Window Shopper

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Today, I received an email with a subject line that said “Notice from Department of the Treasury” that stated that the IRS had calculated my fiscal activity. My, isn’t that interesting. And they mentioned something about having found out that I am eligible for a tax refund of $189.60. Nice figure. Not a lot of money but it would help a bit. Of course, I wouldn’t be buying provisions for a trip to California anytime soon. There just would not be enough money for that and for the trip too. So, my dreams have once again been devastated by a lack of money. Oh yes, I needed to submit my tax refund request in the next 6-9 days by clicking on the text that read “click here”.

Okay, anyone? This is a spam email that just happened to have an inviting amount of money attached to it so that you would go to the website, wherever it is, and put in all your information. Did I click on the link? Of course not. It was a sad attempt to get information, an act called a “phishing” expedition. At some point, all your information is then sent to whoever is looking for it, gathering info on lots of people. They can then scam you, steal your personal info or simply make your life hard by sending out viruses, worms or any other nasty programs into email that you open unknowingly.

A good example of that is an email I received today that had two nasty items in it. Since I did not open the attachment with the email, it did no bad things to my computer. That particular email was sent supposedly by United Airlines. It said that I had used my credit card to purchase a ticket and that the attached file had the information concerning that purchase. Before I ran out and purchased travel insurance, I decided to check it out a bit. It was a nasty little bugger. But wait. I had not bought a ticket to anywhere with United Airlines. Not only that but I don’t have a credit card. They blew it. Now, people who have credit cards and are worried about such unknown purchases on their cards will likely open the email. That would have released whatever thing was in the email attachment. However, you do not have to be defenseless here. But you must have an anti-virus program running for this to work.

I right clicked on the attachment. That brought up a box with choices. I chose to “save as” and put it onto my desktop for easy finding. Then I closed that and went to my desktop. I right clicked on the item which gave me the option to have the offending item on my desktop scanned. When it was finished, it notified me that there were two items inside the attachment that were hazardous to my computer. At that point, I deleted both the item on the desktop and the email that brought it to me. I am now not worried about anyone taking my credit card account and purchasing a ticket on an airline.

With a little bit of savvy, you can keep your computer free of such emails that threaten your computer. Oh and just so you know, I knew that the IRS had not sent the email. It had a few non-IRS-like phrases like “If u don’t receive your refund”. See anything wrong here?

1) The IRS never emails citizens. Everything is by snail mail. That makes it more official.
2) They do NOT use a single letter for a word. (”u”)
3) They do NOT use a contraction. (don’t)
4) How do they know they have the right person? This email did not address me by my name. All correspondence from the IRS has the person’s name, usually several times, in it. This email was to “undisclosed recipients”.
5) The IRS does not spell things wrong. “your records must show wether” and “the maner of
section; and the realtionship” (wether=whether, maner=manner, realtionship=relationship)
6) It was sent as a “noreply” which could be suspicious coming from a place like that when they actually want to hear from you.

Both of the examples are spam and have destructive capabilities to your lives or computers or both. Always check the email out if it looks even remotely suspicious. Your computer will be safe from such things as long as you do not panic, make sure it is not toxic to your computer and before you click on any email link, stop and think if this would really pertain to you. Most of these people believe you will click on the link because of fear or curiosity. Often, they are right. Too many people lose their computers or their bank account balances due to such people and the scams they pull. Don’t you be a victim.

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Not long ago, my husband and I made two videos that showed how much we love where we live; the slower pace, the lakes, trees, wild life plus the historic places for people to see and enjoy. Hometown videos give the viewer a picture of the life in a small, rural village. Beginning as a retirement town and fast growing into a family center as well, this area is blooming into a retirement hub as well as a tourist attraction in the summer months. We enjoy the benefits of both the retirement area and tourist attractions with the several lakes, recreation centers, restaurant, tennis courts, drive through golf course and so much more. We enjoyed making the videos because it is just pleasant to live here.

Even now, when the weather is starting to turn cooler, we have seen those who are dedicated to their sports heading to the tennis courts and golf course with rackets and golf bags in hand. Enthusiastic golfers and tennis players still have a lot of time before our weather makes it less possible to play the game they seem to love so much. Occasionally, we head in the direction of the golf course, driving into it since they ran the street right through the course which we thought was weird but is fun nevertheless.

All in all, this is a good place to live with the prices somewhat cheaper here than other places. Housing is easier to find and affordable. When others are paying over a hundred thousand dollars for a place to live, you can find many, many places that are far less in price. We live in a neighborhood that has woods nearby. In this village, only a few houses are on a street and the woods is part of the charm. Each neighborhood has their share of the trees to live around. Sometimes in the fall, we will wake up to a family of deer in our yard. So beautiful are these creatures. Yes, this is a good place to live.

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Hey, I realize that this is way overdue and late to boot. But if you can remember it for next year, that works too. In this amazingly bad economy, it boggles the mind that anyone would want to go to such places in the first place but if you do that, you need to know a few things that might help you. This particular subject and post are happening due to someone who commented on another post here. So, I will try to help in any way I can. That person said that they wanted to spend as much as they could when going to the fair. Yes, I understand that. However, there are things unseen going on there. One really big thing here, I am not talking about permanent amusement parks. This is about traveling carnivals only.

For instance, that carnival that has all the rides and games is only there for one thing, to separate you from the money in your wallet. That is it. No other reason. They do not care whether they entertain you or not. That is a side benefit since it brings people back for more. The food is high priced but you will probably eat it anyway because it’s unique to that time and place…more or less. Most of those things can be fixed in your own kitchen but I suppose it’s not the same. One thing here, a foot long hot dog is only 9 inches long. Thought I would share that.

Games are there so you can lose. Yes, people do win occasionally. And if they win a large stuffed animal, unless they had whatever they were tossing right on the mark, it took them much more money than it cost for the thing in the first place. Most games are rigged for the house. Big shocker. All of them are rigged to not lose much at all. Little kid games will get you little bitty prizes. Big kid games almost always get you little bitty prizes. The trinkets cost less than a few cents. The stuffed animals cost much less too. Often, the win or lose is a judgment call by the person in the game booth. These people have to pay the boss if they lose some of the “plush” so they try very hard not to do that.

Rides in most states are not regulated enough to be safe. Some states or local governments do not have rules in place for the safety issue. Some do. Some are very strict but most are not. There are no real regulations on the games either. But let’s take a closer look at the rides. These pieces of machinery are painted, repaired and packed up at the beginning of the season, carted around the country, set up temporarily at the site where they are going to operate for a few days up to ten days. The people that the owners use to assemble these large, heavy pieces of machinery are usually from the town or city where they are setting up. These folks have zero clue what they are doing. That is not safe. But the carnivals rarely have enough people to do the job themselves. At the end of the stay, the rides are torn down in less than 6 hours usually, packed up and heading for the next stop.

In the beginning, they are well repaired, look fresh and crisp. Don’t let that fool you. Those rides are usually pretty old. They have a new paint job. After they have been on the road all season, are usually in need of repair they will likely not get until they go back to winter quarters. They are dangerous in the beginning and worse at the end of the season. And those who love carnivals will not pay one bit of attention to me on this but they should. It might save a life or some injuries some day.

Just my two cents worth for today.

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Some years ago, I had to go on a mission trip to Mexico. Having never been there before, I tried to get all the information I could about the clothing I would need. Not that easy. The people I was going with were so used to taking this trip that they were pretty matter of fact about it. In fact, one of the ladies that I was asking about it was actually from the area of Mexico that we were heading for. But she did not see what I wore as a problem. I did since I did not have clothes that would fit for this trip. It wasn’t easy.

Two friends and I were going on this trip so we got together and worked out what we needed. Perhaps that was foolish, though it seemed right at the time, we probably spent more than we needed to on the clothes. However, I have to tell you that I was grateful for the extremely heavy jacket that got me through the winter in the mountains and for the UGG Boots that got me through the snow and the mud during that whole trip and kept my feet warm. It was Christmas time. We were taking toys, clothes and meds as well as food to an area of Mexico that had been racked with a drought. It caused most people to lose their jobs and so the young men of the villages were heading elsewhere to work. Those left really didn’t have much since they were waiting for the men to get jobs and pay for what they needed at home.

It was a real eye opener, not only what we had to shop for at home but what we shopped for when we got there as well. I was so blessed by that trip. Now I have a better appreciation for our stores, homes and the value of having money to spend in the stores. I do not take that as lightly as I used to do. Shop smart. Save money. Enjoy what you have. Simple.

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As you may know, I posted my hometown video yesterday right here on this blog. It’s for a contest to see just who can make the best hometown video. I entered that on the 18th, I think. My husband is also entered into the same contest and frankly, I think we both have prize winning videos to show off. If you click on the link at the beginning of this post, you will get to my video. If you stay here and watch this video, you will see my husband’s hometown video. He has a rich imagination and loves things with special effects. Since we are still just beginning to learn how to do these things, this is a pretty good special effects video. At least I think so! So, here is my husband’s video. That’s him beaming in!

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This project was born out of a contest that I entered a while back concerning a person’s hometown video. This was a work of love that I did not actually think I was going to be able to do properly. The truth is that I had no idea what to do for a video like that. And then my daughter sent a wav file of her friend’s singing. He had sung as a personal request at a party for someone. He said it wasn’t something he would pick for himself but he did like the song. When I heard it, it was the answer to my dilemma. I had the basis for my video in hand. With his permission and a good deal of footage from around our area, the My Hometown Video was born.

It has now turned into a sort of travel brochure for our area. Some local people have seen it and loved it because it shows a positive side to where we live. I enjoyed doing the work on it with much thanks to my wonderful husband who took a lot of the footage with our camcorder. He could walk to places I could not go. Also many thanks to the guy who did the singing on the video, Mr. Kenny Ray Jackson, a wonderful singer/song writer, though he did not write this one. It will be familiar to many of you! Here now is My Hometown Video.

If you enjoyed this, please give me your comments. If you want to visit, please check out traveling in Arkansas! It is amazing. By the way, you can also tell me if you didn’t like it. Just be kind. That’s all I ask. If you are not kind, I delete!

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Why do I call it a fiasco? Because that’s what it ended up being. I have been in the hospital recently for a blood clot in my leg. Since then, I got a really strange rash that our doctor said was bad enough that I needed to be in the hospital or at the least, get to a doctor that knows about this thing. He sent me on to a hematologist. She told me that as far as her medical knowledge, I was healthy…blood-wise. But that she agreed with my doctor that something needed to be done. She called a couple of doctors, none of whom was willing to admit to admitting privileges at the local hospital. The hospital itself was not about to admit me with an unknown origins rash. Interesting right?

So, the docs decided I should go to another facility. We did that. Bearing in mind that I have a blood clot in my leg, we traveled by car from our house to the docs, the second docs, back home to pack and on to another hospital, roughly 180 miles or more. That’s where we stayed for several hours while the ER doc decided whether I could be admitted there or not. He came in and said that I needed a better hospital than theirs and wanted to send me on to Springfield, Mo. hospital. I hated the idea because we had been on the go all day, my leg was aching badly and I was so tired, I was about to fall over and would have except I was on a narrow gurney in an exam room, leg up for once. By this time, I am entertaining ideas of going on one of those Mediterranean cruises and getting the heck out of Dodge. But it was not to be. He did want me to travel by ambulance due to the clot but we were unsure as to how my husband was going to get there if he could not get a ride. (He can’t drive at night)

The doc returns with a funny look on his face. I am getting the picture. Springfield did not want me there either. Interesting, isn’t it. We ended up staying in a motel that we got to around 1:30am. It was a pit. We didn’t argue though we should have. It was incredibly hot in that place due to the air conditioner that wouldn’t. Eventually, it did but that’s just the icing on the cake for the day. Next day we got back home. It was Saturday. On Monday, I get from the doc’s office that we went to the wrong hospital and if we had gone to the one he wanted us to go to, we would have been admitted……probably. Uh huh. And then he wanted me to go on to that one despite the fact that we were still tired from the previous situation and that he had no guarantees that we would be admitted. The capper is that this one is over a hundred miles from the house to the city..that’s one way. We had already traveled over that to do the other runaround. No thanks.

In the end, the rash is disappearing. Funny, huh? Not to me. Strange, weird, not funny. Tiring.

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As an over-the-road trucker, I was expected to go into New York City from time to time. I ended up at the Hunt’s Point market quite often. Not your best spot to visit in New York, trust me. Dangerous. But I have been in all five boroughs in New York and I can tell you that it is a very interesting, if large, place. Having been in some huge cities, this one is very compact but lots of places to go, places to see. I simply did not have the time to do that nor could I leave the truck sitting so I could see things while there. I did find an incredible sub sandwich that I think they called a hoagie or a grinder, not sure which. Might be wrong there.

But I did see some of the sights that you see in the movies and the television shows. Most shows have some type of scene in Manhattan, for instance. But Broadway was not a place I could get to in a truck. I did see the General Post Office for quite a while one night and next morning. The post office still moves as slow as ever. Wow! I was going to say that you could see lots of the shakers and movers New York has in that fine city but that would be a lie. Most famous and important people have no clue where the post office is let alone how big it is. Sigh.

I saw Lady Liberty though. That was awesome. And I saw the Twin Towers as well as the Empire State building. Since I quit trucking in 1992, you can tell that I saw things that, sadly, no longer exist. But it was a great experience for me. To travel into one of the most important cities in the world was an honor even if I was just delivering produce and letters to the post office (not at the same time, of course).

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As I am sure I’ve said, I used to be an over-the-road trucker. That means that I have been in 46 of the 48 continental United States. Nope, no trips to Alaska or Hawaii. (No bridges for Hawaii yet) But there are places I should visit just because I am an American. You know, the tourist traps. Let’s see. I recall seeing a roadside place in Florida that was some type of petting zoo. Well, not totally because they said they had alligators. Don’t want to pet those. Too many teeth. Bad breath. Scaly skin. Gross.

Then there was a wax museum. Now, that wouldn’t be too bad. Of course, they had all these life-like people in wax. Dead people. I’d be like that kid in Sixth Sense. “I see dead people.” “Of course you do, dunce head. It’s a wax museum.” No, I think I’ll pass on that one.

I have always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon. Big tourist attraction. I guess the closest I ever got to it was between Flagstaff, Az. and Kingman, Az as I went by on I 40. The only problem that I can see is that I do have this really bad habit of tripping and loosing my balance. Maybe I should just stay on level ground for now. Besides, I’ve seen it plenty of times in movies. Isn’t that good enough for now?

A lot of years ago, I lived in Florida. I know. Why would you do that? Because that was where we decided to park the car. Ended up living in West Palm Beach for a few years. Not bad. Of course, I really did not see most of the tourist stuff there. Who could afford this stuff? But we
lived south of St. Augustine, supposed to be the oldest city in the US. Could be. Looked like it, in fact. What I could see of it, that is.

Anyway, we had beaches near West Palm. Those I have seen….a few times. Do you know that the more you live in a place the less likely you are to visit the tourist stuff? Or the obvious places? I think in the four years or so that we did live there, we went out to the beach maybe 5 times. I could be stretching that. The dog liked it. We had a dog that was not in any way politically correct. If he didn’t like you, he lifted his leg…..on you. Yep. I believe that was his opinion, unsolicited and all. Once at the beach, he lifted his leg on an obnoxious German shepherd. The other dog just looked at him in disbelief. Never did do anything about it. Then our dog ran into the surf. He loved the ocean. Labrador retriever.

Well, sometime I really should visit these places or go back to them. Sometime.

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Some years ago, when I was single, a friend and I took a trip that would end up in South Carolina where some friends of mine of many years were living. The family had actually been friends since about 1975 when I met them through a ministry I had gone to. It had been about 14 years since I had seen them because they moved to South Carolina when I still lived in Florida.

My friend and I decided to visit a couple of friends of hers in Tennessee first. We went near Nashville. I was pretty disappointed that I could not stop and see the Grand Ole Opry but we thought that the visit to the friends more important this time. After the stop there, we moved on into South Carolina. It was such a blessing to see them again. It has been so many years!

While we were there, we did some tourist stuff, of course. One of those little side trips was to Hilton Head Island. How beautiful that is!! Awesome. And you know, if I had not had a place to live in Missouri, at the time, I would very likely have wanted to seek out Hilton Head rentals to find a place to stay right there!! I could just see me living right on that little island, enjoying the wind and surf all day long!!

However, we did have to go back home in due time. I can tell you that I did not want to leave there. I missed my friends a lot and the scenery was beautiful. But we did head back. Remember my disappointment about the Grand Ole Opry? Yep, we stopped in Nashville, looked at the old Opry building, Ryman Auditorium and then traveled out to the new one. It happens to be at the Opryland theme park now. We stayed all day, got incredibly wet on a really fun ride and left for home the next day. I had a really great time.

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