The World of Grandpa Don  

Monday morning I made my semi-annual visit to the eye doctor. He put on his Roger Dangerfield act, claiming I give him no respect by not following his instructions to use "Dry-Eyes" drops several times a day. I use Restasis, a very expensive eye medication that is supposed to lubricate the eyes but I need the over-the-counter drops as well. He said my eye lenses look like a dirty windshield on a muddy road with no washer fluid. When I blink it just streaks the muddy surface. I left promising to do better and will see him in six months.

The afternoon hours brought a visit from the bank's appraiser, a pleasant and very thorough gentleman. Every room, nook and cranny was inspected accompanied by much note taking and picture taking. He poured over the original plans and plot plan, accumulating even more notes. He commented on the apparent newness of the roof, the heating and air conditioning equipment as well as the water heater. The attic insulation was checked as was the electrical service. The closets and condition of the finished basement were of special interest and in leaving he took measurements and more photos in the yard. We of course are looking for a favorable and high appraisal. Now, if it had been a tax appraisal the opposite would be true. I confess to having a double standard.

An email and a warning was received from Kevin, my friend and computer guru, who operates Acute Compute. He refers us to a report from 60 Minutes. See Video. It was, to say the least, very interesting and very frightening. All I can say is that you and I must be sure to keep good quality virus protection on our computers and keep it up to date. And then, in addition, be cautious in where we go on the web and what we download. Never - ever open an email attachment unless the sender is positively identified in the body of the message as a rusted friend. I am currently receiving several emails a day in which the sender is identified as Me. Needless to say, they are immediately deleted because I know I didn't send them. I also get several each day that purport to be from the Web Ministry at St. Julie Parish. They all ask me to verify an order or confirm a shipping address or some such other ruse to get me to respond. They too are deleted. Always-always - always put a message in the body of an email that positively identifies you as the sender when you forward something or send an attachment. Learn to use the "Signature" feature of your mail software and set up a signature for yourself that is unique so that with a click you can identify yourself. If you send an attachment or a link to me without unique ID in the BODY of the email, it WILL BE DELETED.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY times two!
A nephew and a niece, a brother and a sister ... John and Chris Lawler celebrate their birthdays this week in different months. May they both "live long and prosper" (An old Vulcan parting phrase) Oh, I'm sorry, we don't meet the Vulcan race until far into the future, you know, the ones with the pointy ears. But anyway, it should be a modern blessing and so we wish it to them. .

I revised some pages of the parish web site on Tuesday. The Peace and Justice Ministry are promoting a Fair Trade event and sent some information. They have two different points of focus which had shared the same web page and so I made it their main page and gave Fair Trade and Joining Hands each a separate page. That way each could get the attention it needs and we could "spotlight" one or the other when needed. See Peace & Justice. The ministry has many energetic members and have been promoting Fair Trade products for some time, selling coffee, cocoa and other products at the parish after mass. I have been buying my coffee on line from a Fair Trade supplier and I love it. Last fall they introduced "Joining Hands to the parish and over 75 parish families have each "adopted" a disadvantaged child or elderly adult. It all goes to demonstrate that "we can make a difference".

The reason I love the "Web Ministry" so much is that it is a ministry in itself which promotes the parish, the Catholic Church and Christianity in general and is also the servant of each and every ministry of our parish. We are involved to some extent in everything. We are a resource to the parish and the individual parishioners. We provide information for their needs and also let them know how they can serve. See Why Do We Have a Web Site. Visit St Julie Web Site. In short, being involved in our web site gives me a feeling that I am doing a service to the parish and to God. If I had lived in the time of Jesus I think I would have liked to set up a web page for Him.

An email was sent from Sheila Pluchar, a friend of the family and Youth Director at St Julie parish. It had an attachment that is well worth sharing and keeping so I am doing both. It is now a permanent part of my new "Inspiration" page and I invite ... no , ... encourage you to take the time to view The Great Physician. Thanks Shiela.

I knew it could be done but I didn't know how to do it. Such is often the case. So, some time was invested in experimentation and after fumbling about I discovered the secrete to sending a html page via email. Those of you who are on my mailing list for update notifications of this web page have seen the results. That is, of course, if you have your mail client set to read html formatted email. If you don't, I have no idea what you saw. I guess you could say that the experiment is continuing so if you got something strange and unreadable, let me know. There is another experiment which may be coming to an end. That is the Blog. In the several weeks it has been on this web site only one person has used it. Since it does take some time and effort to maintain it and there does not seem to be much interest in using it, I will probably remove it next week.

And ... speaking of experiments ... There is ZumBox. The Village of Orland Park has started to use it to send their quarterly news magazine and will extend it to all their mail including bills for village services. A local newspaper is also using it to "mail" their publication. It is meant to replace snail mail. I have signed up for it. The company has added every address in the nation to their database. Subscribers link their email address to their street address and senders send to the street address and don't have to know your email address. It is much cheaper and faster for them. You can then request that paper mailings be stopped ... if not, they will continue. Advertisers are starting to use it but you can block any sender if you wish. It is great for people like my friend Bob who spends the winter months in sunny Florida because his mail will follow him to wherever his email goes.  It will be great for our parish because once people sign up for it they can send out bulk mailings for a cost of almost nothing just by using their mailing list. It will take a while but I can see the US Postal Service (or lack thereof) disapearing completely or being used only for official documents which must be on paper.