Gigi’s godparents arrived this afternoon and we all went out for an early dinner. The, we drove on up to Palm Harbor and went out to Honeymoon Island. Since it is a state park, we paid a few bucks to get in the gates and then parked near one of the walkways. As we sat there watching the sun begin to set, on an uncrowded and clean beach, I looked across the water to where we could see the high rise buildings on Clearwater Beach. I thought about the massive parking lots over there and the metered parking. I thought about all of the cars cruising around with the bass turned to the max, the crowded bars, and the cigarette butts on the sugar sand beaches.

We get a lot of people each week that come here to enjoy our beaches and I feel bad for the tourists who don’t know that they can drive north just a few miles and get off of the crowded tourist beaches. Clearwater Beach is lovely. Don’t get me wrong. We have some of the best sand in the world and the sunsets are not to be rivaled. But, the quiet beaches a couple of miles north offer a sort of peace and relaxation you will never find at Sand Key or St. Pete Beach or Clearwater Beach. There is tranquility at any time of day that absolutely soothes the soul.

Please, visit our beaches; but take the time to research what else is available in the area. It is well worth it.

At my last office job, I was the director of the art department. Since we were a smaller business, though, I was pulled in on just about every decision that was made for anything technology related. I remember when we shopped around for a new phone system and all of the equipment we bought, the multiple data lines coming in, and the servers in the control room. It was a massive undertaking and way more expensive in the end than we had ever expected. I learned more than I ever thought I would about business communications systems.

I look at things like the Packet8 Virtual Office package in absolute awe! Seriously, it makes me cringe to think about how far technology has come and how much easier everything would have been at the office if this sort of option had been available. As technologically advanced as things seemed all those years ago, we are light years ahead even now.

Packet8 is a full system that operates on an existing broadband connection. Business VoIP simply was not an option introduced to me when I was doing all that footwork to find a more efficient system for our business. VoIP, in general, was something just being improved upon at that time. T1 lines were what everyone wanted to sell me. As long as you have a business class telephone and Packet8 broadband phone adapter, then there is no software to install, and everything can be set up on your own –without brining in an expensive technician. Phones, email, fax lines, an auto attendant and varied voicemail – these are just some of the things you can add to you business with your current broadband connection. In fact, you can run a call center with this same system. All of that and from looking at their pricing options, I would say we could have done everything for about a 10th of what we used to spend.

CNN has a great story in the spotlight on their webpage about Body Burden and the high levels of chemicals we have in our systems.

The story focuses on the Hammond family. They allowed their two children to take part in a study that would measure chemical levels in their blood. I am not sure if this is the same study that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) talked to me last year about involving Gigi, but it sounds similar.

(At the time, my ex had just left and I did not want to involve Gigi in blood work, since she is so fearful of the process. Otherwise, I greatly respect the work done by EWG.)

Tests run on the Hammond family showed that their young children had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents. The chemicals in question were polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The testing is known as “body burden” testing, which refers to the chemical “burden” of toxins running through the bloodstream.

PBDEs have been proven to cause neurological damage to lab rats. Studies are only now underway to discover what damage they may be doing to humans. Several countries have taken this issue seriously. Sweden banned PBDEs in 1998. The European Union banned most PBDEs in 2004. In the United States, the sole manufacturer of two kinds of PBDEs voluntarily stopped making them in 2004. A third kind, Deca, is still used in the U.S. in electrical equipment, construction material, mattresses and textiles. It is often used as a flame retardant.

In the months after Gigi was born in 2003, I worked with EWG to take part in a study that measured PBDE levels in breast milk. The study showed that American women have 10 to 100 times more PBDEs in their bodies than European women do. My levels were some of the highest in the study, which was difficult to understand if you look at my background, jobs, where I have lived, etc. It is not breast feeding that is the problem. It is the pollution we live with here in the U.S. We are bringing consumer products into our homes that are putting off chemicals we absorb into our systems. I, in turn, passed them along to Gigi as she nursed. I still think nursing was the best decision I have made since becoming a mother, but I am irritated that we have manufacturers who are not looking at the studies being done in relation to flame retardants and learning from other countries who have banned PBDEs.

How many more studies must be done in order to get the message through to manufactures?

When I chose my web hosting, I had it narrowed down to about three companies. They all had similar pricing and features. The host I chose in the end, though, had a live support chat function on their site that enabled me to connect with a representative with one simple click. Within seconds I was chatting with a live person who was able to answer all of my questions. I’ve used this feature multiple times since and love getting fast answers from a real person without having to tie up my phone line or wait on hold for a long time.

I think the idea that someone was there for me in the middle of the night (and it was indeed the middle of the night on a Saturday) was what made me choose my current hosting company. I clicked a picture and in no time I was chatting with someone who had all the answers I needed at their fingertips.

Take it from me; customers LOVE this kind of feature! There are several software choices if you want to add something like this to your website, but one of the easiest is called LiveHuman. It’s host-based and as simple as adding one line of HTML to your site.

After you install the code, there will be a picture on your site that lets your users know if you are online or not. By clicking on the image when you are online, your visitors can chat with you in real-time and all conversations are saved for up to two months. Plus, you can monitor all of your site traffic from within the control panel. It’s like getting instant stats.

Customer service is something that runs hot or cold online. Customers want it, but all too many companies have their help links and phone numbers buried so deep you can not find them. I feel helpless at half the sites I visit. A live chat feature is one of my favorite things about the top ten sites I purchase from. All of my favorites use this feature.

I may be absent from my blogging for a bit. Or, maybe not. It depends on how things go this week.

Some of my best friends are coming into town this afternoon to stay a few days. They are also Gigi’s godparents, so the visit is even more special. I keep meaning to get up to visit them, but it has been about a year since we have seen them at this point.

We are going to play it by ear. There is a lot to do here in the area, but I think sitting and catching up is a priority. I know we also want to go drive out by the beach and Gigi says she wants to get in the water. It’s still warm enough to do that, so I’m sure we can make it happen. You cannot choose a better time to visit Florida than October, in my opinion. It’s still summery here, but without the humidity of the bugs. Win/win, you know?