My email was hacked.

The fact that I opened a link sent to me should speak volumes. There is a sucker born everyday and sometimes its me.

Immediately I knew there was a problem. It was a job opportunity to earn $15 every time I posted a link for Google  or some other well known organization. Thinking I was being so sly, I opened another window to Google the company. Meanwhile every person on my contact list had received the same generous offer. Spam for their contacts and the opportunity for their email to be hacked.

Goons have a one up on you every time  They know what you will do. Exploiting your ignorance. It's not just computer viruses. It can be the plumber.

My hot water heater stopped working. I called the plumber. I paid an exorbitant price for a $10 thermostat to be replaced. $179. The guy holds the intake water pipe and looks worried. He runs water in my kitchen sink. He tells me he has rechecked my elements and the top one has blown. That will be $231. I tell him fix it. Then I think, I'll cut my losses and get a new hot water heater.

He scribbles like hell on the receipt. He doesn't reconnect the circuit breaker for the hot water heater. He doesn't want anything to blow up. Well that sounds funny.

I give myself the gift of a day to think. I sweat like a pig and take a cold shower that night. My family is doing without. I call a friend and the man who keeps my well in shape. He came and fixed my well one Sunday night. His mom was in the hospital about an hour away. He left, fixed my well, and went back to the hospital unpaid. He gives me a name.

The name came the next day when I called. He showed me how to check the elements and thermostat. Nothing was wrong with the elements. The thermostat had been set to nuclear. I turned it down as low as I could get it. He didn't want me to pay him. It made him sick that I had been overcharged and possibly ripped off. He showed me the reset button on the thermostat.

My dad told me the year he passed to toughen up. You always have stress. It made me feel sad that he was close to 80 and had to weather storms.

I will say one thing. Just because someone tricked me with my ignorance it doesn't mean they are smarter than me. It means they are missing something that makes you fully human.

I used to not believe in God. One day I realized I didn't believe in people. God was always there for me. People are always there for me too. I believe in people too.

Older and wiser. I wish those first graders in Connecticut were too. God Bless.