum - it's fun. JF

Try these. I understand - “Some folks find flyfishing too cerebral.” “Some folks just haven't got the patience for fishing.” “Some folks just can't stay focused long enough to truly enjoy fishing.” “Some folks need the instant gratification that fishing seldom gives.” Ask “What are your favourite diversions?” Then give them the raised eyebrow if they name stuff like watching tv sports and casually mention “I like to get out doors but, hey, whatever suits you best.” It doesn't hurt to let a little condescending tone sneak in.

Great point. Is it possible that these random gun kills only act as culls to in fact strengthen the species? Let them thrive for a few years and they'll starve themselves out by cutting their natural forage supply, or kill each other with the stench. JF

I looked it up when the app was first mentioned here. It was t the higher price even then. The phone etc are cheaper for some reason. I didn't rush to get it although I probably will once the warm weather is back. it looks pretty nifty. The iPad won't be going on the water though. JF

I suspect you were referring to the mullti-cylinder models cuz they were definitely cooler looking but I trail rode a 292 single for a couple of years. I usually ran with the expansion chamber cuz I loved the snarl but i had a can rigged up just in case. As I recollect the lighting was a bit of a problem but we came up with a solution although for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Wish I had pics because it looked mint. Of course it was only about 3 years old but had been raced since new. I gave it a new hood, windshield and seat. JF

Function over form. Back when I was neck deep in the sled biz the sleds were still pretty homely, and the functionality sucked too. They did get a bit prettier for a few years (decades perhaps) but the prettiest ones were always the sleds that were designed for performsnce like the Kalamazoos, the Speedways and the Thunderjets etc. Even the Blizzards were pretty. But that's just a matter of personal preference I suppose. I happened to like the noisy fast ones. JF