Chuck's First Report
Okay, I'll start with the first blog of Milbourne Plus.
I see this blog primarily for those of us who carry Bob and Dee's blood and for our spouses and significant others.
This blog can be used for updating everyone on our lives; for sharing our opinions, pictures, and videos; for soliciting help on problems of common interest, and for organizing visits with one another.
I'll be the first to make a vow of creating at least one entry every two weeks providing that I'm not the only one of us to do so. I'm hoping the third generation Milbourne's also get involved.
Today I worked with Katie to help Dad using email. Two weeks before I had spent three hours on the phone over two days instructing Dad over the phone on email. When Geneva was staying with Dad she gave him a few lessons, when I stayed with Dad I gave him perhaps five lessons, during Paul's stay he gave Dad a couple of lessons, and when Dan visited Dad he gave him a lesson on email. All this effort was much appreciated by Dad and he has learned a great deal but still needs a lot more training.
I was able to teach Dad how to order a Netflix movie and how to manage his queue. After my stay, he reported that he had ordered several movies on his own and so I consider that he has acquired this skill.
A week or two after my stay I gave Dad a few lessons over the phone on how to use email. This was a very frustrating experience for the both of us. The biggest problem with giving him instruction over the phone is communication. Until recently, the visual concepts of windows, scroll bars, insertion points, text boxes, radio buttons, tables, etc. had no meaning for him. He is slowly learning to recognize these constructs; for example, I can say "close the window" or "click on the textbox with the label Street"and he knows what I mean.
I'm sure Dad would appreciate help from any of you at almost any time. If you do help him over the phone, I'd ask that you insist he recognize the common visual constructs and identify them by name. In addition to those visual constructs already mentioned, he needs to know how to recognize push buttons, tabs, hyperlinks, check boxes and the mouse constructs of clicking, double clicking, dragging, and so on.
I'm going to make it a long term project to coordinate with all of you to make sure he learns Netflix (accomplished); email (nearly accomplished), Internet navigation and searching, cooperative Bridge playing; and, finally, blogging on Milbourne Plus.
On a personal note, everything goes well here. Ava and I are both in good health although we need to loose weight. We've been going to Jenny Craig together and, so far, we've both lost 10 pounds.
Last week we finished a long-term goal by replacing or refurbishing every square foot of flooring in our house. Three of our four bathrooms now have tile floors; we have hardwood floors on the entire second story except one bedroom (the one room Katy used when she stayed with us) with new carpet. The hardwood floors downstairs were sanded and restained. The dining room, living room, and stairs were recarpeted.
The living room was floor was quite an effort. For years it had shaked when anyone walked in it. To end this problem we had the subfloor removed, the drywall underneath removed, and the joists doubled up and in some cased trebled up. The subfloor was replaced with a much thicker plywood with tongue-and-groove edges. The dry wall was replaced with thicker material. The terrace off the living room was rebuilt. It was a very exasperating project. The end result: the floor doesn't shake as much.
Our business's are doing well. Ava's business volume has leveled off. Her continuing education business continues to grows since it is predicated on how many licensees received their licenses four years ago but her education for customers wishing to get their licenses has significantly dropped due to the very poor real estate market (before you can take the real estate examination, a prospective licensee needs three college level courses).
My business is just a fraction of hers. It's fully up and running. My problem is promotion. I'm currently involved with a major effort to elevate my Google search ranking and to create an incentive program for brokers to recommend my services. If you wish to see the current state of my site, go to www.45HoursOnline.com -- take the demo if you want to see what I provide.
Pookie and Mudpie (our two cats) are doing great. Pookie has gained quite a bit of weight the last couple of years and so now she is lucky to catch even a little lizard. But Mudpie remains svelt and a most astonishing huntress catching mice, rats, gophers, moles, snakes, lizards, humming birds, perching birds, and even (once) a baby possum.
So that's my first blog. I'll admit not a very good entry but I'll get better. Hope to read entries from all of you.
-->Chuck Milbourne, Jr.
I see this blog primarily for those of us who carry Bob and Dee's blood and for our spouses and significant others.
This blog can be used for updating everyone on our lives; for sharing our opinions, pictures, and videos; for soliciting help on problems of common interest, and for organizing visits with one another.
I'll be the first to make a vow of creating at least one entry every two weeks providing that I'm not the only one of us to do so. I'm hoping the third generation Milbourne's also get involved.
Today I worked with Katie to help Dad using email. Two weeks before I had spent three hours on the phone over two days instructing Dad over the phone on email. When Geneva was staying with Dad she gave him a few lessons, when I stayed with Dad I gave him perhaps five lessons, during Paul's stay he gave Dad a couple of lessons, and when Dan visited Dad he gave him a lesson on email. All this effort was much appreciated by Dad and he has learned a great deal but still needs a lot more training.
I was able to teach Dad how to order a Netflix movie and how to manage his queue. After my stay, he reported that he had ordered several movies on his own and so I consider that he has acquired this skill.
A week or two after my stay I gave Dad a few lessons over the phone on how to use email. This was a very frustrating experience for the both of us. The biggest problem with giving him instruction over the phone is communication. Until recently, the visual concepts of windows, scroll bars, insertion points, text boxes, radio buttons, tables, etc. had no meaning for him. He is slowly learning to recognize these constructs; for example, I can say "close the window" or "click on the textbox with the label Street"and he knows what I mean.
I'm sure Dad would appreciate help from any of you at almost any time. If you do help him over the phone, I'd ask that you insist he recognize the common visual constructs and identify them by name. In addition to those visual constructs already mentioned, he needs to know how to recognize push buttons, tabs, hyperlinks, check boxes and the mouse constructs of clicking, double clicking, dragging, and so on.
I'm going to make it a long term project to coordinate with all of you to make sure he learns Netflix (accomplished); email (nearly accomplished), Internet navigation and searching, cooperative Bridge playing; and, finally, blogging on Milbourne Plus.
On a personal note, everything goes well here. Ava and I are both in good health although we need to loose weight. We've been going to Jenny Craig together and, so far, we've both lost 10 pounds.
Last week we finished a long-term goal by replacing or refurbishing every square foot of flooring in our house. Three of our four bathrooms now have tile floors; we have hardwood floors on the entire second story except one bedroom (the one room Katy used when she stayed with us) with new carpet. The hardwood floors downstairs were sanded and restained. The dining room, living room, and stairs were recarpeted.
The living room was floor was quite an effort. For years it had shaked when anyone walked in it. To end this problem we had the subfloor removed, the drywall underneath removed, and the joists doubled up and in some cased trebled up. The subfloor was replaced with a much thicker plywood with tongue-and-groove edges. The dry wall was replaced with thicker material. The terrace off the living room was rebuilt. It was a very exasperating project. The end result: the floor doesn't shake as much.
Our business's are doing well. Ava's business volume has leveled off. Her continuing education business continues to grows since it is predicated on how many licensees received their licenses four years ago but her education for customers wishing to get their licenses has significantly dropped due to the very poor real estate market (before you can take the real estate examination, a prospective licensee needs three college level courses).
My business is just a fraction of hers. It's fully up and running. My problem is promotion. I'm currently involved with a major effort to elevate my Google search ranking and to create an incentive program for brokers to recommend my services. If you wish to see the current state of my site, go to www.45HoursOnline.com -- take the demo if you want to see what I provide.
Pookie and Mudpie (our two cats) are doing great. Pookie has gained quite a bit of weight the last couple of years and so now she is lucky to catch even a little lizard. But Mudpie remains svelt and a most astonishing huntress catching mice, rats, gophers, moles, snakes, lizards, humming birds, perching birds, and even (once) a baby possum.
So that's my first blog. I'll admit not a very good entry but I'll get better. Hope to read entries from all of you.
-->Chuck Milbourne, Jr.
Sounded interesting to see, but I guess the site asks for a license plate number too. So I couldn't view it
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