Charlie

This is Charlie. He's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and was 7 year old on Oct. That makes him about 50 in human years. I take him to work with me and he is a great friend. I wanted to put his photo on my Profile Page but you can't just browse and pick up the photo, you have to make it a url page, so I am putting him here.

Wind Power

Wind power is starting to look much better. There is a company in Finland that is building some very attractive ones. I hope the price will be under $5,000 to install it on your roof.

Check it out at: http://www.windside.com/

Chicago's Winter Fest

Wow..Chicago has the best winter fest! Last Sat. I saw Dr. John (a New Orleans icon) at Navy Pier FOR FREE. It was a Mardi Gras celebration with lots of wild people celebrating in New Orleans style.

Then yesterday saw a Blues tribute to Albert King at the Cadillac Palace Theater downtown. Big Time Sarah opened it and then a large (fabulous) band with horns came up. There were 4 guitarists that showed up individually that were unbelievable- I don't remember there names and they are'nt listed on the book!. The last person was the singer who did "Mustang Sally". A real show man, who closed with Mustang Sally. Wow-what a show! It was only $10! We paid double that for parking!

We picked up a book for "Chicago's Winter Delights". It started January 2nd and goes through the end of February. We missed lots of other events- Dance, Music Food, Ethnic, Family, History, Theater, Handmade, Opera.

http://www.winterdelights.com/ethnicCelebrations/index.html

Minneapolis has a Winter fest with lots of snow stuff. Chicago has a large city with lots of different interests and is showing it off during the "dark" months. Bravo!

Health Insurance HELL

I got a quote for new Health Insurance for me and my employees. I gave the quotes to my employees because they pay 50%.

I just got the first bill. The TOTAL went from $1200 per month to $1860 per month.

I called the insurance co. and they said someone in my group had something that raised the rates for the whole group (4 of us), the underwriters made the change after they got the applications.

One of my employees has left but is continuing his insurance until the new job insurance starts. He has a recurring small problem, with dry eyes. I asked insurance company if it was his that made ours go up. They cannot tell me this, because of Hippa. The problem is: He will only have this insurance for 2 or 3 months, but it will affect my rates for years.

There is no way my employees can afford to pay 50% of the new rates. I will not be able to get good employees without insurance. That is HELL!