Family

Christmas Letter (1992)

December, 1992

Dear friends and relatives:

Greetings to you and yours as we once again enter into the magical season of Christmas.  This year has been a year of change for the Gruenbaums, especially for Andy.  During the past year we have bought a house, Andy quit his job, went back to school (for a while), disrupted the flow of his resume, and is currently working 2 jobs (60+ hours per week).  Now that you know what is coming, you have a couple of choices:

  1. go and wrap some gifts and when you come back you can hope we have solved our own problems without dragging you into them; or
  2. you can brace yourself and read on, knowing our souls will be bared.

We are enjoying being homeowners.  We have done a few projects here and there, but our most enjoyable project was our garden.  We chose the appropriate part of our yard to carve out for our agricultural endeavor. After the preparing of the land for the indoctrination of the production organism, we planted the tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and zucchini.  Although we let our plants down by not watering as faithfully as we should have, the garden produced a nice supply of fresh veggies. Now that summer is over and winter is upon, our dining room is commonly known as the Gruenbaum greenhouse.  Andrew’s house plants are taking over.  Death has also visited the inner arboretum and is never taken gracefully.

Andy’s work history has suffered as of late.  After plotting his departure from Rose Products for quite awhile, he finally quit in April.  (We did take our vacation to Florida before he gave his two weeks notice.  Andy then became a student at Ohio State for two quarters taking mostly math and computer classes.  he was closed out of most of his classes this fall, and decided not to continue for now.  While searching for a job, he has been working, but it has been a sometimes half-hearted looking with the knowledge of a possible move. (Judy is looking for new employment opportunities, not necessarily in Columbus).  He is selling cellular phones again and working a customer service job 4 hours a night.  Thus, his resume does not flow smoothly.  We think 1993 will bring some stability to our lives.

We want to take this time to especially thank all of you for your continuing love and friendship throughout the year.  It is one of our greatest blessings.  To those of you from whom the miles separate us, we want you to know that we think of you often and pray for your well-being and happiness.  (To those of you who didn’t make it to this part of the letter, we hope you are glad you decided to do your Christmas preparations rather than read our letter.) May the peace and joy of God’s love be with you throughout this Christmas season and for the new year to come.

Sincerely yours,

Andy and Judy Gruenbaum

The Pros and Cons of a Rental Car

Temporary Rental Car

Due to the little driving hiccup our van endured a couple of weeks ago (it was my hiccup and the van could be driven away.  My pride was only partially recovered when the rental car was returned.  I should, barring any further issues, be recovered by the end of the year.), we had to get a rental car.  Due to confusion from Safeco (they assigned us 2 adjusters.  I contacted the “wrong” adjuster and delayed the acquiring of the rental by a day or two.  Service King would not allow me to come in and drop the car off until Wednesday [I was calling on Monday].  I knew my “rep” was waiting on his wife to have a child, so I pushed it a bit and was able to get the van dropped off.  The van was routed to another Service King where construction was keeping them from getting many cars.  Supposedly, our van was placed on a flatbed for the trip to and from.), the damaged car was almost in my possession longer than my inflated ego could handle.  (My youngest son is supposed to get his license in February, and son #1 had a little accident in the past couple years that caused a bit of damage.)  Once I had the rental car, these are the pros and cons I discovered:

Pros

  • XM Radio:  I enjoyed finding the classic rock station (or one of the them…I believe it was Classic Rewind).  I could identify about 4 out of 5 songs they played on the station–the station hit my rocking age pretty well.  A few stray bands I wasn’t very familiar with AND too much Foreigner.
  • Built-in Movie:  The controls were a little tricky for this.  The whole front navigation screen had to move down to allow the DVD to be put in.  We lucked into the DVD sound once, and then the day it was returned I figured out how it actually worked.  The girls have put this feature on our next vehicle purchase.
  • Heated seats:  Not sure if I fully figured these out.  The heating controls (yes, there was a manual, but it was a rental – why should I read it?) involved multiple buttons.  And, if the buttons were hit once it was front and twice for the rear (or something like that).  Fortunately, it was “warm” most of the days we had the rental.  I figured the windows out without a problem!

Cons

  • Every time I drive it I am reminding that kissing other cars in public with your car has a cost.
  • Getting request from the back to change the channel or provide volume to the CD player can put me in a situation where the rental is susceptible to its own accident.  It is not just the kids requests.  I was playing around with Satellite stations.  As I switched between categories and played with features, I saw more than one “future” where I was going to have to explain how the rental arrived on the wrong side of a dotted line or straddling some other driving obstacle.
  • Our “real” van was certainly lonely.  Before we dropped it off, I had to clean out all of the umbrellas and misc. other things that we had let accumulate w/i its various crannies.  I am sure he was very sad to be away.  I remember, vaguely, having a dream of looking out through my headlights and having rain come over them–even while in a garage.  I am sure this was not any type of “connection” between me and the car.
  • The biggest con…..forgetting to grab the garage door opener when turning the rental car back in.  Recapping this story might bring up bad memories in all who are reading (or possibly in the teller).  So, I will just say, one word–visors!!  Beware the comfortably tucked away visor.

It is good to get things mixed up a little bit.  And, this adventure into rental land allowed for an occasionally interesting trip.  Hopefully, we can rent again before we are forced to do so again by a driving disaster…

Bored Daughter and Imagination

CIMG4669

My daughter sometimes has the need to be entertained.  When her best bud/sister is not around, she has to seek out people to help her get entertained.  Today, her father was volunteered to get injured.

I volunteered my hairy left arm.  Hairy arms seems to me be more challenging then smooth surfaces.  It took a bit of work.  (The process involves a tissue as the “wound”.  A mixture of Vaseline and red die was spread over the tissue.  Once the tissue was moistened with the Vaseline, the wound was formed.  Cocoa powder was sprinkled on the wound and worked in to darken the “blood”.)  She went after with great enthusiasm.  In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she went on to create an injury on her shin.

Boys Liked The Book Thief

The weekends are for family time.  When you are a frugal family, you check to see if any good movies have graduated (or demoted, but for my dollar the “graduation” mean more buying power).  This past weekend, The Book Thief had made its move.  I felt certain the girls would enjoy the movie.  My concern was whether it would have enough action for the boys.  A different movie, 47 Ronin, started a few minutes later, so I thought we could all see a movie we enjoyed and the whole crew would be happy.

The girls started in about being tired or needing to sew or needing to rest or, what is most likely the case, just needing to be teenage girls without having to share a row in a movie theater with adults.  This, of course, complicated our decision.  Our 7th grader needed to do a project for school on the Holocaust. (The Hitler Youth…I think)  I felt confident the movie would provide some good background.  Since they won’t be our “girls” much longer, I still lobbied strongly (some may describe it as threatening to a point nearing duress).  Once our youngest son thought the thief might be fine for him too, I gave in and stopped applying pressure.  It was decided they would stay home and the rest of us would go.

When we got to the theater, I bought 4 tickets to the thief.  (Our oldest son thought he was still seeing the Ronin flick)  No popcorn, but the normal LOTS of previews of movies that did not seem to fit the standard profile of those who might enjoy the movie.  (One of my 7th grade daughters classmates was at the movie with his parents.  Obviously, he was not going to relax in his efforts to strive to be valedictorian.)  Not sure when TV shows started advertising during the previews, but I don’t really care for it.  I believe my family (and many of the families there) did not care about a family of millionaires showing how bad their behavior was every week.  For me, it was a reminder of one network I don’t want to watch.

Both Judy and I enjoyed the movie.  And, the boys both seemed to enjoy it as well.  So much loss and so much suffering.  Likely, not as many deaths as in the Ronin movie, but definitely quite a few.  Whether it was the deaths or the softening of the teenage-nearing-adult hearts as they witnessed the suffering of individuals rather than “warriors”, the boys/men enjoyed the movie as well.

I cannot say for sure, but I am guessing they are more mature than I was at their age.  And, if this is so, then they probably have a chance in surpassing me emotionally AND every other way….

College Visit and HPB Visit

You know you are a bit too much of a book lover when you are planning visits to Half Price Books stores after extended drives.

Jeff and I are visiting Oklahoma Christian University on Labor Day weekend 2013.  As we are making our plans for the 3+ hour drive, I am putting all of my important things in the car:

  1. My 54 oz QT cup.  It is ready to hold the vital “black mango” tea.  I try not to travel more than a few hours without.
  2. The address in Edmond for the HPB store.
  3. Address for Oklahoma Christian.
  4. Some Christian music CDs.  (Switchfoot is prominent in our selections.)
  5. And, a swim suit.  (The basic travel change of clothes and jammies is assumed. 😉  )
I am looking forward to spending a few hours with my son, Jeff. Since he was not early to get his permit, the drive to Edmond will allow him to log about 6 hours for the round trip.I would prefer to sleep like he generally does when we drive any distance, but I will likely have to settle for being a 2nd set of eyes to my 2nd born.

Parents with Kids on PayPal

I had one of thos random calls from PayPal today trying to upgrade my service.  It started out the service rep asking about the person who owned SignsSeen.com over 5 years ago.  And, a little detective work, and she ended up talking to me.

Apparently, PayPal now offers a “feature” for folks who own a few websites but get tired of managing all of the websites separately.  One of the accounts can be set up as the “parent” account and the other accounts are set up as children accounts.  The biggest benefit is all of the “children” accounts have the funds sent up to the “parent” everynight.  And, I did confirm that reconciling the accounts is still a fairly easy process.  So, we will see if I agree when I reconcile next month.

Of course, I couldn’t avoid asking a “cute” question.  My children are my existing accounts and my parent is my NEW account.  My question, “So, which comes first the parent or the child?  The child.”

I am not Dr. Mom….

When the kids need cold medicine or a gentle hand with cuts and scrapes, they need to go to mom. But, when it comes to home dentistry, they come to dad. And, this was especially evident this weekend.

Both of my girls had loose teeth. “Dentist Dads” weapon of choice is a standard piece of dental floss. On daughter #1, the tooth was very loose. I tied a loop in the floss, and it easily went around her tooth. She put her hands over her mouth. And, a quick pull of both ends of the floss, and the tooth was extracted. Daughter #2 also had a loose tooth, but it needed more coaxing. The same technique was used, but my daughter provided all of the early floss pulling power. Dentist Dad had to nudge the string into the area between the gum and the tooth. After my daughter nearly gave up and timidly requested to sleep the night with the floss sticking out of her mouth, Dentist Dad performed the final stages of the extraction. She forgot all of her pain, and gave me her beautiful toothless smile.

Just doing me job……

Will this teach them entrepreneurialism?

Despite my existing website and other projects, I like to look over ebay and see what kind of businesses are available. And, if any of them are in the right price range and meet my other requirements, I may open up a email discussion. And, depending how that goes, we might talk on the phone. And, occasionally I may end up purchasing one. Well, recently this happened. And, what follows is my logic for this investment….my sons need to learn business skills, and I think I have the vehicle.

My father was a very well meaning man. He worked very hard. However, he had no desire to work for himself. He had the energy and the smarts, but he did not have the tools or the belief he could succeed. I don’t want my sons to feel they are unskilled an incapable of owning their own business. So, since they are often short on motivation, I want them to have a short term incentive (money) and a longer term investment-ownership.

Since I am early in the process, I am sure my preliminary logic is missing factors that will influence the eventual success or failure of my plan. But, until then, this is why I think my recent purchase of an ebay business will be beneficial for my sons:

  • Teaches quality: As my sons worked the first night after the “equipment” arrived, they were not familiar with the equipment being used. And, unfortunately, this resulted in a cutting the product incorrectly. They asked, “Dad, it is close to the right size. Won’t it be alright?” And, after I said “no”, I went on the explain how important it is to give your customers the best you can give them. In the days of “cheap” products, I hope other dads are trying to teach there sons the same lessons.
  • Teaches discipline: After school activities and a very busy day, there were orders that needed fulfilled. And, rather than saying, “tomorrow will be okay”, they stayed up well past their normal bedtime to get it done. Our/their customers chose to buy their product. The customers had other choices, but yet gave them their money. If you can’t take care of your customers, then your priorities are wrong. And, if at the end of the process, they don’t want to be responsible for taking care of customers, then they would have come to that conclusion based on experience.
  • Teaches marketing: Why do people buy from you? Is it your ebay feedback? Is it your price? Is it being at the right place at the right time? It could be a combination of all of those things. As we learn this product together, we can discuss those issues. And, it will not offend me at ALL if they out think me. If fact, it will let me know the experiment is on track. (And, that the teacher isn’t completely crazy!)
  • Teaches Profit: What happens if we lower our price? Can we switch suppliers or talk to our present supplier and reduce our product cost? Can we reduce our shipping cost? Their labor may be cheap, but that doesn’t mean they can’t think about the bottom line and understand how they can contribute.

If this experiment is of interests to you, please let me know! Give me your experiences or your ideas to challenge them. Regardless, I am hopeful additional posts will follow….

Somethings are still almost free…

We have lived in our house for nearly 10 years. And, as all things start to wear out, we have experienced a few of these issues lately. And, surprisingly, some of them were free….

  • The first one was NOT free – Our ice maker on the refrigerator has continued to work fine. (We developed a theory about the cleaning lady and how her appearances correlated to the dispensers performance, but that is not the subject of this post.) BUT, we had an extensive period of having to drink water from the sink when the water dispenser (yes, it dispenses filtered water) moved from “fickle” to absolute revolt. And, after procrastination, two visits from 2 gentlemen who had less than a rocket science education and the parting with a few dollars, it was fixed.
  • Keys can be replaced – The Gruenbaums like to take vacations. And, when we do, our kids rebel if they need to sit on the suitcases. (And, they seem to not be as safe when buckled to a suitcase.) So, we often have our luggage carrier mounted to the top of the van. And, this has proven to be a very good solution for keeping parents and kids happy. However, since the luggage carrier needs keys to lock it, it is essential that the keys be located when the carrier is being used. Unfortunately, we have had the opportunity to test bungie cords as a key substitute, and they are lacking in many areas. When necessity dictates, a phone number is often available to provide hope to those who are concerned their inability to pack lightly enough. And, as I found out recently, it is usually as simple as providing the number engraved on the lock. The charge for news keys is FAR less than a new luggage carrier.
  • I need a sprayer to spray off the dishes – I will never be accused of loving to wash dishes, but marriages are not always about my happiness. So, I do find it necessary to get in there occasionally and “bust out a few”. Prior to the spraying trigger breaking, this was no problem. After it broke, my appearance before the dual porcelain dispenser of cleanliness were much fewer. As I tried to alleviate this problem by visiting hardware stores and searching websites, I did not have much luck. The phone again came to the rescue. On the back of the faucet is a style number and after correctly guessing “Almond” as our color, we had a new sprayer 2 days later. (This is not the venue to discuss style changes since we bought the original 10 years ago and the difficulty in changing the hose out under the cramped sink.)
  • Shiny hardware is important – What started out as a small leak on the top of the foundation in the basement resulted in us getting a storm door on the back door. (Since I have been understating quite a bit, I will just say our builder wasn’t perfect.) After the door had been on awhile, the outside hardware began to tarnish. Since tarnish doesn’t bother me, it didn’t get my attention until it stopped latching entirely. (Others in my household to get more upset with tarnish, though. ) And, after visiting the same hardware store and being told none of the hardware matched, I was told, “Call the manufacture and give them the serial #. And, if though the latch doesn’t work, tell them it is tarnished, and they should replace it.” And, they did–I think. The new hardware should arrive within the week–NO CHARGE.

House maintenance items don’t always come in such bundles. But, when they do next time, I will be much quicker to grab the phone, and look for answers on what is broken.

I am a pill-swallowing bigot

This is not something I am proud of. And, it is not something I realized was part of my “growing-up” training, but I am a pill-swallowing bigot.

Of course, to clarify, I don’t take lots of pills for pain, addiction, or any other contrived illness. I take a few vitamins every morning (my wife isn’t much of a fish eater, so I have to have the Omega-3), so this is the extent of my pill-popping. I put my vitamins in a weekly plastic container, and I drop all of them in my mouth at one time and swallow them all together. My wife and kids stare in awe…..

My wife coaches the kids, “Put some liquid in your mouth, then drop the pill in. Take in some more liquid, and relax your tongue.”

And, while I can’t disagree with some of her advice, I can’t help but snicker a bit. My advice is more like, “Put the pill in your mouth, and take a drink. Visualize/nudge the pill into the swallowing flow, and just let it go down.”

As the kids practiced with Smarties this morning with the hopes that they will soon be able to swallow their vitamins (graduating from the chewables), I continued to smile and listen to my wife’s coaching. She is better than me at many things, but I can swallow EIGHT pills at one time!!!