KeepingDreams

I must be extremely lucky, or just very fortunate, to live where I am. Due to my elite group disease (multiple sclerosis), I do not drive unless it is an emergency. Since there are wild animals here, I walk about 3/4 miles to pick my 7 year old grandson up at the bus stop when he comes from school each afternoon. I really enjoy the walk, and many days, I walk a mile or more before the bus arrives. Last week, during my walk, a bald eagle flew about 20 feet high over my head! I could clearly see the tail feathers, which is quite a feat with my eyes. Walking a little farther, I saw a large bird sitting in a tree that I thought was another bald eagle, perhaps the mate, since the colors were’t as bright. As I walked back towards the bus stop, I saw a covey of 8 or 9 partridge land nearby. When the bus arrived, I showed the partridge to my grandson, then the eagles.

The next day, I walked out to meet the bus, accompanied by the dog, as usual. I did not see the bald eagle, but the dog scared the partridge away. I spotted the eagle in the tree, sitting majestically, high on a branch. When the bus arrived, I turned to look for the eagle, and my grandson (who has much better vision than I do), said the eagle was not a bald eagle. Then, as we walked home, “my” eagle flew over us, not 20 to 30 feet in the air. The wing span was huge, and my grandson says, “His head isn’t white, grandpa, it’s golden.” Of course, I could see the yellow legs, and the tail was not white, either. The underside did have the white markings of the golden eagle, though. Was this my second sighting this year? I couldn’t believe it. To see this magnificent bird two times now, when people who spend their entire lives in the wilderness may never see one! How lucky can I be?

As luck would have it, on Saturday, I was doing a few dishes, when I looked out the window, and there in the tree was “my” eagle again. I got out my binoculars, but when I got them focused, he flew! The wings were so big, they didn’t fit the field of vision. Well, on Sunday, I thought I should tell my daughter about the eagle, so I told her that I saw it in the tree out of the window. And, as I said it, I pointed, and there it was again! That sure made it easy to show here which tree. Then when I went out to get some firewood, about 6 large canadian geese flew over my head and landed about 100 yards away. They were so low, I could have hit them with the firewood (if my muscles worked enough to throw it).

If that isn’t lucky, what do you call it? All that, I probably owe it all to this disease, for I surely would not be here if I were in good health today. The only thing to say is “Thank You”, isn’t it. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. And, I sincerely mean that, because I have learned that life has much more to offer me that to constantly run as fast as possible and see how much I can miss out on. There are so many lessons to be learned, and so little time to learn them.

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been busy. I had to re-write my website for TeamCharliesAngels.com, which is my MS Walk team website. It is now up and running. I tried to use XOOPS, which is what this website runs under, but it just wouldn’t do what I needed it to. I tried several different Content Management Systems (CMS), and finally got it working with Drupal. This is a different Content Management System, much more involved to get set up and working. If you are a team member, check it out. The website is the same, teamcharliesangels.com .

The weather here in Chester, Idaho, turned really cold this month. It snowed over Christmas and New Year’s, and it has stayed cold ever since. I think we had one day or two when it got above freezing (that’s 32 degrees on my scale). We are still using the wood stove for heat, a really BIG THANK YOU to all the wood cutters and splitters, and it has worked incredibly well for us.

The car, unfortunately, has not been as good. The tires on the front wore out really fast due to a bad tierod, so we had to put new tires on and have the tierod replaced. Then, with the really cold weather, the battery did not have the amperage to crank the engine, so we had to replace it. I forgot how much fun it is to have to get a ride to a store, buy a new battery, go home, change the battery, and then fight with the car to get it start. And, I got to do it all in temperatures that never got above 10 degrees F. I haven’t had so much fun in the cold since I left Michigan in 1976. They say it’s good to jar the memory once in a while, because it keeps the mind sharp, I think? If they’re right, my mind should be the sharpest mind around for a few days, at least. Otherwise, I’m losing my mind and forgetting things I didn’t remember anyway.

As I reported here yesterday, January 1, 2007, there was an email delivered to me trying to scam me out of my eBay account information. As I stated, I would report the email to eBay for follow-up by there security. Surprise, surprise, there is someone higher than Microsoft! I got an answer back from eBay that may or may not be from an automatic mailer. Either way, it confirmed my report. Here is the response from eBay:

It certainly was a pleasant surprise to see that they responsed so rapidly. Many thanks go out to that security team at eBay.

And, while I’m at it, my thanks go out to those very fine folks in Chester, Idaho. Those folks, knowing that we heat the house with wood, took it upon themselves to come over before Christmas and cut, chop, and stack firewood for us. Not only did they take care of the small pile we had here, but they brought with them a huge pile of dried wood. That also got taken care of. That huge pile was about 3-4 times what we had! The cost for all that? They needed a drink in the middle the job! That, folks, is neighbors helping neighbors. I did not then, nor do I now, know how to say THANK YOU properly for help like that. Any suggestions?

Oh, by the way, WAY TO GO - BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY. Made it all the to the Fiesta Bowl undefeated, and it looks like they the bowl game, too. Isn’t that a GREAT way to keep your dreams? I know many people in Boise have been dreaming about this for many years. Thanks, BSU, for letting so many people keep their dreams.

Anyone else get a message from Ebay that starts like this?

Please do not follow the directions in this message. It is a scam to collect your eBay information. If you simply go directly to eBay in your web browser and log in using your userid that the message says is unusable, you will see that it is indeed usable. The message appears real enough, it even has the eBay logo if you follow through and click where it says to. However, if you enter your information, you are probably just giving some con artist what he/she needs to steal from you. I say probably because I have no way to verify that. I did not enter my information in that page. I instead went directly to eBay in my browser and entered my information. I wish these big companies had an easy way to turn in scam operations.

Perhaps someday, the legal internet will catch up to the illegal internet in that it will become possible to report illegal operations such as this. Each time I get a message like this, I report it to the company the message is telling me wants me to verify information to, but usually, all I get back is an automated reply asking what I want them to help me with. Well, maybe 2007 will be the year it all changes. Afterall, it is a new year.

Please, let’s all do what we can to avoid these scams. If this saves even one person the heartache of being scammed, it’s worth the problems I will encounter reporting it. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.