The Perfect Solution

05/15/2023

As of June 1, 2023 The Perfect Solution's Shawna Clawson Chambers will be turning her focus to her passion: politics and building strong communities. With her usual articulate style, Shawna will be offering speech writing, position papers, legislation analysis, campaign management, event organization, and, of course, marketing materials. She also plans to resurrect several nonprofit organization ideas she's developed over the years. Ron will continue to provide his exceptional skills as a commercial graphic artist. Two new associates join the team: Shawna's husband, Larry, and Wes Stillwagon. They will be providing the "muscle" for events and assist with organizing and overseeing volunteers for our clients.

Shawna is also seriously considering a run for political office in 2024. She is fiscally conservative and socially compassionate with her values deeply rooted in faith, family, and friends. Her aim is to be the ultimate resource for building strong communities at the local level by championing things like creating community gardens, organizing a "story hour with grandparents" to bring generations together in comparison to "drag queen story hour" events and their overtly sexual themes, organizing men to act as father figures to boys with monthly breakfasts and weekend father-son activities, a "Christmas in July" event where the community comes together to make minor repairs and improvements to elderly and lower income homeowners, and encouraging the development of microbusinesses that generate income for people using their skills and talents in their spare time.

Everyone at The Perfect Solution is excited about this new direction and hope that they'll inspire others to make building strong communities a grassroots movement!

05/15/2023

PLEASE SHARE!

As most of you know, Larry and I started a business transporting pets back in 2019. He decided that being out on the road for days and the long hours driving were just too hard on him so I asked my friend, Wes William Stillwagon Jr. to be my business partner. He's been a rock for us, especially last year with our multiple moves! Wes and I are a great team and once we get the van fixed we can kick into high gear and start making money.

I bought a 2015 RAM Tradesman cargo van and I was fanatical about changing the oil and doing the scheduled maintenance because we run it hard. Last March we had to replace the transmission and it took every penny we had to get it done. And it was rock solid once the transmission was done. My mechanic took care of the little things that popped up, like the brakes and new spark plugs, but in September, the check engine light came on and started flashing while we were on the road. Naturally we had to take care of the problem immediately so we took it to a local mechanic and he ran a diagnostic on it; the computer error code was for a catalytic converter failure that the mechanic assured us would be okay until we got home. The next day the cruise control went out and we could tell something was very wrong but we made it home safely. My mechanic took a look at it and, as it turns out, there's nothing wrong with the catalytic converter, the engine has a known flaw that can't be fixed, the engine has to be replaced.

A new engine from Dodge is $8,000-$9,000 plus the labor to put it in. My mechanic can put in a rebuilt engine and guarantee it for 4 years for $5,000 plus labor. We were starting to make that much in a month or two when we were forced to take a break so I bought an older Dodge Caravan to keep us on the road, but it ended up being a money pit. It needed major front end work, it won't stay in alignment so it eats the right front tire like Doodlebug eats cookies, the cruise control doesn't work, and it's always something with it. We've probably spent more time waiting for the mechanic to work on it than we did on the road since I bought it in December.

So much for saving up for the new engine!

The final blow was last Sunday when we hit a deer in Wyoming and damaged the radiator. We put the stop leak stuff in and put epoxy on a dime-sized hole and limped home. So now I have two vehicles that need major engine work, one of which isn't worth putting any more money in to keep it running. (It needs a new pump for the power steering fluid, the transmission has a leak and occasionally slips so it's going out, the radiator has to be replaced, the dent in the hood makes it difficult to get to the release to put the hood up and needs pounded out, and there are a couple other things that aren't critical now but will be sooner or later. I did Google searches for everything that needs done immediately and the low end is about $6,000. Yeah, not happening!) Wes says the Caravan is either cursed or it hates us and he's probably right!

I've been denied for every loan and grant I've applied for so this is my last, desperate attempt to get back on the road. I can rent a van, of course, but I have to have significant trips planned just to break even, let alone make enough to put money aside for the engine. And here's the thing: I want to work. I like working. I have been applying for jobs since 2010 - dozens almost every day for 13 years now - and I have had FOUR interviews in all that time, which is so bizarre because all you hear about is companies complaining that no one wants to work! So I created a GoFundMe and posted it in groups just for these things and every single response has been a scammer; either they try to get me to pay them to make my GoFundMe go viral or they tell me that they just need a little money for their "business manager" to release the money because all their accounts are locked up after they got scammed themselves. They send me screenshots from CashApp, Zelle and PayPal as "proof" they've sent the money and they just need me to pay their manager...it's the Nigerian Prince scam on a smaller scale. I'll give them an A for effort and tenacity but an F for ex*****on - it's obvious that the screendhots are fake since they have spelling and grammar errors!

Anyway, I wasn't going to post this on my page because I hate asking for help like this but clearly I'm not going to get help from the groups specifically for help with fundraising. If you can't spare a few bucks, will you at least share this, please? Otherwise, it looks like I'll be stuck watching TV for the foreseeable future!

https://gofund.me/73e39fa2

04/22/2023

09/11/2022

https://www.spendwithpennies.com/crockpot-beef-stew/

CrockPot Beef Stew is one of my all-time favorite slow cooker meals.

05/15/2021

I'm thinking about becoming a fiduciary for the VA and Social Security. If I can do my own bookkeeping why not do it for those in my community who can't?

11/09/2020

11/09/2020

03/16/2020

The Perfect Solution is proud to announce a corporate restructuring of our own! We're moving to be part of the Windflower Group along with:

** Windflower Design, a web-only seller of both unique items from all over the world and anything that catches the attention of their buyers.

** Perfect Solutions (just to be confusing!), a cleaning service that specializes in cleaning apartments and houses in turnover between tenants or being prepared for sale. They offer regular cleaning of businesses after business hours and one-off cleaning with sterilization by steam or disinfecting with chemicals.

** We ♥️ Shopping, a shopping and delivery service for weekly grocery shopping, last minute grocery runs, pharmacy pickups, specialty stores and even pickups from stores in Kingman or Las Vegas.

** Windflower Cares, a nonprofit that serves veterans in the Bullhead City/Fort Mohave area, providing rides to appointments in Las Vegas or Phoenix. The VA travel pay covers the cost of most trips.

This move comes as the result of my creating a licensed, bonded and insured cleaning service for my husband and caregiver, both of whom are already cleaning based on word of mouth. They're primarily cleaning out houses for members of the VFW but decided they'd like to make a true business of it. Naturally we've had more than a dozen friends interested in making extra money!

Windflower Design is something I toyed with a few years ago but decided not to pursue. Naturally as I'm setting up Perfect Solutions another friend, whose mother is a genius at upcycling and is practically drowning in her creations, asked me about selling on web but not just through eBay and Etsy; I pulled up everything I have on drop shipping as well as a handful of websites to look at and told her to let me know if she wants to pursue it; she does but doesn't want to actually run a business, just find neat stuff to sell with her mom's creations and so she's taking over Windflower Design.

We ♥️ Shopping is my answer to Instacart and delivery from Walmart and other grocery stores. They all have a minimum purchase amount and most deliveries are at least 4 hours from the time of ordering. This is really more for the one or two items needed in a hurry and for shopping outside of our area.

Lastly, Windflower Cares is going to be the foundation of what I've wanted to do for years: create a nonprofit for veterans that brings others, like The Wounded Warrior Project and Tunnel to Towers, for the sole purpose of combining their efforts to my long-time goal to serve homeless vets by building a complex of tiny houses here in Bullhead City that has a rehabilitation center as part of the complex. The goal is to reintegrate these heroes with their friends, family and society.

As these projects progress I'll be making further updates!