Re: A QUICK WAY to help yourself CATCH UP on reading posts if you're far behind (as I am), and THANKS!

[Guest guest]

and group;

I am from Cleveland Ohio. In South Carolona . Cant tezxt. keyboard has

pop on it. haasaaaaaaaaaaa. DArn.

Clora

> Hey everybody,

> My neighbor had the phone company out to fix her lines Friday.

Before the guy left, we realized ours were out! He messed up our lines

in the process! The guy said, " Not To Worry " , he'd have them

[Guest guest]

Hi - Thanks for the tip on catching up to the posts quickly.

Doing it that way will also help to lighten the load on my brain when

trying to remember how the conversations of a particular subject went.

This is a wonderful group - one I am extremely grateful to have

found.............Doreen

>

> Hey everybody,

> My neighbor had the phone company out to fix her lines Friday.

Before the guy left, we realized ours were out! He messed up our lines

in the process! The guy said, " Not To Worry " , he'd have them fixed by

the time we got back from the grocery store. (We finally went!!!) We

got back around five minutes to five. No guy, no dial tone. Not only

was there no dial tone, there was absolutely NOTHING! Not even the

usual buzzing sound that you hear when the dial tone is gone. It was

completely dead. So we called the phone company (using my husbands

cell phone) and of course, no human being to answer the call, only a

machine. They promised they'd have it fixed by today. But then Ike

went through Cleveland last night and we had gusts up to 60 mph -

couple trees down on our street! (Is everyone okay, especially those

who live closest to the storm?)

>

> Well, I thought, they won't be out to fix our phones tomorrow,

they'll be out taking care of business phones before ours. Irritating

because I can't call my kids or my mother or my husband OR GET ON THE

INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... UGH!!! :-(

>

> I tried calling a couple times today, and sure enough, the recording

kept telling me that because of the high volume of repair calls coming

in today, all lines were busy and I should call back later. I finally

got through to the " machine " , but they said my " wait time " was

" Greater than 15 minutes " . I'm trying to call on my husband's cell

phone, and he doesn't have 15 minutes left on it so I had to hang up.

I called again around 3 pm and got through to the " machine " again.

This time I was able to enter my phone number and hear a recording

that said our phones should be up and running by Monday, 9-15, which

is today. Okay, what else can I do but wait. Finally, at about 4 pm a

guy comes to the door to fix the problem. I tell him to let me know

when he's finished. He said he'd " call " to let me know. Forty-five

minutes later there's a knock on the door. He said he got the dial

tone back to the lines on the pole and he tried calling but there was

no answer. I picked up the phone. Still dead. He said it must be in

the house. He went in the basement to where the line comes in the

house and it was dead. He went back out & 15 minutes later he had it

fixed. The guy who worked on it Friday had the wires all messed up

outside! Well, I was jumping for joy as I downloaded the 457 email

messages since Friday, many of which were from this group.

>

> So during the last couple days I had no internet, which was

driving me crazy, but I DID have all my old messages to catch up on

anyhow. Over 2,000 of them from this group alone! I've been trying to

read about a fifty a day, but was not getting much out of them in

terms of comprehension since I was trying to read so many different

stories at once. Then I tried put them in " Subject " order, which

helped somewhat, but some people changed Subject names just a little,

maybe an extra space in there somewhere and they were not coming up in

order very well. So I got the idea of using the FIND capability of

Outlook Express and typed in a couple words of each subject, such as

" Handbags " or " Methotrexate " or " Reynaud's " or " RA in Family " or

" Worst ER experience " or " Progressive " , etc. Up pops 20 or more

e-mails all on the same subject. I can now peruse through the emails

quickly since they are all on the same subject. They made a lot more

sense this way and I learned a lot about this group and its members. I

am now up to the middle of August and have learned a lot about you

guys (and gals)!!! There were many I wanted to reply to, but they were

too old, those subjects were long gone off the board.

>

> However, I do want to apologize for everyone who has suffered

losses, themselves or in their families, recently or in the past. (I

read about so many of them today - I'm so sorry - please hang in

there, you are such wonderfully 'strong' people - God Bless You All

!!! (BTW, I too had a stressful childhood / life - alcoholic mother /

absentee father) It's so important to keep this group going (and

growing) and sharing with each other. (This is what they refer to as a

FAMILY OF CHOICE). And to those who shared good things that happened

to them - CONGRATULATIONS! I'm SO HAPPY for all of you! But most of

all, I'd like to say THANK YOU to all the kind, caring, big-hearted

people who give help and hope, prayers and encouragement and COURAGE

and other postive things such as medical info or humor or cute videos

to watch (I like the one with the moose in the backyard - or is it

" mooses " -lol - just kidding), or just your honest vulnerability that

helps us fight this fight (not only RA but all the problems in our

lives). You've shared so much of your time and your selves with all of

us in this group. Good or bad, you've been there... and you are still

here. (Your stories help us get through our days and have something to

look forward to in the future!)

>

> It would take WAY TOO LONG to single each person out, so I am doing

it this way. This REALLY is a GREAT GROUP! And you all get along so

well compared to other groups I've belonged to in the past!

>

> I haven't been here long, I haven't shared much since I've been

trying to research RA on the internet most of the time, (I'm in so

much denial about having to start taking the meds... ) but I usually

get a chance to read about 50 emails on most days. Today I was able to

get through about 500 of them and got a LOT out of it doing it this way.

>

> I'm starting to realize that diet is probably NOT going to do it,

but I still think it can help maybe, in some way, so I'm still going

to keep researching. My next areas of research will be " lectins " and

" gut flora " - Sound familiar? Probably not!!! - LOL - but like I said

before, I enjoy researching medical things. ;-)

>

> Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know what an unbelievable day

I've had today, reading all your posts, and getting to know each of

you a little better. Tears and laughter - all day!!! You and your

stories, your triumphs and tragedies - all mean so much more to me

now. Thanks for being there (here).

>

> Franz

> Cleveland (Parma), Ohio