The recession won't affect Happy Valley!

I've recently seen the effects of the recession all around me. Stores that have been around for a long time are closing their doors for good, people are watching their spending, and people are losing their jobs at every turn. It's a scary culture to live in, but I have a strong feeling. My feeling is that Penn State Pride is going to be stronger than ever this fall in Happy Valley. Why you may ask? People need something to be happy about. People need something or some place to get lost in. Penn State isn't the only stadium that will be full this fall, but I talk blue and white because that's who I am and what I know. I saw people still bleed blue and white even when our team struggled to win 4 games in a season. Teams that we had normally pummeled suddenly turned the tables on us. I saw our team fail to have a winning record two years in a row. Yet, even with all of this adversity the stadium still had 97000 people for each home game. That is amazing to me that there are that many other people like me that love Penn State Football! Though most tickets still cost over $50.00 per seat for each game, I'm sure we're going to see numbers near capacity of 108,000 each and every week this fall. Are we going to be good enough to win it all this year? Maybe not, but it won't matter.........because when those blue jerseys emerge from that tunnel and the white helmets begin to bob up and down.......all of reality will melt away for a few hours. So, maybe you're not into Penn State and maybe you're not even into football. What's important in this day and age is to find what does let you escape reality for a little while and just go there. Be there and don't think about the bills you need to pay, or the job you need to find, or the work you need to do on your house, or whatever it is that is dragging you down. We're not getting any healthier by dwelling on the constant bad news around us, so find your escape and go there on a regular basis. For me, it will be in the stands in Happy Valley or at home in front of the tube watching and cheering for the blue and white. WE ARE........PENN STATE!!!

Back to blogging

Wow, its been so long since my last blog post. Not that I have many followers yet, but for anyone who was watching I'm sorry that I got lost in my busy schedule. I've been staying very busy working with my wonderful wife on our eBay store www.donnydixonsattic.com as well as working full time as a warehouse manager as my day job. The attic has been up and down in recent months. We've grown leaps and bounds since last year at this time and we're now shipping about 3 times as many packages as we were a year ago. One of the things I've been doing to help us grow our business is lettering our cars for advertising. Here's a picture of my car that I lettered last week. Let me know if you've seen it on the streets in the DC / Baltimore metro area. Last but not least I'm working on opening an outlet store that is not part of eBay. You can checkout the outlet store at www.ddaoutlet.mybisi.com .

I hope to be writing again soon. Thanks for viewing my blog!

It's another manic Monday

Just when I was hoping that this week would be a good week to play catch-up at work, my truck driver called out sick. So, I've got to brave DC traffic with a box truck which is not my cup of tea. I like driving, but DC has too many pedestrians and too many street signs to pay attention to when driving any vehicle, let alone a big truck. I think I'll hide now.

Rainy Day Burnoff

If your like us and you have a kiddo that has tons of energy, I'm sure you've found it very frustrating when it's pouring out side and your kid's energy is pouring over.  Our favorite activity to remedy this is taking him to the roller rink.   After skating around for 3 hours he gets pretty tuckered out and he usually falls asleep on the ride home.  

We used to go to Chuck E Cheese on days like this, but we've found that the roller rink is much cheaper and usually a little less crowded.  

Maybe you have some activities that you like to do to burn off kid energy on yucky rainy days....... care to share?  We're always open to new ideas.

Spoiled rotten

This is my dog Oreo.  She is part Bassett Hound and part Beagle.  She loves long walks in the park, chasing dad in the yard, playing keep the stick away from dad, cuddling on the couch, sleeping, and playing with her kong toy when it has meaty bones inside.  

After all they have personalities.

Have you ever given your vehicle a name? I have named every single car, truck, and motor home I've ever owned. Here's a list in order from first car to the one I'm soon to own:

Bessy (1986 Chrysler New Yorker)
Betty Lou (1989 Jeep Cherokee)
Thelma Lee (1990 Ford Bronco, and it looked just like O.J.'s)
The Super Tortoise (1977 Vogue Motor Home Class A 32 Ft.)
Vicky Vandura (1995 GMC Vandura Full size conversion van)
Connie (1994 Toyota Corolla)
Molly (Mazda hatchback 2 door something or other)
Holly (Honda Accord)
Nancy (Nissan Sentra)
Sunny (Plymouth Sundance)
Izzy (Izusu Trooper)
Dixie (1988 GMC pick-up)
The Wash Wagon (Ford F-350 Diesel Stakebody pick-up)
Bertha (GMC 1500 pick-up)
Sally (2003 Saturn Ion)
Patty (2000 Chevy Prizm)
Chloey (2006 Saturn Vue, aka The Blue Dragon)
Susan (2005 Pontiac Sunfire which is my car that is waiting in the wings)

I figure why not name each and every one of them because over their lives they all develop a personality.

What's the grossest job you've ever done?

I know mine was really gross when I was a janitor at an athletic club in Ohio. I was making minimum wage and it certainly wasn't worth it when you considered the gross task that I was asked to do one day.

I was asked to take a screw driver and rag and clean the body hair out of the space between the wooden slats in the sauna. Talk about gross! Hopefully you were not about to eat when you read this post.