Annual pledge drive, first notice

[H Marc Lewis]

Carl, lunch tomorrow (Wed), Noodle Express?

Here's the 1st cut at this year's contribution request:




Once each year I solicit contributions for the upkeep of micapeak.com
(which powers this mailing list, assorted Web sites and other services).
It's that time!

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Contributions (in US dollars) can be made in two ways.  
The less-desirable method is to send your check to: 

    H M Lewis (micapeak.com)
    PO Box 14755
    Spokane, WA 99214
    USA

The PREFERRED WAY is to use PayPal (http://www.paypal.com) 
to make your donation directly to: marcl at micapeak.com 

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That's the request.  Now, if you're still with me, I'll be a little bit
more verbose, and tell you why Carl and I would very much appreciate your
contribution.  

In January, 2008 we moved micapeak.com, wetleather.com, r1200gs.info,
fjr1300.info, and all our 80-odd motorcycle mailing lists to a very
high-tech, state-of-the-art regional data center in Liberty Lake, WA, USA. 
Although they erroneously billed us for $1700 worth of excess bandwidth
during the year, we got that straightened out a few weeks ago and it looks
like we will keep them as our hosting site.  Regarding system availability
and up-time they were excellent! 

As for the cost -- I used to say that in spite of not having (or wanting!)
a day job, I could still cover the expenses completely out of my own pocket
if necessary.  Due to my retirement savings declining in value by 50% last
year, that's no longer true if I want to maintain and ride my motorcycles. 
Which I very much want to do!  :-)

Fortunately, Carl and I know that some of the folks for whom this mailing
list is an important part of daily life are willing to show their
appreciation with a modest donation.  We encourage you to think about how
much time you spend each day following this list, or using micapeak's other
resources. If it seems worthwhile to you, then please consider contributing
something. 

Carl and I will continue to operate the mailing lists, micapeak.com and
other Websites for the foreseeable future (we even have sections in our
wills to make sure the online stuff survives us).  There is no
obligation to contribute anything on your part and you'll continue to
get the email and Webpages we serve for free.  But we'd appreciate it if
you'd help out...

Thanks in advance! 

--hmarc


SPECIAL NOTE:

Let's not make this a topic of discussion on the mailing list, OK?
Contribute or don't, as it suits you, but we have neither the time nor
the energy to discuss the subject further than what you see above.
And we're sure your fellow subscribers would rather not have the list 
itself cluttered with more than this notice on the subject.
Thanks!

(BTW -- I'll post this message just once more in about two weeks).