Owasso, OK

You know, for every popular swing in opinion there is a marketing bonanza that just brings in floods of people dying to use it to pry dollars out of your hands. But not all actually fall into lock step with the actual initial intent of the message.

Before you start getting ideas to the contrary, I probably grew up in a greener home than most of the voices of the green movement today, but we didn't call it being green, we called it waste not, want not. I remember the long profitless and thankless days and evenings spent with my father tearing down an old house to salvage the lumber. This wasn't a business for him, but the home was going to be demolished and was full of hardwood building materials. So, we settled with the owner to tear it down for the lumber in it. It was hard work, but for a couple of years after that people would stop in occasionally needing hardwood, or better quality wood than they could buy on the current market, and dad would oblige. I remember learning to use a reel mower because "it was so pointless to run the gasoline powered mower". But you know, when we did that we were the odd ducks that "just must not be able to afford a better lifestyle" in the eyes of onlookers.

Having said all this I will get to the point. When someone wants to sell me a lightbulb that will save the earth, is anyone looking at the consequences of the manufacturing process? What about the mercury gas in that bulb. Sure, sure the label says dispose of properly, but what is properly, and how many people are doing that? My education is in Physics, and I get excited about making the most benefit out of the least amount energy usage, but I am starting to have some questions. For instance, what are the consequences of creating the solar panels? Will more energy ever come out of them than has been used making them? Those high tech materials take a lot of processing to create. Are we taking this into account when looking at the benefits? The problems always faced with electric cars has been portability. Put the electricity into lead batteries and you have a lot of weight (not from the electricity)..... and lead. So now we have new capabilities with batteries, but these are not easy on the enviroment. They take increased mining and more intrusive smelting processes.

In conclusion, I say the following. We have to start somewhere, and we have to change. But WE determine the market place, and consequently have to do our homework. A 30 second advertisement may have a conflict of interest when it comes to fully informing us of what is the best for the world. Going green may not always be glamorous but it can be done, often times with less expense than we are investing now.

On a previous post questions came up regarding Disability Insurance. I will try to outline as simply as possible these products and also provide some reference material. There are two basic types of disability insurance. These are Short Term Disability and Long Term Disability. These are meant to replace some percentage of your income if you are unable to work. Each one of the policies will have a period of time that you must be disabled before you are able to draw benefits. This is called the elimination period. They also will have a maximum amount of time that they will pay out. A Short Term Disability policy will have a shorter elimination period and a shorter payout period. Inversely Long Term Disability will have a longer elimination period and a longer payout.

Of course each provider will have their own twists to the basic policy structure. Some have minimum requirements on length of time in profession if you are self employeed. Some policies are for accidents only. Usually you can add provisions that will pay you a partial income in the event that you are only partially disabled, other options include the ability to adjust the policy over time for cost of living changes.

One big question often asked is how affordable the coverage is. This is affected by how extensive the conditions of coverage are, the type of job you are doing, and of course the amount of income you would need to replace. Another option is that you may be able to gain access to a group policy through a trade organization or your management structure.

Things to look for: What are considered disabilities, what the elimination period is, your ability to renew, and the stability of the company that you are purchasing from.

For a detailed read I would encourage you to look at http://www.iii.org/individuals/disability/.

This is Tamara. She's the manager of the Owasso Delta Cafe. My wife and I met her tonight while eating dinner at the restaurant. Let me introduce you to a wonderful lady who believes in going the extra mile for the customer.

Tamara told me that she's been working for Delta Cafe, Inc for sixteen years. Yes, that's 16 years. You don't stay in the food service industry that long unless you love what you do and you're good at it. And Tamara is very good at what she does.

I asked her why she decided to work at Delta Cafe all those years ago. She said it was because the company offered her flexible hours that allowed her to be with her children. Thanks to Delta Cafe, she didn't have to put her kids into daycare, which was something she didn't want to do.

Tamara's favorite part of working for Delta Cafe is meeting new people. I'd say she chose the right job for that since this restaurant has quickly become a busy Owasso favorite. The Owasso Delta Cafe opened in March of 2008 and was thrilled as they saw their business take off right from the start. Of course, you could guess this, but just in case you were wondering...weekends are the busy times.

It's always good to know what the manager likes on the menu, so I asked. The answer? Catfish!

One thing you might not know about the Delta Cafe is that you can come in just to grab dessert, if you want to. You've seen their special area by the ice cream fountain, right? Well, that area is for when you need something to satisfy your sweet tooth! And speaking of things you might not know, check this out. You can book the ice cream area for birthday parties! Tamara tells me that they're beginning to be pretty busy with the birthday party booking side of business. Not a bad idea, I'd say! Interested in booking a party? Just call 376-9333.

If you're going to be coming to Owasso and want to stop in for a great meal and super service, make sure you check out our Delta Cafe.

For directions to the restaurant, click here.

To visit the Delta Cafe website, click here.

One other thing you might not know about Delta Cafe is that they have gift certificates for kids in your organization or group. Tamara gave us a bunch to use in our church as awards for kids who achieve certain goals. When they get a gift certficate, they can take it to the restaurant and get 10% off their meal.

As I like to say...How cool is that?!

If you haven't made it down the Delta Cafe in Owasso yet, make sure you go soon. You'll enjoy good food, great service and top notch management!

Here in our town when you want a sweet treat, one of the places you head to is Braum's. It's one of those places where you run into friends while enjoying your shake, freeze or treat.

At nighttime in the summer, the neon lights are a beautiful sight!

These ladies are placing their orders while enjoying the view of the various flavors of ice cream!

Not only can you get your ice cream fix, but you can pick up your produce too. Notice that, towards the end of the day, the shelves have been somewhat picked over...

The bannana shelf is looking empty too!

You can get your veggies too! This shelf has apples, oranges, salads, carrots and dressings.

Got milk?

Think breakfast!

You got your cheese and your eggs and the bisquits and the yogurt too!

Meat lovers have their section too. The chicken salad ROCKS!

It wouldn't be an ice cream store if you couldn't take some home with you!

We don't have the Northern lights here in Oklahoma...we have the Nighttime lights!

We have lots of other great places to shop and eat in Owasso as well. Stay tuned for more photo tours in the near future!

When I started college I had in mind that I would get college over with and get down to the real stuff, making a living. Education time would be over and I could get serious about making a living (I.E. cash flow... something we didn't have in college). As I progressed through the process to gain my Physics degree I started to see that with the gains in science I would be having to refresh my education continually.

Upon graduation I entered into the corporate world, into a job not directly related to my degree, so the lectures and lab time stopped. But you have already guessed, in order to get promotions and to keep up I was continually learning something new, or learning more thoroughly the process that I already was assigned. Later as I had employees of my own, I tried to improve the materials provided them to learn, tried to make more obvious to them the resources available. From time to time though I would still have employees approach me and say "nobody ever trained me". I would point out to them the classes that had been provided, the training meetings, and last but not least, the actual on the floor, on the job training. Unfortunately those employees usually never suceeded, they could not see the opportunity.

I say this all to say, I am seeing now more than ever that I need to be a student for a lifetime. In trying to make a small business go, I have started reading. Each book I try to put into practice, and see that it helped me get a little closer. But I always have to pick up another book and start reading and practicing. I am never completely there. At first it was hard to start reading again, but now I see what I lost in the time I wasn't reading. How much better would I have been at my other jobs if I added ongoing reading to the mix? I am reading to my kids and while they get a tremendous amount out of it, I think I get more. More opportunity to visit with them, to see how they think, to train them to think, to prepare them for life.

Be a student for a lifetime, read, practice, experiment, live.