Product ideas, hit and miss

Some?times I get ideas for new products based on what I need for myself. Like the other day, after hiking up my jeans for the umpteenth time, it hit me.

It would be ?Inside-Your-Shirt Suspenders.? I thought about this for a while and then realized it wouldn?t be possible to make this work?unless you wore your shirt out, but then we already have those kind of suspenders.

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Our elementary students have it made. Nancy and I pretended to be grandparents and went to Grand?parents Day at HES this past week.

We have some kids in town that we are pseudo grandparents to because theirs live out of state. And our grandkids have never lived close by and one is about to graduate from high school this next year and the other is not far behind.

We saw the new playground up close and it is awesome with its zip line and all.

The teachers are really nice, thoughtful and welcoming.

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It hadn?t rained for weeks, and then the time I decide to do a little roof work over the weekend, it rains and stops all progress.

I learned I am not nearly as young as I used to be and that all of that strange bending has its consequences. Can?t remember being that sore in years. From now on I?ll leave it to the younger crowd to do those types of things.

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Most newer cars, or at least the ones built in this century, have a little yellow light that goes on when your fuel level is getting low. And some also indicate how many miles to empty.

If your spouse is like mine, you can?t even try to see how far the car will actually go based on the miles left on the indicator. You are obligated to buy gas before you really need to.

This past Friday morning I had a chance to test how far the car will go before it may run out of gas.

I attended the Newton Chamber breakfast at the Meridian Center since our new newspaper, Newton Now, was sponsoring the event and would have the floor for a while after the meal.

As I left the house I remember Nancy saying the fuel was low?I could probably make it to Newton but would probably need to fill up before I came back.

I get down there OK, then got in to come back and forgot about the low-fuel issue. I take off and see I have 23 miles to empty. That seems about right, so I figure if it drops to 16 by Walton I can still put in some gas there. But I get to Walton and it still says 20 miles to empty. I?m thinking this was my lucky day, so I kept going.

I will leave out the uncertainty I felt the rest of the trip, realizing how cold and windy it was. By the time I rolled into Jost Service, the fuel gauge says seven miles to empty. It seems to me that the car manufacturers are just playing with you with that indicator thingy.

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If you wish to share your comments or ideas, my e-mail address is joel@hillsborofreepress.com.

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