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Show ommunity lews Be smart - pay off debts Covering what matters most A2 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2007 - N E W S - Spanish Fork 280 North Main St. Spanish Fork, UT 84660 Lane Henderson Namon Bills Ready or Not Publisher Editor The Spanish Fork News is published each Wednesday for $37.50 per year in area and $41.50 out of area by J-Mart, 280 North Main St., Spanish Fork Utah 84660. Email stories to editor@spforknews.com Email ads to ads @spfo rkn cws. co m Call us at 794-4964 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Spanish Fork News 280 North Main St. Spanish Fork, Utah 84660 The entire content of this newspaper is Copyright© 2007 Spanish Fork News. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the editor or publisher. DEADLINES Weddings, anniversaries, missionaries, 1st birthdays, articles, photos, letters to the editor Friday, 12 p.m. Display advertising and classified advertising Friday, 12 p.m. Dawn Van Nosdol The following comments are not the opinions of the newspaper or the other writers for the newspaper. They also may not be the opinion of your creative financial advisor or hairdresser, but they are my opinions. Get your debts paid off! I say this because I see so much "creative" financing going on and quite frankly it scares me. You now have the option to finance your house at 110% of its value. Who would ever pay more for something than it is worth? Next time you go to the grocery store to buy food storage (which, by the way, is an investment too), offer to pay 10 percent more than the total and see how they react. The housing market changes all the time and it is a very scary thing to owe more on your house than you could ever get out of it — the market doesn't always go up. Or what about the mortgages where you pay nothing on the principle and have the option to only pay the interest each month? Thirty years later, when your house should be paid off, you will still owe exactly what you did when you bought it, or maybe just a little bit less if you threw some principle payments in every once in a while to make yourself feel better. Ouch. Be responsible with your mortgages; don't get variable rate mortgages, no matter how tempting lives by renting, I mean leasing, so they might be, because you may not that you can look cool. Responsible be in the position to go to a fixed rate people that save a portion of their when you need to. Try to stay away disposable income and take care of from second mortgages. You are what they have is really cool. playing a gambling game with the We have all seen how the econosecurity of your future and believe my goes in cycles. My parents still me, living with your kids won't be remember some of the leftover connearly as much fun if you lose your cerns of the Depression. I have lived house and have no other option. through a few recessions, but as a soI have had several different ciety, we seem to have a short-term seemingly intelligent people try to memory when it comes to how bad it convince me that leasing a car is a can get during the bad times because smart thing to do. I just don't agree. we are currently experiencing fairly They tell me that it is a sure way to good times. In the job that I have, I have a reliable car all the time. Brother. order from a supplier whose entire If you change your oil, have your car stock of items comes from China. I fluids checked and take it in for regular talked to him last week and he said checkups, your car, that is paid off, that it was a good thing that we had will be just as reliable as the person ordered our product back in May who's latest and greatest newer model because we were just barely able to car, which is essentially just renting it get it into the States. Several Chiand having to pay additional fees for nese officials have been hung (literthe privilege to drive it, will be. ally, not figuratively) because of the Who comes up with these ideas? lead paint fiasco and other dangerous Most cars manufactured today, with products that have been shipped out proper maintenance, will easily go of that country. He said that China is over 200,000 miles before anything in trouble and that the people he has major will go wrong. A vehicle been talking to over there said that the shouldn't be a fashion statement as entire Chinese economy is in chaos. much as a source of transportation to Don't think that their problems won't make it possible for you to accomplish affect us in the United States. The things like going to work, taking world is too small, and we have all kids to school or lessons, shopping, become interdependent on the differshopping for food storage and maybe ent countries and economies around even going to the movies and out to the world. If something happens in dinner every once in a while. If you have the income to have a really nice their world, it will eventually trickle car — buy it, but don't become a slave down to us. I listened to a newscaster talk to the payments for the rest of your about how retail stores are panicking because the toys that they ordered from China for the Christmas season are simply not going to be shipped out of China. Low Christmas sales because of lack of product (this is a real concern) means lower income for the stores, more people laid off, less disposable income, smaller tax base for the cities and so on. Just think back to what happened to the economy after 9-11. Pay your bills down, or even better yet, pay them off and then re-evaluate your spending habits. Ask yourself if you are putting your emphasis on the really important things in life: your family, your health, your safety and your security. And get your water stored! The rising cost of groceries Approaching There and Back Again Shirlene R. Ottesen Trips to the grocery store are getting more interesting as time goes on. I'm sure that most have noticed arisein many of the food products that we use on a regular basis. Most shoppers have prices memorized so that they know, yes, that's a good price or no it isn't. There are several reasons for the increase — higher gas prices, higher feed costs for beef cattle and dairy cows, reduced inventories and I guess exports are up fairly good. The expectations of ethanol as an alternative fuel has taken much of the corn crop, and because it is used in many food products and also feed for livestock, it has caused a ripple effect in many areas. In several of the dairy magazines that we get, the predictions are that prices at the retail level will continue to rise well into 2008. Who knows for sure? It's pretty much a roller coaster ride because there are so many factors that could change the predictions that it's anyone's guess. One factor that is completely out of our control is the weather. I guess in some parts of the southwest they are still in a drought which is causing a lot of problems. And water! What a precious resource. There are several cities, states and individuals with all kinds of plots and plans to take water away from someone else. This is one resource that we really take for granted, but it is becoming more and more of a topic of discussion among governments and those in charge of managing or securing this precious resource. Think how much water you use in your home each and every day — water to cook with, clean with, do laundry and personal cleanliness. How many times a day do you go to the faucet just for a drink! Ifyouliveonafarmand have a lot of cattle or just have a pet or two, water is needed. We use water on our yards and lawns and for those of us who make a living on a farm, irrigation water is our lifeline. The new chickens that we got in June haven't started laying eggs yet, so I was in the grocery store one day buying some eggs. It seems that I use a lot of eggs, and we know that they have gone up in price. A lady was standing nearby and saw me putting them in my cart. She made a remark that really surprised me. She said, "Eggs sure have gone up in price, haven't they? They haven't changed much for a long time. I sure hope the farmers are making a profit." Wow! I have never heard anyone say that — that they hoped the farmers were making some money. I wanted to give her a big hug and thank her. She looked familiar, but I wasn't sure if she was who I thought she was and so I didn't. Thinking about it afterwards, I decided that she must have grown up on a farm and knew how much hard work is involved, and that's why she made such a statement. Anyway, it was refreshing to hear because, even though the people living in America spend less of their disposable income on food than any other nation in the world, farmers take a lot of blame for the amount of money spent in the grocery store. The next time you put your groceries away when you get home, take note of the items that you do not consume such as toilet paper, greeting cards, dog food, shoe polish, cleaning supplies, holiday decorations, kleenex, storage bags, baby diapers, medicines at the pharmacy, matches, wax paper, paper plates, etc. It will soon become very clear that food items do not account for your total bill at the grocery store. I think 2008 could be an interesting if not a challenging year. Why? I don't really know why — maybe it's just because there is so much chaos around the whole Earth, terrible things happening in places I've never heard of before, as well as bad things happening in places close by us. Finding peace, even within our own lives is getting harder. Even so, I'm grateful to live where I do, grateful for family and good friends and neighbors. Parting thought for the week: "Like the mortal life of which they are a part, adversities are temporary. What is permanent is wliat we become by the way we react to them" The hazards of friendly bears this. In fact, a friend of mine from out of town kept calling me, asking how close they were to me. For a while I Charla Zeeman was getting paranoid about them. I began to wonder if we were under siege Last week we talked about my and didn't know it. friend who has been accused of being Now I have a fear of most animals, in charge of all kinds of things. Well, but I think that bear cubs are really quite this week she has been upgraded. She cute little rascals; but I don't want one is now in charge of the Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). The for a pet! When a bear is out in the wild poor lady is being weighed down with and stays there, most of us don't have everyone's problems it seems, and she a problem with it. They are normally doesn't even know about it until her afraid of people and stay away from telephone rings! us. But when a bear begins to accept us there is a problem. Mr. Bear is much For several weeks, there were bear bigger and stronger than we are and he sightings in and about Spanish Fork. Folks were getting pretty upset about has a killer instinct. OK, maybe he's Ramblin' Roads \ just being friendly, but I prefer other friends! Another problem is developed when we infringe on the bear's territory. We find a nice spot in the canyons and build a beautiful home there. Mr. Bear usually moves away, but he can't always do so. He is attracted to our food, our campsite and eventually us. This is why when we visit the forest areas, we find signs warning us that we are in bear territory. We are also appraised of any sightings in the area. But back to my friend. Someone called her at her business and asked her, See BEARS • A3 Halloween 'Round and About Benjamin Kathleen Olsen Our sympathy goes to Richard and Janet Erickson and their children, Tony and Maureen Erickson and Jana Lee Williams on the death of their mother and grandmother, Mary Dean Erickson. She passed away on Monday, Oct. 8, 2007, at her home in Spanish Fork. Funeral services were held on Friday, Oct. 12 in Spanish Fork with burial in the Salem Cemetery. All of Benjamin is invited to the annual Trunk or Treat evening on Halloween. The event, under the direction of the activities committees of both wards, will take place in the church parking lot with everyone invited to join in the festivities. Treats can be dispensed from the car trunks with additional refreshments served on the north side of the church. For more information, contact Alan and Pat Swenson or Blair and Kathleen Olsen. ••• The Benjamin 1st ward Relief Society is planning a Super Saturday on Nov. 3, 2007. Plans are being made for making fun holiday items among other things. Exhibits from the ongoing mini groups will also be on display. More details concerning time and more specifics will be announced later. ••• Another reminder of the regional young single adults' Harvest Hoedown coming on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007 at the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds. This event will go from 8-11 p.m. ••• There are some very elaborate Halloween decorations appearing at various homes around the community. Take time to look for and enjoy these displays of the season. Thanks to those who have gone to the effort to put them out for the rest of us to enjoy. Letter to the Editor Things that irritate Here are some things that irritates me: when people empty their shopping carts and just leave them in the parking lot, instead of putting them in the designated area. Drivers that run red lights. When Christmas merchandise is in the stores in October. When my mailbox is filled with junk mail. People calling on the phone to conduct a survey when I'm cooking dinner or watching a good TV show. Some TV commercials — Geico insurance company is one. If I irritate anyone, I apologize. C.C. Berrett Spanish Fork |