long time lurker, very rarely a poster. please don't hold that against me. I am adding an address that is only used for 1 other person, so if I get spammed I will know where it came from iamprecious2000@yahoo.com I will miss you. I understand poor Spike's predicament and if I can come up with $15, will join. Money is extremely tight now, though, so it may not happen. I feel like I know you all personally and, in case I don't hear from you again, may you be blessed. Bye to all. Julie

I don't believe you can leave random feedback on a seller (or buyer), you have to have purchased (or sold) something. Now I suppose I could sell stuff to my friends or create fictitious accounts and write the feedback myself. Of course, you'd be paying eBay a fee for everyone one of those transactions and I have to believe that their security folks might watch for that kind of stuff. I haven't bought or sold much on eBay but what I have has been a positive experience. A few years back I was doing some Internet work for a used car dealer. A customer had mentioned that they had seen the vehicle on eBay. News to us since we didn't use eBay at the time but sure enough someone had "borrowed" the pictures and description of the vehicle from the dealership's website and actually SOLD the vehicle on eBay. I frantically tried to find a customer service phone number for eBay so that they could contact the buyer before he sent any money. Unfortunately, eBay doesn't seem to have a phone number. I sent off an email and then tried to inquire what had happened but eBay would only tell me that the matter was under investigation. The interesting part is that the vehicle was reasonably worth about $16,000 but it had sold on eBay for $9,000. When something seems to good to be true...

We've been using a smart meter, that informs the power company of the times of day that the client uses power, and they bill at a lower rate for off-peak hours. Some claimed that their power bill went up, and I heard a figure of something like $20.00 a month from people in different jurisdictions, but that hasn't been our experience. When the landlord heard that it'd cost him about $40.00/month if he installed a separate service in his shop here (he lives elsewhere) ... ... he decided to run the whole thing through the one meter, and that I should tell him how much he owed for the shop. We just adjusted for last year's bill ... and the total was about $3.00 under $100.00/month (and he's happy with paying about 15%). I can't see working myself up into a tizzy about possible radiation that may be coming my way: it seems to me that it's peanuts ... and wouldn't be troublesome if I were to carry the thing around in my back pocket all day, every day. If you want to worry about something - how about the food that's increasingly sourced from all over the world, these days, and produced in factories that undergo what kinds of regulations ... and, supervision? Plus ... I'm of the opinion that much of our food produced and processed in-coutry isn't overseen nearly as much as it used to be: in some cases, they've worked out situations where the processors self-regulate. But to have the women/(men?) roast turkeys at home to bring to a turkey supper at the church ... ... has become a big "no-no"! ole joyful

I don't know how anyone can go to houzz.com and view anything. What I get is the entire page covered with the option to sign in through Facebook or sign up through email. I can get no where. If I click on a topic like kitchens at the top it goes to a page that again has a huge sign in banner across the page. I suspect some may be automatically getting in because they have Facebook. Even if I click on a link someone posts to view the page can not be viewed due to the login banner. I just get so turned off by things like that, makes me not interested in the effort. If they let me look around there's a very good chance I would join but not that way. Not getting another app for something I can't view. Got the email.