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Feeling Blessed

I truly feel this past year was one of my most challenging ever. I’ve been tested in so many ways personally, professionally and internally. Yet, as my wife always tells me “everything somehow has a way of working itself out” and through all of it- faith, believing and being surrounded by love guided me through this often trying time in my life. I am sure my children now understand our preaching to make the best out of every day they have. And while, they have always been sensitive to others, they especially appreciate being healthy as a gift. My wife… what would I ever do without her. This will be our 30th Christmas together and I can’t imagine them without her. When I was diagnosed with my condition, I became dazed and floated off to another place while she became focused and ready to battle; she even had a plan before left the emergency room. I exhibited something that resembled a fighter absorbing a knock out punch. Kim and Gabriella were relentless to find me the best doctors possible, while I thought it best to get things in order just in case things didn’t go as expected.  My surgeon was awesome, I can’t thank him and the staff at the hospital enough. I was treated like royalty “it helps to have family and friends working there too”! I have to go for scans every six months and naturally just before my next scan my anxiety level is hard to disguise so I’ve found new ways to take my mind off it as best I can, though I am human.

I think back to some of the things that were said to me  this pas year that left lasting impressions:

Dr. Strober- “This my friend was divine intervention”, “you are one lucky “expletive”.

Cousin Damien upon hearing the news- “No not you!! you are the Rock, the Rock of our family, nothing gets to the Rock”.

Gabriella- “Daddy I’m sorry for everything….”

Kim- “I got this…”   “You’re not going anywhere.. I…we need you”.

Gianna- “I’m fine…” Gianna internalized everything, though you could tell she was having a hard time dealing with it.  The picture below melts me beyond words and helped comfort me more than the morphine.

 

So, in light of it all, this year has offered many lessons, reminded us (me) how important faith is in our lives and why we should be grateful for those in our lives and not take what and who we have for granted.

Love you all and thanks for being there and have a  Merry Christmas.

T

 

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Cyclones Softball

Hello all!
I put the pictures up from the last game. They are under Slideshows If you want any of the originals sent to you for printing purposes let me know. I resized these down so they weren’t so big. Also, I put every picture I took up, so there are similar shots in a row since I took them in sequence mode. I didn’t feel like picking out singles

🙂

Keith

Any day above ground…

Often, people will ask “how’s life?” and my mind always returns back to these two elderly men who would come into my place of work to pay their phone bills. Each visit, the customer service rep would always greet them with a cheerful hello and how are you today? The two men, who moved very slowly aided by canes and always together, brightened the lobby with each visit. One of the men would always respond the same way when asked how he was;”at my age, each day above ground is a good day.” His response has always stuck in my mind and I’ve spoken often about these two men throughout my life thus far. So, when someone asks me how I am, I repeated his response but adding my own twist to it “…any day above ground is a good day…my family is here, everyone is healthy..what else can a guy ask for?…life is great.” Though, each time I say this, my mind drifts to what happens when the days comes I can no longer respond this way. It’s inevitable, that at some point in time, a loved one will face challenges, hurdles and tests of faith. Because of a past personal experience that was significant enough to make me realize life can be cut short at any time, I’ve come to realize the cute old man’s response has had quite an impact on me. And now again, I am faced with life changing news that makes my last experience seem like a mere warning shot across the bow. My doctor said, it was divine intervention that we discovered this hurdle the way we did, and I have to believe this is true. So far, everything has fallen place with the mortal side of intervention. So, tomorrow when I go in for surgery, I can only pray that I will wake, the cancer will be gone and I can still say… “any day above ground is a good day…my family is here, everyone is healthy..what else can a guy ask for?…life is great.”

Craigslist PayPal Scams – beware!

Just a word of advice for people selling larger items on Craigslist- beware of people with the following stories. I need to make room for a new grand piano we are getting. So, decided to post my current piano on Craigslist and see what offers I get. I received various responses however, two of the responses were almost identical stories where the person claims to be purchasing the item as a surprise and they would like to keep it that way and that they will pay for the Piano via PayPal and they will make arrangements for movers to pick the piano up. Upon reading the first response, I wasn’t actually thinking SCAM. However, shortly after I get the second offer with the same exact scenario, which immediately raised the alert level

As I was writing this, I get yet another attempted SCAM:
— I just had a family emergency early this Morning but will be able to send full and direct payment through PayPal. The moment you get back to me with your PRICE and PayPal email, i will send Payment.

Peace and Blessings!

Another version of a SCAM:
–Thanks I’m just asking about it to make sure its in good condition as im buying it for my Family as a surprise gift and he doesn’t know about it, so can you assure me i will not be disappointed? also no shipment involved as i have a mover that will come for it. Im okay with the price and condition,I can only pay you via one of the fastest and secure way to pay online (PayPal).. Do you have a PayPal account? Let me know asap so i can arrange the payment through PayPal. my shipper will be coming to pick it up as soon as the payment clears into your account . So if you’re ready to move forward, just fill out the info below so I can work everything out!

PayPal Email:
Full Name:
Firm Price:
Thanks

Beware of anyone asking to utilize PayPal as form of payment on Craiglist. PayPal does not protect you with purchases outside of Ebay or to addresses other than the PayPal verified address. Plus, utilizing PayPal decreases the amount of money you are selling your item for because they will charge you their service fee! Also, you will notice in the SCAMS, the buyers do not try to negotiate price. How often does that happen on Craigslist? With that said, keep in mind the various SCAMs that follow:

You may receive a phony however very legitimate looking email from Pay Pal indicating that the money has been sent but won’t be credited to your account until you respond back with the tracking number. PayPal does NOT ask for a tracking number before crediting your account. If you log in to your real PayPal account directly and there is no money present and no copy of that email, then it’s obvious that there is no transaction.

Or perhaps the Craigslist scammer sends you a forged email from PayPal stating that the money has been sent to you with a link for you to click on to confirm the transaction. This link then takes you to an authentic “looking” PayPal site where you after you enter your log in details, the Craigslist scammer hacks your account and takes your money!

Were not done; the Craigslist scammer could also pay you with a hacked PayPal account, perhaps from scam above, the money goes in to your account, then once you send the item, the real account holder reports the theft and PayPal debits the money from your account. Now you have NO money and NO merchandise.

And of course, there’s always the, I need it send to another address scam where the scammer pays you with a real PayPal account and requests you to ship the merchandise to a different address. Once you have shipped the merchandise, the scammer files a charge-back saying that they never received the item. Here’s the sad part; even with a copy of the delivery confirmation and the email from them requesting to send the merchandise to a different address, you have no protection from PayPal because you shipped it to a non-verified PayPal address!

So my advice to you if you want to sell items on Craigslist, keep it simple, stick with it being a CASH AND CARRY service.

Boo Google! No more Latitude for you!

Google decided to discontinue the Latitude API that enables mobile users to share the location to third party applications and force them to use Google+ along with Android devices. So- I had to find an alternative to send coordinates to my Geo Locater. Users still have access to their location history, but the Latitude app, API, and website are gone. Google+ replicates some of the lost functionality.There are some other cool apps you can utilize however, Glympse offers SDK’s for developers much like Latitude and supports most platforms. Hemisphere also is very good and Life360 claims to be able to import your data from Latitude though it doesn’t appear to work for me.

Town of Wallkill 16, Pine Bush 9

June 18, 2013

Abby Andrews pitched a complete game, struck out seven and added one double and four RBI at the plate in a win at Wallkill Area.

Jaden Bjaelker, Brianna Maisonet and Gianna Scarzfava each had two hits apiece. Camilla Ortiz tripled for Town of Wallkill, which plays Town of Newburgh at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Washingtonville.

For Pine Bush, Nicole Schussler had two hits, including a double, and Adrianna Ferrara pitched a complete game. Pine Bush plays Montgomery at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wallkill Area.

Back in the day…

A friend of mine was digging up pictures from the old days and came across this one. I was probably around 20.. maybe? I know it was one of the Halloween parties at Groucho’s! So many good memories of this place and that DJ booth.. If you click on it, the picture will zoom in. Thanks for the picture Carolyn!


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