Real life

There’s a science to planting, maintaining, and keeping of trees.  As our world continues to change and get smaller, there may come a time when you need to call on an arborist to help.  If you own any type of property, odds are, you will have to deal with trees at one time or another. They are living, breathing creatures that can impact you in ways you may not realize.

Trees can be a great investment in improving your property value.  They can impact, positively or negatively, your home or property’s value, depending on how well the trees are taken care of.  Dead trees, branches that lean over a neighbor’s property, leaves dropping in the fall, et cetera, can not only decrease property values, but also lead to a liability.  

If you have an issue regarding your trees, not just any ‘tree guru’ will do.  Any company can advertise that they’re an arborist, but if they haven’t been accredited by the International Society of Arboriculture, then they are cheap hacks who don’t know what they’re doing.  Only certified arborists know the real science between tree health and maintenance.  

Getting an Accredited Arborist

The ISA doesn’t just hand out accreditations to anyone who wants to be an arborist.  If you’ve received certification, then you’ve passed intense and comprehensive exams, agree to a set of rules or “Code of Ethics”, and continue to educate yourself in this field in order to maintain your certification.  All in all, a certified arborist is much like an American school teacher when it comes to becoming certified.

To apply for accreditation, an arborist must have at least 3 years of full-time experience in Arboriculture.  To become certified, they must pass the test with a score of 72% as well as 30 units of continuing education every 3 years to remain certified.  The test itself covers a variety of subjects, including soil management, tree biology, tree placement, pruning, tree identification, urban forestry, and the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

So, if you have need for a tree specialist, please make sure that the person who comes to your home is a certified arborist or risk having a hack job done to your beautiful landscape.  Only a certified arborist can take care of you and your tree’s needs by taking care of them properly. But also make sure to do your homework, as even a certified arborist may run a bad practice.  

If you’re looking to add some resale value to your home and wonder what areas to focus on and which to definitely avoid, this article is for you.  It can be difficult (and quite expensive) to pinpoint the areas that need the most work, as different aspects of the house attract different buyers.  But there are a few places potential buyers look for first, which can help you decide where to focus the majority of your renovation budget.

1) Renovating the Kitchen

For around a hundred dollars, you can get a new faucet, add new handles to the cabinet door, and update lighting fixtures for a great feel.  If you have a higher budget, redo the cabinets completely and update the appliances, which will wow new potential buyers the moment they walk in.

To a majority of the people who search for new homes, the kitchen is the heart and soul of the whole place.  It’s the first place they go the moment they walk in the door. The kitchen/dining area is where families come together and bond, especially during the holiday seasons.  It’s where the magic happens. For a few hundred bucks, you can do a few updates to the kitchen to give it an improved and updated look.

2) Bathrooms. 

Bathrooms are often the second most important update in the house to potential buyers.  And the easiest to fix up. A new toilet seat and a re-grout of the tub may be all it needs.  Even new floor and wall tiles can be a quick, cheap way to give it a better, updated look.  

3) Add a room. 

Maybe you have a two-bedroom house and a den.  A small change may be all that’s needed to turn the den into a bedroom.  For example, maybe the difference is the den doesn’t have a closet. If you find a way to add the closet, suddenly you have a three-bedroom house and that’s much more valuable.  

4) Carpeting. 

Depending on how old the carpet is, it probably looks old and worn.  Even if it’s relatively new, a few years can really do a lot to make newish carpet look old.  You can rent professional cleaning equipment to spruce up the carpets in your home to give it a cleaner look.  If there are particularly bad spots of wear and tear, consider investing in new carpet or well-placed rugs to cover it up. 

Bad Renovations

5) Whirlpool baths, tubs, and saunas. 

These can be an attractive renovation feature, but in today’s economy and market, they can be considered as just too expensive to maintain, as well as the extra energy costs to run/use them. 

6) Personal additions. 

You love the additions you made to your home that suit your style.  For example, your taste in music and movies led you to install a state-of-the-art surround sound and home theater system.  Or the bar in the basement where you received guests. These are specialized, personal additions that may and often do not have any value to anyone other than you.  And thus, people will not pay a premium for a house because of these features.  

7) Wallpaper and paint. 

Just like adding personal renovation to the home, adding paint and wallpaper can turn away potential buyers.  A fresh coat of paint to update the feel of a room may not be a bad idea if it’s really worn, but don’t go crazy adding your own colors and getting it to look good.  Because again, it may look good to you, but not to them. They may feel the need to turn around and repaint or paper how they want it to look, making your attempt a waste of time and money.

Sometimes accidents happen.  The last place you want an injury to occur is in the workplace, potentially costing you time and money.  But some jobs are much tougher than others. The most common types of injuries in the workplace are sprains, usually caused by the lifting of heavy materials, as reported by The Travelers Companies. But that’s why Workers’ Comp exists

While slips, falls, and lifting injuries can be common in some jobs, there are other stories that tend to grab our attention. Not all Workers’ Comp stories are the same, as you’re about to find out. Here are 5 Famous (and often strange) Workers’ Comp stories.

Case #1: The Vending Machine of Steel

We’ve all spent some time trying to woo a member of the opposite sex.  We try to talk to them, buy them little treats, and often remind them how cool we are by doing dumb things we think will win us brownie points.  Often times, we end up looking foolish and the whole thing blows up in our face.  

That’s exactly what Clinton Dwyer was doing when he sustained a fractured hip that left him out of work for an undetermined amount of time.  Yes, Mr. Dwyer injured himself trying to impress a certain lady in his office, but not for a selfish reason. He was trying to free a bag of chips from the office vending machine…a bag of chips he was going to give to his lady of interest.  

It’s unknown how hard you have to shake a vending machine to fracture your hip, but this guy did it.  As a result, he filed for workman’s comp and won the case! The judge decided in his favor because he sought out the comfort of a co-worker by getting her chips when she was hungry. This makes it office and not personal related.  Interesting Workers’ Comp story.

Case #2: The Damn Dog Led to Workers’ Comp

For those of us who own pets, you know it’s downright impossible for them NOT to hang out around our feet and demand attention 24/7.  It’s in the pet ownership rulebook to make sure where you’re walking or something bad might happen. That something bad happened to Mary Sandberg.  She broke her wrist trying to make her way into the garage.  

You might wonder how a trip to the garage in her own home would result in Mary winning a Workers’ Comp case. As it turns out, she’s a decorator for J.C. Penny.  What she had in her garage were many fabric samples she was storing there. This made her home protected territory as long as she was doing her job there. 

Case #3: The Sex Lamp

A woman in Australia (name unknown) recently went on a business trip and while there, busted her face with a lamp attached to the wall.  How did she manage such an incredible feat? By having crazy sex that resulted in said broken lamp breaking off and smacking her. Of course, she filed for workman’s comp, which her place of employment fought.

Their thinking was that the sex wasn’t an ordinary act of the business trip, but the judge decided that no agreement was made beforehand about her conduct while on the business trip, so she won! Fancy that. Awarded Workers’ Comp for having sex on the job.

Case #4: A Man and His Bear

It must be pretty awesome (and terrifying) to work with bears on a daily basis.  Brock Hopkins, a bear feeder at Great Bear Adventures in Montana, gets to do exactly that.  You’d think a job like that would require a person to come to work with a sober and clear mind.  But that’s exactly what Brock didn’t do.

Finishing off his pot stash before work, Brock decided to have a little fun with a particular bear.  And when he ended up getting mauled and losing a part of his butt cheek, he was awarded $65,000 in Workers’ Comp damages to cover his medical bills.

Case #5: The Price is Wrong

Who hasn’t dreamed of one day turning that big wheel on The Price is Right? We can only hope it lands on the famous $1 to get that free spin.  That’s what Cathy Cashwell of North Carolina did in 2009. Using her whole upper body strength, she gave that wheel a good push and round it went. 

The only problem is, she was supposed to be out of work due to an upper-body injury. She was collecting the workman’s comp money while appearing on the show.  Oops! She pled guilty to fraud. There were also pictures posted to her Facebook of her zip-lining that were used against her as well. 

No one likes a trade war. It is essentially two powerful country raising taxes on its own citizens. But that doesn’t mean they’re not effective at getting things done. While many people understand that China has crossed the line, they also don’t like paying more for goods. It’s not good for anyone when the world’s top two strongest economies are butting heads.

The U.S. has taken steps to cut Chinese imports by as much as a quarter. That totals to around $35 billion so far. The move has also increased prices for American consumers. That’s a bad thing going into the 2019 holiday season. While the trade war has been going on for 16 months, there is some optimism a deal might be coming soon. Hopefully that’s just not wishful thinking.

“Overall, the results indicate that the United States tariffs on China are economically hurting both countries,” the report said. “United States losses are largely related to the higher prices for consumers, while China’s losses are related to significant export losses.” So, while both countries have lost money, it would appear the tariffs are doing what Trump wants them to do.

The Trade War and Its Impact

The industries hurt the most is Chinese manufacturing. They’ve been hit with $15 billion in losses. As Trump continued to increase the tariffs, the losses have been growing. As Chinese manufacturing was down, other countries really helped to fill the void. Specifically, Taiwan really won the most by taking in an additional $4.2 billion.

Mexico has also increased the amount of trade with the U.S. They hoped to reap some of the benefits and they have. The country has made an additional $3.5 billion from machinery and agriculture. For China, it’s looking more and more like those losses will be a permanent. They’ve been hit so hard their economy will struggle to recover.

“The longer the trade war goes on, the more likely these losses and gains will be permanent,” Nicita said. Not all of Chinese trade losses were picked up by other economies and billions of dollars in trade were lost entirely. This might be why China is now willing to come back to negotiations.

Make no mistake, China is a proud country. They won’t concede defeat, but hopefully the trade war will end very soon. If it goes on any longer, it could have disastrous implications for our economy.

Wall Street didn’t have too many expectations in October. There were signs of the beginning of a recession and the GM strike had people worried. Economists estimated maybe a little growth, around 89,000. With a 42,000 job decline in the auto part manufacturing and another 20,000 being laid off, expectations weren’t too high.

As we woke up on November 1^st, we were greeted with good news. The jobs report blew well past the dismal expectations. It’s a good indication that the economy is still humming along. Some of it might have to do with increased holiday hiring towards the latter part of October. This is the time of year when department and retail stores across the country bring on more help.

This comes with even better news. The average hourly earnings rose a bit as well. They’re up 3% from this time last year. This report pretty much alleviates any fears that the economy was on the brink of a recession. Earlier in the summer, there were rumors that we might be hurdling towards a recession.

“As long as consumers feel confident, the economy should stay on track,” said Tony Bedikian, managing director of Citizens Bank. And consumers do feel fairly confident going into the holiday season. More people have jobs today than we’ve seen in decades. This bodes well for the president as we enter the first phases of the impeachment inquiry.

President Trump tweeted: “Wow, a blowout JOBS number just out, adjusted for revisions and the General Motors strike, 303,000. This is far greater than expectations. USA ROCKS!”

Job Growth and Politics

If these type of job numbers continue throughout the next year, it should help the president big time. The economy is usually the number one issue for voters. If it’s humming along, then Trump should be able to keep his support. The Democrats, on the other hand, give credit to Obama only for all this growth. But Obama never saw these types of numbers.

While Obama might’ve helped get the ball rolling, it didn’t really pick up speed until Trump was elected. His election alone increased a lot of economic confidence. In fact, when many predicted the stock market would crash, it soared. Promises of lower taxes and cut regulations, both of which Trump accomplished, only helps to inspire economic growth.

Despite the good numbers so far, they could be better. The trade war with China and increased tariffs have hurt us. Farmers and agriculture in particular are struggling. Tariffs are essentially an additional tax, making things more expensive. This added expense is also why economists feared an economic and job downturn. So far, it hasn’t happened yet.

Money problems is considered the number one reason for divorce. It can be tough living with someone who has the opposite mindset than you do when it comes to money. For example, what do you do if you’re a saver and your spouse is a spender? There are ways to work on that together, like putting together a budget that makes both of you happy.

Yet, spending can become a problem. This is especially true if your spouse isn’t being honest with you about what they’re doing with the money. You might not know that they took out a credit card without telling you. What about taking out a loan? These things happen all the time. If your spouse isn’t honest with you, it can come back to haunt you.

Let’s take a look at 5 red flags your spouse is hiding money problems from you.

1) Has Difficulty Being Honest about Money

When you’re first seeing someone and things are becoming serious, usually they’re open about things in their lives. Sometimes, the opposite is true about things they want to hide. Financial problems are on that list. If they don’t want to tell you about how much debt they have, that should be a red flag. If they wave off talking about their student debt, they probably have a lot. There’s a lot of shame that goes with having debt. Many potential partners might consider that a deal breaker. If they’re not open and honest about it, they might have something to hide.

2) Guards the Mailbox

If someone has debt, the odds are good they will receive letters in the mail. Maybe it’s a credit card statement or a letter from a debt collector. Either way, someone is being fishy if they’re always quick to jump at the mail. It might mean they are trying to prevent you from finding something.

3) Has Addictive Behaviors

Financial difficulties are often the result of other types of addictive behavior. Imagine a drug abuser who has to do whatever they can to get their next fix. Even average people have things they’re ashamed of and addictions they can’t seem to deal with. In that same light, they will waste their money on their addiction, whether it’s drugs, gambling, or whatever it is. When that happens, it’s difficult to hide the money lost. That’s when they get into doing shady things, like taking out a loan or getting a new credit card.

4) Unsure How They Purchased Items

Some people like to have all the latest stuff. If you can easily afford it, and it’s common, there’s no big deal here. You expect your spouse to get the latest iPhone and dress buy new clothes. But, what if you don’t have the budget for it? It’s not necessarily a sign of trouble. For example, many phone companies will upgrade for free or offer a free tablet. If you’re concerned, take the time to check.

5) Hides their Statements

Have you seen the credit card statement in a while? What about the bank statement for the month? Are you keeping track of the money? A sign someone is doing something wrong is they hide what they do. If you’re not allowed to look at the statements, it can cost you in the long run. This is especially true if you’re getting married and/or thinking about buying a home together.

There is nothing more important to our health than getting a good night’s sleep.  I know when I get less than what my body needs, my entire next day is completely thrown off.  I mean, how can I properly concentrate on my deadlines while barely keeping my eyes open the next morning?  The lack of sleep each night can really sabotage your performance, drive, and ability to function.  

The good news is you can completely reverse sleep-related health conditions by changing your sleep habits.  To change your habits, though, means you need to understand what causes you to lose sleep in the first place.  Once you figure out what robs you of those precious Zzzs, it’s easier to devise a plan to get the optimal rest you need to function at your best.  

Here is a list of ten reasons you can’t sleep I’ve put together to help you figure out the changes you need to make in your sleep schedule:

Reason #1: Losing Sleep Forces Us to Sleep In

This one is a drag.  I’m sure most us hit our alarms at 5:30 AM every morning and mutter how much we can’t wait for Saturday so we can sleep in.  Maybe we even stay up late Friday night painting the town. It’s become a tradition, week in and week out. But little do we realize how badly this throws off our internal clock. 

Essentially, sleeping in Saturday morning sets off a chain reaction of inappropriate sleeping conditions the rest of the weekend. We stay up later Saturday night, knowing once again we can sleep in Sunday morning.  So what happens on Sunday? Our sleeping habits have been reprogrammed. We stay up later Sunday night and then feel like garbage Monday morning when 5:30 AM rolls around again.  

To fix this, try to keep to a regular sleep schedule, even on the weekends.  Even if you decide to stay up late Friday night, wake up at the same time every morning.  Try taking a quick 3-minute nap in the early afternoon to make up for it.

Reason #2: Inconsistent Sounds

For me personally, I cannot sleep without a fan blowing somewhere in the room.  I need that white noise sound to lure me to slumber. I’m not sure where that need came from, other than growing up in the deep south where there were fans on all the time and it stuck with me.  All I know is if I stay at someone’s house and there is no fan, I cannot sleep. Period.  

If you’re stuck in a place where sleeping conditions are the opposite extreme of what you desire, a fan or white noise machine might do the trick, even if you prefer silence, suggests Thomas Roth, PhD, director of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. 

Reason #3: Allergies

According to Alan Goldsobel, MD, a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Jose, CA, your bed has a pest problem.  As many as 10 million could be sharing your sleep space, who leave behind a nasty residue known to trigger allergies.  

If you are prone to allergies, especially at night when you go to bed, this may be the case.  Luckily, there are ways to reduce this disgusting problem. Other countermeasures include cleaning regularly by dusting and vacuuming, as well as opening a window, which is one of the most effective ways to cut down on mites.  

Reason #4: Food Intake (or lack thereof) 

This one can go both ways.  If you have a habit of eating a large meal before hitting the sack, as most of us are probably guilty of at times, the food digesting in your gut can keep you awake.  This is especially true for high-protein foods, as they require more time and energy to digest.

Fatty and spicy foods, along with anything else that disagrees with you, can cause gas, heartburn, and discomfort, which are all things to avoid if you hope to fall asleep peacefully.  And of course, do I need to mention staying away from caffeine? It’s a major stimulant that will make sleep difficult.

Reason #5: A Work Room

Stress can be caused by even the smallest of situations.  Do you use your bedroom as an office? Is it a big ‘ole pile of papers and messy?  It’s said a cluttered room/office is a cluttered mind. It’s this overworked mind that keeps working, and turning, and churning.  Reality is, using your work space as a sleep space does not work. What you associate at one time of the day as a stressor, full of deadlines and overdue bills, can’t easily be shut off at night to become this amazing place of rest.  

According to the American Psychological Association, stressors are the top cause of short-term sleep and waking up frequently in the night.  This means if you keep your stress in the room with you, you’re going to struggle getting the sleep you need. When you remove all that stress, you begin to associate your room once again with sleep and intimacy. 

Can you imagine having a full slate of vacation days, but only using half of them? That’s exactly what one-third of Gen-Zers are doing. Priceline released a new survey yesterday that found out that 55% of Americans, not just Gen-Z, are leaving as many as 10 vacation days on the table. The reason why is quite interesting.

According to the survey, many workers feel guilty about taking their vacation time. 24% of Gen Zers surveyed said they felt guilt. This is compared to only 8% of Baby Boomers and 16% of Gen Xers. 19% of millennials feel the same. The guilt is a driving factor, but they also are concerned about how their employers views them. They feel as if taking their full vacation time allotted to them will ruin their reputation.

That means a lot of people who even take vacations aren’t fully unplugging. They are staying connected. Half of Gen-Zers feel the need to check work emails or keep up on their voicemails while away from work. Again, the percentages drop as you go through the generations. 16% of Gen-Zers check their work email every few hours. How do they get a chance to unwind and relax?

Any Regret for Not Taking More Vacation Days?

So, the big question that needs to be asked next is whether Gen-Z regrets not taking vacations. 30% of them said they wished they did something more spontaneous, like took a quick trip when they had the opportunity. Most of the regret they felt was taking vacation time for others. That means they might’ve taken a day off to go to a friend’s wedding.

A lot of this guilt might have more to do with the employers. They make it seem as if taking a few days off would hurt the worker. Their reputation with the boss would definitely suffer. While they offer these weeks of vacation to draw in workers, they don’t want you to take them. If you felt taking a needed vacation works against you, you might feel guilty doing it.

There are four major drug companies in the U.S. currently under the microscope. These companies are being blamed for causing the opioid crisis in this country. Cardinal Health, McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen, and Teva Pharmaceuticals are the four that have been under investigation. Rather than going through a long trial that would look bad on TV, they decided to settle.

The settlement came at around 1 AM Monday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster said he was happy with the way the situation was resolved. “The parties were always free to reach a resolution, and I’m glad they did,” said Polster.

Over the past two decades, it’s estimated that nearly 400,000 people have died in connection to opioids. Even legal prescriptions are to blame. Apparently, these companies are responsible for using tactics to push drugs on people, even while knowing about their addictive properties. As a result, this lawsuit was filed to try and reap damages. 2,600 lawsuits have been filed during this time and now a settlement has been reached.

The Drug Epidemic

Many people who abuse drugs never intended to do so. It starts out with being prescribed opiates for a variety of reasons. Many of those are legitimate prescriptions to help patients deal with pain. The problem is, these types of medications are addicting. People start taking a drug and are rarely monitored. One pill turns into two, which turns into three. Their tolerance begins to wane and they need more. Suddenly, they’re taking enough to overdose on.

Many different lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the families who lost loved ones due to this epidemic. It appears as if the settlement will be around $50 billion to recover the damages in these areas. The families want justice and the federal government is looking to fight the opioid crisis. They need money and resources to do so.

“This is not your typical tort product liability case. It’s really about an epidemic,” Carl Tobias, a professor in the law school at the University of Richmond, said. “There are so many different motivations among so many different players, it’s virtually impossible to know what would be good.”

“The distributors’ role is to help ensure that medicines prescribed by licensed doctors are delivered to licensed pharmacies, so they are available for patients who need them, when they need them, where they need them,” the three large distributors said in a joint statement issued after settlement negotiations hit an impasse on Friday. “We have to balance our mission to deliver medicines to pharmacies and hospitals when and where they need them against our important efforts to prevent and detect illegal diversion of those drugs.”

There’s nothing that can put a value high enough on the lives that have been lost. Too many Americans have died as a result of the opioid epidemic. But a new study from the Society of Actuaries was able to look at the financial toll. According to their survey, the U.S. economy lost $631 billion in a three-year span. This is only non-medical uses of opioids.

The bulk of this money are the lost earnings those who died from overdoses would’ve made. The next highest determining factor are the health care costs involved. Between the years of 1999 and 2017, the CDC has estimated as many as 702,000 people died from drug overdoses. 400,000 of those counted were from drugs that were prescribed by a doctor.

“While the number of opioid prescriptions peaked in 2011 (at 219 million), the number of drug overdose deaths has continued to climb,” the Society of Actuaries’ Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Committee reports.

“More than 70,000 Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses, and opioids are the fastest-growing and the largest drug category involved. Opioid overdose deaths are now the single largest factor slowing the growth in U.S. life expectancy and have led to stagnation or decreases in life expectancy three years in a row for the first time since 1915–1918, when the country was facing World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic. By some estimates, the United States may be on track to see an additional 500,000 opioid overdose deaths over the next decade.”

Opioid Abuse Declared a Public Health Emergency

It was in 2018 when the Department of Health and Human Services finally announced that we were in the middle of a public health emergency. At the time, nearly 130 people were dying each day from opioid drug overdoses. Now, the problem only seems to be accelerating. It was one of the areas President Trump promised to tackle once he won the presidency.

Still, the cost of the opioid epidemic is likely to hit between $171 billion and $214 billion in 2019 alone.

“The nature and scale of the opioid crisis have been in considerable flux in recent years, with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl only recently becoming a dominant driver of the severity of the crisis” the actuaries report in the study. “Provisional estimates from the CDC show opioid overdose deaths plateauing in 2018, but overdose deaths from illicit use of synthetic opioids are still on the rise, and it’s not yet clear whether overdose deaths are likely to be higher or lower in 2019. As such, timely estimates are key for understanding the economic costs of the crisis as it is currently manifesting.”

“Opioid overdose deaths are now the single largest factor slowing the growth in U.S. life expectancy and have led to stagnation or decreases in life expectancy three years in a row for the first time since 1915–1918, when the country was facing World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic.”