Notice from Department of the Treasury (Spam)

This is the latest spam to arrive in many email boxes. You may assume this is actually from "Department of the Treasury" and decide to open the email. Please note a few important things before you do so. The text of the message appears below:

1. The email will not be addressed to you at any of your email addresses. My mail filter offered to bounce the message back to the sender if I let it know what email address I wanted it bounced from. Good luck with that.
2. The Department of the Treasury does not send emails to private individuals. They adore paperwork and will kill trees first.
3. The Internal Revenue Service does not send emails to you letting you know that you have a tax refund. They adore paperwork too and will kill trees first.
4. The letter from Mr. John Stewart is written so badly, he would have never passed the Civil Service exam. And the spammer forgot to spell check and remove his texting.
5. I have no idea what happens if you click on the "click here" link, but it can't be good.

Text of email

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity
we have determined that you are eligible to receive
a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the
Internal Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $189.60.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days
in order to IWP the data received.
If u don't receive your refund within 9 business
days from the original IRS mailing date shown,
you can start a refund trace online.
If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether
they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org.
is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will
be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes.

If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing
the recipient's name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner of
section; and the realtionship of the recipient to any of your officers, directors,
trustees, members, or major contributors.
To access the form for your tax refund, please click here.

This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service,
a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.
Sincerely Yours,

John Stewart
Director, Exempt. Organization
Rulings and Agreements Letter
Internal Revenue Service

A little R&R

My last day at Camping World was on Sunday. I turned in my shirts, name tag and time card, and I was on my way to a new adventure on Thursday at the Russian River.

Before I headed north, I stopped in Pacifica to visit some friends and my favorite health food store. The nearest grocery store or bank is 15 miles away from the RV park in Cloverdale so I wanted to stock up on supplies.

I took a little R&R along the cliffs and only worked an eight-hour day instead of the usual 10 or 12. Spammers never sleep and we have forum members around the world.

This was a wonderful way to end the day, so I thought I would share the view from my window.

Heaven in a stick

I usually connect with wi-fi and have been pretty lucky to find free locations. When I'm not near a freebie, I have ATT Wi-Fi that allows me to connect at any McDonalds, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Tengo locations. However, when I took the job at the Russian River, I had a problem.

The wi-fi only works in the lodge building and on the deck surrounding it. There are no repeaters in the campground which is full of hills and valleys. I could connect with my cell phone for voice but had never been able to configure the laptop to tether the phone as a modem. Also, the phone would not charge the battery while it was inside. I had to remove the battery and use a separate charger. Something was wrong so I packed my laptop and phone and headed for the ATT store at the mall.

I found Bill Graham, a tech who understood my needs and immediately assessed my phone problem: fried data port. There was no way I could connect to the Internet using that phone no matter what software I used. The port would recognize the headset but not the battery cable. He suggested an air card (which was what I wanted last year but it was unavailable). Instead, I chose a Samsung Blackjack (like a Blackberry) and a data cable. The phone would send and receive data on its small screen and tiny keyboard, but it would not allow the laptop to use it as a modem. I had wi-fi so it wasn't an issue.

Fortunately, that phone was still under warranty for two more weeks. Bill offered to replace it but I didn't really need its data capability if I had an air card. A simple cell phone with texting and perhaps a camera would be fine.

After an hour, some head scratching, deleting and reinstalling programs, I was connected to the Internet using the air card. In fact, I'm bypassing the free wi-fi to use it as I write this. I now have a purple Sony Erickson cell phone with camera and texting, and something else I swore I would never have: a Bluetooth headset. The phone doesn't have a wired headset and they're almost impossible to find. I sighed and took it home.

Wow! I was able to carry on a conversation while working on the laptop and having both hands free. No wire to interfere and no lost connection when I turned my head. I'm not going to wear the headset like some folks do but I will definitely use it for hands-free driving.

For a geekette, I found heaven in a stick.

Change of scenery

These are pictures of the Russian River Thousand Trails preserve in Cloverdale, California. Please note the new generator door. I went for a weekend visit and have been hired as a workamper beginning May 15. It is so refreshing to be back to nature again.

Located along the Russian River, the park has kayaks and tubes to rent, birds and other animals to watch, and wi-fi in the lodge. There is a small store and an outdoor area with games. I will be assisting with the store, kayaks and tubes, and activities like the ice cream social, pancake breakfast and movie night.

The other nice aspect of the park is you can do absolutely nothing. It's quiet except for the jays and the sound of an occasional truck a half mile away on Highway 101.

Camping World taught me a great deal about RVing from the technical side of operations and I learned more than I thought I would. It's time to move on and enjoy the great outdoors.

I've seen some of the other Thousand Trails preserves in their system as well as the reciprocal parks. It would certainly be nice to visit them all. Who knows? It could happen.