Isn't This Great

One of my favorite movie lines is from Captain Ron where Martin Short looks at his family while visiting a Caribbean island and says, "Isn't this great?" The line came to me this morning as I was busy getting things done with the help of the Internet.

I spent yesterday on the side of a freezing mountain acting as a finish referee for one of my kids' races. That sort of put me behind for the week and so I tried to make up for it by getting to work early this morning. I was up at 5:30 am to help get my kids and wife ready for a final day of racing. Then it was off to work where I could get caught up.

First on my list of things to do was reregistration for my wife's car. Thanks to our state's online program, it was just a matter of logging in and giving them a credit card number. The site then produced a PDF file to keep in the car until the license-plate sticker arrives. If it doesn't arrive before the end of the month, I just tape the lower portion of the printed page to the back window and my wife can continue driving without fear of getting a ticket.

Next on my list was paying bills. I have written before about how I do this online and so I won't go into any more details other than to say that my bank has recently improved this service. When I pay a specific bill, it now tells me the day that the payee will be paid. Sometimes it is one or two days while other times it is up to five. This is incredibly helpful when a local bill is due tomorrow but will take five days to pay online. Regular mail sometimes works better than online payments and I don't mind the price of a stamp to make sure all payments are made on-time.

Last week I mentioned that I had found the perfect gift for my oldest son. Unfortunately the place I planned to get his gift didn't have what I needed. Christmas is quickly approaching and so I needed to get it taken care of today. I fired off a quick e-mail to a local supplier and he is picking me up the gift this afternoon from the warehouse. Then he will call me as he heads down the freeway back to his home. We will meet up at a local gas station and exchange money for the gift. Furthermore, he can get it for me for about half of what it would cost in the store. And in case you are wondering, nope, it didn't fall off the back of a truck nor is it illegal.

With my personal tasks taken care of, it was time to do some real work. A quick e-mail message to a company I did some work for last week ensured my check is on its way. Another e-mail got the ball rolling on another project and it seems as if all of those things that kept me awake last night are now moving forward in the right direction.

It was a good morning and I felt I could run my college-age daughter to the library to pick up two books. She is home from school because of Christmas break and wanted to get some reading material during her relaxing vacation. She was enjoying the use of the Internet as well. She verified that the local library had the books and just needed a ride to pick them up. We got in the car and drove the short distance to the library. Unfortunately it was closed. We were too early and will have to go back later today. I laughed as we drove home because with all of the Internet usage, you would think that one of us would have checked the website to see what time the library opened.