Well, it is done! Finally! I find the whole process tedious and nonsatisfying so I am happy to say it is done. It is a Toyota Highlander XLE White and we expect delivery the first week in August.
And it is the very first one we looked at. The trips to and from Texas will be a whole different adventure.
New Diamond Lifemaster
Don Brooker is Well-Traveled
Don Brooker recently attained the rank of Diamond Lifemaster and continues to quickly rack up
masterpoints with his partners. Don took up bridge after he graduated from college and began
working for Western Electric in Chicago. Having no bridge experience, he watched others play and
when someone started up duplicate bridge play at the plant, his colleagues set him up with a part-
ner. He has natural talent because without taking lessons, his partner and he won the end of year
tournament.
His success with the corporate club continued. In 1957 their club held play offs to determine who
would represent the club in the Corporate National Tournament. Don’s team won, beating a team that
consisted of four life masters. HIs team went on to win the Corporate National Championship.
He married at age 20 during his senior year of college. He has three sons in Kansas City, all of whom are
successful. After he and his wife divorced, he remarried and his second wife’s ambition was to move to
France after they retired. They did just that – sold the house and flew with their dog to Paris to drive
around the coast, searching for a place to settle. They discovered Saint-Jean-de-Luz which, as a popular
vacation spot, allowed them to stay for 9 months out of the year but they had to move during the sum-
mer when much higher rent could be charged. They became part of the bridge community and be-
cause they played well, they were popular and made many friends. This came in handy when they
found a place they wanted to rent. The landlord said, “not so fast,” since they were an unknown risk.
Good friends of theirs, a doctor and his wife, vouched for them, and he happened to be the landlord’s
doctor. They rented for six years, “the best six years of my life,” said Don. They returned to the US when
his wife’s son had triplets and needed help with them.
While in France, they traveled around and played bridge. The French games awarded not only points
but money, and Don was a frequent winner, often having his picture in the local paper. He once won
$4,000, and on other occasions won trips to Club Med. Most important were the friendships they made
through bridge, and they visited with those friends throughout the years.
Don met frequent partner Don Stack at “Murial Bridge,” a club that held games several times a week
with huge turnouts. Brooker says his claim to fame was when he partnered with Stack as he earned his
300th point to become Lifemaster. They have been partners for 55 years. In the past two local region-
als, the Holiday Regional in Kansas City and the Topeka Regional, as well as the recent Summer Section-
al, they were the top masterpoint winners. They also played in the Nationals in Reno, and in one of the
National events, they were leading the field by the maximum amount after the qualifying round. Unfor-
tunately, they arrived at the final event a half hour late due to a misunderstanding of the start time.
Their penalty took away their lead and they ended up coming in 6th overall.
They keep their agreements simple, without too many conventions. “Weak no trump has been the big-
gest change,” Don said. When asked about Brooker’s play of the hand, Stack said, “C’est formidable!”
I have been having trouble with getting porn spam in my messages on my phone. I have gotten quite good at blocking the number and reporting spam. It just kept getting worse! So I contacted my carrier which happens to be Google FI. I will enclose my answer from them in a bit but I wanted to ask my dear friends and neighbors how long it has been since you assured your current phone number is on the National Do Not Call List. I know for me it has probably been 20 to 30 years!
Here is the email I received from Google FI. They told me to wait 31 days before taking further action however it worked right away! I have not received another porn one since I added both of our phones to the list! What a simple fix! And that is why I felt I should share the info with you.
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for contacting Google Fi Support.
I understand that you're getting spam messages on your Google Fi phone.
I appreciate your efforts in trying to block all of them and report them as spam.
I see that the issue still persists. In this case, please be informed that these types of Unwanted/spam calls and texts are problems across the US. These issues are not limited to a specific carrier. However, there are currently multiple resources available for this issue and we are continuing to develop innovations to help combat this problem.
Please be informed that when you get a phone call, Google Fi also automatically checks if the call is from a fake number. A fake number may happen when a scammer makes an incoming call that seems like it is coming from a number similar to yours or in your area code. If you get a call that says “
Fi verifies calls using STIR/SHAKEN technology to identify spam. When you get a call, the caller's phone carrier lets Google Fi know that the call is coming from a real number. Google Fi then verifies that what the carrier says is true.
In order for numbers to be verified, both parties must be on a carrier network that uses STIR/SHAKEN, so calls that are not verified may still be valid.
As you're still facing issues, we'd recommend you to perform the below troubleshooting steps on your device which could help you in resolving the issue.
Note: Please ignore the steps which you've already performed.
Do Not Call Registry: If you are still receiving these types of calls and texts frequently from different numbers, I would request you to register your number to the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry at https://www.
For more information, please refer to this link.
I am positive that after performing the above instructions, the issue with spam texts should resolve, just in case the issue still continues, then the last option would be changing your Google Fi number. If you wish to get a new number, help us with the ZIP code and preferred area code, so that we'll check and proceed further.
Hope the information is helpful!
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this Email, contact us via Chat or Phone (1-844-Talk2Fi). Currently, phone support is limited. We are 24/7 at your convenience!
