I’m sorry.

I’m apologizing because I was that guy at the gym tonight. Yes, I was the guy on the treadmill on his cell phone holding a conversation that had nothing to do with working out. As many of you know, I serve on the Board of Trustees for a national foundation. At some point around 7pm tonight, I got on a phone call with the Executive Director of our foundation. Since my back was hurting me this morning when I woke up, I had to go to the gym after work – and since I had that phone call scheduled, that meant that I couldn’t go to the gym until after the call.

But do you ever get on those calls where you just have to stay on the line because the discussion is so good that you need to explore it a little bit further? Well, our Executive Director and I had what I thought was an excellent conversation tonight about a variety of issues (some of which were eye-opening to me). But as the call went on I began to worry about getting my workout in. So I drove to the gym and sat in my car for another hour or so on the phone (one of my roommates actually arrived at the gym after me and left before me while I was taking the call).

Then when it got to be 9pm, I knew I had to get a workout in before I was too tired to do it. So I was that guy on the treadmill on his cell phone, but it was for a good reason. And now I will think twice about those other people who are on their cell phones. On the other hand, though, I was on an important phone call and I kept my voice down. Most of those other people get on their phones and start to talk way too loud and in an obnoxious tone!

By the way, tonight marks 18 days in a row that I’ve been to the gym. Pretty good for a guy who isn’t even on a diet and is just working out for the fun of it.

Off in the corner of my desk sat a forlorn fax machine. Once humming with activity, it had been quiet for most of the last three years, except for the occasional times it spit out an ad for a fake vacation or bogus health care plan. I gave it little thought. That was the problem.

I canceled the fax’s rarely used, but just as rarely noticed, phone line and cut my monthly expenses by $30.

Go ahead and read the article linked above and you’ll see how this particular writer cut more money out of his monthly digital expenses. Most of the suggestions in the article equate to Cutting Your Expenses 101 which means that if you’ve ever sat down and given your monthly income and expenses a real review, you probably already cut these unnecessary costs. That said, I’m sure that there are some people out there who will read this article and – for the first time – realize that they could be saving hundreds of dollars each month (thousands each year) if they just cut out some unnecessary expenses.

A personal example: A few years ago when I sat down and had a serious look at my finances, I noticed that I was paying for a very expensive cell phone plan. Sure, at one point I needed hundreds upon hundreds of minutes each month, but when I reviewed my usage it was clear that I didn’t need such a robust plan any more (and that I hadn’t needed that plan in many months). So I cut the plan back and my cell phone bill went from north of $100 per month to a little bit more than $50 per month. That’s a pretty good bit of savings if you ask me!

The same thing happened with my car insurance. When I looked at the invoice last year I noticed a bunch of fees that were worded such that no one could understand what they meant. I asked the car insurance company what they meant and while most of them were legit, there were two nominal fees that were obviously unnecessary – I had them cut out. Okay, so that only saves me $15 – $20 per year, but it adds up.

Take a read of that article and then, if you haven’t already, find some time to sit down and seriously review your finances. In today’s economy, there’s no need for you to be making some company rich paying for services that you don’t even use!

Jones said that after touring 162 Broadway, he came to a certain conclusion: If there was no redevelopment there, the city still would have condemned the building and demolished it, as an unsafe structure.

A portion of the ground floor, which had been home to a commercial tenant until late in 2007, was in the best shape, but the rest of the building was suffering from a lack of maintenance, he said. There were holes in the walls, ceiling, roof and windows, which had allowed rain to enter, deteriorating the structure further, and the items and materials that had been stored there were literally moldering where they sat.

Yeah…that’s not “blight” at all! Ha! What was most disturbing about this situation was the way that Brown tried to piggyback on the the MTOTSA folks – people who had a real gripe with eminent domain abuse. But (dare I say this), the legal system actually worked in this process! The MTOTSA organization won their battle against Long Branch (as they should have) and Brown lost his battle (as he should have). There is justice in this system!

For more background on this situation and some interesting comments from guests to this blog, feel free to visit a previous post on the subject.