Just a thought

Saw this today and thought I would post it here Please note who said it at the end :)

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.... See MoreYou cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

~ Abraham Lincoln

Hello!

Hello everyone well as you know it has been for ever since I have posted anything. I suppose with all things considered things are going well. There are ups and downs. I think life always seems to balance it self out what I mean by that is I am content about different parts of my life now then I was say 2 or 3 years ago. My happiness has shifted from one part of my life to the other. This last year to year and a half as far as work has pretty much sucked. I did my 2009 taxes and as it turns out my income for 2009 was as low as it was in 1996. I know I know don't look a gift horse in the mouth be thankful you have a job well and I am. But that will only get you so far. When taking into account for inflation I am making far less then I was in 1996. And to be very frank I don't see things with this economy getting better anytime soon the administration for sure is not helping things.


There is an up side in all this negitive talk..... There is a marriage coming this summer I am very much looking forward to spending the rest of my life with the woman I love I could not ask for a better woman. We also just got back from a vacation to Georgia and then to Florida to spend some time with my mother and father. And although in Florida it was COLD! We still had a good time and it was nice to be able to relax a little bit.

And while we were in Georgia we had some pictures taken some of you have seen them but I thought I would post a link here take a look if you are so inclined. Amy's sister in-law is a professional and has her own studio.

Amy and Dan's Pictures

Good Bye Oscar my friend I will never forget you.

11/21/09

I laid my friend Oscar to rest yesterday (had him put down) as I stated in my prior post I tried the "fluid treatments" I had been watching him since Thursday evening and really he was not improving enough to merit anymore of those fluid treatments. Friday night into Saturday morning he slept with me all night not moving an inch from my side and I could still hear that his breathing was shallow and I just knew that things were not going to get better. Saturday after we got up I watched him and thought long and hard about it and decided that it would just be better to put him at rest. When I took him in the vet said you know this is the most unselfish thing you could do for him. And you know what she is right.......

Rest well Oscar maybe some day will will meet again Felix and I will miss you but I know you are resting now.

"The Rainbow Bridge"

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Pets touch our lives

Hi everyone sorry it has been so long since I posted and I will tell you ahead of time that today's post will not be a happy one. Some of you already know that my cat Oscar (picture above) Has beginning stages of kidney failure or renal failure what ever you want to call it. Starting about Thursday of last week he was getting sick the first couple of times I did not notice but he was throwing up every time he ate. Over the weekend it got no better and I could tell he was not feeling well at all he was very clingy and wanted to be right next to me or on top of me. Cutting to the chase I took him to the vet the beginning of this week they did blood work and I had the answer the same night I took him in. The verdict was beginning stage renal failure. (kidney failure) The vet told me on the phone that night that the best course of action was "Subcutaneous Fluid" treatments starting about once a week. These treatments would not be a cure but they would make him comfortable and could extend his life by as much as 3 years she said.

In all honesty my very first thought was to put him down but see I gave myself time to think about it that night. To put it bluntly this week has been a living hell! Every time I look at Oscar I cry, every time I think about putting him down I cry. I know I know he is just an animal. But he has been with me for close to 15 years.

I made the choice yesterday to do one of the fluid treatments I have to tell you I still have not made up my mind about this whole thing. I mean after seeing how these treatments are given and what is done I am not sure it is the best course of action for the animal. It is very uncomfortable for them when the fluid is being pushed in under the skin. With that being said if I see a "remarkable" improvement in his eating and attitude I may continue them for some time.

I did at least the one treatment for two reasons #1 I had never heard of it and wanted to see what and how it was done. #2 of course to see if the treatment helped Oscar. I could not have put him down with out trying this but now if it does not help him then I have a clear frame of mind and know that I have done everything I can to help him rather then saying "The hell with him I am done." He maybe "just an animal" But he is MY animal and has been one of my best friends for 15 years. Would you let your best friends pass with out trying to help them? I think not....

No mater what happens Oscar you will never be forgotten!

I will keep everyone posted as to how thing go

Never forget

Let us never forget those that lost their lives eight years ago. Today

Was Ted Kennedy a great man ?

You know I am going to have to revert back to my negative blog posting for this one. I have had just about enough of hearing about what a great man Ted Kennedy was.

I have basically one view of the man and I am sure you can already guess what that view is.

From Wikipedia

Chappaquiddick incident" is the name given to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker for the assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, and the surrounding circumstances.

In July of 1969, Kopechne's body was discovered inside an overturned Oldsmobile belonging to Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts under water in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts.

After the body was found, Kennedy gave a statement to police saying that on the previous night he had taken a wrong turn and accidentally driven his car off a bridge into the water. Later, he pled guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury; he received a suspended sentence.

The incident became a national scandal and may have affected the Senator's decision not to run for President of the United States in 1972.

Events of the night of July 18, 1969

According to his own testimony at the inquest into Kopechne's death in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Kennedy left at "approximately 11:15 p.m." When he announced that he was about to leave, he claims Kopechne said "that she was desirous of leaving, if I would be kind enough to drop her back at her hotel". Kennedy then requested the keys to his car from his chauffeur, Crimmins. Asked why he did not have his chauffeur drive them both, Kennedy explained that Crimmins along with some other guests "were concluding their meal, enjoying the fellowship and it didn't appear to me necessary to require him to bring me back to Edgartown".[3] Kopechne told no one that she was leaving with Kennedy, and left her purse and hotel key at the party.[4]

Christopher "Huck" Look was a deputy sheriff working as a special police officer at the Edgartown regatta dance that night. At 12:30 am he left the dance, crossed over to Chappaquiddick in the yacht club's launch, got into his parked car and drove home. He testified that between 12:30 and 12:45 am he had seen a dark car containing a man driving and a woman in the front seat approaching the intersection with Dike Road. The car had gone first onto the private Cemetery Road and stopped there. Thinking that the occupants of the car might be lost, Look had gotten out of his car and walked towards it. When he was 25 to 30 feet away, the car started backing up towards him. When Look called out to offer his help, the car took off down Dike Road in a cloud of dust.[5] Look recalled that the car's license plate began with an "L" and contained the number "7" twice, both details true of Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88.
The Dike Bridge, Martha's Vineyard, pictured here in 2008 with guardrail.

According to his inquest testimony, Kennedy made a wrong turn onto Dike Road, an unlit dirt road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). Dike Road was unpaved, but Kennedy, driving at "approximately twenty miles an hour", oddly took "no particular notice" of this fact, and said he did not realize that he was no longer headed towards the ferry landing.[6] Dike Bridge was a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail. A fraction of a second before he reached the bridge, Kennedy applied his brakes; he then drove over the side of the bridge. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside-down underwater. Kennedy later recalled that he was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claimed at the inquest that he called Kopechne's name several times from the shore, then tried to swim down to reach her seven or eight times, then rested on the bank for around fifteen minutes before returning on foot to Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred. Kennedy denied seeing any house with a light on during his journey back to his friend's home, Lawrence Cottage.[7]
"Dike House" along Dike Road.

In addition to the working telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, according to one commentator, his route back to the cottage would have taken him past four houses from which he could have telephoned and summoned help; however, he did not do so.[8] The first of those houses, referred to as "Dike House", was only 150 yards away from the bridge, and was occupied by Sylvia Malm and her family at the time of the incident. Malm later stated that she had left a light on at the residence when she retired for that evening.[9]

According to Kennedy's testimony, Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the pond with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Both of the other men also tried to dive into the water and rescue Kopechne multiple times.[1] When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy testified, Gargan and Markham drove with Kennedy to the ferry landing, both insisting multiple times that the accident had to be reported to the authorities.[10] According to Markham's testimony Kennedy was sobbing and on the verge of breaking down.[11] Kennedy went on to testify that "[I] had full intention of reporting it. And I mentioned to Gargan and Markham something like, 'You take care of the other girls; I will take care of the accident!'—that is what I said and I dove into the water".[10] Kennedy had already told Gargan and Markham not to tell the other women anything about the incident "[b]ecause I felt strongly that if these girls were notified that an accident had taken place and Mary Jo had, in fact, drowned, that it would only be a matter of seconds before all of those girls, who were long and dear friends of Mary Jo's, would go to the scene of the accident and enter the water with, I felt, a good chance that some serious mishap might have occurred to any one of them".[12] Gargan and Markam would testify that they assumed that Kennedy was going to inform the authorities once he got back to Edgartown, and thus did not do so themselves.[2]

According to his own testimony, Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown and returned to his hotel room, where he removed his clothes and collapsed on his bed.[12] Hearing noises, he later put on dry clothes and asked someone what the time was: it was something like 2:30 a.m., the senator recalled. He testified that, as the night went on, "I almost tossed and turned and walked around that room ... I had not given up hope all night long that, by some miracle, Mary Jo would have escaped from the car."[13]

Back at his hotel, Kennedy complained at 2:55 am to the hotel owner that he had been awoken by a noisy party.[2] By 7:30 am the next morning he was talking "casually" to the winner of the previous day's sailing race, with no indication that anything was amiss.[2] At 8 a.m., Gargan and Markham joined Kennedy at his hotel where they had a "heated conversation." According to Kennedy's testimony, the two men asked why he hadn't reported the accident. Kennedy responded by telling them "about my own thoughts and feelings as I swam across that channel ... that somehow when they arrived in the morning that they were going to say that Mary Jo was still alive".[13] The three men subsequently crossed back to Chappaquiddick Island on the ferry, where Kennedy made a series of phone calls from a payphone by the crossing to his friends for advice; he again did not report the accident to authorities.[2]

So please lets not talk about how great the Kennedy family is or was.

Where To Start

Wow I really have let things slide when it comes to this blogging. To tell you the truth I have just been super busy not so much with work but other things.

Lets see where should I start.....

I guess the best place to start would be with the love of my life. Many of you know that Amy came to Maryland for a few weeks this summer. Well I asked Amy to marry me and much to my amazement she said yes!! (Why anyone would want to spend the rest of their life with me I'll never know) I took Amy to a German restaurant in Hagerstown called The Schmankerl Stube

I was praying the day we were to go to dinner that it would not rain because I wanted to sit out on their patio. And have a nice late evening dinner and a nice setting to pop the question. For those that want to know I didn't get down on my knee. I waited until we were all done eating & sitting there having a chat about how great the food was and what a nice night it was. (If you have the chance you need to go to this restaurant but bring your wallet I have no complaint about the cost but I will say this you get what you pay for if you get my drift.) I then took her hand and the ring out of my pocket and after some stumbling over a few words I asked her to marry me.

I can't really explain the feelings that I had at that moment but for all the changes that will be coming down the road I have never been more relaxed about something then I am with the idea of getting married. I know there are still lots of details to work out the biggest one being we still are living 600 miles apart. But I know as committed as I am it will all work out.

I never thought I could love and commit to a woman. Boy was I wrong and the old adage is true love hits you when you least expect it. I never believed that but I do now. Amy is beautiful in every way to me now that I have had a taste of life with her I can not bare the thought of a life with out her. My thoughts and my priorities have shifted from myself to "us" and Brandon is included in that I am so thankful and happy to report that Brandon is looking forward to having a step dad & I am also looking forward to filling the role as a step dad to Brandon and a husband,lover,friend, & support system to Amy.

There is no date set yet but rest assured I will be keeping you posted.

Quote Of The Day

I saw this today and I thought it was worth posting.

"You don't marry the person you can live with. You marry the person you can't live with out."

What Would You Attempt If You Could Not Fail?

I saw this question on a friend of mines Face Book Status

What Would You Attempt If You Could Not Fail?

I thought about this last night after I saw that question. Basically fear of failure keeps me from doing lots of things. I have come up with an answer

1. I would open my own Automotive Repair Shop
(My fear of being able to manage the fiances, ie. mainly meet payroll for my employees that would be counting on me.) Keeps me from doing that.

What would you attempt if you could not fail?

LIFE CHANGING EVENTS

Maybe you would know this by looking at me and if you know me you would have a better idea about how I truly react to things.

I have made some "life changing" decisions in the last few months. And that is where the issue comes in with these changes. Some of them require changes that are still yet unknown and will be unknown for some time to come.

I can't stand the unknown it scares me to death I have never in my life wanted something so bad yet been so scared. And don't worry it's not any bad changes they are all good. (Unless something goes wrong...... *See that's what I do to myself!) I am dotting the I's and crossing the T's and hopping that no mistakes are made.

I am moving forward with the changes with happiness & great anticipation.... But at the same time am some what stressed out and worried so if I don't seem like myself you may know why.

Someone has a birthday today!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Can you believe how fast time passes by? Here I am not to far from 40 and you..... well ok never mind. (bet I get hit for that one)

All kidding aside Happy Birthday mom! I hope that life is all that you want and more you deserve it!

Love
your son
Danny

Todays Dear Abby In My Newpapper

I know this is not really a positive post but I was so mad when I saw this I had to post it and vent. What is wrong with people?

WOMAN HIDES HER BODY AND FEELINGS FROM HER HUSBAND

DEAR ABBY: I am 43, the mother of four children and just celebrated my 20th anniversary. Is it normal for someone to be married all this time and still not want your husband to see you naked?

I do not reveal myself to him. The lights must always be off, and I keep a shirt on. It's not because I am ashamed of my body; it's that I'm not attracted to him. I never was.

I married my husband for security and have learned to love him. But I love him like a brother, in a sisterly kind of way. I feel I owe him.

Should I tell my husband how I feel and risk losing my security after all this time? I had to talk to someone, so I confided in my best friend. She advised me to say nothing.

My husband had an affair a few years ago, and frankly, I was secretly relieved. Sometimes I wish he was still with her. Now that it's over, I'm back in hiding. Abby, please advise. -- HIDING IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR HIDING: What a sad situation. By marrying your husband feeling as you did, you have cheated both of you. Not only have you "not revealed" yourself physically, you have not revealed yourself emotionally or in any other way. You wish he was still with his lover because it took the pressure off you.

Your husband had an affair because instinctively he knew something important was missing in your marriage, and if you were happy you would not have written to me. What you have described is not a marriage; it is an "arrangement."

My advice is to talk to your husband about making another kind of arrangement -- one in which he supports the children and possibly makes some kind of settlement with you, while you both pursue your separate lives. Frankly, it won't be much different than what you are already experiencing.

Dear Hiding in PA. I have my own choice words to say to you but I will refrain from doing so! If by chance you should read this and I hope do. I would like to wish you a lifetime of unhappiness.

Scott Guenthner For Maryland State Delegate District 4A

Scott Guenthner is not in my district but I got a chance to meet him today. Please take A second to look at his web site and if you live in District 4A support him please.

A little something from his site:

Take Back Your Freedom.

Freedom is a responsibility, an individual responsibility.
Our freedom is precious, rare and fragile.
The cost of our freedom is personal responsibility and self reliance.
The product of our freedom and responsibility
is the realization of every individuals miracle.
Realizing individual greatness is Americas miracle.

Our liberty, economic freedom and individual rights
have steadily eroded to a river of overreaching government regulation
and a tsunami of government spending.
I am a citizen seeking the legislature
to represent our founding principles of
conservatism, capitalism and competition.

I believe we have reached a point
were our government has abused its power
so egregiously and with such frequency that now
citizens must act to alter or abolish it.



1. The greatest threat to our safety and sovereignty is
abusive government spending
and reckless accrual of debt.

2. Private sector business and investors have been
damaged repeatedly by unchecked
and unchallengable government regulation.

3. Personal property rights have been abused
through litigious larceny with cooperation
from legislators at local,state and federal levels.

4. Self defence and the right to bear arms has been abused
by a bigoted application of political correctness
and laws rendering firearms ineffective in self defence.

5. Our government has failed to enforce immigration laws
undermining the rule of law, elevating public service
expense to communities and exposing citizens to health risks.

I Didn't Think It Could Rain So Much.

Some of you know that I went to Georgia over the long weekend to go camping with Amy and Brandon. I kept looking at weather reports leading up to the weekend and it sure was looking like it was going to be a very wet one. And that sure proved to be true. :) I got to the Atlanta Airport Friday afternoon, Amy picked me up with the car already loaded and we headed from there to Indian Springs Campground (A Georgia State Park) We drove through a downpour on the way to the park. But once we got to the park even though everything was wet it had stopped raining and that gave us enough time to set up the tent and eat some sandwiches. Friday night we went to sleep with the sound of the rain hitting the tent.


Even though I have been carrying on about all the rain while I was there it was a great weekend and for the most part the day time hours cleared up enough that we were able to walk some trails, play a round of putt putt, take a boat out on the lake, and fix our meals in our out door kitchen.

I will post some pictures here that I took from Amy (hope she won't mind) But I was bad bad bad at taking pictures this time.

All in all what a great weekend it was and I needed to relax after last weeks trying times at work.







Amy and Brandon were great company!! And believe it or not I can't wait to do it again!

Computer Crashes

Well I have been trying to get myself together enough to write some kind of blog post for about a week or better now. Here at work on Wednesday of last week first thing in the morning we had a computer hard drive failure & crash. The crash was on our "server" So it was back to hand writing tickets for Wednesday. And of course as slow as we have been last week was not really one of our slow weeks we did have some business here. So it was totally insane we sent the server to a local repair shop. What needed to be done was replacement of the hard drive but I just had to much to do with all my other duties to be able to replace the hard drive and all the while trying to service customers and hand write tickets.

The computer shop we took the server to called late Wednesday afternoon (Computer Enhancement Systems) They said they had the new hard drive installed but could not transfer ANY data from the old hard drive. Let me jump to why we picked Computer Enhancement Systems on their web site they proclaim they experts in data recovery & disaster recovery solutions. Also I have been dealing with them since the mid 90's for some of my personal computer needs. We also have worked on some of their fleet vehicles in our shop.

Needless to say I feel very let down and to be very frank about the issue feel that we were over charged for the services that they did. Basically they charged us over $400.00 to install a new hard drive and do a fresh Windows OS install they did also install a new CD/DVD drive at the time of service. In order to attempt a data recovery they told me that they would have to "Send the hard drive out" and there would be a Min. charge of $200.00 - $300.00 and that would be the charge even to find out no data could be recovered!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back to what their web site says.....

We're experts in:
bullet Data Recovery Forensic Analysis bullet
bullet Information Technology & Onsite Services bullet
bullet Disk Wiping and Data Destruction bullet
bullet Software Solution Developer bullet
bullet Database Implementation bullet
bullet Disaster Recovery Solutions bullet
bullet Web Design and Training

To add insult to things after all the money they charged I still had to spend hours on the phone with Snap-on tech support to get our "point of sale system" and "customer database" re installed! and of course our newest back up (shame on us) was about two weeks old so we lost about two weeks worth of data.


My question is if you are experts in data recovery why would you need to "send the drive out" everything should be done "in house" if you are experts! That would be like my repair shop saying........ We are transmission experts but to rebuild your transmission we would have to send your car to another shop. We do not proclaim to be something we are not on our web site! Needless to say Autoworx or myself will never be using Computer Enhancement Systems again.

My First Trip To An Urgent Care Center Ever

Well I had to make my first trip to an urgent care center this morning. I am only 38 years old but I think I maybe falling apart. LOL

It all started yesterday morning at work one of the guys came up to my desk and said "Whats wrong with your eye?" And of course feeling no pain and no blurry vision I said "Nothing." After some conversation I came to find out that my left eye had blood in the white part of the eyeball. I am sorry for the lack of medical terms. I didn't think to much of it it was not so bad I looked at it in the mirror and I thoought ah it will get better. So cut to this morning I awoke and of course worrying about my eye the first thing I did is goto the mirror and look well it had gotten much worse then it was yesterday........ That brings me the the Urgent Care Visit and the diagnoses.

The Doctor there seems to think I have what is called a "subconjunctival hemorrhage" This is a result of a broken blood vessel in the white portion of the eye. It says blood will be reabsorbed with in two to three weeks. I am to keep an eye on it LOL The good one I guess. And see a regular eye doctor if my vision changes I feel pain or it get worse.

What is it with getting older I never had this stuff happen in my 20's LOL

Some pictures
sorry not so good I took them in the mirror (You can click on the pics to make them a bit larger

I Found This More Funny Then Anything

Thousands of Americans are receiving federal stimulus checks in the mail, this week. Only problem: many of them are deceased.

Recently, a Long Island, New York woman was shocked when she checked the mail and received a letter from the U.S. Treasury -- but it wasn't for her.

Antoniette Santopadre of Valley Stream was expecting a $250 stimulus check. But when her son finally opened it, they saw that the check was made out to her father, Romolo Romonini, who died in Italy 34 years ago.

Romonini was a U.S. citizen when he left for Italy in 1933, but only returned to the U.S. for a seven-month visit in 1969.

The Santopadres are not alone. The Social Security Administration, which sent out 52 million checks, said some of those checks mistakenly went to dead people because the agency had no record of their death. That amounts to between 8,000 and 10,000 checks for millions of dollars.

The feds blame a rushed schedule, because all the checks have to be cut by June. But strangely, some of the checks were made out to people -- like Romonini -- who were never even part of the Social Security system.

ASE Testing

I thought I was done with testing when I got out of school but as it turns out that's not the case. Wish me luck I have to take an ASE re certification test this evening after work. In this area the tests are even held in a High School in the evening. You also have to have your #2 pencils sharp and ready to go to fill out the bubble answer sheets. There are many many different tests you can take for certification in certain areas of automotive repair. ie. Like "Under car specialist" so on and so forth. I have two different certifications. "Automotive Service Consultant" & "Automotive Parts Specialist"

These tests are not free to take each regular test cost $27.00 each advanced level test cost $54.00 & you also have to pay a registration fee of $36.00 every time you take a test. And those fees are paid pass or fail. Some employers pay for thier techs to take the tests some don't. To be honest these tests don't hold much merit in my mind. I have been a shop manager and or service adviser for 15+ years now and I have to tell you I have seen techs that have many certifications that can't hold a candle to some that don't have any! But with that said it is always a good idea to stick with a repair shop that has ASE certified techs.

Ten Years Later A Life That Started In The Womb

Another positive post that still carries a message.
The Hand Of Hope

Nearly 10 years after a stunning photograph of his tiny hand traveled the world, Samuel Armas has a firm grip on what "The Hand of Hope" means to him.

"When I see that picture, the first thing I think of is how special and lucky I am to have God use me that way," Samuel told FOXNews.com. "I feel very thankful that I was in that picture."

On Aug. 19, 1999, photographer Michael Clancy shot the "Fetal Hand Grasp" — his picture of a 21-week-old fetus grasping a doctor's finger during innovative surgery to correct spina bifida. Nearly four months later, on Dec. 2, Samuel Armas was "born famous."

The photo, which first appeared in USA Today on Sept. 7, 1999, quickly spread across the globe as proof of development in the womb and was later cited during congressional debates on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which passed in 2000.

"It's just a miracle picture, a miracle moment," Clancy told FOXNews.com. "It shows the earliest human interaction ever recorded."

Samuel, now 9 and living in Villa Rica, Ga., said the photo likely gave countless "babies their right to live" and forced many others to debate their beliefs on abortion, something he's proud of.

"It's very important to me," Samuel said of the photograph. "A lot of babies would've lost their lives if that didn't happen."

Julie Armas, Samuel's mother, said her eldest son has a "very strong sense of right and wrong" and understands the impact of his unconventional first baby photo.

"He identifies it more in terms of a pro-life message more than anything," she told FOXNews.com. "This photo happened and God used it to show people that this baby in mom's tummy is alive. He's pleased that his photo conveyed that message."

Armas said Samuel will wear lower leg braces for the rest of his life as a result of spina bifida, which occurs when the spine fails to close properly during early pregnancy. He'll also use a wheelchair during long trips, as he did at Great Adventure earlier this week. But the mother of three said Samuel "walks great" and has been lucky enough to avoid some surgeries associated with his condition.

"He's doing extremely well," she told FOXNews.com. "We pray that he continues to be as healthy and able as he has been."

Samuel's condition hasn't slowed his activities as a decorated Cub Scout or in the swimming pool, where he took first place last weekend in a 25-yard backstroke event.

"I love to swim," Samuel said of his typical Saturday activity. "You use your arms a lot and it gives your arms great muscles."

The third-grader also loves science and animals, especially orcas, bald eagles and tigers. And he still collects bugs, something his father, Alex, revealed during a Senate hearing in 2003 to highlight advances in fetal surgery.

"Anything we see, he wants to catch and put it in a jar to watch it," Julie Armas said. "He's a great kid, he really is. He's very gentle; he's very laid-back."

Clancy, who hasn't photographed a surgery since Samuel's, recalled meeting him for just the third time in 2007 during an event for Come Alive Ministries in Atlanta.

"His eyes just lit up because he was born famous because of that picture," Clancy told FOXNews.com. "It was amazing."

Clancy, who was a freelancer for USA Today when he photographed Samuel's fully-formed hand, now works as a motivational speaker at pro-life events. Prior to the picture, Clancy said, he was pro-choice.

"And that's what I'm going to do, keep telling this story," he said. "It can change people's hearts. What started off as an assignment turned into a responsibility to keep telling the story behind it."

A crucial part of the story, Clancy argues, is whether Samuel reached through the 8-inch opening in his mother's uterus and grabbed Dr. Joseph Bruner's hand, or if the doctor manipulated the hand during surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee.

"I could see the uterus shake violently and then this little fist came out of the surgical opening," Clancy recalls. "It came out under its own power. When Dr. Bruner lifted the little hand, I fired my camera and the tighter Samuel squeezed, the harder Dr. Bruner shook his hand."

Bruner, who could not be reached for comment, has told reporters that Samuel and his mother were under anesthesia and could not move. In a Jan. 9, 2000, article in The Tennessean, he said he pulled Samuel's hand out of the uterus, further complicating the debate surrounding the photograph.

But none of that matters to Julie Armas. Samuel continues to thrive, and he is leading the way for his 3-year-old brother, Zachary, who also has spina bifida.

"I don't care, honestly," Julie Armas said. "What I felt the picture showed is that this is a child engaging in some form of interaction. I'm a labor and delivery nurse, so I understand that Samuel was anesthetized to some degree.

"So if he reached out, I don't know. If Dr. Bruner reached out, I don't know. The fact of the matter is it's a child with a hand, with a life, and that's meaningful enough."

Another picture this is the same boy as above ten years later.

Ok so something positive....

Ok so I have been scratching my head and straining my brain to come up with something positive to write about. No wise cracks either. :)

I went to the doctor yesterday for an unrelated issue but while I was there he checked my blood pressure and went over some lab work I had done back in march...... All good news. My weight is staying consistent, all the things they check in a blood work up are in line with where they should be. And while its true I am still taking a pill for blood pressure its only a 10mg dose & in checking my blood pressure yesterday it is staying

(yesterdays reading was 125/71)

much lower then it had been last year at this time. so I must be doing something right. The only not positive thing I can think of at this time is I am going to the dentist next Monday this will be my first dentist visit in YEARS. I am going because I do seem to have an issue in my mouth.. So we will see - I HATE going to the dentist that's why it has been put off for so long. But I am trying to stay positive. :)