My VERY Busy "Day Off" and Computer Issues

As soon as I got back from my grocery shopping yesterday, I dove into making my week's portion of "Ogre Juice" (alkagizer) and then, after the kitchen was cleaned up again, went down to the den to assess what needed to be cleaned up. A hell of a LOT! Oy! I dove right in, didn't even stop to take any photos of the mess. I started on the mess at the North wall - boxes and books that had been stacking up there for several years. I pulled out every box, went through it putting the items away or tossing them, and then continued to the next.

I have a tri-leaf folding table at the South wall that I've had up. When I use my knitting machine, make holiday cards, or do any jewelry making, this is my spot. I had one leaf up, the other folded down, but it still was quite a bit to get cleared away and put away properly.

Then I tackled what was underneath the table - mostly photographic supplies like my light rings, white chamber, spotlights, etc. I got all of that finally put away, folded the wing down so that the table is now
just an eight-inch thick piece of wood, and moved it against the South wall. I made sure I could open the closet door for Sewing Area Storage #1.

MY COMPUTER SEEMS TO BE ACTING UP TODAY, SO TODAY'S BLOG IS TEXT MOSTLY. SORRY! 

My attention turned to the boxes blocking Knitting Area Storage #1 (or Sewing Area Storage #3). I had a large box, and a bunch of Swarovski crystals labelled and bagged by type. I had been photographing them for our Etsy sales platform - thus the lighting, white box, etc. Those got gathered up and consolidated into a single box. Since it's a project that's not actually finished (although it might not be worth expanding it any farther), I consider it a WIP and that box had just enough room to snug in next to the table on the South wall.

That left a variety of boxes and bins to go through, item by item, which I did. A fair amount was tossed, quite a few items were separated out for photographs to be listed for sale online, and a couple of lidded plastic boxes were put into the lower attic space. I was proud of myself - I only had to reset one mouse trap, not the whole row of them - LOL. I can be quite a klutz in that low-ceiling crawl space.

Finally, I folded up my Fluidity Barre. I'm going to offer that for sale at the YMCA I think. It normally costs almost $600 to purchase. I had bought it during COVID because I was going crazy being unable to exercise when I broke my foot and couldn't use the treadmill. I got a good deal on it, and used it quite a bit while I was healing when all of the gyms were closed, but I really don't need it any more. So I'll offer it for sale at a good price, probably around $150. It's a great piece of equipment for anyone who loves dance or who loves good stretching and flexibility exercises, and I have all of the items it came with.

After dinner, DH wanted to put an order in to Hong Kong for some stone beads we need for the shop. He finalized the order and asked me to pay for it with my Discover card (not an unusual request). However, apparently my card has been compromised. After almost 30 minutes on the phone with Discover, they are issuing me a new card, the old card is frozen, and I have now downloaded the past five months of transactions to see if I can isolate what charge(s) are fraudulent. We put the stone onto the AMEX card instead - *sigh*.

So, what do you usually do on YOUR day off? LOLOL

Balance - The Good With The Bad - That's Life

I'm not a Shakespeare fan, but his quotations have immersed themselves into our daily thoughts and word combinations. Today when thinking about how to write my blog, this is the quotation that immediately came to mind: 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

So, why this quote and why now? After all, I'm not at war, or am I? Actually, I am at war, as many/most of us are these days. I'm at war against identity theft. Many of you remember more than two years ago when DH's identity was stolen. They had everything - name, social security number, address - the whole nine yards. A road once walked can be walked again, and I guess it's my turn now, except I get the lite version. 

LifeLock is a benefit with several different things I subscribe
to, so I enabled it after our last breach in 2017. I'm glad
I did since they seem to have caught this right away. 

I got a notification from my LifeLock account yesterday that someone had attempted to set up a Best Buy credit card with my social security number. They didn't have my name or address, just the social, but I immediately logged on and started things rolling for an investigation. What a PITA. I don't think much will come of this, I've kept all of my alerts in place as well as my federal roadblocks, but it's still highly annoying and a bit worrisome. Since DH is in a "must get things done before X time (always shifting deadlines)," I decided to keep silent about this latest breach for the time being and just get things moving on my part ASAP. 

Family means many different things to people. I first met Maja when I
was still at my old location, so probably late 1980's, no later than
the early 1990's. She moved to Washington state in the early
1990's and started her own life journey over at that time, but
she's a dear friend and sister, probably always will be. 

Yesterday was a really nice morning too, though, starting with the unexpected arrival of my "nephews" Dan and Ben from Washington state. They apparently had flown into town for a quick trip to attend their cousin's wedding and were heading back out to the airport. I got to catch up a bit, and just before they headed out, my "sister" Maja and her SO, Solo arrived, so as the boys left, I had a chance to catch up with one of the very special people in my life. That was a total joy and really made my day. 

Hidden gems are so often there, we just have to be ready
and willing to move some stone to find the flash. Even though
there were a lot of negatives about yesterday, the positives
shone through and made my day a happy one. 

So not all is lost, and not all is bad. Things can be (and often are) hidden gems just waiting to surprise with happy things. Oh - and my breakfast was paid for by two ladies I often see at my restaurant. Over the years, we've exchanged buying breakfast for each other - always unexpected and as an impulse. Their kindness was very appreciated yesterday. 

So bad things, balanced by good things. That's how life operates. Choose which side of the fence you want to stand on - I'll stick with the side of sunshine, relatively blue skies, and positive outlooks. Have a great Tuesday and I'll return tomorrow. (I have no idea why the paragraphs are indenting, but so it seems to be working today. *sigh*) 

Keeping Our Cool

DH and I had a nice, lazy Sunday. It was hot, so we spent a good part of the afternoon sitting under our umbrella on the patio. It poured down rain around 11:00 pm last night, so the humidity is a bit less today and the temps will be much better. Of course, today I'm at work anyway, so I have air conditioning. 

We've been looking at a possible portable A/C unit for the
upstairs bedroom, but so far we've been sticking to our
floor fans instead. 

I'm not a big fan of air conditioning. We have ANCIENT built-in wall units in our bedrooms at the house, as well as a totally inefficient house-wide system. We never turn on either one. We use fans, but not the A/C. The entire system needs to be totally stripped and upgraded from it's original 1960 machinery. That's an expense I really don't want. 

The house is built for two separate whole-house A/C
units. They're really old and not environmentally
friendly. We just don't use them. One of these years
we should probably look into replacing them. 

My Mom had A/C in our third house. That was the only custom house she and Dad built in Denver and it was quite stunning and a bit over-the-top. I thought it ridiculous, however, that I would wear a sweater indoors when it was hot outside, just because my Mom wanted the A/C on. I've used A/C when I was in an apartment that had it, but I was never much of a fan. I have it on at the shop for the comfort of our customers. It's a necessary evil there, but at least it's a more environmentally friendly unit than what I have at home. 

As it is, we use several standing fans to
keep the air moving and cooler. They're
not high-tech, but they work just fine. 

Once again we're dealing with a false credit card application in DH's name. Fortunately LifeLock caught it immediately and contacted me. I told them it was fraud, and I need to access several accounts to deal with subsequent notifications later this morning. The fun never stops *sigh*. 

LifeLock has been good. They're catching things really
early and notifying us immediately. 

I think I'm grateful it's Monday, and that's not a common response to starting another work week. Still, work is predictable and that has positive aspects. Here's hoping your Monday is glorious and not too hot, and that if you're watching the soccer games, that the teams you are supporting are winning. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Another Credit Issue - This Is Getting Old

After a rather strange phone call from a large financial institution yesterday, I spent more than an hour working with the LifeLock and Experian accounts I had set up after our financial identity scare of early April. I had set things up to be notified in case people were snooping around our financial information, and LifeLock notified me via phone and emails that we had people sniffing around. Experian, although they were also supposed to notify me, did nothing. 

LifeLock came through - phoning and emailing me when
they found out someone was nosing around our credit. 

So yesterday I strengthened the boundaries and locks around our data with Experian and broadened the reach of our LifeLock, and today we'll have to deal with the phone call from the large financial institution. I suspect someone was trying to set up a credit card under DH's name. I think I got it nipped in the bud quickly, but I'll have to do some more stuff later today, and there's one credit card company that can only be notified by mail - Ick! 

I wasn't as happy with Experian, who didn't notify
us even though they were supposed to. I strengthened
our file boundaries there and spent more than an hour
going through everything I could access on
their website. I hope I caught this on time. 

I think I caught this in time, and I also think this was only tendrils of slight touches to see how far things could go. It's harsh, though, and DH is quite upset by the whole thing. I couldn't run interference for him on the phone call yesterday, because the large financial institution insisted that they had to speak with him directly. DH will phone them today, and possibly/probably tell them that I'm authorized to take care of all of this for him. We'll find out, at any rate. If he doesn't get anywhere with them today, he'll come to the shop tomorrow and we'll call from there because there we can both be on the phone together at the same time. 

Like most days, yesterday was a day of ups and
downs. This financial stuff - a definite roller
coaster. 

So, a definite downer in my day yesterday, although I also had a positive upper by getting an opportunity to chat with Aearwen for more than an hour yesterday afternoon. That was unexpected, since her original schedule had caused her to cancel our weekly chat. Her circumstances changed, and we were able to catch up after all. It's always a high point to my week, so I was delighted to discuss everything under the sun with one of my good friends. 

It's always a joy to get to chat with Aearwen on my
Wednesdays. We've been chatting weekly for
years now and never seem to run out of things
to say or conversational avenues to walk down. 

And that brings me to the end of another blog post. Funny how quickly time goes by when I just sit down and start writing in the morning. I hope each of you has a wonderful Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Also, don't forget - the Royal Wedding is EARLY Saturday morning, so plan your schedule. I'll have to make sure I'm up in time to have it on in the background, I want to see Meghan's dress! 

Snow Is A'Coming

Today we're wet, tonight we start snowing, and that's going to continue util Sunday morning. By the time this all ends we're going to get between 8"-12" of snow on the ground scattered over more than 24 hours, but still - it's a lot of snow. This is Spring at its worst. If the snow is wet and heavy, we'll get a lot of broken branches and possibly downed power lines. I'll probably be able to get to the gym OK tomorrow morning, but I'm not really looking forward to driving to work and, even less, to digging my car out from the parking lot after work. Oh well, tomorrow is as tomorrow does. 

It's not unusual for us to get at least one serious snowstorm a year,
but we're really tired of winter by now. I think it's time
for winter to leave so that we can have our two weeks of
spring before summer arrives. 

DH and I had a meeting with a banker at US Bank first thing yesterday morning. We brought the history of our hacked credit along with us and by the time we left 45 minutes later, the accounts had been tagged and closed and we were setting out to call and contact a lot of people. We've now got fraud alerts set up through the major credit bureaus, and alerts filed with the Social Security Administration, the Federal and State governments, etc. It could have been worse - we caught this very quickly. 

We have set up Fraud Alerts and contacted a lot
of people regarding this episode. DH is still
rather upset about the whole thing, I'm a bit
more laid back. We're on top of it, though. 

From the first phone call on Friday the 6th, we had everything shut down on the 12th. Only six days - I'm glad we caught it that quickly. When I first spoke to US Bank on the phone on Saturday, the social security numbers of the new accounts and our actual numbers didn't match. By the time we closed everything down six days later, they did match - very troubling. But, we've got it nailed now and, hopefully, we won't have another episode. 

With 8"-12" of snow expected over 24 hours, I'm grateful that
it's not all going to fall in half that time. We'll probably be
able to keep up with clearing the snow from walkways and
cars in this storm, although we won't be happy about it. 

There you have it - a day in the exciting life of me - LOL. Not so very exciting, really., and when it is, it's exciting in all the wrong ways :-) Here's hoping your Friday will NOT bring you massive rain heading to snow and that your credit reports are all solid. I'll be back tomorrow, so have a safe and happy day.