Driving in the U.S.A.

If your plans for the upcoming holidays include out-of-town travel, lower gas prices may have you thinking about driving rather than flying.  This page from the USA.gov site offers driving safety tips, information for foreign drivers, and links to pages about drunk driving, car seats, older drivers, and more: 

https://www.usa.gov/visitors-driving

There aren't any links to pages about what to do if your relatives are driving you nuts, but I bet USA.gov has one of those too.

O*NET OnLine

Whether you're trying to pick a first or a second career O*NET OnLine, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, may be just the tool you need: 

https://www.onetonline.org/

It allows you to browse descriptions of occupations based on your interests, skills, abilities, and knowledge, as well as on the amount of preparation needed.  It also provides a list of jobs in the "Green Economy Sector."  Each occupational description includes information about tasks performed, tools and technology used, knowledge, skills, and abilities required, work activities, work context, and education needed.  It's often said that if you find a job you enjoy, you'll never have to "work" a day in your life.  Good luck with finding your own work-free job! 

Consumer Action Handbook

As usual, at the stroke of midnight on Halloween, Santa chased away the goblins and the holiday shopping season officially began. If you'd like to be a smart shopper this year, you might want to download or order a free copy of the Federal Citizen Information Center's Consumer Action Handbook:

https://www.usa.gov/handbook

The Handbook includes tips on buying cars, managing credit, going green, privacy and identity theft, travel, and even things like wills and funerals. It also provides information on how to file a complaint if that becomes necessary, along with a directory of corporate consumer contact numbers. If everyone had a copy of the Handbook, the saying might become "retailer beware" rather than "buyer beware."