Thank you for the offer, but we're 'making it' okay.
You must remember that I write those letters to put pressure
on my elected reps. (It isn't as bad as I make out to them as
Helen gets a pension payment larger than mine:)
Medicare works fine here. Getting government support is
the issue. It think the Gummint has an accountant who
views working people as assets and retired and unemployed
people as liabilities, which is the Ayn Randian truth.

I don't do any consulting anymore. My attitude is
that retirement is 'the way we were meant to live'.
I have taken up violin making as a hobby and I
enjoy it thoroughly along with making as much
electricity and I can with solar and wind power.
And I code a bit for myself as required or if I get
what I think is a good idea for a desktop app.

And now Ladies and Gentlemen - The (sort of) Philosophy.
All in all, the whole road of each individual's life
is an adventure that should entertain him or her
as much as possible with the least amount of
effort. If another becomes angry with you, remember
that the anger lives in their head as long as you do not
allow it into yours. I also make it a point to lend a
hand to all who ask for or obviously need help.
And um - oh yes - Without becoming the town
lunatic, let your leaders know what you think.
Leaders are like computers. You need to put
information in in order to get answers out. ":)

How'd I do?
you think whenever you can



>Grady, you are definitely going through tough times. It's amazing that you can stay upbeat. Are you not still doing some consulting, or is that not a possibllity? Do you have a Paypal account? If you do, let me know.
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>I got conscripted into working for a local pawnshop recently, and it reminded me of the blessings I've got. I have supported a FPD application for a pawnshop for several years, and the owner told one of his fellow pawn shop owners about me, after the other guys computer crashed. It seems his "guy" died a few months ago, and he had been maintaining their system with a home grown Alpha4 program running in Windows '98. I was brought in to see what could be done. I found out very quickly that Alpha4 will run in Vista, but only in a small box. That wasn't acceptible, so I wound up building them a windows 98 computer and putting their old stuff on the new,old(windows 98) machine. While working to get them back online, I had the opportunity of seeing the folks who are coming in trying to get 30 bucks, 50 bucks, or whatever. Now, from their appearance, many appeared to be looking for that next bump. I just keep telling myself that if I had taken a few left turns, that could easily be me. Even
>so, I believe we are all the authors of our own destruction, and those left turns they took are what got them where they are today. Then, this past weekend, I was at the local hospital, emergency room with my son, who had sliced his foot on some broken glass, and I saw a lot more people who have ruined their health. I think Memphis must be the epicenter of the morbidly obese universe.
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>Oh well, bottom line for me is, be thankful for my blessings, and avoid left turns at all cost!
>
>Let me know if I can help, at least a little.