March 6th, 2010
The tourism business should start picking up soon, with Spring just around the corner and the economy looking better each week. It will be good to have some more paying guests around this place.
We had an interesting visitor last week, a professional genealogist. She said that the lost-relative business has been strong, probably because all the unemployed persons sitting at home have time to research their family roots online. When they reach a “dead”-end, they call her for help.
She mentioned that many clients have some old photographs of great-great-grandma and grandpa. Some of the old photos are faded, some are torn, marked-up or creased. Many color photos have shifted to reddish or yellow. Some photos were behind glass and stuck to it. They ask her if there is a company that can restore those old photographs. She said that she recommends American Photo Retouching for photo restoration.
She herself is often surprised at how much better the damaged old photos can be made to look in the hands (and computers running Photoshop) of photo restoration experts.
I asked her about the idea that scientists have recently found a lemur that may be an ancestor of the human race. She laughed, and said that she doesn’t research back that far.
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February 5th, 2010
We had a lawyer visit yesterday, to discuss whether he should do a strategic forclosure of the Naugas Inn. The lawyer said that the savings from not making mortgage payments would be “very, very significant.’
The idea of a strategic foreclosure is that you quit paying the mortgage, then invite the bank to take over the real estate. They don’t want it, so you are able to negotiate a workout and pay less on the mortgage.
The idea of saving money on the mortgage is certainly interesting, and perhaps a strategic forclosure is the best course of action.
Tags: Bankruptcy, Foreclose, Strategic forclosure
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February 4th, 2010
We have a lady staying with us for a couple of nights. She had to leave her house due to septic tank problems, which she said (prayed?) will be fixed soon. She said that the rainy weather had caused her sewer to back up into her bathroom, and the smell was terrible inside her house. So she called some septic companies before settling on American Septic Tank company. She came to stay here until the problem is fixed.
Anyway, the lady is a scientist working on a method to predict when a woman will enter menopause…the time left on her biological clock. She said that the ratios of 3 hormones could give a good idea, within 6 months, of when a woman’s uterus would release its last egg. This would tell the fertility years remaining on her biological clock. She said her research team hopes to commercialize the test, but that getting it through the FDA is time-consuming and expensive. Some biological markers must be monitored every month for a year. Fortunately, this test does not detect disease (menopause is not a disease) so the regulatory requirements are not so strict.
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December 26th, 2009
Here at the Naugas Inn we celebrate Christmas, along with a little Hannukah and Kwanzaa. So when a guest asked if we had any holiday celebrations set for Merlinpeen, I said…huh??
He said that Merlinpeen is the Celebration of Mouth Pleasures, as observed by Verdukians.
Well, whatever.
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December 15th, 2009
Being surrounded by woods as we are, there is plenty of wildlife for our guests to see. Some we like, some not so much.
The good wildlife are the birds. We have bird feeders set up to attract hummingbirds and songbirds. Our guests love that!
Deer and rabbits are the troublesome wildlife. They eat the plants in our vegetables garden, and the deer eat the shrubs also. We tried all kinds of ways to repel the deer and rabbits — ultrasonic devices, bobcat urine, nets, stinky chemicals. Nothing that we tried was an effective deer repellent or rabbit repellent. That is, until we found the deer sprinkler!
The deer sprinkler has a motion detector and a noisy rotary sprinkler. Whenever a deer or rabbit walks within range, it sprays them with water. They flee from the noise and the big arc of water shooting toward them. The deer sprinkler is the most effective way to repel deer (and repel rabbits) that we have found.
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November 6th, 2009
We have a guest from Virginia who is all into politics and the healthcare debate. He was complaining about a Sesame Street episode that contains a disparaging reference to PoxTV, which sounds a lot like Fox TV. He says it’s not just coincidental that a Federally-funded TV program comes out against his favorite network. Maybe not, I don’t know.
When he wasn’t complaining about politics, he was bragging about the new house he bought in the mountains of Virginia. He said he found his Virginia mountain home on the web, and the price was low. And of course, he got the $8000 home buyer’s credit, and a low mortgage interest rate. He says his monthly mortgage and insurance payments are much lower than his previous house, and he works from home on the internet.
In fact, he plans to get a home equity loan HELOC and use the money to buy more land adjoining his acreage. He wants to buy the land soon, because he thinks that prices and interest rates will soon go up. He thinks that investment property in the mountains will be the new hot market, and he plans to have as much as possible.
He’s probably right, but most of us here are still investing our excess funds in a couple of lottery tickets each week.
Tags: HELOC, Real estate, Virginia, West Virginia
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October 25th, 2009
We have a tendency around here to let things slip until they have to be fixed.
- Did a limb fall out of a tree? Oh, we’ll cut it up for firewood next week.
- Is the toilet in 203 running again? Oh, we’ll fix it when there is time.
These are just examples, and I guess it’s just human nature.
I’ve been checking out a facility management website and I’m seeing the error of our ways. We have an obligation to ourselves and our guests to keep our buildings in tip-top shape. We need to replace bad light bulbs, fix dripping faucets, stop roof leaks and fix those places outside where the paint is peeling. We need to manage the facility, not let it manage us.
The International Facility Management Association has a convention nearby in a few months, and I might need to go and learn the newest ideas about facility management.
Tags: Facility management
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October 25th, 2009
The autumn weather has been beautiful, and the guests really enjoy walking in the woods.
One fellow from South Carolina (or maybe it was North Carolina) asked if we had a big lake around here. He recently bought a boat that he found on the internet, and he pulled it behind his car all the way here. Well yes, we do have nice lake and it is well stocked with fish…so off he went with his boat and fishing pole to test it out! We asked him to make certain to clean his outboard engine, because we don’t want any non-native South Carolina (or NC) species introduced.
Tags: boat, Environment, North Carolina, South Carolina
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September 5th, 2009
We like to keep things nice and calm here at the Naugas. The scenery is beautiful, we are far from civilization and we attract a mellow crowd.
But a couple of days ago we had two guests get into a heated discussion about healthcare. One was a doctor (general practitioner, I think) and the other a lawyer. The doc wants single-payer coverage, the lawyer wants things left alone. Doc said he’s tired of dealing with insurance companies and financially-stressed patients. Attorney said he wants to keep suing the pants off doctors.
Up here, we learn what medical information we need off the web and get free medicines when we can. We get plenty of exercise and breathe fresh air. Whatever the politicians do, they will do.
Tags: Obama, Rx
Posted in Health & Medicine, Medical | Comments Off
August 19th, 2009
We got a call a couple of weeks ago from a couple who wanted to book a reservation (good), but wanted to bring their dog (not so good). Normally, we don’t allow pets, but bookings are down so we decided to make an exception. They assured us that the dog was well behaved and didn’t bark.
Surprise! They were telling the truth! Their dog was a cute little terrier or bichon frise or spaniel or shih Tzu or some other breed (I’m not too good at keeping them straight). They brought it in on a leash, and it stayed right with them…just as calm as could be.
When I complimented them on how well behaved their dog was, they said that it hadn’t always been like that. They said the dog used to snap and bite at people and bark all the time. At one point they thought they would have to put down the dog. Then they found a dog trainer in Austin, Texas (their home town) that came to their house. The dog trainer taught the dog not to bite or bark.
They said the dog trainer used a “submission hold” on the dog to help it realize that it was not the Alpha Dog of the house, and therefore did not need to maintain its “dominance” over all the people in the house.
They said that the dog became a pleasant companion after only a couple of dog trainer sessions at their Austin house.
I will remember the “submission hold,” as it could come in handy with some of our other guests.
Tags: Alpha dog, Austin, Dog training, Pets
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