If you look at the time stamp below, you’ll see my day isn’t over.
I was dashing out the door this evening when I thought I’d stop and check the email.
I use more than one account, as many people do.
Stopping into hotmail first, I found a kind and encouraging email from Ian McKenzie of Ian’s Messy Desk. Ian is a wealth of information, kind of quiet as bloggers go, and has a wonderfully wicked sense of humour.
So, Ian being Ian, if he sends an email I pay attention. He doesn’t tend to waste words and time.
God bless him.
It was a practical bit of encouragement.
With one foot still out the door I popped over to the blog account when I saw 2 hundred and some new pages of email (10 per page). That’s when I shut down the computer and took off.
The encouragement was more than seredipity, it was a God-send.
I won’t lie about this spam problem. It’s infuriating, degrading, frustrating, annoying, discouraging, wearing and difficult not to take personally.
The bandwidth spikes get me half-nuts, self-focused, and feeling like someone is stealing from me, and I want revenge.
It’s about money, greed, and it robs us. It robs us of time, peace of mind, patience and several other things that many of us are rather short of.
My hosting company was all to happy to offer me more spam filtering for a fee.
I don’t think so, thank you.
Throwing money at this comment spam problem is not going to stop it.

I just clicked over to the blog email account to start deleting and held my breath while I waited to see what had loaded.
Seven.
Seven neat comments from terrific bloggers, and an offer from Waileia in Hawaii to help delete the spam.
Wow.
Then I looked down at the page numbers.
It was gone.
All of it was gone.
Deleted.
Cleaned up.
Someone who has access to my blog or blog email went in and wiped it out.
Wow.

Jay Allen (inventor of the MT blacklist) is worn out, and is going through personal troubles. He posted a fix to the blacklist the other day before he walked away from his project, he needs time to get his sanity back.
I took a moment to say thanks in his comments section, it sounds like he could use the encouragement.
God bless the helpers.
God bless the merciful.
God have mercy on the merchants and the thieves.
To the good samaritan or smaratins who contributed to this sacrament of consideration, I thank you.

Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers

“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.” - Marian Wright Edelman

“We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.” - Edwin Markham

“When a blind man carries a lame man, both go forward.” - Swedish proverb

“Write injuries in sand, kindnesses in marble.” - French proverb

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines - Charles Kuralt