ONE WORLD....ONE HEART EVENT

I will be participating in the ONE WORLD ONE HEART EVENT. My wife talked me into this event. So I figured that I would go along with it and support her and this event. Please post a comment to this blog entry. By doing this, you will be entered into a drawing for a handmade work of art made by my wife Veronica. See work of art above. This is the work of art that you will receive should the random number generator pick your placement on the comments page of this blog entry. For a close up view, please click on the picture and it will enlarge it to a bigger size.

I will pick the winner by using a random number generator, on 2/12/09. Whatever number the generator gives me, I will count down from the top of the comments and go down until I reach the number that the generator gave me. Here is more information about this event:

http://oneworldoneheart.typepad.com/

A woman named Lisa Swifka is the author of this blog, as well as the host of this worldwide blogging event that is taking place January 19-February 12. Rather than me trying to explain it all to you, I'll share an excerpt from Lisa, the creator of One World-One Heart:"The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way...This is more than wanting to win something.......that is only the means.......in the end it's about finding kindred spirits. Someone who may be fairly new to blogging, not sure how to navigate, find others and have others find them....Some are long time bloggers and in some cases well known in the art community. Whatever the case it brings all of them together...We are not solving the worlds problems nor are we curing anything nor are we changing the world. We are merely generating a closer community between humans through blogging

If this Has Happened To Anyone Else..Please Raise Your Hands

I wanted to share a situation with you. This is one of those things that really get the ole "roids" all fired up. Here is the scenario....you have lots of assorted items on your daily "to do" list. But you have to hold off on doing them because you need to contact a life insurance, which I will call Company X. Company X sent me a check for $8.00 and there was no note or letter attached or in the envelope...just the lone check. Now I have learned my lesson from past experiences...there is no such thing as free money and by cashing this check, I could be agreeing who knows what, possibly raising my life insurance policy to 2.5 million dollars. Of course along with the raise in the policy there also comes a huge raise in the premium, which I can't afford. So being the honorable and concerned customer that I am, I proceed to call the phone number to Company X that is listed on my last premium notice. After dialing the number, I get this boring mechanical simulated human voice telling me that if I want so & so, please press on the phone or say the number 1 or if I want another so & so, then I need to press press on the phone or say number 2. This continues through 7 different sections within Company X. Now since the free check that I received did not fit into any of the numbered categories that the boring mechanical simulated human voice requested that I press or say, I am left to my own devices and I need to make an educated guess. So I decide that #3 seems to fit the closest to what my problem was. So I say #3. After saying this number, I am then transferred into...now here comes the scary movie sounds...DA DA DA DA..."THE QUE". Now that I am in...DA DA DA DA..."THE QUE", someone is trying to keep me awake by playing some type of lounge lizard music. The music is like hypnosis to me and I start to nod off. Every minute or so, I get awoke by another boring mechanical simulated human voice telling me how important my call is, that all of their people are busy with other complainers...I mean customers and that the next available person will be with me shortly. Then the music starts again and I start to nod off once again. This sequence occurs for at least 10 minutes. At this point in time, I put my phone on the speaker phone function because I am getting a kink in my nexk. It is around this time I hear a different voice, a voice of someone that was doing their best to speak the English language but it wasn't working out so well. This person stated their name and asked me if they could help me. Because I was almost completely asleep, I almost missed talking to this person but collected my foggy thoughts just in time and I began explain about the free check I received and what the check was for. Unfortunately I had to repeat myself 3 times because we just could not connect on the same frequency. After my last attempt at communication, this person said that she would have to transfer me to another department. During this transferal process, I can hear a phone ringing like i had just dialed a number. Once the sound of the dialing stopped, I was once again placed in...DA DA DA DA...another QUE. Rewind and play lounge lizard sleepy time music...boring mechanical simulated human voice again..OK you know how this goes..no need for me to tire out my typing finger repeating the process. Then out of the blue a persons voice jumped on the line and stated their name, in their best English and asked me if they could help me. I said "yes please help me...I NEED HELP!!!!" and I started to explain about the free check that I received in the mail. I was starting to feel really good that I finally reached the proper destination and that help was on its way. I was almost through my spiel when all of a sudden....silence.....disconnected...NOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!...input hair pulling and cussing at this point in time. Another 1/2 hour wasted out of my life.
Now let's be honest here...if this has happened to you, please raise your hands and let me get a count. Ok..There is 1..got you at 2...I see you over there 3...c'mon raise it like you mean it, ok 4.......

The Early Years Part #3

Here are a couple of photographs of my parents. Their anniversary is coming up this Wed, 1/28.

Here is a photograph of my Dad dressed up for Halloween. This was about 2-3 years ago.

Tomorrow I will post the last of this series...The Early Years. There will be some photos of me when I was 3 1/2 weeks old up to about 6 years old. After I post those, please be gentle with your comments :)

Thank You!!!

I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for your very kind comments. I am deeply humbled by them and I appreciate them greatly. Rick