Tony Brewer View

CDEarth is offering some of the classic video games that we all started out with years ago. If only I had every quarter that I stuck into the slots trying to beat Asteroids and Pac-Mac, just to think of them all going from our pockets into the vendors pockets, clink clink clink. We certainly never thought that in the near future that we would be able to sit down at home and with a few key strokes on a keyboard play these games that we could only play at bars, Chuckie Cheese and a few other places here and there back in the 80′s.

I remember my sister was dating a guy who was the manager at the local Chuckie Cheese, he would invite her and her 3 young sons to come to the place and he would give the kids unlimited tokens to keep them entertained while he courted my sister. I went along one time, being a good sport, and all, and we all really had a blast, eating free pizza, drinking free drinks and cups and cups overflowing with tokens. That was about as close to heaven as those kids could be at that time. Those are good memories to remember now,. I’ll have to ask my sister if she remembers, next time we chat.

I’ve noticed for a very long time that when I go to the doctor’s office, if he prescribes a medicine for me, that often he will provide me with a lot of free samples of that medicine  and I like getting the free samples of medicine because it saves me a trip to the pharmacy, and because it saves me quite a bit of money.  My current health insurance is pretty crappy, but it’s better than not having any insurance at all, but it could be better!  So I appreciate the free samples a lot.

The oil industry is playing games with the American consumer.  They say that the prices are high because demand is high.  However, I was reading an article on the Time.com website that indicates that the demand has decreased significantly because the prices are so high.  And because the demand has decreased, the refineries are making less gasoline, causing a deliberate shortage, to keep the prices artificially high.  The increasing costs of fossil fuels will make it harder for people to travel for business OR for pleasure!  I think this is just more proof that the United States needs to develop alternative fuel sources so we won’t have to depend on fossil fuels at all.

We got word today that my nephew succeeded in passing the ea cpe requirements he needed in order to keep his job as an enrolled agent this year. Times are tough for everyone these days and it wouldn’t be cool if he lost this job just because he didn’t do the enrolled agent continuing education that is necessary to continue working with people and their tax situations. It has been nice having someone in the family that has been able to help so many of us with our tax questions, concerns and our returns, every family should have one.

He is a good kid, or I guess I should say young man. He went through some wacky years but seems to have been able to pull through them all and is doing very well for himself. I sent him an email letting him know how proud I am of him and that I want to take him out for a celebration dinner this weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him and a good one on one dinner will be nice.

I’m glad to see over the past few days that the price of gasoline is coming down just a little bit.  Over the past week it has gone down about fifteen cents!  In my opinion, the price is still outrageous and I really wish that the US would find alternative sources of fuel for our consumption, but I’m still glad it has gone down!  Having said that, I’m not planning on doing a lot of unnecessary driving, I’m still trying to minimize my travel expenses!