Phishing

The phone rings.

The number is "unknown".

I notice it's from Texas.

I answer.

The recorded message says 

(insert ominous voice)

"The IRS has been trying to locate you.

This is your final notice.

The IRS is filing a lawsuit against you.

Call this number immediately."

Hmmmmmmm.

So I called.

The call didn't go through.

I called again.

A man with a foreign accent answered

and was clearly reading unfamiliar

words from a script.

"This is the IRS.  Can I help you?"

I hung up.

The next day the phone rings.

The number is "unknown".

I notice it's from Washington D.C.

I answer.

The recorded message says...

"The IRS has been trying to locate you.

This is your final notice.

The IRS is filing a lawsuit against you.

Call this number immediately."

I am unimpressed with the "final notice".

For the second time.

www.irs.gov directs me to a website

to report the phishing.

So I do.

Not surprisingly I haven't heard anything since.

It wasn't a displaced Nigerian Prince.

But still.

I feel special.

(LOL)

30 Years????

Ok, I know that Challenger

was a long time ago.

But THIRTY YEARS?????

I was at work at E. F. Hutton.

And when I mention that, my younger

students don't cock an ear,

they say "WHO?"

We were in a glass building with huge floor

to ceiling windows.

The manager had a corner office

with these giant windows.

So we were all mushed into his office

to watch the shuttle launch.

Normally we go outside to watch.

But it was COLD that morning.

I was standing next to a new broker

who had just moved down to Florida

from New York, so this was his

first launch.

When the explosion occurred he said

"Wow!  That's BEAUTIFUL!  How

come it doesn't look like that when

they show it on TV?"

So many of my friends, family members,

co-workers, clients, etc worked on

the shuttle program.

It was devastating to our community.

We will always remember those pioneers

who, just like in days of old, head

out to the unknown to expand our horizons.

Sometimes they come back with stories

of wonder and awe.

And sometimes they don't come back.

They are missed.

And we honor their memories.

Shine on Challenger.

Stormy Weather

Storms come in lots of forms.

The worst sort of storm of all is the

emotional / spiritual storm when

there is GREAT loss.

Rod's uncle Ronnie passed away suddenly

Friday night.  He and his wife came down to

attend George's funeral last year and I got

an opportunity to sit with Ronnie for 

about an hour and chat with him.

Turns out we had LOTS in common.

His wife, Anita, had just recently retired.

They got to spend a couple of months

enjoying lots of time together.

He was such a loving man.

Within an hour or so of his death being

announced on Facebook, there were 

hundreds of condolences.

He touched so many lives and impacted

many many people for good.

He will be greatly missed!

***************************************

And then there is the regular storms.

Those up north of us had to deal with feet of snow!

We even logged some snow in north Florida!

In our neck of the woods, it was cold.

(The rule is, there has to be a "3" in the 

temperature before it's officially cold.

Otherwise it's "chilly".)

We had some really stiff winds which dropped

the temperature to the point where Rod had to

put blankets on the horses.

(They don't "need" their blankets, but they are all

seniors, so we like to spoil them a little.)

They actually LIKE their blankets.

Anyhow.

Rod got up on Saturday morning to see

the results of the winds.

Notice the fence.

On the right side of the picture it's sort of leaning.

In the center all the way to the left,

it's FLAT on the ground.

Moon Pie was innocently standing in her pasture

wondering what just happened.

CJ is happily munching on the cow's hay.

(Probably Andy is too, but just not in the picture)

And Sir Loin is on the other side of the back fence

eating the horse's grass.

The horses are in with the cows.

The cows are in with the horses.

Pandemonium!

(lol)

Kyle was at work all day

so Rod had to put the fence back up

the best he could.

The posts all broke off at the ground.

So he sort of propped them up and

restrung the barbed wire.

A trip to Tractor Supply to buy 18 new posts

to replace the broken ones...

It took most of the day.

When he was done with the fence building

and all his Farmer MacGregor's chores,

he headed to the house

to take a nice hot shower.

And discovered we have no water.

Turns out one of the pipes on the house pump

had broken.  Kyle went out to the shed and got

some cleaner and glue and fixed the pipe

while Rod got some water from our food storage

to prime the pump.

Fixed and pressure back on.

YEA!

Three minutes later it blew apart again.

The glue seemed to be old,

so Rod headed to WalMart to get some

new glue while Kyle re-cleaned the pipe.

They glued it again and then read the tube.

If the temperature is below 40, you 

have to let it cure for at least 6 hours.

Sigh.

Sunday morning about 6:00 Rod went out

and re-primed the pump and it seems to be holding.

Such excitement.

(I was out of town and missed it all...)

Today he is off work so he and Kyle can rebuild

the fence for real.  Scott has been living with us

during the week and I imagine he will be out there too.

And our hearts and prayers will be with

our family in Tennessee saying their final goodbyes

to Uncle Ronnie.

House Calls

My employer just notified me to start watching

for payments for house calls!

House calls???

We're doing House Calls now???

(That's awesome, by the way)

(Except we are charging $410!)

Which of course, caused my mind 

to wander back to when we used

to be the recipients of house calls.

I remember Dr. Medlicot's house call.

(phonetic spelling)

I was sick.

In Mom & Dad's bed.

He came to see me in the evening.

He had a BIG BLACK NOSE HAIR.

The End.

Hahahahahahahahaha

I also remember being sick 

at the same time Rozann was sick.

We were in our bed.

Playing paper dolls.

She was sicker than me.

Mom came in to check on us

and made some comment 

(which I can't remember for the life of me)

that made it clear Rozann was sicker.

I was jealous.

I stabbed (ok, stabbed is probably

too strong a word... poked?  Remembering

I'm a little skinny wimpy under 10 year old kid)

Ok.

I poked her in the center of the top of her head

with my grown up pointy scissors.

It didn't turn out well.

Aren't you glad I'm opening mail and letting 

my mind wander this morning???

PS.

SORRY ROZANN!

It's Official

We had a really nice meeting last night

at the new Vero Beach Chapel.

BEAUTIFUL building.

The new high council and presidency

got together for the first time to

set everyone apart

and get their

first assignments.

There was a really strong spirit

there that testified that this is

the group of people the Lord

wants to lead this area at this time.

Meet our new High Councilman.

Isn't he handsome?

The blessing he received was really special

and unique to him and what he is going

to need to meet this challenge.

He gets to start off conducting the

Regional Conference down in the
Fort Pierce building.

Exciting!

Big News

Saturday was a big, exciting day.

I was teaching school out of town in West Palm.

There was a "special" Stake Conference.

Rod was attending the Saturday evening Priesthood Session.

He sent me a text saying our rather large 

Cocoa Stake was being split and a new

Vero Beach Stake was being formed.

Then he texted me and said he had been

tapped on the shoulder and invited to the

Stake President's office.

Then he texted me and asked if I was

available by phone at 7 pm.

*************************

Insert all sorts of angst and wondering

and reasons why I COULDN'T be

available by phone at 7...  lol

**************************

At 7 I called Rod.

He said the Bishop wanted to speak to me.

He handed the Bishop the phone

and left the room.

Our Bishop asked if I could support Rod

in a calling as a High Council Member in

the new Vero Beach Stake.

He basically said this is the call and 

honestly, I have little idea what the call

will actually entail.

I will be released as Bishop and have accepted

the calling of new Stake President.

So I'm kind of having a hard time putting

cohesive thoughts together right now.

(I love our Bishop / Stake President!)

Of course I said I would support him in any way possible.

Then he called Rod back in and extended the call to him.

Lots of people are walking around in a daze today.

I am SO proud of the growth Rod has achieved and

am so looking forward to the man he is becoming.

I am sure he would appreciate your prayers

as his horizons are expanding.

(The Bishop mentioned he understood Rod wasn't

really comfortable speaking in meetings and 

was confident with the help of the Lord we 

wouldn't need to take him out of the meetings

on a stretcher.

To which Rod replied TAKE ME OUT???

You're going to need to TAKE ME IN on a stretcher!)

Prayers are appreciated!

LOVE YOU ROD!

Town PRIDE

It's been a busy week

and it's only Tuesday!

Ok,

it was a busy day yesterday.

LOL

After a full day at the office I needed to

attend a Town Council meeting at Town Hall.

My monthly committee meeting starts at 6:00.

I thought their meetings started at 7:00.

I was wrong.

They don't get started until 7:30.

Which was ok.

Gave me an opportunity to chat with the

town treasurer.  We've been used to walk

in the woods together.

But then we both got super busy.

And I got to chat with our new Town Administrator.

I'm REALLY impressed with him!

My committee started working on getting an 

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) restroom

at our trail head FIVE years ago.

(Well, actually six and a half...)

It took five years to win a grant for the $.

We FINALLY did everything right and won the grant.

Then we started getting the silly thing built.

(And it's actually delivered completely built - basically

a plug-and-play thing...)

But we had to do all the site prep.

It has been a year and a half.

We are STILL at the "on paper" stage.

(We are just a committee - no power to make decisions

or spend any money... we can only make recommendations)

The new Town Administrator was hired

the first of November.

He spent the first couple of weeks learning

about our little rural town.

Then he got down to business.

We had a three hour on-site meeting with all the

subs and committees and Pizza Hut.  (lol)

Then he took that information back to his office.

Yesterday he handed me a spread sheet with

a complete job timeline.

Starting today there is SOMETHING scheduled

every week.

The building is being delivered the first week

in March with final inspection the first week in April.

FINALLY!

Somebody with a construction / management background

who knows how to communicate with the trades

and isn't afraid to stand his ground and get things done.

Last night's meeting went until 11:00.

*And I thought OUR meetings were long!

But I learned a LOT about our little town,

the people who are running it (we have a 50% new

town council and a new-ish fire chief) and a 

Mayor who was the Mayor 30 years ago!

(and has been mayor 4 or 5 times in the middle)

And a bunch of "good ol' boys" whose response is

typically "that's the way we do it here".

Yup.

That's the way we used to do it here.

And if it still works, we'll keep doing it that way.

But if it doesn't work or if it's not necessary

for the good of the town,

that's gone.

I'm not a big government person.

I'm a Canadian Libertarian.

(Is there any such thing?)

But I believe in using your resources responsibly.

I don't care that we've always done it this way

because it's your brother in law and he 

needs the business.

If he isn't getting the job done (see above)

then find somebody who can.

I also chatted with our new Fire Chief.

He's running a "combo" department.

3 part time paid lieutenants and the rest 

are volunteers.

When he was hired, he did an inventory and found

no bunker gear (the clothes fire fighters wear) newer

than 15 years!

And we are sending people into fires in that!

He immediately started filing for grants and 

pounding the pavement for every dime he could find

and our entire department has decent equipment.

Not the latest and greatest

but SAFE.

His ENTIRE volunteer department showed up last night.

Every one of them wearing a "uniform" and a SERIOUS

case of PRIDE in their department.

As a previous volunteer fireman, I was so impressed by them!

(Chief said that for the first time EVER, we have a WAITING LIST

for people who want to be volunteers!  That means unpaid, AND you

have to have a Fire II training / rating which means weeks and weeks

of Monday night meetings before you even qualify to work for free!)

Our town has always been awesome.

But I see GREAT things on the horizon! 

Soni!

Yes, I'm late.

It was Soni's birthday on Saturday.

Yup, she knows how to have fun!

LOL

We got a chance to go out this summer

as a family (minus Jim & Sabrina)

(SOMEBODY had to stay home and

feed the animals and sell all the V.W's)

It is always so much fun to spend 

time with Soni and her family!

Can you believe this is the ONLY photo

I took of them the whole time????

(In my defense my phone broke at the beginning

of the trip and just started working again

at the end... so I missed a LOT of

photo opportunities this trip.)

But let's be honest.

We have established I'm terrible at remembering

to take pictures.

Anyhow.

Back to Sondra.

She is still as awesome as ever.

Her neck is giving her fits.

But she stays happy and upbeat.

She loves being a Grandma.

She has 2 totally awesome granddaughters.

She has a bunch of patients who adore her.

And a family who would walk through fire for her.

We all think she is pretty amazing.

LOVE YOU SONI!