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As some of you may have read, I'm trying to help my brother in law as he struggles with cancer by keeping his business running. He owns a company called NorthCoast Mobility where he sells and installs Acorn Stairlifts. I do sales calls on Friday afternoons and evenings and then do the installs over the weekend. It's not that big of a deal except that his illness came on very quickly so he never got to train me on cutting and preparing the rails for different length stairs and we never got to do an install. Here is a picture of my first install. Did it this morning and then two more after this one. So three in one day isn't too bad for somebody who had never done it before. Not that difficult to do but a little time-consuming. It took me about an hour to cut and prepare each one before going to the install sites. By the third one, I had learned a few little tricks that made it go faster. I think that I am getting to the point where I can do the onsite install in 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I sold these three last week. Now I just need to sell some more. So here is a picture of my first install. After doing 3 of these today, I feel like I need to install one in my own house so that I can get to my bed.

Hate hearing about anybody suffering, especially the children. Prayers up.

I will second the recommendation for OpenOffice. I use it all the time. My work laptop is a PC. My personal laptop is a MacBook Pro. I have OpenOffice on the Mac and it works with all the Microsoft Office files perfectly. Word, Excel, etc. are no problem. The Mac came with software that is supposed to work with them but it often doesn't display Office files correctly. OpenOffice always does. It is so good that I would never spend the money for Microsoft Office regardless if I needed something for a PC or a Mac. The company supplies Microsoft Office on my Dell or it wouldn't be there.

I found and modified a simple ride waiver online. Emailed it to you. It is in .doc format. If you need it in a different format, just let me know and I can convert it.

I just emailed you the registration form from last year's rally. I haven't found the ride waivers yet but will keep looking. Some years they have been used and other years not.

If you have an Iphone, Ipad, MacBook, etc., they have "AirPlay". With my Apple TV box, anything that I can see on my phone can be linked to any TV with the Apple TV box connected to it.

I don't know about '64, but it was certainly available in '65. http://www.superchevy.com/features/sucs-0732-chevy-l79-engine/

Pretty interesting talk about this subject. I conclude that it could absolutely be deadly, especially considering that it will not likely be truly perfectly verticle. http://forensicoutreach.com/library/the-falling-bullet-myths-legends-and-terminal-velocity/

Just want to reassure you all that the site is not going to be shut down. Like I said, I am still doing what I've always done and just adding another job to it. I will be leaving tomorrow morning to go out of town for a few days and will have my usual hotel time in the evenings. I am still reading all messages and posts here and doing what needs to be done. No worries my friends.

Just a short update. Terry was in surgery for 13 1/2 hours on Wednesday. I wish that I could say that it was a total success but unfortunately, that is not the case. They found that the cancer had spread to an area that they were unable to get to. So he went through a very radical surgery that the doctor said he would not have done had he been able to see on the CT Scan the extent of the tumor. It was too late to turn back though so the procedure was done. The only thing left now is radiation and chemo once he recovers enough strength to handle it. The doctor has told us that radiation and chemo are not generally very effective against the very aggressive pancreatic cancer but it is the only thing left. They started the surgery at 10:00 on Wednesday morning and it was after 11:00 PM when they finally finished. Eileen and I got home around 2:00 in the morning. I'm sorry that I have not been here on the forum very much lately. I just have a lot on my plate right now. Terry is single and Eileen and I are the only ones around who can be there for him and try to take care of him. He is also not financially independent so in addition to my full-time job, I'm trying to run his business on the side. Because I'm out of town so much, that makes it pretty much a weekend job for me. He owns his own business where he sells and installs Acorn Stairlifts. Without that income, he will be unable to take care of his personal financial obligations so my goal is to keep it going at least enough for him to get by. So, there is a lot going on right now and I'm not on here as much as I should be but I am reading messages every day and taking care of any issues that might arise. Thank you all for being the great people that you are. That makes my job here much easier.

Middle of January in NE OH and yesterday my A/C came on. Amazing. Raining like crazy and very high winds though.

Just a short update. Getting ready to leave for the hospital. Terry is having the surgery done today. From all that I've learned, it is a very difficult and a bit risky procedure. We are told that the surgery will take between 6 and 10 hours so it's going to be a long day. Even with this surgery, about the best hope they are giving us for controlling the cancer is around 30%. Many other complications along with this "Whipple" procedure. Please keep Terry and also my wife Eileen in your prayers.

Good luck to you my friend. We pray for you and all the medical staff involved. Get well soon my friend.

In the past, we have had discussions here, usually due to discussions on where to hold International Rallies, about where the center of North America might be. Apparently this is something that even scientists struggle with. The new answer, according to one man anyway, is Center, North Dakota. Now this is the center of North America, NOT the center of the USA. I've never heard of it but apparently it is a small town of around 570 people. http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/01/09/bulls-eye-geographer-pinpoints-center-north-america.html

Pictures in those threads are restored.

I can't really tell which posts area supposed to have pictures on that thread.

I got up yesterday morning, got all packed up and hit the road. I'm in Pennsylvania this week on business. Here's the thing though, just as I was getting close to my hotel, I stopped to see a customer in the area and they were closed. They were observing the New Year holiday on Monday since it fell on a Sunday. It was then that I remembered that Monday was a holiday for us also. Dang...I worked on my day off. Oh well....I'm thinking I'll recover it somewhere down the road.

My only experience is that once they get you to swap, you will get about 6 months to a year at that price and then they will start raising it and you'll be right back where you were.

OK...though I have been unable to replicate this issue, I did find some information about it on the VBulletin forum. VBulletin is the company who writes our forum software. This problem is confirmed and many VBulletin users have reported it. It apparently started with a recent update to Google Chrome. They claim that it is a bug with their browser and that they do not need to fix anything on their end. Most users have offered this solution for now. Just hit the "enter" key before you start typing a reply. That will probably move you down one line but the spacebar is said to work if you hit the enter key first.

I would like to correct the problem but so far, I've been unable to duplicate it with Safari or Firefox. Will try IE when I get a chance. Don't have Chrome at all. Tried it once and didn't care for it.

Some of you have been asking about the International Rally for 2017. I have asked for some suggestions and volunteers but have not received much response. So, Orlin and Sharon have stepped up and volunteered to hold the International in Viroqua, WI. He assures me that there is some beautiful riding in the area and a lot of things to do within a short ride. The rally would replace their annual Orlin's Maintenance Day and would basically be centered around the same date, June 24th. We are in very preliminary talks about it and will have to work out the exact starting and ending dates but I think it is a good plan. Comments are welcome.

I don't have a kit but I did put the tool in the mail yesterday.

Merry Christmas to all our VentureRider members. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season. Jesus is the reason for the Season. You are the reason for VentureRider.org and I am proud and thankful to have you as friends.

Don't think so, Terry's hair is pretty much all gray. You may be thinking about her Nephew Tony. He has been around a few times also.

Some of you have met my brother in law Terry. He used to rent my guest house and was around for a couple of Maintenance Days. Yesterday I spent 9 hours at the VA hospital in Cleveland with my wife as we waited while he had diagnostic tests and some preliminary surgery performed. He is in very serious condition. They have found that he has pancreatic cancer. Some of you will know that it is one of the most serious of the cancers and very hard to treat. He has some rough weeks and months ahead of him. The good news is that it appears that it was caught fairly early. More tests will be done today to further determine if it has spread but the news so far is about as positive as one can hope. Even with that though, the treatment is very difficult and success rates are very low. He went to the doctor because he was quickly losing weight and was turning yellow. That was due to the tumor squeezing and blocking the bial duct from his liver. Yesterday they put a stent in the bial duct to relieve the pressure on his liver and hopefully he will start feeling better but on January 11th, he will have a very dangerous surgery called the "Whipple" surgery where they will remove the gall bladder, part of his stomach, part of the pancreas, part of the small intestine and his gall bladder. The surgery itself is very dangerous. If he makes it through the surgery with no complications and the cancer indeed hasn't spread, then there is some hope for recovery and even possibly a full cure. The surgery will have to be followed by chemo and probably radiation. My wife has lost her sister, mother, and sister in law to cancer over recent years so is, of course, not taking this well. I ask for your prayers for Terry and also for my wife as she deals with this dreaded disease once again.