Happy Tuesday!

You’ve guessed it – my signal has been hopelessly helpless again, or more like still! As I am working off line on my faithful computer, I watch like a hawk waiting to jump on it’s prey in the pasture… The light goes from red to green and in a flash I make my move and swoop in for the prize. The prize is to catch the signal for as long as possible, seemingly only a few minutes at a time the past week or so. I dive with rapid speed to the mail icon, and then I fly higher, dropping the catch until it appears in on the screen. Before I know it, I scan my emails with a hope and prayer I’ll get to the most important of the last several days opened and read before… Then it happens, the icon escapes, the screen returns invalid and I am once more awaiting the green signal once more.

It really has become a predatory situation with Hughes Net. However, I am realizing that in spite of the fact I should have no personal liability in where they set the satellite when they did the install, I am going to have to bite the bullet sooner or later and pay the $120.00 to have them come out and realign or otherwise fix this problem. I’m holding out until April or May though by necessity. Besides, if we find ourselves moving, what’s the point? They will have to re-install it all at the new place regardless.

Therefore, in the meantime I will continue to hone in on my predatory kill skills and catch when catch can!

In reflecting I am certain I failed to share with you on my blog the most troubling part of the Hughes Net situation. It is one I know that has become increasingly common for all of us in the good old US of A. Job exporting! Yes, you heard me right! Exporting jobs to other countries via our wonderful new age of technology! These fine up-standing corporations hire million dollar marketing people to sell us, the American people, on products and services that we have every reason to assume are USA based.

Then to save a buck or several hundred bucks, they ship the telephone customer service to foreign grounds. I have found it more than a bit frustrating when, after attempting to complete all the on-line help ideas, submitted to calling the service tech dept only to realize they barely speak English!

Yes, Hughes Net is one of those fine companies that have joined so many others in exporting their telephone support! Each person I spoke with understood me just fine, or so I think they did… But could I understand them? Barely! After asking them to repeat themselves three or four times for every thing they said, I was ready to throw the monitor through the office window!

Yes, they get impatient with my apparent ignorance. Or so they make one feel, because you can’t understand their dialect of the English language as we know it here on domestic lands! But since they are multi-faceted with bi-lingual abilities, it must be us… Right?

Finally, after a great deal of time I might say, they determine I have attempted every optional fix they can assist me with over the phone and thy set up a tentative appointment for a service tech to come to the house.

Gee, I wonder how long it will take them to get here? I mean, after all when I asked if I could please speak to someone locally they told me there was no one local… But not wanting to be a smarty pants and attempting to be cordial in my desire to fix my Internet Signal so that I can at least use the $60.00 a month service that is virtually of little value in its current status… I let my sarcasm rest where it started and kept my mouth shut, for once! They said the tech would be out by such and such a time, etc. Of course, it wasn’t for several days since a weekend fell in the middle of the time frame, and as well, they don’t work weekends…. For crying out loud, what do I expect, emergency service like an ambulance or what?

I waited… And I waited…. Then I thought best to call again and see if the appointed service tech was stuck on a slow boat from Indonesia or what? Lo and behold they inform me they flagged the scheduled service call after realizing the foreign tech service person quoted me a no cost service call, since it was clearly a problem with the satellite signal.

However, when they reviewed the service order they determined that it was not a free call, not even to simply diagnose the problem… No, it is a $120.00 service call and that may be no more than the diagnosis, as any non-working parts, cables or additional service calls to complete the process may likely result in additional fees! Excuse me, but what about the $60.00 a month I am paying for something that isn’t even working 5 percent of the time?

So, on that note, I again demanded the ability to speak with the tech that would be coming out to the house. Nope, not unless I schedule the appointment and pay the service fee up front.

Then again, if you don’t pay, they simply block the signal. Now that is what has me wondering…. They can block your service at any time they see fit, so how do we know they don’t play these little games to generate $120.00 service fees? I’m not convinced and I am less than impressed by any company who bases their services in the US and sends the work to foreign soil. By so doing, taking away more American jobs and making our service needs next to impossible to meet, from being able to simply understand and/or deal with the person on the other end, to the reality of such matters impact on our own economy! Its heart wrenching and should be frightening in it’s understanding to the American people.

That is really what burns my bottom side!

However, we Americans are blind sighted! I wish there was a way to educate folks on what’s going on out there… Such as our oil refineries being owned by foreign entities! I have first hand insight to some of these seldom shared facts… We are pumping thousands of barrels of oil out of our own US grounds… Then it is sold to the refineries, many of which are Canadian owned, along with other countries… Lo and behold, we then have to buy our own oil back from them at a premium!

I know for a fact that one of the leading produce and meat producing counties in the US history is slowly being shut out of the farming and ranching business by urban sprawl. The irrigation wells and water ways are being shut down and have rendered the local produce that has supplied much of the country null and void. Our nations produce and production is slowly being replaced by, you guessed it, imported produce and production!

Much the same as I see a country so hungry to hear what they want to hear rather it is the right thing, and an impossibility or not; that they are jumping boat and preparing to elect a person who has spent a good portion of his youth life experience growing up outside of the United States. Admittedly, though not Muslim himself, one can’t dismiss the fact that he has a strong connection to their beliefs and values.

When this great nation was established as One Nation under God - I do not believe the agenda was ever meant to become what it has… Diversity has taken on a very corrupt and ill perceived definition in our current times.

Then again, perhaps this is all how it has to be for prophecy to be fulfilled. Perhaps we are closer to the one world order principle than anyone realizes? And is it so shocking that the American public is being led as a lost flock of sheep when we are so willingly signing over the ownership, control and destiny of our country to foreign hands in more ways than one?

Call me a pacifist in many ways, but the reality is this: It is what it is…

I refuse to settle into a niche of such common place acceptance! Nope, I’m going to continue to embrace the journey and trust the process, as this too will pass… One way or the other, it will pass!

In the meantime, I’ll keep honing my predatory computer skills, living life, and loving others in this wonderful spin around the years… Additionally, I think I’ll keep a keen eye on those Eastern skies… As I have stated; truly, this too shall pass.

God Bless Us Everyone –

Sunday – March 3, 2008

Thought it might be a good idea to put in a land mark of time here and again…

However, in typing the date and year it drives many thoughts for my vividly wild imagination! Yes, I admit, the imagination is on the extreme side, but isn’t that after all, one of the components for a writer or artist in general? The way I see it, God had an incredible imagination and a pretty good sense of humor too.

Why you ask? Look around! Take for example, penguins; how odd is an animal that has similarities to both a fish and a bird, but can’t fly; and yet waddles with nothing more than stubs to balance it self on. Then combine that with the consideration they have to trek half way across their environment just to have off-spring! Now, that is pretty wild thinking in its origin if you ask me!

Then there is the giraffe, hippo, parrots who can talk… I could go on forever with this list… But perhaps the best of example of his sense of humor is my own family! LOL Just kidding here, I wouldn’t trade them for anything… other than the Holy Trinity that is.

Isn’t it funny though, when I write even such a one liner as that referring to the Holy Trinity, I know there are people, even some well professed believers that will be immediately turned off to my writings. Why is that? It makes me ponder why folks tend to be so afraid of having to be something other than what they are to be able to relate to or hear about God?

If I was worried about what I had done wrong in this old life before I could ever talk to, talk about or develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, it simply would have never happened! I’m no angel and I’m the first to admit to it!

Yet, to think so many folks assume that everything is supposed to be so solemn to the point of misery to take up a cross and follow the word of God… Okay, I agree there are a lot of grim occasions in the Bible, but there are as well, many exuberant occasions with promise and hope, enough to fill a lifetime!

We are to sing, dance and rejoice according the Bible I read! That doesn’t sound like gloom and doom to me! And no, we are not supposed to drink and indulge in excess for a variety of reasons, but at the same time Jesus multiplied the wine at the wedding party and fed the multitudes that had gathered in his following.

I simply can’t buy the idea that thousands of people of various back grounds jumped on board to walk miles in the Middle East to be miserable and unfulfilled! No way!

Consider that the people of Biblical time don’t sound so different than those of today’s generations! There was riches, parties, gatherings, markets, churches, great feasts, hospitality, greed, murder, hunger, loneliness and all else that we know today, even then!

God gave us laughter and it is a proven and well documented fact that laughter and smiling creates good health benefits! I have in recent years found the joy of Christian comedians. They are so funny and sometimes sarcastic, but their humor is real and every single person alive can relate to it if honest. What does it lack that the other secular comedians offer? Vulgarity, overt sexual content, cursing but that it’s about it. You can laugh with the kids in the room! There is a program titled “Bananas” that airs on occasion on a few remote channels and boy do I get a chuckle out of it!

Take for example the reality comic competition that has aired on prime time TV. The fellow who won the last go around – from Hickory… I don’t know if his show is less appropriate in clubs, but the national competition he won was family friendly and my goodness how we laughed!

It is the same with the redneck humor that we have become so familiar with… Again, very family friendly as well. I simply find it impossible to buy into an idea that God has a problem with this humor! In fact, he probably tunes in for a smile himself! After all, looking down on this old world in our current times couldn’t be the most joyful viewing over all.

So, the next time someone mentions God in your presence, or you mention his name or the Holy Bible in someone else’s presence and there is heaviness to the air and that all too familiar solidity that shuts down dialog… Remember the penguin! It shouldn’t be gloom and doom but rather light and love… Sure makes me wonder where we went so wrong in our perception of our creator?

I for one can tell you, I don’t want my own son or other extended children of whom we have parented to feel that way about me! I want them to know they are always loved, cared about and prayed for, even when they go astray…. Just as the Bible teaches us that God wants the same for each of us!

Embrace your creation and your life! Grab hold of the dreams and goals that are put in your heart from before you were even a sparkle in your parent’s eye! You are special, wonderfully and magnificently made regardless of what life has dealt you thus far!

It makes no difference your age, your social status or your income…. God is bigger than any worldly principalities and is just waiting to help you in your journey! The first step is believing! Yes, believing in yourself, God and the fact that Jesus already covered your sins. It was inevitable we’d all fail miserably – not just you, but all of us! Thank God for his mercy and for his son! With Easter being this month, it seems a most appropriate time to share my thinking along these lines. Thanks for indulging me here.

For those of you stuff shirt Christians out there…. I’m sorry! I mean really, I’m so sorry that you are missing out on all the joy; the pure unadulterated happiness that comes from realizing that our sense of humor, laughter and inner fulfillment comes not from over dosing on the do’s and don’ts of the Bible but the promise and hope that is offered to each of us yesterday, today and forever!

After all, this is the day the Lord has made and I’m going to dance, sing and rejoice in it. I am going to laugh, love and live life as if tomorrow may never come!

Once more… Embrace the journey and trust the process!

Today I would like to share a line or two from a John Denver song that was chosen as one of our wedding songs….

“Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine, I’ll taste your strawberries; I’ll drink your sweet wine… A million tomorrows may all pass away; here I recall all the joy that was mine today.”

Yes, today is the day… And tomorrow is the day and the day after that and still again each day the sun rises on the horizon with or without clouds…. Let no man steal your joy and the promise that we have in forever!

Love ya all – today, tomorrow and always!
Sher-Bear

It has to be good - the stupid Internet signal is up and running for at least a short time! Yeah!

But that isn't all! Perhaps I am seeing the manifestation of positive thoughts and the release of some element of control to other forces.

The day was great! I got to go outside and play with the coming yearlings (baby horses). The kids were good! And we actually got something accomplished in the course of this incredible 80 degree day! In itself that is unheard of in our region this time of the year!

Oh boy, I don't know about anyone else, but here at our place it was a day to rival any spring or summer day! It was absolutely, God given, beautiful!

Keep in mind what we have dealt with in the past few days: random talk from the kids that included one suggesting that they might consider killing them self... False allegations of how unreasonable my phone restrictions are.... And that it surely must be the same as being stuck in HELL itself!

So, with this much in mind, might you possibly understand why I am inclined to say it was a wonderful day when the kids are all productive, happy and in a good space? It's a wonderful thing I tell you!

But there is more... I don't know for sure what the more is, but I know there is much more.

I was thinking about this feeling I have been harboring for a little over a week now and where it might be coming from. Possibly it came from the power of positive thinking. Then again, maybe it's more that that. Maybe there is something great in the works on the book's completion or the movie being reviewed by a potentially interested producer???

You know that feeling I'm talking about. The feeling that something is going on behind the scenes that you don't actually know anything about, but you sense it... You don't even really know what it is you're sensing, but there is something... And then you find out later on that in fact, there was something. Like a sixth sense, a mystical interpretation that one can't explaine. It's like that!

On a more readily identifiable note, I actually made it through the week. A week that was beyond chaotic with appointments and expectations galore. I even managed to get my looming paperwork completed for the past month! That is a miracle in itself!!!

This is all with due consideration to the fact, that the powers that be, have managed to create even more red tape, forms and expectations for us lowly foster families to prove our ability to care for societies children. I have accepted a great deal of this, but still struggle with the realization we are not allowed to parent. The acknowledgment that it is no longer permissible to raise these children with the same standards and expectations that we raised our own son with, not to mention several years of other foster youth who graduated from high school and have gone on to have as normal and balanced as future as could be hoped for... Nope, can't do that anymore without the risk of being charged with abuse or any number of other allegations that amount to sheer non-sense.

No, I was never abusive to my teenage son or any of the others either for that matter! There were just certain things that were not optional... Graduating from high school was one of them. They could have opted for a GED, but they all enjoyed the high school experience too much to give it all up for a GED and a full time job!
There you have it! Really it wasn't so bad at all - but in today's society and foster system, for the youth that have more rights than they know what to do with and are guarded from so much as even an expectation of high school diplomas if they don't feel like it, there is little we can do.....

Therefore, one may find it easier to understand whe children (teens) working on grades, getting something positive accomplished on the farm today, and smiling with a friendly word to say is the next best thing to a miracle around here!

It was a small price to take them out to dinner and give them choice of the menu and a ton of verbal praise for their efforts and good attitudes! I am thinking positive that this is going to be a good year and a good group of kids! The power of the LAW OF ATTRACTION truly put to the test!!!!


Okay - I realize I'm ranting about foster care again... Then again, I suppose the reality is that it's a huge part of my life. In fact, it actually controls my life at least 90% of the time. It isn't a job - it's a lifestyle. You don't go home and recharge to return to tackle the next day's assignments... No siree, the assignments continue 24/7.

I'm still not sure what I did to anger God so much that he would put such a calling on our lives, but so it is. Therefore, it only makes sense to make the best of it in all possible means!

Well folks, it's late and I'm pooped out - so I suppose I will take my chances of closing this out for the night and hope and pray for a Signal again tomorrow or at least by Monday????

Hope you're all living the high life and remember you really can't buy happiness! Happiness is something we create within our own realities!

Visualize your dreams, your goals and your chosen relationships.... Dare to Dream, Dare to Believe and Dare to Walk on Uncharted paths!
But by all means always, yes I did say ALWAYS, "Embrace the Journey and Trust the Process!"

God Bless and Love to all!

Here it is Saturday night already and the first time I've had an Internet signal long enough to get my blog entered! So much for Hughes Net's big empty promises about broad band service!!! UGH!!!!

Oh well, here's at least one of this past weeks entries! Sorry and I hope you keep coming back and passing it on!

Week 2 – Tuesday

What a week! It is safe to say that as demanding as foster parenting can be, there are some times that are more so than others. I am in the midst of one of those periods of time. With new kiddo’s coming in within a couple weeks of one another, there are in-take appointments and requirements galore. A small sampling of this week will have found us at on going foster parent training as required by law, doctor appointments, court hearings, as well as other appointments that will have taken us at least an hour’s drive from home for 4 out of the 5 business days.

Generally, Monday’s find us at least in theory going to our local Cowboy Church from 7 to 8:30 p.m. But the reality of the situation is that many times, appointments as this week was the case, crisis situations that demand immediate attention (generally of a disciplinary intervention nature); or as the case has been often since the middle of December – flu and cold season that has plagued our home limiting our church attendance.

It would be safe to say that by the time the flu/cold has made its way through the entire household, it seems to find a new comer or a susceptible person to latch onto for round two. I have had at least two turns since mid-December… The worst of that is the first round lasted for the better part of three weeks! YUK!

By this point in time, I am pretty sure I should have bought some serious stock shares in Zicam and Airborne products, not to forget Alka-Seltzer Cold medicine, severe cold tablets, Sudafed, Dayquil/Nyquil and so on… It all depends on who the bug has attacked next as there appears to be a varying opinion as to what is the most effective remedy. The one thing that I can attest to however, is that when the product of choice fails to relieve the symptoms and offer a miracle cure over night – each of us (me included) are more than willing to try the other person’s suggestions and remedies. LoL The pride of personal opinion seems to fly out the door and the next item on the shelf if pursued.

Honestly, I suppose there isn’t much humor in the reality of it all, but one can’t help but laugh a bit. I mean, what are the chances… Today after appointment number two, I had to make my way to the local Walgreens to fill a couple of prescriptions from Monday’s appointments.

Lo and behold, as I am walking through the store, there is this tall, dark and handsome fellow looking right back at me.

Now, at my age and general circumstances, when a tall, dark and handsome fellow is staring at you, it would be plain and simply rude not to smile back… Ah ha… It was none other than my own beloved. What a coincidence meeting him there!

And what do you suppose brought him out of his way to the drug store? After all, I had just stock piled effervescent cold tablets, Echinacea, Ibuprofen, cough syrup, Vitamin C, (you have the general idea) just the night before. He had one item in his hand and what would it be that I had apparently over looked?

Nose spray… Go figure! If I heard his muffled words right, it was something to the effect of wanting to breathe… What a concept! A novel idea for sure…

I suppose what it all boils down to is more “Satan Poop”. Just can’t seem to get enough of that good old tradition around here… Or so it would appear, as it just keeps piling up. But that’s okay; I’m refusing to let it get the best of me!

After all, the weather has been pristine the past couple days. Even yesterday when we woke to a fresh layer of snow, the sun was bright and the skies blue as blue could be. As pretty as the layering of white may have been, it was short for this world. The spring air diminished the snow’s presence in little time. For February, I realize the weather in our north eastern area of Colorado has been very misleading. The snow has forgotten to come north east over the mountains and left us with yet another relatively dry season.

We remain well aware that March, Colorado’s snowiest month, could offer surprises. Nonetheless, spring is knocking at the door and day light savings time is a little less than two weeks away! You simply can’t steal a person’s joy when the world is in re-birth! It’s a wonderful thing.

I have also determined that at least the majority of the mares (female horses) that we bred to our stallions (male horses) last year are in foal (pregnant) and due to brighten the property in their arrival later this summer. That is enough to make me smile in spite of the flu, cold and winds that have helped to remind us it is indeed, still February.

Speaking of the winds… They are devilish on the Internet signal. Hence, this is why my daily blogs are running behind in being submitted. I simply can’t submit without that darned signal being up and running. If the winds were not bad enough, as I have mentioned previously, my Satellite is still struggling with clear, sunny days… Or clear, star filled nights…

Oh lets just face the facts…. My wonderful and costly HUGHS NET Satellite Internet set up is not all it was promised to be! But until I can justify spending the $120 service fee for a call that should not cost anything based on where THEY placed the dish, I suppose I will have to deal with the on again, off again symptomology of the matter. Kay sir rah, sir rah…

Okay, is this PST (Positive Self Talk) or SDC (self defeating conversation)?
Let’s analyze this one:
I’m in a pretty good mood.
I am pretty sure I am fighting off a third round of the dreaded cold/flu bug.
I’ve nearly made it through a crazy and demanding week.
The kids, though not perfect by any sense of the word, aren’t driving me to the brink tonight.
I am well on my way to completing the read through the Bible in a year, On-Line Family Bible Study that I am participating in (conditionally of course – based on the Internet Signal).
I am still writing my blogs – even if they are submitted later than they ought to be.
We are still looking at the possibility of a new home (I’m struggling with positive thinking on this one- but I’m trying!).
I haven’t heard anything on my book, but from what the publisher last told me “No news is good news” and that it means they are doing the formatting and such.
The movie script hasn’t come back with a request for a re-write, so again I am to assume that no news must be good news… Right?
Of course so! PST!!!!
The horses have made it through another winter fairly well (even the old ones).
I have a world of possibility in front of me and this is still ‘the year’!
THE YEAR! 2008 – The Year of the Great!
Yes, I am claiming it and believing it.
Sounds like PST to me!!!!

I have some big ideas, even if I have to selectively work on some of my projects based on my Internet signal… Yet, I know that even this surely has a reason! Everything is in Gods timing and I can live with that…. For now anyways! LoL

So, all’s well that ends well and it’s just about time to call it a night. After all, since I haven’t been able to check the verses I’m supposed to have read the last couple nights for the Family On-Line Bible study I’m participating in, I have been reading extra to make sure I don’t get behind. Therefore, I’d say there is at least a chance that I’m actually ahead of schedule. That’s all good since I started late in the first place!

What can I say? It’s just my style to be fashionably late… They tell me by all considerations to my general habits; it would appear that I will more than likely be late to my own memorial service. In spirit only, of course…as I’m of the mind to choose cremation and I’m sure it will still be fashionable!

Hope you all get to read this before next week!!! Pray for my Signal! I’m thinking positive – tomorrow I’ll have it up and going all day??? Or not…After all, it’s in God’s timing!

Bye Bye now….