Who wants to go back to the good old days?

We have a small savings account with an online bank. (Ally) I started it because they pay about 3X as much interest as our local bank, and they have some nifty online services. For instance online check deposit. I tried it out this morning and it is pretty slick. You endorse the check then follow their online walk-through and scan the check. Zap! The check is deposited. No trips to town during business hours, no need for deposit slips, it is done I guess. You keep the original and after 60 days you destroy it. The image will be sent back to the check owner's bank statement. I plan to use it a lot because it is a hassle remembering to take checks to the bank, and we live quite a ways out. I can deposit it in 5 minutes at the house and I am done. It is also easy to transfer that money to any of our other accounts too.

I have also been amazed at the ease of all things online. A year ago I started an IRA with Fidelity and they are all online. They don't really have store-fronts, like Edward Jones and others, but you don't really need it. If you need help you can get a hold of somebody really quick on the phone or online chat. I set up a new IRA in one afternoon sitting on the couch. No muss no fuss. I don't have to pay some broker to handle my paperwork, I can log in anytime and buy or sell shares, etc.

One last example. Our local bank has online bill pay and I can go online and pay bills, they send the checks, and I don't have to waste time writing checks and licking envelopes! Of course I pay a lot of bills like our phone bills through the business' websites and they just draft our account. Even my revolving charge account at the tractor place I can log in and do an ACH and pay that. No checks, stamps, or envelopes. Sorry Dad about not using you as much.......good thing you are retiring!

I am just constantly amazed at how fast things are a changin'. And some of the changes like in banking are for the better if you ask me. Everybody gets all up in arms about bank fees and the like, but look at what you are getting in return. Besides that if your bank is charging too much fees, there are locally owned banks like ours that have very few fees. Their online bill pay is free for now, hope it lasts. Don't like Bank of America? Find another one you do like.

Fenton Jammin' Out

Tonight Fenton was getting fussy and I was trying to settle him down. Sometimes I put him in front of me on the desk and play some music and he settles down. Tonight he was really jamming to the beat. He started grinning ear to ear and kicking his feet. Of course when I pull the camera out he had settled down some but you get the picture:

I guess the only other news I have is it is windy and dry....wait that isn't news.

Uh, well the other news is well, I......uh........guess, I'm n n n not going to be doing any more trucking.....Whew there I said it. It is really like an addiction and I may have to find Trucker's Anonymous. It has been extremely slow as in no calls since the first of the year for loads. And I don't feel like going overnight much with Mikali needing driven to and from the bus stop every day. It would be hard for Amanda to get all of them around in the morning and Fenton loaded in the car 2X a day. So I'm parking the truck. My commercial registration runs out the end of the month and so does my $6000 insurance. I don't want to pay for all that if I'm not going to be using it. It was a really tough decision because somehow last year was the best year we ever had with the trucking, then to just stop....... Sniff! I will miss all the great places I get to visit like the NAPI farm and Magdelena, NM and Waco, TX.

I will go ahead and register it and insure it as a farm truck so I can use it on the farm. I will keep my New Mexico permits so I can go over there unhindered, and my Fuel Tax permit so I can go to all the states if I want to for my business. I just won't be doing any trucking "for hire". Maybe if farming gets tough sometime and the kids get a little bigger I can look at doing some again.

BTW it is a paperwork headache getting all my commercial stuff cancelled. I have about 3-4 wonderful bureaucracies to deal with. Spent 22 minutes on hold today with the Federal office for my motor carrier permit. And the annoying thing is I have to have that form notarized! to get it cancelled. What a pain.