A Service I Recommend

I now have a new advertiser on my blog page. The advertiser is Instant Amber. Instant Amber offers to store information about your children and make it available to the authorities in case of an emergency involving your child or children.I have not promoted them a great deal until today. I received an email from them and it contained some interesting statistics. I have included them below:

According to the Department of Justice, nearly 1 million children are reported missing each year in the United States. That means a child goes missing every 40 seconds, more than 2,100 per day.

There is a 1 in 42 chance that a child will go missing before the age of 19.

Finding a child within the first three hours could mean the difference between life and death.

According to John Walsh, founder of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), acting within the first 20 minutes following a disappearance is absolutely critical as “the chances of safely recovering a child are much greater within the first few hours immediately following a child abduction.”

InstantAmber provides critical data and photos to law enforcement in a fraction of the time of existing products, increasing the odds of successfully recovering a missing child.

Law enforcement agencies need specific information in order to start the process of finding a missing child: recent photographs, name, date of birth, height, weight, unique personal identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. In a state of panic, parents often cannot recall all of the information needed and rarely have access to a recent photo.

If you have a child or grandchild please consider this service. Click on the box below to find out more information.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Picture Monday, January 26, 2009

The pictures I have for today are a few I have snapped in the past several years of some animal friends.

From Picture Monday 2009-01-26

In 2001 we visited Colorado. While visiting the Air Force Academy we came across these deer above.

From Picture Monday 2009-01-26

In 2002 I had to go to a meeting in Galveston. I decided to ride the Bolivar Ferry across to the Bolivar Penninsula. While on the ferry I found these seagulls hitchhiking across also.

From Picture Monday 2009-01-26

Looks like we were late for dinner and the guests were waiting.

From Picture Monday 2009-01-26

This is Ferdy. She was my little Easter duck I got in 2004. She made her home on the back porch then and was faithful to leave an egg for me each day.

From Picture Monday 2009-01-26

One afternoon in 2004 I heard a scratching at the window. I looked and saw a baby squirrel climbing the screen. Seems she got caught and needed some help getting off.

From Picture Monday 2009-01-26

This is Peanut. She got the idea that the router was a pillow and would spend hours sleeping on it. Later she moved to the cable converter box and set up shop there. Now that it is cold outside she has moved by the heater. Seems like she is on an endless quset to find the perfect spot to stay warm.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Just In The Niche Of Time

If it's not one thing it's another. Sometimes ten others. I never seem to have enough time at the end of the day. It would be nice if you could bottle time and then when you need it just shake a little bit out. I began thinking about time in a bottle; actually "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce. The song was released in in 1972 when I was in high school. I didn't know it then, but he wrote the song for his then unborn son, AJ Croce. Then in 1973 Jim Croce met his untimely death in a plane crash. Three months later his song hit #1. AJ was born and then he suffered from a brain tumor and became blind only to regain some vision in his left eye a few years later.

Wow! I didn't mean to go down that road quite so far. It seems that before I knew it I was wandering and wandering down the road when I only meant to stop and look for a moment.

Now back to my time issue.

I've heard people say before that they were so poor that they couldn't pay attention. Do think time has become devalued just like our money? I mean when I was little bread cost 10 cents a loaf and I had plenty of time to play and have a great time outside. Nowadays, some bread can cost $3 to $4 a loaf; that's the high dollar bread, hand made stuff mind you. I can still find good old machine made Mrs. Baird's regular white bread for under $2; but that is still a far cry from 10 cents.

I guess what I'm saying is that the money to buy the bread is just like time during the day. There simply isn't enough of it. I suppose now that I'm older I have more to do than simply play outside. Maybe I have to work a little; No make that a lot, just to buy that 10 cent loaf of bread that is selling for $2.

You know, I could probably make a million dollars if I could develop dehydrated time. You know what I'm talking about; just add water and poof there you are, more time. I tried making dehydrated water water once. It worked really well, I just added water and there it was. Didn't sell though. I guess there simply wasn't a market niche yet. Maybe now people would buy a bottle of dehydrated spring fed glacier water imported from outer edge of Inner Mongolia. Just Add water! (And Time)

By the way; the title thing up above, I did mean to say "Niche" so don't write to tell me that it should be "Nick" or "Nicholas" or some other such thing.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Einstein Is Alive and Well......

......and working at JC Penney here in Waco.

As many Americans do after Christmas, I hit the stores to make a few returns yesterday morning.

I headed out to JC Penney armed with the items to return and the appropriate receipts. I found a service desk and dutifully waited in line. My turn came and I reported to the register and explained my reasons for being there so bright and early, "My wife asked me to return these. She decided that she didn't want them! Here are the receipts for them. Oh, my daughter changed her mind on this also!"

I gave the clerk 3 fleece throws for $7.99 each and a box of perfume for $19.99 and the receipts for all items. The clerk scanned the first receipt and started to scan the items. I noticed that she seemed to be having some difficulties. My first clue was when she started muttering to herself saying that the computer said I had already returned one of the items.

I thought to myself, "How did I do that? I have it right here with me."

The clerk tried a few more key strokes confident that she could solve the dilemma. No luck.

Next thing I knew she had the PA in hand and I heard, "I need the MOD at the home department register."

The MOD reported promptly and took one look at the register and announced, "You've already taken this back. That's what the computer says."

I said, "I don't think so. I have it here and here's the receipt."

MOD, "Well maybe your wife changed her mind earlier and exchanged it with this receipt for something different!"

I thought to myself, "Then why do I still have the same exact item in my posession that the computer says I've already taken back? If she did that I wouldn't have that item anymore."

The MOD then tells me, "I can return the other items and credit your charge card but you'll need to look for the correct receipt for the other item."

"OK," and the MOD began to credit the returns to my charge card for each item for $7.99 each; which by the way, is the price listed on the receipt. (This fact is very important later on.) I then asked the MOD what I needed to do if I couldn't find the receipt.

He said, "If you can't find the receipt we can credit your charge card for $7.99."

I thought to myself, "Isn't that what I've been trying to do but you won't let me since I don't have the correct receipt?"

Then, being the bold person that I am I asked, "Instead of looking for the receipt at home could you go ahead and credit my account now for $7.99?" I did this while thinking to myself, "Which is what I paid for it earlier, as plainly indicated on the receipt that you have been looking at lo these several minutes!"

The MOD responded, "Sure, as soon as I finish this return!"

HUH!!!

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.