MERRY CHRISTMAS

I don't normally post religious stories. This was sent to me from a very dear friend and it moved me so much I thought I would share. I don't know the source or the author. Enjoy! MERRY CHRISTMAS  In the beginning God.............  The old man sat in his gas station on a cold Christmas Eve. He hadn't been anywhere in years since his wife had passed away. It was just another day to him. He didn't hate Christmas, just couldn't find a reason to celebrate. He was sitting there looking at the snow that had been falling for the last hour and wondering what it was all about when the door opened and a homeless man stepped through.     Instead of throwing the man out, Old George as he was known by his customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up. "Thank you, but I don't mean to intrude," said the stranger. "I see you're busy, I'll just go."     "Not without something hot in your belly." George said.     He turned and opened a wide mouth Thermos and handed it to the stranger. "It ain't much, but it's hot and tasty. Stew ... Made it myself. When you're done, there's coffee and it's fresh."     Just at that moment he heard the "ding" of the driveway bell. "Excuse me, be right back," George said. There in the driveway was an old '53 Chevy. Steam was rolling out of the front.. The driver was panicked. "Mister can you help me!" said the driver, with a deep Spanish accent. "My wife is with child and my car is broken." George opened the hood. It was bad. The block looked cracked from the cold, the car was dead.     "You ain't going in this thing," George said as he turned away.     "But Mister, please help ..." The door of the office closed behind George as he went inside. He went to the office wall and got the keys to his old truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building, opened the garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was waiting. "Here, take my truck," he said. "She ain't the best thing you ever looked at, but she runs real good."     George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into the night. He turned and walked back inside the office. "Glad I gave 'em the truck, their tires were shot too. That 'ol truck has brand new ." George thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The Thermos was on the desk, empty, with a used coffee cup beside it. "Well, at least he got something in his belly," George thought.     George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do. Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered the the block hadn't cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. "Well, shoot, I can fix this," he said to himself. So he put a new one on.     "Those tires ain't gonna get 'em through the winter either." He took the snow treads off of his wife's old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn't going to drive the car anyway.     As he was working, he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left shoulder, the officer moaned, "Please help me."     George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention. "Pressure to stop the bleeding," he thought. The uniform company had been there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct tape to bind the wound. "Hey, they say duct tape can fix anythin'," he said, trying to make the policeman feel at ease.     "Something for pain," George thought. All he had was the pills he used for his back. "These ought to work." He put some water in a cup and gave the policeman the pills. "You hang in there, I'm going to get you an ambulance."     The phone was dead. "Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that there talk box out in your car." He went out only to find that a bullet had gone into the dashboard destroying the two way radio.     He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. "Thanks," said the officer. "You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the area."     George sat down beside him, "I would never leave an injured man in the Army and I ain't gonna leave you." George pulled back the bandage to check for bleeding. "Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right through 'ya. Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your gonna be right as rain."     George got up and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take it?" he asked.     "None for me," said the officer..     "Oh, yer gonna drink this.  Best in the city. Too bad I ain't got no donuts." The officer laughed and winced at the same time.     The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun. "Give me all your cash! Do it now!" the young man yelled. His hand was shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this before.     "That's the guy that shot me!" exclaimed the officer.     "Son, why are you doing this?" asked George, "You need to put the cannon away. Somebody else might get hurt."     The young man was confused. "Shut up old man, or I'll shoot you, too. Now give me the cash!"     The cop was reaching for his gun. "Put that thing away," George said to the cop, "we got one too many in here now."     He turned his attention to the young man. "Son, it's Christmas Eve. If you need money, well then, here. It ain't much but it's all I got. Now put that pea shooter away."     George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man, reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry. "I'm not very good at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son," he went on. "I've lost my job, my rent is due, my car got repossessed last week."     George handed the gun to the cop. "Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we can."     He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from the cop. "Sometimes we do stupid things." George handed the young man a cup of coffee. "Bein' stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin' in here with a gun ain't the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we'll sort this thing out."     The young man had stopped crying. He looked over to the cop. "Sorry I shot you. It just went off. I'm sorry officer."     "Shut up and drink your coffee " the cop said.     George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn. "Chuck! You ok?" one of the cops asked the wounded officer.     "Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?"     "GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?" the other cop asked as he approached the young man.     Chuck answered him, "I don't know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just dropped his gun and ran."     George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other.     "That guy work here?" the wounded cop continued.     "Yep,"  George said, "just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job."     The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, "Why?"     Chuck just said, "Merry Christmas boy ... and you too, George, and thanks for everything."     "Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve some of your problems."     George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a ring box. "Here you go, something for the little woman. I don't think Martha would mind. She said it would come in handy some day."     The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw. "I can't take this," said the young man. "It means something to you."     "And now it means something to you," replied George. "I got my memories. That's all I need."     George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. "Here's something for that little man of yours."     The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old man had handed him earlier.     "And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that too," George said. "Now git home to your family."     The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. "I'll be here in the morning for work, if that job offer is still good."     "Nope. I'm closed Christmas day," George said. "See ya the day after."     George turned around to find that the stranger had returned. "Where'd you come from? I thought you left?"     "I have been here. I have always been here," said the stranger. "You say you don't celebrate Christmas. Why?"     "Well, after my wife passed away, I just couldn't see what all the bother was. Puttin' up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin' cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn't the same by myself and besides I was gettin' a little chubby."     The stranger put his hand on George's shoulder. "But you do celebrate the holiday, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold and hungry. The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great doctor.     The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by terrorists. The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and not take any for himself. "That is the spirit of the season and you keep it as good as any man."     George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. "And how do you know all this?" asked the old man.     "Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when your days are done you will be with Martha again."     The stranger moved toward the door. "If you will excuse me, George, I have to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned."     George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill the room.     "You see, George ... it's My birthday. Merry Christmas."     George fell to his knees and replied, "Happy Birthday, Lord Jesus"        This story is better than any greeting card.  MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS!     Now clear the lump from your throat, blow your nose, and send this along to a friend of yours or someone who may need a reminder as to why we celebrate Christmas.

I've been scammed!!!

Fortunately, I got away from the situation fairly unscathed. In being targeted by this type of behavior and some of the responses I have had from acquaintances I want to post things of which to be aware.

First let me say, we are all a global community and these scams hurt everyone by making those who are good, questionable. I recently interacted with a woman who was in a conversation with the same person and I asked why she was no longer in communication. Her response was interesting...."I didn't feel it was my place to say anything." This behavior is understandable but it also puts others at risk. I want to create an information source that can be referenced.

Now I'm a friendly person and will chat with most anyone who wants to chat. So, I do and in many cases the conversations are harmless. When the topics get to be too personal or too sex oriented then I will either discuss not having these types of conversations or I will get rid of them. When I say get rid of them, I mean I will un-friend them and if necessary will block them depending upon their behavior. I have been contacted by those who show pictures of their wives and family from countries that have restricted dress codes for women. These men are looking for women who dress in a different mode of attire. This being said, they are not good candidates for a real conversation exploring culture, lifestyle and just good general conversation. (OK, maybe I'm nieve in this arena, but one can only hope....lol)

I have been targeted by two people who turned out to be a Nigerian Call Center. I was not even chatting with the same person. They were both named David and for this dialog I will call them David-1 and David-2.

David-1 interacted with me through Facebook...wanting to get to know me better. He had read my profile (which is now nonexistent to facebook). He had targeted my striving business. He liked what he saw and really wanted to be in communication. His technique was very simple. It was based on compliments and a desire to be with me. At the time, I was in a vulnerable situation and actually believed the conversation. This went on for four months. Nothing but relationship building. Then he hit me with "I need money." This money was to be sent to one of his businesses in Nigeria. Oh, his business was the import/export of vehicles and boats. Everything he said sounded plausible, but nothing could be found aout about him through research on the internet. He said that he was born in Los Angeles, CA and went to Harvard as a math scholarship student. The picture of him was also one of a conservative white male who was good looking. To make a long story short, I found out that the picture was an old GQ photo; that the name went to Harvard over 100 years ago and that there is a family in California with the same last name but of a different ethnic culture. Needless to say he is blocked from my facebook account. But, what is really interesting is that he has continued to contact me via email. This gets around the facebook account. He has vowed that "You are the love of my life." My response has been....surprise me and show up in the town in which I live and meet me." Needless to say I have not been contacted again.

David-2 also interacted with me through Facebook....wanting to get to know me better. When I told him I was married he said goodbye. A month later he was communicating with me again to "check on me". This man was supposedly in Ohio. Again, I could not find out anything about him on the internet. This man had two (2) children and his story was that he had had three (3) bad relationships with women and told me all about them. His field was construction and he was a civil engineer who was educated in Barcelona, Spain. What I found interesting was the fact that he queried me about "if we got together, would I be willing to borrow money for him should he get in a tight spot during his projects". That shocked me and I said that I would not. At the time he was supposedly in Paris, France working on a shopping mall. What I found interesting is that he had no relationship with a bank to acquire funds should something be needed. He took a new project and this time he was in Nigeria working on a private construction project. He needed help with $350. Needless to say, I told him I could not help and blocked him from my facebook account.

Now to the really ugly part of all of this. This scam is out targeting not only money directly from people but their messages have spyware attached to them and this will go through your computer looking for information. I found out that they were searching for banking information on my computer. They did not find anything.

After learning the more grizzly information, I phoned a friend and was told to use a software program to clean up my computer. This program is CCleaner and can be downloaded free from the internet.

I would love to hear of other stories and suggestions of what to look for so others won't be duped by their sophisticated behavior.

Oh, and by the way, there is more than the Nigerian scam. There are Russian scams. There are money laundry scams. They are very sophisticated. I will post some more later on this.

Take care of yourselves and those you care about by making them aware of these types of behaviors. 

Thanks

LaNita

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Getting on with LIFE!

Hey folks!
Life is about being open to what the universe places in your path. How doors close and others open.

Recently, I realized that I really have no control over what happens in life as situations turn on a dime. I have also realized that I cannot worry about the things that I have no control over. What I can control is how I respond to the situations at hand.

For the past three (3) months I have been worried and prone to panic attacks. In the last six (6) weeks, after hiding in the corner, I have come to realize that life is about connecting the dots and making the best of the situation I'm in. Remember the old saying, "grow where you are planted".

I have begun to come out of my hiding place and am interfacing with the world again. I'm taking little steps and listening to what the community around me has to say, making decisions when they feel right.

My friends have made recommendations about how to market the vegan natural skincare products and fabulous vegan soaps that I make as well as offering hand made knitting services.

There is an old saying that I don't remember who said but I will say it anyway......half the battle is showing up........well, folks, I've decided to show up!

Come what may........