Monday, April 17, 2017

At Peak Daffodil

We are at peak daffodil.

The grass is pulsatingly green.  I will be pushing a lawn mower before the week is over.

The Japanese Plums are blooming although the American Plums are still in tight-bud stage.

It will be a light year for Apricots as they have very few blossoms.

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I have been spending a few hours every Monday helping out a friend.  He runs a small business and "rebates" are a big deal.  He makes quotes that include the advertised rebates.  Some rebates are from suppliers but most rebates are from governmental units and utilities.  The size of the rebates is such that customers will not buy his products without the rebate.  Either that or he loses money pricing to that level.  That is a lot of words to say that it is critical that he apply for, and get, every valid rebate.

Not all of the paperwork is straightforward.  Often, the folks processing the paperwork want supporting documentation.  And of course, none of their forms are common.  It is almost as if they don't want to hand out money!

Some conservatives have a philosophical problem with rebates.  I don't.  The utilities offer them so they do not need to buy peak power wholesale at twenty cents a kWh (during peak demand) and sell it at twelve cents a kWh retail. 

My friend is not a computer savvy guy.  He is a businessman.  He is great with customers and any service calls that pop up.

His computer directories are muddled.  Windows seems to sprinkle downloads into random directories which frustrates him to no end.  Through the week he downloads the documentation that will be needed for Monday.  Monday is a treasure hunt looking for those documents.

I think he could help himself by streamlining his directories and copying many redundant "folders" on DVDs or thumb drives...and then deleting or compressing them into an archive but he does not trust me enough, yet, to suggest that.

Today will be a light blogging day.

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