text:
In "The Great Eight," gold medal Olympian Scott Hamilton reveals the secrets to happiness that helped him through his battle with cancer. In this excerpt, he writes about how each of life's challenges can be a gift.
Chapter three: Make your losses your wins There is no delicate way of describing one of the cruelest facts of life, so I will just come right out and say it: life can really stink. Or, to quote what some wise philosopher once said: stuff happens.
I think we can all agree that sometimes life just comes up all lemons. These sour sodas are fed to the rich, the poor, the good looking, the not-so-good-looking, the famous, and the everyday unfamous. Bad things happen to people in huts in Bangladesh as well as those in Malibu mansions. There is no escaping the rough stuff of life. Many misguided substance abusers have thought they could dispose of their garbage through a drug or a drink or whatever vice gave them a temporary sensation of pure joy — only to find out that whatever they were seeking to escape was still there when they came off their trip. The truth is, we'd all like to live in a perfect paradise, that dreamy fantasy place where no one ruins our day, traffic is never bad, bosses never annoy us, bills never need to be paid, children never cry, spouses never cheat, the stock market never goes down, and you can do no wrong.
But, of course, there is no such place. Neverland simply doesn't exist. What does exist is another definite fact of life and a key to finding happiness: what you do with the uncontrollable junk in your life is totally under your control.
The 1980 Olympic Speed Skater Eric Heiden once said, "It's not the events in our life that define our character, but how we deal with them." Coming from an athlete who achieved the greatest individual Winter Olympic feat in history (an unprecedented five Gold Medals, including four Olympic Records and a World Record) at the Lake Placid games, I think Eric knows what he is talking about. And I couldn't agree more. It's how we deal with the things in our lives that creates our character. That is how you define yourself and figure out who you are.
I have learned firsthand how heavy life can be, and I have also experienced how hard but liberating it can be when you lift those burdens.
Surviving one loss then another
When I moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s, I was totally in a wilderness phase of my life. I wanted to get away from everyone. I had been given so many wonderful opportunities to perform for an audience — the Olympics, the World Championships, Stars on Ice — and I was grateful to be part of these events. But when I would step away from the spotlight, away from those professional achievements, I struggled personally. I struggled with decisions I'd made and the kind of life I'd been living, and I'd suffered through so many things. When skater Sergei Grinkov died at age twenty-eight of a heart attack, his death hit me hard. We were very close friends, and his sudden passing devastated me. And then the next year, I was diagnosed with cancer.
It seemed like one tragic thing after another. Friendships had gone away, relationships had failed, and I felt guilty. I felt guilty that I wasn't a better son to my father. I was always a mama's boy, and my dad basically died alone in the hospital while I was on the air broadcasting the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. I was working, of course. Why? Because I was always working! And I felt guilty about how my mother sacrificed so much for me but never got to see any of my greatest successes. I carried all this heavy stuff with me every single day.
So although my fans might have thought I appeared happy and successful, the truth is that there was a huge portion of my life I didn't enjoy at all.
Don't get me wrong. Throughout my life, I was always trying to turn my losses into wins. But I had come to believe that no matter what level of happiness I found, I would soon be hit with a tragedy again. I was convinced that I would get injured, someone dear to me would die, I would get fired, I would be betrayed, or I would be stricken with yet another illness. I was riding an emotional roller coaster, and the lows were much deeper than the highs. I was just surviving from one doom to the other. I lived in fear of the next calamity that would strike me, which gave me a constant sense of anxiety and stress.
And then came June 2, 2002. The day when I realized I had been looking at the patterns in my life entirely wrong, that, in fact, I had been looking at the events of my life backward. And my life changing insight came to me though the words of a thirteen-year-old cancer survivor.
Inspired by a survivor's story
Following my cancer battle, I did a lot of speaking engagements across the country, speaking at fund-raisers and various cancer charity benefits. Typically, I would serve as the keynote speaker and tell my story, hopefully inspiring others to keep up the fight and not let cancer win. That's exactly what I had been invited to do when I was invited to speak at the University of Chicago Hospital's Thirteenth Annual Cancer Survivors Day celebration.
Several hundred doctors and patients and their family members packed into a downtown hotel ballroom to hear from an afternoon's worth of speakers, with little old me, who had just gotten cancer into remission, being the last to speak. I normally would get nervous before speaking at these events, so, per the norm, I was pacing in the back, minding my own business and listening to the other speakers. Since it was a celebration, my goal was to keep my talk light and upbeat and deliver a pep talk to all the patients, caregivers, and family members. I couldn't have predicted what would happen next.
The speaker before me was a thirteen-year-old named Shawna Culp. Shawna, a competitive athlete, had lost a leg to cancer, but she confidently stepped up to the podium with a prosthetic right leg and barely a limp. She had a shock of red hair and an absolute glow to her. I stopped my nervous pacing and listened to this charismatic young woman.
Shawna spoke into the microphone and told the audience, "The worst thing that ever happened to me is cancer. The best thing that ever happened to me is cancer."
From the rear of the room, I could see just about everyone nodding their heads in agreement, connecting to her seemingly paradoxical statement. The place burst into applause.
There I stood, totally blown away by her words, by her incredible survivor's story. I was touched not just by that profound statement, but by everything that she shared that day — about the devastation initially of not being able to play sports, of losing her gorgeous head of hair, of having her childhood innocence ripped from her by cancer. But then she also told how she turned all those curses into the greatest teachers of the meaning of life, how cancer made her a better athlete, a better human being. In a five-minute speech that was probably the first of her life, she touched me in a powerful way.
Within a few years of that speech in Chicago, Shawna went on to play on the US Women's Wheelchair Basketball team as well as other competitive sports. She didn't sit around and mope about her tragedies. Instead, she turned cancer into the most positive force in her life. As of this writing, her cancer is still in remission. Shawna not only won that cancer battle, but she won the war that I hadn't yet won — that is, the war my mind was still waging with itself.
I don't even remember what I said to the group that day. What's for sure is that it was nowhere near as profound as Shawna's message. From that day on, I looked at what I believed to be "curses" as blessings, and I now realize that the ability to do so makes one a champion more than landing a perfect triple lutz does.
I had applied this outlook to my skating with some success. But when it came to my personal life, I had wallowed in self-pity. If I suffered a sore groin, I would look at it as a challenge, a positive motivation to overcome the pain and focus even more on winning. If I had stumbled on a landing, then during my next performance, I would see to it that I skated twice as well to make up for the error. I tried to live by Eric Heiden's wisdom — remembering that it wasn't the circumstances that defined me but my response to them — and it brought me gold medals and accolades and worldwide celebrity.
But while sports can be a great laboratory of life, it also is merely a dress rehearsal for real life. I had a hard time applying those principles to my off-ice reality.
A new battle to fight
In the spring of 1997, I was starring in the national tour of Stars on Ice and had started feeling lethargic, nauseous, and just not quite myself. My stomach hurt constantly, like a torn abdominal muscle that just wouldn't heal and no amount of ibuprofen could alleviate. So I had some tests done, and on St. Patrick's Day as I lay in the emergency room at St. Francis Medical Center, resting my exhausted body before a performance in Peoria, Illinois, the results came back:
I had some form of cancer. Dr. Jon Carroll said, "We have found a mass. We don't know if it is benign or malignant. If it were me, I would take care of this right away." Two days later at the Cleveland Clinic, I was diagnosed with stage three germ-cell testicular cancer and a tumor twice the size of a grapefruit growing in my abdomen.
I began my cancer battle with the kind of positive focus that I had practiced on the ice all those years. I broke it down like a challenging and complex program that needed to be perfected, and I was determined to win. This was my new battle to fight. I took leave from the skating tour and headed straight to my arena of choice: Ohio's Cleveland Clinic.
The diagnosis brought back memories of my mother and how she bravely fought through her breast cancer with strength, humor, and dignity. I was just a teenager when she was diagnosed, and I watched her battle for three years before the cancer spread and finally took her at age forty-nine in the spring of 1977. She was working, going to school to earn her master's degree, and raising three children, while going through chemotherapy. I was a year out of high school, amid my quest to make the Olympic team, and her death absolutely devastated me. But some twenty years later, my mother's attitude — I will fight this cancer to the death! — now inspired me.
Mother set a great example, and I wanted to use every memory I had of her battle in my struggle. Even though she didn't win hers, I was determined to win mine. With the advancements in cancer treatments over the past twenty years, I knew that at least I would have the fighting chance that she never did.
A week after the diagnosis, I was a patient at the world-famous clinic, beginning three months of intensive chemotherapy done in four rounds — five days on, sixteen days off; five days on, sixteen days off — until the chemicals destroyed the cancer cells. The doctors told me if my body could survive the chemical potion coursing through it over the repeated rounds, I had a fairly good chance of surviving. But, by the third round, I was ready to quit.
The treatment — daily IV injections of basically poison — was ravaging my body. Within a matter of a few weeks, I had gone from being in what I thought was the best shape of my life, performing in front of thousands of people every night and being surrounded by friends and my Stars on Ice family, to not having the energy to press the power button on the TV remote control in my hospital room. I was filled with chemicals that made all the hair on my body fall out. I was bloated and sick and worn down like never before in my life.
I already had a lot of practice at turning losses into wins in my life, but this was a challenge I wasn't sure I could overcome. By my third round of chemo, I didn't think I possessed the strength of character to overcome my cancer and was ready to call it quits.
Like a runner in the Boston Marathon, I had hit the wall. That third round was my Heartbreak Hill, the incline at the twentieth mile that was breaking my spirit to the point of wanting to quit. More than that, I told myself that I was ready to die. That's what cancer does to you. It wants to break you down, tricks you into giving up just as the chemo has the cancer dying off and on its last legs. But at that later stage of chemo, it is not the cancer making you weak, but rather your chemical healing agent sapping you of energy while it beats down the cancer cells one by one. I made it through that third round on fumes and survived the fourth round only because I knew it was my last.
By the end of the last round of chemo, the doctors found no evidence that the cancer had spread, and the tumor in my abdomen that just three months earlier had swelled to double the size of a grapefruit had shrunk to the size of a golf ball.
Six weeks later, surgeons removed the remaining tumor, along with my cancerous testicle, leaving me with thirty-eight staples down the middle of my body. Although the surgery rendered my ability to father children uncertain (and assured me that I would never win a swimsuit competition), it also cut out the cancer ... so far.
Challenges can be a gift
I live every day knowing that today might be the day that my cancer returns. But rather than look at this as a horrific cross to bear, I call it my gift, a constant reminder of just how lucky I am to be healthy and alive. After all, what is joy without sorrow? What is success without failure? What is a win without a loss? What is health without illness? You have to experience each if you are to appreciate the other. There is always going to be suffering. It's how you look at your suffering, how you deal with it, that will define you.
This truth was evident to me not only in the hospital but also on the ice. Without the humiliations, the losses, and the failures, the success I had in skating would have meant very little. Likewise, fighting cancer brought me tremendous pain, fear, anxiety, despair, and loneliness, and to come through that has given me an amazing perspective that reminds me of how precious and fragile life is. It allows me to appreciate the day. It is an odd blessing, and not one that I would ever choose, yet it is an amazingly powerful force that enhances my life. It is what survivors call the "gift" of cancer. Any challenge — be it romantic, physical, job-related, athletic, mental, financial — can also serve as a gift if we allow it to. Illness, like any setback, poses great challenges and immense rewards. It allows us to come in contact with a part of our being that we never would know existed without that battle.
I am no longer haunted by the image of swimming up to the surface and gasping for air, only to be sucked back down so I have to swim twice as hard to get back up to the top again. It's never too late to learn the lesson that every apparent curse comes with a blessing. It wasn't until I was forty-three years old and listening to a thirteen-year-old speak her truth that I realized my various roadblocks in life had been detours into a better direction.
This divinely scripted pattern goes back to the very beginning of my life when I was an unwanted pregnancy and was adopted by my parents. I went from being somebody's unwanted orphan to being a prized child who couldn't have had more love showered upon him. Then I suffered through my childhood illness, eventually discovering skating and being healed. Whenever I lost, I would find a way to win. I find that for every unbelievably horrible price I had to pay in life, something followed that was an equally great reward for responding to things the way I did.
Before Shawna's inspiring speech, rather than looking forward to the next challenge, I would dread it — despite the fact that things always worked out better for me in the end, that for every curse, there was a phenomenal blessing.
Excerpted from "The Great Eight" by Scott Hamilton with Ken Baker. Copyright (c) 2008, reprinted with permission from Thomas Nelson.


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|From: Matthew Flatt (mflatt at cs.utah.edu)
Date: Sat May 3 19:35:34 EDT 2003
At Sat, 3 May 2003 13:50:50 +0200, Vincent Hourdin wrote: > So is there a way to display some text in boxes, usable and same look like > from different platforms ? I mean that text must fit in boxes, not to exceed > their dimensions or not to overflow on the box's pen. Currently, the interpretation of "size" for a font is left up to platform-specific mechanisms. "Size" is supposed to be roughly the height of text in drawing units, give or take a small constant, but it can be arbitrarily far off for a variety of reasons. This is something we'll have to revisit. Meanwhile, if X is the problem, you avoid all searching mechanisms and pick a specific font by using a face name like "+-b&h-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-sans-24-240-75-75-m-140-iso8859-1" (Add a "+" in front of the full font name.) See the `font-name-directory<%>' docs for more details. Matthew
|Posted on the users mailing list.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Statut :
|Organisation :
|Saint Mary's University
|Acronyme :
|Type :
|Établissement d'enseignement
|Mandat :
|Saint Mary's University is dedicated to public accessibility and regional, national, and international outreach. As a comprehensive, predominantly undergraduate institution located in a major metropolitan area, Saint Mary's offers an undergraduate liberal education in arts and sciences; professional programs in commerce, criminology, education, and engineering; and select graduate programmes. Within its own governance structure, the University is committed to accountability and transparency.
|Adresse :
|Saint Mary's University
International Activities Office
923 Robie Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia,
|Veuillez visiter le site Internet de l'organisation offrant ce stage pour connaître ses exigences avant de lui envoyer votre curriculum vitae.
|Personne ressource :
|Heidi Taylor
|Courriel :
|Pays :
|Ville :
|Secteur :
|Distribution d'eau et assainissement
|Description du stage :
The Hydrogeological Assessment Project (HAP) aims to improve groundwater
resource management and development in the north of Ghana and to contribute to
the capacity development of the personnel of the Water Resource Commission and
its partner institutions in technical and institutional aspects of groundwater
planning and development.
Expected results are being achieved through two main thrusts -- a hydrogeological assessment consisting of synthesis of existing data and contribution to the collection and analysis of additional data (through dedicated, consensus-driven pilot projects); and capacity building comprising technical capacity building focusing primarily on management and resource development, but also including non-technical capacity building focusing on enhancing networking and in communicating.
In Canada
For a period of at least one month prior to departure, the Geographic Information Systems Support Officer will be guided in researching the role of the host organization, developing a public engagement strategy, and acquiring basic knowledge of M&E in a results-based context. This preparatory phase includes a one-week intensive pre-departure training session delivered by Saint Mary's University. In addition, the Geographic Information Systems Support Officer will register for a session sponsored by CIDA through the Centre for Intercultural Learning.
Working under the direction of the HAP Resident Advisor, the Geographic Information Systems Support Officer's main responsibility will be to assist project staff and partners to collect and to coordinate the management of key project data, as well as to systematically use data management systems and to document key project data. The Geographic Information Systems Support Officer will support the production of technical maps and other visual outputs of project data, and train project partners and beneficiaries in geographic information system software and database management to increase their capacity in management information systems.
|Organisation d'accueil :
|Hydrogeological Assessment Project (HAP)
|Détails au sujet de l'organisation d'accueil :
|The CIDA-funded Hydrogeological Assessment Project (HAP) is designed to contribute to the collection and analysis of scientific data on groundwater with the long-term objective of improving groundwater resource management in the northern regions of Ghana. HAP contributes to achievement of the WATSAN targets set within the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy through an enhanced knowledge base and understanding of the hydrogeological conditions in the north of Ghana. The project is being implemented in conjunction with the key project stakeholder, the Water Resource Commission of Ghana.


text:
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are exceptional materials with unmatched electrical, thermal, mechanical, and optical properties. The combination of extraordinary length-to-diameter ratio coupled with its exceptionally high thermal and electrical conductivity as well as its mechanical strength make this material unique. The University of Oklahoma (OU) has a technological advantage in the production of SWNT, via the use of a proprietary catalyst and a truly scalable production process (6 key patents issued, strong position in the IP field). Based on this novel technology, an OU startup company (South-West Nanotechnologies, SWeNT) is developing a large-scale process (CoMoCat®) that will greatly increase the availability of SWNT of the highest quality.
The specific research objectives of the Center are:
Funding for this Center comes from DoE, OCAST (Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Sci. and Tech.) and has supported research on applications of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) that are produced in large scale by our unique method. One of the exceptional features of this process is the possibility of producing nanotubes of controlled diameter and chirality (orientation of the carbon rings on the nanotube wall) with much narrower distribution than any other known process. The OU group has developed a strong characterization protocol that provides a full description of the structural features of the nanotubes. As a result, we plan to capitalize on our unique position of having available large quantities of well characterized single-walled carbon nanotubes. The research scope is multidisciplinary and incorporates experts from different areas who work in the development of nanotube applications of high impact in the energy, biological, and environmental sectors.
The Center contributes significantly in areas such as materials science, chemical science, biological and environmental science, advanced computer science, energy efficiency, and renewable energy science. Commercialization of nanotube-based products will have an impact on many economic sectors. Lighter, stronger materials will result in more energy efficient transportation without compromising safety. Improved heat transfer materials and electrical conductors will improve the efficiency of power generation and transmission, resulting in lower energy costs and improved manufacturing efficiency, which will result in economic growth. Improved sensors and medical diagnostics tools will improve environmental quality and health care. The research team includes experts in the fields of catalysis, carbon nanotubes, surfactants, materials science, sensors, biosensors, biological systems, and numerical simulations. The research labs in three different departments are well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to produce, test, and characterize SWNT of high quality and in large scale; as well as to develop and characterize composites, optoelectronic devices, sensors, and electrochemical and biological systems for the proposed applications.
The role of water in carbon feed on the surface-guided growth of horizontally aligned single-walled carbon
nanotubes (HA-SWCNTs) was investigated. It is shown that the amount of water can be optimized to favor HA-SWCNT growth, which is proposed to be due to selective etching of carbon deposits at carbon–metal interface. Without water, nanotube–nanotube interaction and carbon accumulation at the interface are disproportionately large compared to the rate of nanotube growth, leading to catalyst deactivation. With excess water, suppression of nanotube growth occurs, resulting in reduced carbon yield on the surface.
Intermediate carbon/water feed ratios achieve cleaner growth with high efficiency.


text:
Thursday, June 24, 1999 Published at 00:22 GMT 01:22 UK
Bad doctors slip through net - report
The report covers regulation systems like those run by the GMC
Patients are being treated by incompetent doctors, nurses and therapists because regulatory systems set up to protect them are 'patchy and risky', according to a report.
The National Consumer Council (NCC) says its investigation reveals a "mishmash" of different systems which confuse the public and often fail to weed out bad health workers.
The NCC - an independent body set up to protect consumers' interests - wants more controls on the private sector, where it says the greatest problems lie.
The public should be able to find out whether practitioners are registered and what the letters after their name mean, it says.
Nasty surprise
NCC director Anna Bradley said: "All this may come as a nasty surprise to consumers of healthcare services.
"The current self-regulatory system is an inadequate mishmash of different rules and arrangements for different professions. And regulation in the independent sector is particularly lax," she said.
The report says a doctor struck off for serious professional misconduct cannot practise as a doctor, but can still call himself one, and work at a health farm.
And anyone can call themselves a nurse, psychotherapist or hypnotherapist.
Ms Bradley said different health professions should work together to root out poor performers.
She said: "Rules must be consistently applied across the public and independent sectors. In the longer term, we should explore the potential of a one-stop-shop for consumer complaints, along the lines of the Financial Services Authority."
Nurses, doctors, dentists and other groups such as physiotherapists have separate regulatory bodies.
The General Dental Council has an Internet facility for patients to check whether their dentist is properly registered - but the General Medical Council (GMC) does not.
Bad doctors under microscope
The move was triggered by high-profile scandals including that involving surgeon Rodney Ledward, struck off by the GMC after a series of operations on women went wrong.
Ministers have already tabled plans for the Commission for Health Improvement, which will inspect NHS hospitals and try to root out failing doctors.
The NCC is also calling for increased public involvement in professional regulatory bodies.
Some, like the GMC, have controlling councils which include a high number of non-doctors, but others are dominated by professionals.
Health Contents
Background Briefings
Medical notes


text:
The radio announcers - the presenters of the time - drew listeners' attention to the upcoming speech by trailing it all morning and urging them to stay tuned. All around the country people gathered around their nearest wireless to wait for the news.
Throughout the rest of the day the radio presenters repeated bulletins, paraphrased the prime minister's speech and read out long lists of government announcements to the public.
Little archive audio from the day exists because it was not the practice to record news bulletins in the early days - but a rare recording of the nine o'clock evening news, read by announcer Bruce Belfrage, has survived.
In it he reads: "The following advice is given: to keep off the streets as much as possible; to carry a gas mask always; to make sure all members of the household have on them their name and address clearly written; to sew a label on children's clothing so that they cannot pull it off..."
In what seems like an effort to maintain calm Prime Minister Chamberlain's speech was sandwiched between pre-recorded scheduled programming.
This included 'Making the most of tinned food' by Anne Beaton - after all, fresh food would soon be in short supply. It was followed by a number of musical tracks including Woodland Pictures played by the BBC Military Band and the Lowland Love Song played by Norman Allen.
An article entitled "We shan't forget yesterday's radio", published by The Star newspaper on 4 September 1939, praised the professionalism of the radio presenters, who also included Stuart Hibberd and Lionel Marson.
"For the announcers it was a day of utmost strain. They took long spells of duty and spoke hundreds of thousands of words... Over and over again they recorded the happenings of a fateful day. Only rarely did they let the strain of the day creep into their voices."
The newspaper continued: "There were many incidents that burned into the memory.
"The break in the voice of the Prime Minister and his prayer as he closed; the announcers comment of the fact that when Mr Chamberlain left Downing Street he was carrying his gas mask.
"They will remember how the prime minister and the announcers dropped the 'Herr' and called the German leader Hitler.
"Above all we remember the measured voice of the King speaking to his people.
"A day of unequalled nervous tension - with radio a comfort, a solace and a link between order and authority and the citizens of Britain. The BBC played its part."


text:
Be@rbrick New Releases
By streething, April 30, 2011
Be@rbrick fans, here are four more designs that you can add to your collection. The Be@rbrick tokidoki Tiger is to be released late April, in 100% and 400% sizes. Also, slated for a May release is the Be@rbrick Green Hornet and Kato in 100%, and in August, the Be@rbrick Daruma in 400%.
Medicom Toy products are available at Action City Singapore and Malaysia.
Source: Toybeast
STREET: Bell & Ross 2013/2014 Look Book – Tools of the Trade
STREET: Bell & Ross 2013/2014 Look Book – Aged of Substance
STREET: Bell & Ross 2013/2014 Look Book – A Gentleman's Legacy
STREET: A Look Into Nike's World Headquarters @ Beaverton, Oregon
Interview with Kikuo Ibe, the Father of G-SHOCK
THING: Whiz Limited x Mita Sneakers x New Balance MRT580
THING: Limited Edt x Vans Collection
Interview with Carlos Rosillo, CEO of Bell & Ross
THING: New Balance MRT580 Revlite
Shawn Yue x New Balance: Interview with Shawn Yue (CMSS)
Nike Women Roshe Run Black-Sail
Converse First String 1970s Chuck Taylor All Star Collection
ZOZOTOWN x adidas Originals 'Campus 80s' / XLARGE x adidas Originals 'Superstar 80s'
Dr. Martens Store @ Wheelock Place, Singapore
STREET: New Balance 99X Series Video
Play Imaginative 'Iron Man 3' 1/4th Scale Super Alloy Figure Series
THING: Nike Flyknit Lunar 1+ "Multi-Colour"
Fingercroxx x New Balance MT580FXX
Converse "Year of the Snake" Pro Leather
Wooden Submarine @ Hotel Cabochon, Bangkok
190 Accessories
34 Active+Sports
306 Art+Design
128 Bags&Accs
42 Bags&Wallets
138 Books&Mags
15 Clothing
11 Contests
85 Cycling
3 Denim
253 Entertainment
280 Events+Gigs
7 eyewear
16 Fashion
664 Footwear
12 Interview
94 Lifestyle
4 menswear
2 Music
10 Random
67 Skateboarding
121 Sneakers
23 Sports
86 Stores
17 Streething Video
43 Style
225 Tech+Gear
534 Threads
151 Toys
10 Uncategorized
2 Vintage
122 Watches


text:
Some points about renting tow dollies from U-Haul
(for more complete information, please visit U-Haul's website here.]
There are many reasons to rent a tow dolly from U-Haul. One of the main reasons many people choose to rent from U-Hual is the amount of locations throughout the United States. U-Haul has hundreds and hundreds of rental locations, so it's likely that wherever you are in the US, there will be a rental location close to you. This not only means added convenience when renting a tow dolly, but also means that chances are there will be a U-Haul location for you to drop off the equipment upon your arrival. Also, because U-Haul is such a large company, there is a good chance that any piece of equipment you are looking for will be in stock at a location near you.
There are, however, some things to keep in mind when renting tow dollies from U-Haul:
Some people believe that U-Haul has unsafe towing policies. For example, other companies that rent tow equipment require that tow dollies only be used with larger vehicles. This is to prevent "trailer-sway" and lessen the chance of a towing vehicle fishtailing or overturning. U-Haul, however, allows passenger vehicles to attach tow dollies. It's important to be aware of these types of safety concerns.
One other major drawback to U-Haul is that many smaller U-Haul locations around the country are operated by "independent dealers." These locations could be anything from gas stations and general equipment rental shops, to storage facilities. Sometimes independent dealers could be operated by a home businessperson where there may only be one person around to assist you in rental / dropping off of equipment, so scheduling a rental or equipment drop-off could be troublesome. It also means that sometimes its possible that the independent dealer may not be thoroughly trained in equipment inspection and hookup.
Overall, U-Haul is a reputable company that provides a valuable service to its customers. Few companies have the amount of rental locations around the country that U-Haul does, and most of the time, this provides for unparalleled convenience.
Please not that some of the statements contain within this article are based on customer opinions and have not been confirmed).
(back to Tow Dolly Rental)