Jeremy Herndon

I think it is rather sad that so many people are struggling to make ends meet.  It wasn’t very long ago that the college business courses were teaching that businesses were going to have to become more accommodating towards their employees, making concessions to people who wanted to work on their terms.  For example, accommodating young families by providing parental leave, and providing day care.  But now it seems that people are scrambling hard for jobs and that the companies have the upper hand, not the labor force at all!

Sadly, the way unemployment figures are calculated seriously misrepresents how many people are really out of work.  There are a lot more unemployed people out in society than the official numbers.  Many of these unemployed people are starting to become desperate for rapid cash and are turning to quick loan services that charge extremely high fees and interest rates.  And credit card companies are making it harder for consumers as well; slapping on new fees and increasing their credit rates. 

I would like to strongly encourage anyone who is considering taking out a loan against their cars or paychecks to read all of the fine print and be very aware of the terms and conditions of the loan.  If you are not careful you may end up in debt forever!

A couple of months ago I decided to buy a couple of tomato plants.  I’ve never grown tomatoes before, and I didn’t know what to expect.  I planted beefsteak tomatoes, and they are ripening at a good comfortable pace so that we are not overwhelmed with fresh tomatoes.  I never expected fresh tomatoes picked out of our garden and eaten the same day would have so much great flavor!  My wife is surprised that I’m eating them because whenever we go to a restaurant and get a salad I order it without tomatoes, proclaiming that I don’t like tomatoes!  Well, now I’ve decided that I like them a lot, but it will be hard for a restaurant to come up with tomatoes that taste as good as what I’ve got growing right outside my door!

Yesterday I saw my wife looking on the Internet at sites that sell holiday cards.  I asked her “Why are you looking for holiday cards already?”  She replied that she ALWAYS started planning for the holidays in September!  I guess I never realized that before!  She said that one of the things that she likes to do at this time of year is go to the Internet companies that sell cards and order their free sample kits so that she can get a good idea of what kind of quality the products are before she places an order.  She wants to make sure that she gets the most value for our dollars!