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Boy, what a ride. Lots of changes as most of you know.
Many went unnoticed or just as a temporary inconvenience.
Moving our web site to a new location was a big move for
us. In fact there have been quite a few mechanical changes,
all in the interest of making our site less accessible to
invasion. Some things are still in process and not yet done.
I'm not sure if we will ever really be done. That is, as
fast as we move, so do they.
Why we are the direct target of the porn industry is
disturbing. They seem to have a bull's-eye on us and
it is unrelenting, twenty-fours a day bombardment of
our site with links, pictures and other lurid information,
as well as our email boxes. We remove it and actually block
much of it before it gets to your screen. That is taking a
lot of our time, of which there is precious little.
Many of the things I had wanted to get done or bring to
you have not happened and for that I am sorry. Maybe next
year. I know there will have to be some changes made. I
hope we can continue to have a bulletin board. We are
trying. But at this point, the bad guys seem to be winning.
We are trying to actually check the site every ten minutes
and that does keep us busy.
There are some upgrades to the Chat room 'in the wings' too.
Should be fun. If you haven't been in there in a while, pick
a time when you don't think there is anyone there. You might
be surprised. Over the year I had to ban a few, I never like
that, never, but it was necessary. I pay a price when it
happens as they often run sniveling to other web sites
whining about how mean I am. So be it.
My thanks to those of you who have offered their good wishes
for my wife's recovery from her seemingly unending ailments.
The carpal tunnel surgery has been put on hold and we seem
to have found a stop to the condition. Way too many hours
yet each day on her computer yet though. I fear it will
bring it back. She will have gamma knife treatment in the
spring to repair the damaged nerves in her face from the
five cancer surgeries she had two years ago. It has been
a long fight; the nerve pain has been intense.
But, we are still here, plugging it out every day. We didn't
plan that it would take seven days a week, but that's the way
it turned out. Our stats keep rising and the numbers continue
to grow. For that we are grateful. Mostly grateful to those
who support FAOL and what we are trying to accomplish. We did
get a little fishing in this year, Quebec, Michigan and Idaho,
fantastic journey. I bought a new digital movie camera so
I could bring you some good quality images of interesting
things but so far no time to put it to much use.
Got the place (new refinance went through) decorated for
Christmas. Deanna did a bang-up job on our tree. Even bought
a new ornament again this year. She gets at least one every
year. Often it is a frog kind of thing. She says "you've
got to kiss a lot of frogs."
All in all, it looks like we made it again. Plans for next
year probably will include the operation that will relieve
my wife's pain, let her be more of her old self. I sure will
be glad for her sake. It has not been easy for her. As for me,
no worse than ever. Still off smoking and able to do most of
the things I think need doing. Still don't have a dog, at my
age, probably won't get another one. Do have fish, inside
and out.
Have a nice holiday all. We will be here doing pretty much
the same stuff as you. ~ JC
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