Bill Dunn

Like anyone, I am always tickled when I get a reply off my website. In the past 2 weeks I've gotten a couple of strange phone calls. But I was glad to have gotten them.

One call was from an insurance agent. She told me a gentleman asked her for an insurance quote on a home he had found on my web site. She called me to obtain some details about the home. Before I learned my web site was involved I told her I didn't have any idea what she was talking about. The home was an hour away from my area of expertise.

I received another call today from a television reporter in the Nashville area. She wanted information about a family that lived in a home in Cadiz, KY. She thought I was the listing agent. She said there was a murder in the home last night, although I can't find anything about it online. I told her it wasn't my listing and she should call the listing agent who was listed right under my name.

I've been working to increase my internet presence over the past few weeks so I hope these calls indicate good progress!

Today my family and I spent most of my time watching TV. While channel surfing we came across a marathon on A&E called "Parking Wars". It's a reality TV show that shows the daily events of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. The show has periods where the camera crew follow "meter maids", tow truck drivers and the staff at the impound lot.

As you might expect, the public that is shown is not in a good mood. Most of the public is either being ticketed for being parked in a no parking zone, next to a fire hydrant or in a rush hour zone. One lady we saw today was double parked. Other vehicles were having a "boot" placed on a tire so they couldn't leave or the vehicle was being towed. These vehicles had an excess in parking tickets.

My wife and I watched this show with interest because we own a business that at one time was on Broadway in downtown Paducah. The parking on Broadway in this part of town is similar to parking in a big city. The city of Paducah actually removed the parking meters long ago but parking in this section of downtown is limited to 2 hour parking. At one time the city's "meter maid" actually marked tires with chalk and ticketing vehicles parked in the same spot for more than 2 hours.

Being a business owner, this two hour parking limitation was very important to us. Western Kentucky residents aren't acustomed to parallel parking nor having to search for a parking space and then walking a couple of blocks to the store. With our business model it's even more detrimental. Many other business' employees or people going to the federal courthouse on 5th Street would park and stay all day. We needed these spaces open for customers.

A couple of years ago we moved our business a couple of blocks to a building that has it's own parking lot. It still has a few parking spaces on the street but we aren't dependent on those.

Paducah's GPS RecycleNow recycling efforts have expanded hours and a new location!

Now, you can bring your recyclables to 1830 North 8th Street during the following hours:

• Thursday 12pm - 6pm
• Friday 7am - 12pm
• Saturday 9am - 1pm

Volunteers are needed to help. Volunteering information can be found at http://www.recyclenowpaducah.com/node/18

An example of acceptable recycables are shown below.

When I married my wife back in 2001, the deal included a couple of winter tires!

One of the things that intrigued us when we first talked on the phone before our blind date was the fact that we both owned Ford Broncos. She had the one her dad gave her and I had one I bought myself. Her Bronco was an '86 and mine was a '92.

Her dad had bought a couple of WinterTrax winter tires for her. For as long as I've known my wife she never used the tires. it doesn't really snow that much around here. I never installed them on her truck or any other vehicle.

A few years ago I asked her if it was ok to sell those tires. I listed them on our local Classifieds web site for a few dollars. This web site is always hopping with visitors and ads - which I happen to manage . I didn't get a single response.

So these tires sat next to my shed in the back yard for a few more years. I finally decided to ask the wife if I could just give them away. She agreed!

So, at about 9:30pm one night this week, I put them back on the Classifieds and advertised "Free WinterTrax winter tires!". I included the size and two pictures of the tires with rims. Within 10 minutes I had an email reply.

The next morning, I had another email and within a couple of hours I had 5 phone calls. I had left these tires at the end of my driveway so whoever showed up could get them without me being there. I live at the end of a short dead end street so there wouldn't be any passersby see these tires.

When I got home that evening the tires were gone. I don't know who got them but I hope they can use them. They weren't used a single time by me.

How is this related to real estate?

One of the gentleman asked me if I was a realtor. I had used my realtor profile on the Classifieds to advertise these tires. He asked me how the market was right now and said he was going to sell his home and move to Princeton, KY sometime. I honestly told him it wasn't very good right now. He asked me to call him when the market was "HOT!" so we could get it listed. I started smiling to myself because of the words he was using. He was an older guy so the words kinda surprised me. It was quite interesting for such a short conversation.

Before writing this blog entry I start wondering if there was anything else I could put at the end of the driveway!

BTW, the tires shown are the actual tires I was giving away.

This week Kentucky Govenor Steve Beshear (D), begain shutting down online gambling web sites. The list of web sites counts 141 domains that have been "legally" hijacked in the name of consumer advocacy. In reality, it's to complete an issue he's been fighting for - legalized gambling.

Why does this hit a cord with me? Gambling was a political issue during the last gubernatorial election. Steve Beshear stated repeatedly stated throughout his campaign that he WILL get gambling approved in the state of Kentucky. See this page for his praise from his casino supporters.

In Feb 2008, he lost his first attempt to get the voting issue on the ballot in Kentucky. Afterward, he repeated his campaign goal of getting gambling legalized in the state. He must now wait until the General Assembly meets in 2010.

Now Beshear is shutting down online gambling sites claiming unregulated and unlicensed online gambling prey on the states citizens and youth, stealing millions of dollars of revenue from the state each year. The press release even says "It's an underworld wrought with scams and schemes".

IMO this is Beshear taking an iron fist to force the gamblers of this great state to legalize gambling. Will it work? He's undertaken an uphill battle from the start but now he's taking away a liberty from many of the people he needs support from.