Hi folks,
Charity work. That is what I am doing with the time I normally spend fly fishing. My back is getting better but since I have five bad disks that is only temporary. I have been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism due to a nodule on the left side of my thyroid. It may or may not be cancer. I will find out more next week when I go to the endocrinologist. This has driven my diabetes and everything else into overdrive. I shake so bad that I cannot tie on a fly and forget about casting. I am working with the doctors but that is another story.

I see you all got to meet Rodney. He is a really good guy, the type that cares a great deal about others. He has encouraged me to come back at least on a limited basis. He also thinks I should tell you about the charity work I have started and I agree, so here goes.

While I was on one of the few hikes that I did get to take recently I was talking to my Creator about what is happening to me and what He wants me to do with it. I was thinking about my job, asking Him to help me continue to serve those in the Armed Forces who serve us. I was thinking that as bad as things are getting for me at least I will be home for the holidays. I was remembering the loneliness of being a soldier so far from home at the holiday season which is fast approaching us. I was feeling a little sorry for myself and was instantly ashamed of it too. I was saying a prayer when the answer came to me to do what was in my heart that I had wanted to do for so long.

I decided to send out holiday cards to the troops via the trucks that I load with their freight. I was walking along the trail now while listening to the Trans Siberian Orchestra. When I need a boost I listen to their Beethoven's Last Night album and their Christmas albums. At that moment I made a decision that I was gong to send copies of their CDs to the troops.

I was thinking of burning them copies but wondered about the legality of it. Even if it was legal doing such a thing without the permission of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra would not be the most moral thing to do. I had joined their fan club board at trans-siberianexpress.com so I thought where better to ask for help. I got to tell you that the folks there are absolutely wonderful. Seems they had been wanting to do this for some time but didn't have someone on the inside to help distribute the CDs. We discussed the best way to do this while helping the band at the same time. We decided to open a charity drive to raise the funds to purchase brand new retail Cd's for the troops. An email was sent to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra by me. I received a response from them stating that they liked what we were doing and something good that I cannot discuss at this time!

"Operation 4t" (Getting TSO to Our Troops) was born in late August and to date the response has been terrific! We have established a pay-pal account at

custersfolly222@gmail.com

I have also given my home address for those that wish to donate via Check or Money Order. We have received an offer for bulk purchase discounting from F.Y.E. and are in the process of talks with other retailers. I have also offered to ship out cards for anyone interested in doing so. I have already received some cards to send from club members. I have also lined up some help with getting out the items through other organizations that send out care packages. I have done this because the drive has outgrown my original idea of placing the items in Sea Vans for overseas shipping. This will also get the gifts out to the troops much faster.


Our charity has collected over $500 dollars in donations to date!


Since the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has now released the date of it's non-Christmas album "Night Castle" and has previously released "Beethoven's Last Night" we have decided to run "Operation 4T" on a year round basis continuing indefinitely. You can check all of this out here and do turn on your audio:

http://www.trans-siberianexpress.com/

http://trans-siberianexpress.com/mem...p?topic=1533.0

You may have to join to view the board but you will love the folks at this site. The site is very well maintained with no nastiness tolerated. Lots of good topics in their off-topic forum. The wonderful folks on this board and that one should get along great together.

Check out the Trans-Siberian Orchestra here:

http://trans-siberian.com/intro.html

Well that is what I decided to do. Like all of you I call it paying it forward. Our men and women in the Armed Forces give so much yet expect so little in return. I am using my condition as motivation to help improve their conditions any way I can. Sometimes it is the simplest things that mean the most to them.

God Bless,
Eric