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Water Heater Repairman

New Hot Water Tank [#1278]

My mom told me the story of a friend who has lived in a new house now for seven years.  Her friend called to tell her that her water heater went out for the third time, and she was shopping around for a new one.

The first guy that came to her house. He was from a well known company in town who advertises heavily on the radio. He told her she needed a new water heater, but what he offered was hair-raising.  He offered her a new water heater for $1,400.00, and oddly he said it had no warranty!!

This friend of my mom lives alone so you know she doesn’t need a big water heater, if you think that could justify the price.

I would have told the guy to leave immediately.

Water heaters do not cost that much money, first and foremost.  Always check the price of items that you buy, even if you buy it from a professional and have someone else install it.  I use a rule of thumb that the most it should cost is double if you include a basic swap installation.  More than that, and I immediately ask questions to see if more charges are warranted.

Second, this serviceman was offering this woman no warranty.  As we all know, most products today have some form of warranty, so why wouldn’t this item?   That’s another red flag.

One way to check this is to look at the product the guy is quoting you and to call the manufacturer.  With someone this brazen, I’d love to have called him out on his antics.   I am sure you would find out this product typically comes with a warranty, so he was likely selling a second quality product, for one reason or another–and for three to four times the normal price!

Fast forward: My mom’s friend decided to called another plumber (thank god!) and this man came out and said that the water heater she had was still under warranty and that he’d repair it at no charge to her.

Ah.  Now it all makes sense!! Guy number one was selling people with warranty failed water heaters new ones.  Then he was turning around and taking the old ones, fixing them for free under the warranty terms, and re-selling them to customers–hence why they had no warranty.

Evil little bastard!!!

Life Lessons:  Always know the base price of any item you are buying.  Know your warranty terms, and keep your warranty manuals.  Last, never depend on a service man to tell you what it is!

Expression of the Day

Surprise !!! 

I love this expression!

What is it?

I can feel it just looking at the man. You know he gasped some air in on this one!

Poll: Do you believe John Ramsey?

John Ramsey Speaks Out About JonBenet

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John Ramsey is out on the media circuit selling a new book that he wrote about his suffering and journey to healing after the murder of his daughter 15 years ago.  I saw him first on Anderson Cooper’s show.

I can only say “WOW“.  Every single thing this man did and said in this interview does not fit with a victim of a horrific crime, if you ask me, and everywhere I go, I see this man dropping red flags like rain drops coming from the sky.

It’s jaw dropping for me. Literally.

Yes, the Ramseys were cleared by a prosecutor in 2008, though I don’t quite know how you can legitimately clear someone when you can’t solve the crime.  It makes no sense to me, but prosecutors have the power to do such things.

When John talks on the Andersen show, I am immediately pinged by his lack of emotions. He is as dead as a doornail.  There is no fear, anger, sadness, surprise–nothing negative whatsoever when he talks about finding his daughter, seeing her dead, etc.  Yet we see the contrast of another guest later on in the Andersen show who lost her son more than 10 years before John.  This woman shows us what natural emotional memory recall looks like.  The comparison is stark.

John’s emotions stand out, without question.

I also find it very odd that John recalls the first police officer coming to the door and saying, “Do you think she could have run away?”  John’s answer is startling.  Listen to him.

He says, “No, she’s only six-years old. It’s ridiculous.”

What???!!

If you had a ransom note, would you ever think about your child running away?  Hell no you wouldn’t!!  You would never even entertain it.  You’d be like “Look at this ransom note!!!  We know she didn’t run away for certain–there is no question. A six-year old can’t write a ransom note like this!!!”

Yet Ramsey doesn’t recall anything like this.  He seems to actually entertain for a minute in this interview that this could have been plausible because all he can say is ‘she’s only six years old’ –as if six-year olds can’t run away, which is nonsense by itself.

It’s a huge red flag that what his experience was and what he is telling us are two different things–or this conversation would have stuck out in his mind as forever absurd! It also would put most parents on edge with regards to the competence of the arriving police, but not John.

I wonder if a cop even said that (which is plausible), or is this is just John conjecturing now?  I wonder if he ever said this before..if it has been documented.  I’d be so curious to know.

Later in the interview, John talks about the police asking him to go through the house to see if there was anything unusual, and that’s when he found JonBenet dead.  Wouldn’t you think if your daughter was missing that this would have been the first thing you did–go through the house to see how the killer got in, what he might have taken or left behind to help you find your daughter? Or wouldn’t it have been the first thing you ask police to do — to secure the residence with you?

Wouldn’t you worry if your house was safe for your wife and son?  Wouldn’t you have been seriously concerned for your safety?

Why wasn’t John?

The fact that John never searched the house at this point stands out to me as very peculiar. Would you have to be told to search for anything unusual, or would you have done it yourself if you believed your daughter was kidnapped and that finding evidence could help you get her back?

John also goes on to describes finding his daughter “a relief and a horror” at the same time.  Does this make any sense to you?

What would the relief be in finding your dead daughter? I would love to ask him!

Now imagine you know what happened to your daughter and you know she is lying downstairs dead, would it be a relief when she was finally discovered?  It absolutely would be.

John, however, wants us to believe that not knowing where his daughter was for 5 or 6 hours was enough time for him to get relief in getting his dead daughter back.  That’s utterly ridiculous!

Parents of missing and kidnapped children hold out high hope that their child will be found alive and do not get relief when the child is found dead.  They feel horrified they didn’t do enough fast enough to avert the horrific nightmare.

John’s words here are simply alarming to me.

I also found an article in the Detroit Free Press where they quote John about his new book, and he continues to flag me there as well.

In this interview, Ramsey says that he and his wife were prepared to go to jail.  Would you ever be prepared to go to jail if you were innocent?

The Detroit Free Press articles quotes John:

“Patsy joked, ‘Can I have stripes that run vertical? Horizontal are going to make me look fat,’ ” he says.

If you were looking at serving time for something you didn’t commit, and the police were woefully wrong, would you ever joke about this?  Especially if a killer would be running around at large while you sat in jail and could possibly kill your son???

I don’t think so.

You’d be scared stiff!

If however, you were involved, might you joke?  What else could you do?

John also says, “Everybody has a burden, and I wanted to tell people it doesn’t last forever. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

A burden?

Really?????

I would have loved to asked Ramsey, what was his burden?

I thought he was a victim.

This man has been fishy from day one, and he still smells like a rotting fish, if you ask me.  I do not believe John Ramsey’s version of what happened and never have…and I find it disturbing he wants to profit off of this horrific nightmare.

He should be donating the money to investigators to help bring the real killer to justice, but perhaps that would bring people too close to home.
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Passion, Truthfulness and Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Dr. Sanjay Gupta was on the Anderson show yesterday. I absolutely love Dr. Gupta.  Why?  Because he is passionate about what he does! 

Passionate people are usually top in their field.  They are the best at their game because they love it so. 

True passion is contagious, too. Have you ever noticed when you speak to someone who is passionate, its almost a guarantee you will away walk enthused–regardless of what you talk about?  It’s true!

But more than that — passionate people are usually very honest people when comes to their topic of passion.

Most people think that Dr. Gutpa is a TV doctor who doesn’t practice much medicine anymore, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Andersen said that his staff often calls him to be a guest on the show, but Dr. Gupta declines because he has to do surgery–brain surgery.

Andersen joked at how important he was to Dr. Gupta and Dr. Gupta even said if he had to choose between being on TV or doing surgeries — surgeries and medical care wins hands down. 

It’s not that he doesn’t like TV, he just loves his job that much. He went on to say that his mother gave him the best advice. She told him “if you do what you love, you never have to work another day in your life.”

How true is that?

Dr. Gupta tweeted that statement today and appended to it–“the best advice ever!”

So true.

When you are looking for an expert in anything — the one that is most likely to be honest with you is the one who is passionate. The more passionate — the more likely they are to to get the truth–hands down.

It’s one of the things I look for when I want an expert.  I look for passion!

And that applied to the specialist/surgeon I met on Tuesday. I wanted a man who was passionate.  While his paper resume spoke to the likelihood he was passionate because he was highly regarded by his peers and his patients and won many awards for both, and for his research, I still could have run into a burnt out man. But thankfully, I didn’t.

I found exactly what I set out to find —  a passionate person!!

My doctor on Tuesday has been practicing medicine for 36 years, and when we sat down to talk to me about the most boring things in the world–tumors–he was full of energy, enthusiasm and excitement.

Yes, excitement!

I was actually blown away because I certainly don’t get excited about tumors, anatomy and how to treat them.  No siree, but by the time I left, he had me invigorated!  I had a jump in my step. I was confident. I was assured because he was both of those as well.

Isn’t passion great?

My doctor enjoyed talking to me for a full two hours because he loves what he does. He loves the body, how it works and how it all interrelates.He told me how he loves surgery, to which I replied he was one strange duck — but a duck I was glad to know!

How our bodies worked and how he could fix them was the most fascinating thing in the world to him –and if a surgeon who loves to do surgeries more than anything in this world told me I don’t need surgery — I have a 10 fold belief in him he knows what he’s doing because his favorite time is in the OR.

He is so good, I am sure he is booked solid with surgeries and sees no reason to add another case that isn’t necessary.  See why passion and honesty go hand-in-hand?

In our discussions, I almost had to fight to get a word in edgewise because he loved talking about it all so much.  He loved educating me–though he did make 100% sure that he went back to answer every one of my questions.

It’s people like this who are on top of their game, who are dedicated to being the best they can be, who love what they do — who will be the most truthful to you, without question.  Because they love what they do, people flock to them like bees to honey, and they don’t have to seek out what they love to do–it comes to them in droves.  So they’ll tell you the truth, every time, without question!

I hope this helps you one day.