Today's Mailbag...

Every once in a while I receive a forwarded e-mail that is worthy of a second look.

This particular e-mail hooked me because it touches on one of the greatest dangers our children can face.

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental-injury related death among children ages 1 to 14 and the leading cause of accidental-injury related death among children ages 1 to 4

The e-mail had a link to this compelling video which is provided by the folks at Infant Swimming Resource.

Over half of the children between the ages of 1 to 4 who die from drowning do so in a swimming pool. And many of these deaths occur at their own homes.

I have always felt that in order to help protect my children that it was imperative to teach my children how to swim.

However, this swimming program takes it to the next level... survival.


What a great e-mail to forward.


later...

The Latest News...

Linda in Norman e-mailed me the other day to tell me that it has been quite some time since I have posted anything on my blog.

When I looked at the date of my last post, I found it hard to believe that it has been 13 days!

Two weeks without a post?

How unlike me.


*sigh*


Needless to say, I have been inundated with an enormous amount of school work. If I told you guys how many hours I have spent in research and writing for my class assignments alone...

Well, let's just say that I am certain that you would understand why I haven't posted.


For example, in one class alone I have typed 18,772 words. Of course, this is a word count for the finished product as recorded by my Word documents.

Another neat thing about the statistics that Word records on your documents is the amount of time that is spent on editing the document. I think that the amount of time that is spent on projects tells a much clearer story.

In this same class I spent 5478 minutes editing those 18,772 words. This calculates into 91.3 hours of my life that was used to to type these papers up. Of course, this does not include how much time was spent on reading and researching the topics that I was writing about. However, I did not keep a manual record of these efforts.


Albeit, I spent an enormous amount of time on these assignments, I am happy to announce that I did earn an "A" for the class. My professor e-mailed me this afternoon to let me know what my grade was before she was required to post it officially.

She also gave me quite a compliment.

So... In the end, it was all worth it because I achieved my goal!


In other news...

I know that I had a lot of people worrying about me and my ONG bill and the overcharge from my account via the automatic payment plan.

I have been so busy that I haven't been monitoring my bills like I should. I was yanked into reality when they *dinged* my account for an EXTRA $75. Of course, this caused me to pull all my old bills out, go out and read my meter myself, and make a phone call that put me in that endless on hold loop for over 30 minutes.

I won't go into all of the *gory* details of my telephone conversation with the customer service rep when I called about my bill.

Let's just say that I became very frustrated with her because she WOULD NOT SHUT UP and listen to my reasoning and logic. While I didn't have all the facts in front of me "like she did", I had a pretty good idea of what had happened to my account. She kept telling me that I OWED Oklahoma Natural Gas money!! She refused to listen to me. I know that she thought I was crazy...

And stupid as well.

BTW... if you really want to make me mad, just ~act~ like you think I'm stupid.

I tried my best to get to a supervisor, but you know how that first line of defense works. They won't let you get past them.

The next day I finally got through to a supervisor. While she didn't quite understand my logic or reasoning, she could tell that something "just wasn't right" with my account. She promised that she would send it over to the "Accounting Department".

Long story short...

ONG ended up crediting my account $318.23.


Oh yeah... uh huh...


That customer service rep was wrong, and I was right.


You know that I really didn't have the time to deal with those people, but for $300 I figure that it's worth it.


HOWEVER... I think I still need to write a letter to ONG because they don't REFUND you the money. They only credit your account.

Which, in my opinion, is wrong, wrong, wrong.


There's a lot of things that I need to share with you guys, but I'll only share a few more things.


One is a new phishing scam. The last couple of weeks I have been getting hit with spam that presents itself as an e-card. It says things like, "Your family member has sent you an e-card!" or "Your friend has sent you a card!". There's one that uses Hallmark's name on it too.

You get the idea.

They're FAKE e-mail greeting cards.

I knew that these cards were probably worse than the annoying spam that we all usually get. But I never took the time to research it. This evening I took a few minutes and I was able to confirm my suspicions.

Anyway, in the body of the e-mail is a link that you click on and it takes you to a website. This website downloads malicious spyware, etc., on your computer when you land on it. With this "mal-ware" the people on the other end can gather your credit card numbers, passwords, or anything else that you type on your computer or online.

So I thought that this was something important for you guys to know. You can read this short article about it.


Let's see...

What else.


Oh yeah...


Do you guys remember me mentioning that I had been summoned as a petit juror to the Federal Court?

Well, I had to show up yesterday morning at 7:30 am. We had orientation, swearing in, and all that stuff. They told us that we had to be available through August 10th. They also said that most trials usually only last about two to three days.


I ended up being selected as a juror for a criminal trial...

And the judge told us that it was certain to last for FIVE days at the very least. Maybe into the following week?


Can you believe this?


So...


What have you guys been up to?


Hopefully, I be back here sooner than...


later...

E-mail Request for Help...

From time to time I have posted requests that I have received via e-mail.

I receive e-mails for prayer requests to actual physical needs...

Each and every one of them are important.


And I always try to help however I am able to.


Tonight I have received a special e-mail request from Shepherd's of Love Ministries.


I thought that I would post the information here.


We are a community.

And a kind and giving community at that.


I won't post the telephone numbers from the e-mail here, but I will provide the address in case you want to get in touch with Teresa or want to send funds to help this man.

Dear Shepherds of Love friends,

We have a special need and would like you to consider helping us raise $1835.00 to restore hot water for our Viet Nam Vet.

Here is the situation: Our client has been without hot water and heat for a year. He has gas pipe leaks under his home and the gas company pulled the meter. He lived last year without heat and his cooking stove. He lives on $900.00 a month, has a $300 house payment, utilities and 25 medications to purchase through the VA. He has Agent Orange disease and Colon cancer.

Shepherds of Love sent our personal plumber there to check out the problems and present us with a solution. My husband Max who is in construction management has discussed this with the plumbing company and he will personally oversee the repairs.

Needs are: All leaks need to be repaired under the house, the hot water tank has been setting in water in the basement and must be replaced and relocated in the kitchen. He needs faucet replacements on the old bath tub in order to use the bathing equipment provided through the VA.

Financial Needs to restore gas:
Gas Permit/repair all leaks, relocate & replace hot water tank/vents etc/install handicap faucets in tub/ Total Cost: $1835.00

We have $600.00 pledged leaving a need of $1235.00.

You guys know that I trust this organization and that I personally send financial support to their ministry.

Here's their information if you want to send money to help with this large project:

Shepherds of Love Ministries, Inc.
P.O. Box 5043
Edmond, Oklahoma 73083-5043