I need help to bury my cousin.

so...

you know why some lab researchers have started using lawyers instead of rats for their experiments? the researches found that they were getting too emotionally attached to the rats.

what do you do when you have five lawyers up to their necks in concrete? get more concrete.

now on a more serious note.....

i had been in a very bad part of iraq (ramadi) for about three months and had established a schedule where i got up every morning exactly at 7:00 a.m. when my alarm clock would go off. for some odd reason, one night before i went to bed, i was messing with the clock. i figured "what's an additional five minutes of sleep going to matter?" and re-set my clock to 7:05 a.m. the next morning, at EXACTLY 7:00 a.m., a 122mm rocket slammed into the wall at the foot of my bed blowing up my room throwing me and my roomate to the floor. i suffered some shrapnel wounds as hundreds of pieces of sharp hot metal had flown around the room - a great deal of which were imbedded in the wall about two feet above my bed. the dresser where i kept my uniform, "flak vest", helmet and m-16 was blown up and all the stuff was scattered around the room. had i not have moved my alarm clock 5 minutes ahead the night before, i would have been standing beside the dresser when the explosion ocurred. needless-to-say, i would not have been around to join FABO if i had not made that simple change.

i believe God saved my life in iraq that morning. when i returned home, it took me several years to "return home." during that time, a very large personal injury case literally "dropped out of the sky" into my hands through a series of events that no one would believe. i received a very large fee from that case. i believe that God does work miracles and that He does intervene in people's lives. i now try to do what i can to help others. as someone once said, "no person can help everyone, but everyone can help someone."

sometimes a little means a lot to someone depending on what kind of day they're having. so today, consider paying for the car behind you at the drive-up window, or the guy's coffee next to you at the 7-11, or whatever you can to touch another person.

yea... that's all pretty heavy stuff... but when i try to do these things, i just laugh it off and forget about it and go on with my day....

wishing everyone at FABO a great thanksgiving and a blessed christmas... and i really do appreciate all your kind thoughts and words....

jim c....