Strike Force Behind The Book: strikeforce.mp3 Writers Roundtable Interview With Dale Brown ATARI ACT OF WAR: DIRECT ACTION LINKS Dale Brown Interview With: Peter Anthony Holder When a former pilot turns his hand to thrillers you can take their authenticity for granted. His writing is exceptional and the dialogue, plots and characters are first-class... far too good to be missed.' --Sunday Mirror ‘Dale Brown is a superb storyteller’ --WASHINGTON POST ‘Dale Brown is the best military adventure writer in the country’ --CLIVE CUSSLER

Welcome To Tahoe, Part Deux
by Dale Brown, 2007

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT TheBigFiveOh.com Blog @ Yahoo.Com, 01/06/2008

According to my back deck railing snow gauge we've received 38 inches of snow since Friday here at Lake Tahoe, and it's just started coming down again although it's supposed to be relatively light today and tonight (just 6-12 inches more by tomorrow--that's considered a "break in the storm" around here).

No one snowblows a driveway better than I do, but this year I signed up for a service that automatically comes out whenever we get more than 3-4" of snow and does the front driveway and side walkway; it's extra to do the back deck and rake the roof. They don't get all the way down to the pavement, which irks me, but it's nice to wake up in the morning and not have to fire up the snowblower to get out of the garage because the guys have already taken care of it by seven a.m. They provide a great service.

On the other hand, my neighbor has been battling with a plumbing and heating company to fix their heating system for a month now. He (and I) have an older system that uses a natural gas furnace for the hydronic house heating, coupled with a heat exchanger for heating hot water, and he can get one or the other but not both.

It seems obvious to me that the older system has the plumber flummoxed, but instead of getting some help he appears to be just slapping in parts here and there to see if he stumbles across a fix. Should it take him a month to call for help to get the thing fixed or make the recommendation to replace it? I don't think so.

Around here, a person who provides a good reliable honest service is worth his or her weight in gold and is in great demand. I'm sure that's true for most places, but up here it's especially true. Often the real good ones are snapped up by wealthier families on a full-time basis. No matter what kind of service you do, if you look out for the needs of your customers you can pretty much command whatever price you want. You don't have to be a master craftsman or a world-renowned expert--just be responsible, reliable, and honest.

It's true that half the battle is just showing up, but show up with a positive mental attitude.

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