Life is full of surprises and a lot of twists and turns. And I\u2019m old enough to know that life is not fair. So what? I just roll with the punches. Life is not easy, and life is not fair, and anyone young enough to believe that it is will find out quickly how wrong they are.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of us who\u2019ve lived more than a few decades come to grips with the truth. The real facts of life. Life is a learning experience; you learn to take each day as it comes and do your best.<\/span><\/p>\n Some days will float away into the neverlands, others will gnaw and nag you for weeks, months, or years. Some days will turn into beautiful if fleeting, memories. Those memorable days will be little slices of joy and happiness \u2013 moments long ago that will always be living inside my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n And sometimes, I guess, we\u2019re all a little bit underappreciative of the good things we have in our lives. Although I\u2019m quite sure that most of us who are working would not count our jobs to be among the best things in our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n But I\u2019m here to tell you how thankful I am that I can do what I do and have such a wonderful and rewarding time doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n OK. So, what is it I do that I think is so great? It\u2019s nothing extraordinary. I\u2019m not a surgeon saving lives, an officer of the law preventing a robbery, or a minister or priest saving souls.<\/span><\/p>\n No, I\u2019m afraid I don\u2019t do anything so grand as those people do.<\/span><\/p>\n But what I do is what I like and enjoy. I get to work with someone (Darcy) who is demanding \u2013 and understanding and honest. She is not afraid to coil my gears should I get out of line. She is always there to remind me to do my best.<\/span><\/p>\n And I say\u2026 good for her!<\/span><\/p>\n Twenty-five years ago, the web was nothing like it is now. The best we had were dial-up connections. And it took minutes for the sites to load. It was a new frontier, limited and limitless. It’s hard to believe that a quarter of a century has passed!<\/span><\/p>\n Darcy and I started out sharing graphics on an obscure website called www.thundercloud.net. I can remember coming home from the job I had at that time and Darcy would message me and say \u2013excitedly\u2013.\u201dWe had five visitors today!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And it was exciting. As it got closer to Christmas that year, one day we reached a new high \u2014 fifty visitors in one day. And I thought for sure we were on the way to becoming Internet moguls.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s funny now, but I can remember being so excited, I\u2019d be up at 4:00 AM and on the computer \u2014 and I\u2019d still be on the computer at midnight, or until I could not keep my eyes open another minute.<\/span><\/p>\n Talk about a labor of love.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not going to get into a long historical screed here. Let\u2019s just say we went on to create Cloudeight Stationery and become the most successful email stationery site on the web. We had over one-quarter million mail list subscribers and we were doing so well. When Microsoft released Windows 7, it became they killed our stationery site and our stationery.<\/span><\/p>\n We had to completely reinvent ourselves \u2014 or quit.<\/span><\/p>\n We limped along for a while and then in 2011, we started Cloudeight Direct Computer Care<\/a>. We started helping people with their computers, and instead of charging what other people were charging, we charged a lot less. And as we got better and faster at what we were doing, we decreased the price. This is probably the opposite of what good businesspeople would do. But we thought it was the right thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n And we\u2019ve kept our prices low because we are not trying to become wealthy or earn millions of dollars \u2013 we\u2019re long past those dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n But you\u2019re probably reading this and wondering what all this has to do with me being a lucky guy. I\u2019m going to tell you.<\/span><\/p>\n Every weekday, I get a chance to help people with their computers. And that\u2019s a great part of my job, but just as great is the chance to be able to \u201ctalk\u201d to people \u2013 most of the time in a chatbox, but sometimes on the phone. And while I may not get to know them well, I at least learn a little bit about them.<\/span><\/p>\n And you know what I\u2019ve discovered? Everyone is different in this crazy old world, but most people are genuinely nice. We all share the same planet, we all breathe the same air, and we are all mortal. We may share different political and social views, but I think, if we all try, we can understand each other\u2019s trials and tribulations and get along with each other<\/span><\/p>\n And being patient, and kind. and understanding can make a difference in our lives and in our world. It has made a difference with the folks I\u2019ve been lucky enough to “meet” and help,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not always the most patient person, but Darcy reminded me that we didn\u2019t always understand computers. Heck, I can remember when zip files scared me to death. And when I\u2019d feel relieved when a program came with an installer rather than one of those confounded zip files that you had to click around inside looking for whatever it was that ran or installed the program.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, you\u2019re going to laugh. I remember when I couldn\u2019t even copy and paste. I pretended I knew how, but I didn\u2019t. Darcy saw through that facade quickly and I had to admit I was a computer dummy, and I didn\u2019t even know how to copy and paste. Darcy was patient with me \u2013 she didn\u2019t make me feel like an idiot because I didn\u2019t know how to copy and paste \u2013 which is one of the most fundamental computer skills of all.<\/span><\/p>\n So, I learned to be patient with people by remembering how I was when I was just learning Windows. Now I enjoy working with and helping people, getting to know them, and maybe even teaching them something they didn\u2019t know about computers.<\/span><\/p>\n I know that we consider our newsletter subscribers and those who come to us for help \u2013 friends. And how important it is always to be the best we can be and help as many people as possible, whether it is financially rewarding or not.<\/span><\/p>\n With our business philosophy, we\u2019re never going to get rich. We enjoy doing what we do \u2013 very much and we help a lot of people without being paid. That\u2019s OK. While we still need to make a living, we don\u2019t need to be wealthy. So, we help as many people as we can every day. We help many people at no charge. We try to keep the prices of the products and services we do sell as low as we can while keeping the quality high.<\/span><\/p>\n It makes me feel lucky when I know we\u2019re helping people and making friends at the same time. I speak for Darcy as well when I say we\u2019re going to keep helping as many people as we can for as long as we can \u2013 and we hope to keep making friends along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n Now you see \u2013 or at least I hope you can see \u2013 why I\u2019m such a lucky old dude.<\/span><\/p>\n Can you help us?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Please consider helping us continue our mission of helping as many folks as we can \u2013 and help everyone be safer on the Internet. All donation, large or small, is appreciated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you can help us, please visit this page.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m a Lucky Old Dude Life is full of surprises and a lot of twists and turns. And I\u2019m old enough to know that life is not fair. So what? I just roll with the punches. Life is not easy, and life is not fair, and anyone young enough to believe that it is will find\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26019,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26016\/revisions\/26019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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