8.28.2005

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Don says:

We decided to try our hand at being self employed.   We have a lot of marketable skills between us.   There's a convenience store down the street which has purchased a bulk mail permit (with the U. S. Postal Service).   They mail out a single page flyer once a month with their ads on one side.   They sell the other side of the flyer in quarter page increments.   We bought a quarter page and here's the ad we placed:

Don and Lisa's Home Helpline can provide you with professional quality computer training or assistance, clothing alterations, house cleaning, minor plumbing or electrical repairs, basic carpentry, or just some general help around the place.   We're a mature, responsible, reliable couple with references, our rates are reasonable, and we won't charge you for estimates or an introductory visit.   We live in Buchanan Lake Village and can be reached at (325) 379-xxxx or (325) 379-xxxx

For the record, our phone number is available on the contact page where it's protected, by encryption, from web crawlers.   The flyer came out last Thursday (the 25th of August, 2005) and we got our first call that afternoon.   Since then we've had several calls so things may work out for us after all. I have experience in electrical and plumbing, while Lisa has experience in sewing and house cleaning (while we're both experienced at any number of odd jobs) so we're letting that be our guide, as it were.   I'm to be in charge of electrical and plumbing jobs, with her as my helper.   She's in charge of the sewing and housekeeping jobs, with me as her helper.   We'll take turns being in charge of the odd jobs. *grin*

For the benefit of skeptics, I'll add that she knows rather a lot about tools while I worked my way through trade school as a janitor and the U.S. Army taught me how to use a sewing machine.   We also have a proven track record of working well together with each of us more than prepared to defer to whomever is in possession of superior knowledge on a given topic and, where we're both ignorant, we know how to use the web to educate ourselves on short notice.

Lisa says:

I think the "in charge of" discussion was probably moot.   We're a couple of real geeks; if there's a faster, easier, more efficient way of accomplishing something, that's what we do.

Then there's the togetherness factor.   Last night, 2:30 am found us in an empty, half-clean house, dancing a smart two-step to a country tune on the radio.   We went home tired and happy, took a shower and went to sleep.   Life is good.