The Dell Hole is History...

Pam is finally out of Dell after just over 5 years of working there. They really have been quite good in this final event I think. They are leaving all of their hardware so that the Twin Falls city folks can use it to try and attract a new company needing a fully equipped telephone support center.

Since Pam had her 5 years in - by just over a week - she is eligible for going onto the Dell retiree health plan. That would allow her to stay on the plan as long as she wants to and pays the monthly premiums. The only other option would have been COBRA which lasts a maximum of 18 months and very high rates. Actually, her rates in the Dell retiree health plan are crazy high, but at least she can stay on it until she is ready for medicare.

I have been doing research into all of the Medicare options I have available. They go my county and here in Jerome county, there are not near as many good Medicare add-on health plans as there are across the canyon in Twin Falls county. I have been trying to figure it all our, but so far its been a real challenge - to say the least. And, we have not been able to find any help in tracking down good information about this dilemma. But, I continue to work on it and am sure it will all work out - one way or the other.

I was trying to get my back problem resolved by the end of the year and what I thought was the end of the Dell health insurance. But, at this point, I am not sure what is going on with it, so since the back shot I got last month is working so well, we have postponed any such resolution of the back options. It is difficult to even think of another operation after all the fun last year. But I was, because the back pain is sooo bad that anything would have been better - scary thought now...

Pam has been doing a lot of resting and recuperating since leaving Dell. Soon she will be starting to get involved with the new job here at DaHo Products. She did do some product testing and evaluation. I have her take our standard instruction booklet, some needles and line, and do all of the tasks that are shown in the instruction booklet. And, she did them all without much assistance at all. So, I am very happy that a novice, that even didn't have the need for the actions in mind, to complete them with the documentation.

The next training will be to learn how the products are tested and processed when orders come in. And, after than, she will be contacting all of the current dealers and distributors to introduce herself and see what feedback she can get from them about our products and general way we have done business and how we can make it better.

Last week, our Windows Home Server, that has been running for over two years, and keeping all of our data very safe, had its system disk drive crash. It has been running so well for so long, I had forgot most of the 'details' of how to deal with it. So, I had to research a lot of the data I needed clarification on. Thanks to Tom in England and nephew for sending me some Microsoft support tickets, I was able to get it back up and running without losing a bit of data. It did loose all of the past backups of the client PCs, because the backup database in also in the system disk, but we didn't have any client PC crashes during the server recovery, so all was good - maybe even great for a major problem resolution. So, after two days of work, and a significant loss of hair and stomach lining during the problem analysis period of the event, it is all back up and well.

We are planning on installing a new Windows Home Server at one of our clients businesses next week, so I am all ready for it now. The business is a funeral home - one customer that I really don't want to trade services to pay for the server install work...

Yesterday, Pam, Tommy and I went up to see Roberta's new house in Sun Valley. She just moved into a house from a duplex. Its a nice place with a necessary doggie door. Tommy loved playing with her two big dogs. He gets so excited and was worn out when we left there. While we were there, we went to take a free ride in the brand new gondola ride that goes up to the top of Mt. Baldy. There is a restaurant on top. It was sunny and cold, and there was snow on the ground so it all was about perfect weather for what and where it is. After yesterday's free rides, I understand that the actual price for the ride is $20. It's a fun ride, but that seems a little steep to me.

Orders have been pretty slow the past couple of weeks. But, I have been busy trying to figure out how the territory is going to change to deal with Pam working here full time and how to set up the ever growing business space needs. We are getting close on the new serving jig product and are hoping to have it ready to sell around Jan 1st.

We are getting a new order of needles next week to replenish our inventory stocks, and another one due in January to bring them up to normal volumes. SO, we will be ready for all the business that comes our way from the big 'secret' event that take place on Jan 1st and from Pam's marketing activities.

Pam is getting the house all ready for the holidays and for our big Thanksgiving dinner we are having here. We are going to have a lot of people here so it should be 'exciting'.

Well, that is it for now. You now know all that is going on here in DaHo...