Man oh man, the ads and the offers keep coming. I’m good about throwing away advertisements that come in the mail — my recycling bin is right by my entry door, so I can easily discard “junk mail” before I enter the house and therefore have less clutter.

But the electronic forms of promoting items is increasingly insidious!

Should I receive unsolicited offers via email, I just delete them — I don’t even open the message. When I visit certain websites, I do not click on links that lead to on-line stores. I may visit those stores on-line sometimes, but only when I am looking for something in particular. I have learned to stop following links and looking around — because that’s how those companies get you to make “impulse buys.” I don’t buy on impulse.

Speaking of having sales resistance — you should observe my partner and me at the grocery store. We have a written list that we follow, and stick to it. We don’t buy anything we see on a shelf or an end-cap (end of aisle display) unless it is specifically on our list (and on sale.)

Should I receive a call on the phone trying to promote some product or service, I take the name and phone number of the caller, then report them as a violation of the U.S. Federal “Do Not Call” list, because companies are prohibited from making “cold calls” (with a few exceptions.) But I certainly do not buy anything that someone tries to sell me on the phone.

Should someone come to the door and knock — if I don’t know them, I don’t answer. And my partner doesn’t even bother to look in the video display to see who it is. He never answers the door or the phone (which when I am at the door or on the phone, his non-response is very annoying!)

And one final but very intrusive gimmick are the ads that are targeted to viewers of some websites. The ad sales read cookies on your computer, then target you for ads related to website that you may have visited in the past. For example, Sheplers (western clothing and boots) comes up in ads on certain other websites that I visit, and a bank that I now detest shows up on another website that I visit. Google ads show up on many YouTube videos… it goes on and on.

I try, as best I can, to reduce the clutter and avoid ads, delete, or discard them. I clear the cookies from my computer daily. But it all boils down to this: don’t click on the links on those ads, because they are indeed enticing, and the active marketing techniques that use high-end technology to target your weaknesses (in my case, boots), are used much more frequently now.

Life is short: have sales resistance!

The winds and rain from Irene visited us Saturday night into Sunday morning. My partner and I were prepared — I’d say, “very prepared,” and weathered the storm safely. We had better be prepared — that’s what I do for a living, and I practice what I preach.

Lots of debris everywhere (leaves, small tree limbs down, etc., but not much else). Fortunately at our home, no trees down. Power on — and I didn’t expect that! It went out sometime overnight, but got restored quickly.

I got a call at 4:30am from a senior pal who was frightened by a tree limb crashing through her bedroom window. I went over there (during a lull in the storm), picked her up and brought her to our house. Her sons arrived at daybreak and we went over to cover the broken window with a tarp and seal it until she can have it repaired by a professional later this week.

It could have been worse. But we’re okay. We will clean up the storm debris later after it dries out a bit here in Maryland. Hopefully, my brother’s flight back to Europe will take off tomorrow as scheduled. His wife has had enough with our hurricanes and earthquakes (smile), and is ready to return to her home. But all is well, quiet, and manageable.

Life is short: be prepared!

As you read this message, we are less than a day away from a hit by a tropical system. We are prepared at home, and throughout the day today, my brother and I are visiting my senior pals and helping them bring things indoors that may become wind-blown debris, pick up refills of prescription meds that they may need, make sure they have flashlights, a battery-powered radio, and extra batteries, and help them fill voids (empty spaces) in their refrigerators and freezers. Doing that helps keep foods fresher and colder longer if the power goes out.

We are helping our elderly and disabled friends and neighbors prepare and do things that they cannot do for themselves. It will be a busy day!

Thank goodness we do not have to go to a grocery or building supplies store. Those places are crazy-busy, being overwhelmed by who I call “the woefully unprepared who just woke up and are overreacting.” Happens every time, with every event. Everywhere.

I am now entrusting blogger to “go on automatic” and post a new blog post every day until I get back. I’m not going anywhere, but we probably will lose power and internet connectivity. Though we have a generator, it only operates essentials and the internet isn’t “essential.” We’ll survive. I’ll update you on how we fared after the storm passes and when our power and internet service are working again.

Wish us well.

Life is short: be safe.

Yes, an earthquake happened yesterday. It was epicentered in Mineral, Virginia (about 90 miles south of DC), and the shaking was felt as far south as Georgia and as far north as New England. What you see in the photo above is the visible earthquake “damage” in my home — Guido was knocked off his (replica Harley) motorcycle. That’s it. No.big.deal. But from the reactions related in news stories, one would think that Armageddon happened. Oh brother….

I felt it. I was in my high-rise office building in the downtown of my hometown in Maryland. Immediately when I felt the floor shaking and then rolling (literally), I yelled, “earthquake! Drop, Cover, and Hold On!” — then dropped under my desk, grabbed the back of my head, and waited. The slow, undulating rolling of the quake lasted for about 15 seconds.

After the shaking was over, I got out from under my desk and, like most others, gathered with my colleagues to verify, “was that really an earthquake?” None of them did the “drop-cover-hold on” procedure, but none of them have experienced an actual earthquake as I have in other parts of the U.S. (California, Alaska, Hawaii) and the world (Italy, Japan, Turkey).

Then to both my bemusement and dismay, the fire alarm went off and we were all told to evacuate. Down the stairs we went, and gathered across the street in a parking lot. A half-hour waiting in the strong sunshine, then we were told to gather our personal belongings and go home.

I didn’t even bother to return to my building. I just walked to where my Harley was parked and joined the long queue to leave the garage, then crawl home. What a nightmare — everyone was leaving at the same time. I think I was slightly ahead of the curve, and was on the road home before the majority of others. Most everyone in DC was evacuated and sent home, so traffic gridlocked for hours. Thank goodness my partner was at home instead of at his office in downtown DC. He did as I have instructed and as we practiced. He dropped, covered, and held on, too.

What a friggin’ disaster. People should have stayed put and waited to leave in a staged, orderly manner. Trouble is, security types in DC are conditioned and trained in their responses to expect that when buildings shake, it’s due to something like an airplane or vehicle crashing into it — shades of memories (and subsequent over-reaction training) from September 11, 2001. (Please don’t call it “9/11”. Thanks.) So everyone was evacuated and told to leave. Not the right response to an earthquake, but their heart was in the right place.

It’s just crazy in DC when anything happens — even what my world-class mentor in disaster work called it, “an earthquake of no significance.”

I just love DC. Hot air, media hype, and craziness. Welcome to my world.

Life is short: be calm. Drop, cover, hold on. If you can’t do that, then just stay home.