CREDIT CARD FRAUD IS NOT FUN

CREDIT CARD FRAUD IS NOT FUN; IT JUST HAPPENED TO ME

It doesn't really matter how it happened...and it is nearly impossible to track down the culprit. All it took was one dishonest employee at a local retail business or an online store...to copy my debit card number and begin using it to set up accounts and make purchases charged to my bank account. And even though the credit card company and bank assure me that I am not held responsible for these fraudulent charges, the process of contacting every business, explaining the situation, requesting that the account be cancelled and the money returned, taking notes on who I talk with and what was said...takes a lot of time and effort. Only THEN can I file a Fraud Claim with the bank. (The total is over $400 now...some of it coming even after I cancelled the card.) What a pain! Because the "thief" set up account memberships, apparently he is able to continue making purchases even after I cancelled the debit card.

I set up a new bank account and tried to transfer all the remaining funds to a new account...BUT some charges had not yet appeared and were being "processed" so that some funds were not "available" to me. What a Mess! My automatic withdrawals for life insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, Sallie Mae college loan payments, even the daily newspaper...all have to be changed to a new account. And when not accomplished far enough ahead of time, the automatic withdrawals were attempted on the account that now has a zero balance, so my policy payments reflect "non-sufficient funds" and are overdue.

This problem has been taking up a lot of my time the past week, and...just today I was informed that I now have two "GIRLS GONE WILD" videos on the way! (Just why...WHY someone would charge these to my debit card and then ship them to my mailing address I will never know. Evidently, when an online company runs the credit card they see the billing address and shipping address information too (or else the thief has that information...but why send the stupid videos to ME?) Could it be that I am being "pranked" by someone who actually knows me? That's a disturbing thought. If that were to be the case...I may be in for even more surprises...like unwanted magazine subscriptions, etc. I just want to be anonymous! Guess that is pretty difficult when you publish a few blogs.

But I do know what the solution is, and I am pretty angry with myself for not being more careful about purchases. PayPal has a good system...very secure...and when a business will not accept PayPal, the PayPal company has a tool that will set up a one-time credit card account number and put just the amount on the the account number required to make that one-time purchase and then the account number goes away...it no longer exists. I think there may be other financial services firms that also do this, but I have a PayPal account so that is now how I will make ALL online purchases.

Meanwhile, I am filing my Fraud Claim with the bank and will have to wait to see how much of my stolen money I can recover and how long it takes to do so.

Hope you can benefit from my unfortunate mistakes.



See my other feature pages including videos and book reviews at Doug's Blog and my new site, Missoula Outside

THINGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL GOOD

Sunsets with my wife
A good Hug
A clear night sky
The smell of a garden
Quiet mornings
Runner’s high
Morning Coffee
Writing an excellent blog post
Lying in bed a little later than usual

Memories of walking on the beach at night

Cheering for my granddaughters at softball games
Spending time with my 80-year-old mom
A good yoga down dog and a hang
Granola and soy milk
A good book



My wife’s veggie soup
The smell of alfalfa
The smell of freshly mown grass
Talks with my wife
Naps with my wife
The smell of a library
A meadowlark's song

Walking my dog

A good Scream
A good sweaty workout
Warm cookies right out of the oven
The sound of a gentle snore
A son's success
A beautiful photograph of a child


A great Produce Department
A beautiful landscape photograph
Cuddling with the wife
Coming home after a weekend away
A long drive in the country
A good Laugh


Fresh fruit

A full-body massage with oil
Watching baby animals at play
The smell of wood and sawdust
The smell of a barnyard
Feeling a trout hit my dry fly
A long hot shower, and make it a long one; and hot

Listening to the sounds of nature in the forest

Thank you for reading this post.

See my other feature pages including videos and book reviews at Doug's Blog and my newer sites, Missoula Outside and Missoula in the Morning.

Previous Post and IRRITATIONS Great and Small

I recently changed e-mailing process for the blog and did not like the result, so I’ve returned to the previous system. Subscribers to “grugsblog” will receive each posting (instead of a summary page). If you didn’t see the Clinton and Obama Bring Show to Montana blog post, then you can click the link for a direct reading of the entry.

Today I am complaining. Complaining about irritations, great and small (or major and minor).

Things that irritate me include:

Anything SLOW
Slow Lines
Slow Lanes
Slow People
Slow Cashiers
Slow Barristas

Anything LOUD
Loud Music
Loud Babies
Loud Dogs
Loud Cats (okay, so they aren’t loud, but they irritate me anyway)
Loud Televisions
Loud Cars, Pickups, Snowmachines, Waverunners, etc.
Loud Fireworks
Loud Dishwashers, Dryers, and other household machines
Loud Tools, Lawn tractors, table saws, LEAF BLOWERS
LEAF BLOWERS (rate their own listing)

Low Water Pressure (faucet, shower, hose)

Men who take their wives last name (with a hypen?—just as bad)

People who don’t WASH THEIR HANDS! (How can a person poop and not wash?)

People who congregate to talk in the aisle or at the airport arrival gate.

Sleeping through my alarm clock

Waking up BEFORE my alarm

Newsmagazine television and Reality programs that repeat the last two minutes you’ve just seen when they return from the commercial break (over and over and over…)

LONG commercial breaks.

Political Ads (is this on everyone’s list by now? Well, just wait until NOVEMBER!)

Having to change my Passwords because someone in tech support says so.

CRUTCH words and phrases (end of the day, like, you know, whatever, best at what he does)

TV Weather Reporters (all of them)

I even irritate myself, by:
Spending too much time reading
Spending too much time on the internet
Spending too much time on the computer
Spending too much time worrying
Spending too much time complaining


See my other feature pages including videos and book reviews at Doug's Blog and my newer sites, Missoula Outside

CLINTON AND OBAMA BRING “THE SHOW” TO MONTANA

This was probably the biggest political week for Montanans in recent memory. The dust won’t settle around here for quite a spell. The primary is still a couple of months down the road, on June 3rd, and regardless of who wins the Democratic Party nomination, the recent visits here should generate additional interest in the presidential race in Montana.

Hillary Clinton brought her program to Butte for the Mansfield-Metcalf dinner and then over to Missoula for a small fund-raiser at the Hilton and a “town hall” meeting and greeting that brought roughly 1800 local supporters to a local aviation hanger out at the airport. Obama also addressed the enthusiastic crowd of Democrats at the party’s dinner function in Butte and he raised the roof on the University of Montana Adams Center with 8,000 folks inside and a small overflow crowd watching in the football stadium on the big screen. The two candidates did not share the stage in Butte, however, as they spoke at different times. Also notably absent were mentions of their opponents, other than the GOP presumptive nominee, who is a common target for both.

The previous week, Bill Clinton flew through the State, with always-tardy appearances in Havre, Great Falls, Helena and Butte. Four speeches, all pretty much the same. Four crowds, all pretty much more enthusiastic about Bill than about what he had to say about Hillary’s political campaign.

I noted that Obama’s reception was pretty boisterous; reporters referred to it as “rock star” charisma. I also noticed that he pretty much says the same thing in every speech. I guess that’s to be expected. He promises everything to everyone and says what everyone wants to hear. Nobody really pays any attention to the words after awhile. It’s all the same. As a matter of fact, if you only read the text of Clinton and Obama’s speeches you would note that they really don’t differ from each other that much; might be hard to tell which one you were reading.

I wonder what the chances are that the “dream team” ticket of Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama might yet materialize at the Convention. The last time I recall the two top contenders sharing the ticket was when Ronald Reagan offered George H. W. Bush the second spot. That turned out to be a good move. The last time I recall a young Democrat outlasting his far more experienced competition and then offering him the Vice-Presidency was in 1960 when John F. Kennedy, the young upstart Senator, asked Lyndon B. Johnson, the much older, and senior Senator who served as the Senate Majority Leader, to accept the ticket’s second spot. That pairing, though elected as a politically convenient team, with one from Massachusetts and one from Texas, never really gelled. Neither trusted the other, and each had their own staffs, who also did not work well together. Would that be the picture if Clinton and Obama paired up? I guess the bigger, more obvious question is who would be willing to accept the second spot?

I get a kick out of how the Democratic Party “super-delegates” are quietly campaigning for Al Gore to accept the Nomination if there is a deadlock at the convention. So who then is the logical choice for VP? Well, the Party cannot afford to ignore the voters who put Obama in first place. If they deny Obama the top spot and don’t place him on the ticket, the massive black vote may simply disappear; and staying away from the polls is just as effective as voting for McCain.

Which brings up another question for me. Why not Bill Clinton for Vice-President? Presiding over the Senate and cutting ribbons would suit him perfectly. And we would have a president-in-waiting who would be “ready on day one” as the saying goes. Would he attract voters to the polls? I would say, yes, definitely. But no one can be certain they would be Clinton voters. This mess could all work to McCain’s benefit in the end.

Speaking of the retired Admiral, I watched and listened recently as he was interviewed and noticed that he really sounded trite and old-school, if you know what I mean. When he used a quotation to make a point, it was always an old and overworked quote. He appears old and tired too. So if he would be a caretaker President, his advisers and cabinet members would look a lot like Bush’s own, or even Reagan’s cabinet. But aren’t they ALL getting to be just a little too old? Like re-treads. And McCain really needs a bright, hip, articulate and moderate running mate. But if the GOP could muster such a person it seems like he would be running for the top spot right now. (I would like to say he or SHE, but let’s face it, the only Republican Party woman of national standing is Condoleezza Rice and she will carry the burden of the Bush Administration with her for the next twenty years. I am eager to see who McCain can muster up as a running mate. If he can’t find one, then good old Mike Huckabee will be waiting in the wings.

There may be big trouble ahead, folks. This will all get a lot nastier before anyone is ready to play nice.

MAKE LIFE A LITTLE SIMPLER

I wish there were a magic wand that would organize everything in the house and everybody in the family. There is never enough time to do all that we should/
could/would. So here are some ideas to simplify life. You may just want to keep some of this in mind once the kids’ are out of school for the summer.

Oh, Wow. It's almost that time already?

Put a LITTLE time into planning. You are not the child. Think about stuff: a month, a week, and particularly, the NIGHT BEFORE! If there is something that needs to be done in advance you don’t want to find out ten minutes before getting into the car. Who is going to be blamed? Is there really an excuse?

Don’t try to schedule too many activities for one day or a weekend. How much fun is it when everyone is hustling around just getting ready for the next thing on the schedule? Speaking of schedules: have a single calendar where everyone’s “events” are listed. And not just the kid’s activities. Dad and Mom have to be places too, and who is to blame if a parent allows a kid’s event to be scheduled only to find that an adult’s appointment now preempts the child’s? Your haircut, massage, pedicure (oh who does this, right?), psychiatric consult is more like it; put it all on the calendar. Darts, bowling night, etc., and other repetitive events need to be accounted for…don’t trust it to your own memory…or your spouse's. Again, who is to blame?

Teach the kids to do some of the stuff around the house. Oh, that’s an obvious one, right? There are some things they can, and therefore,SHOULD, do for themselves: sweep, dust, CLEAN THEIR OWN ROOM!,wash dishes (have kids?: have unbreakable dishes), and they should be able to get themselves cleaned up and ready for whatever. You might think that teaching them and “force-feeding” the behavior until it becomes habit is a big hassle for you right now, but think how much more of a hassle it will be if they grow up thinking this type of activity is just for Mom and Dad to take care of.

Kids should always learn to put their “stuff” away for the day before eating dinner. Have a big box or chest just for that purpose. Make sure it is big enough. Tell the kids that when it gets full they will have to get rid of something before they get any new “stuff.” (Have you ever seen a child’s bedroom with over 100 stuffed animal toys? To what purpose?)

Take along the emergency “stuff” in the car. By now you must know what kind of stuff you wish you had with you. Buy one of those zippered nylon tool bags at Sears and put the napkins (both kinds), band-aids, other first aid stuff or even a kit with a knife and scissors. Don’t forget those disposable hand washing cloths. Oh, and how about the spare underwear for emergencies. Bring along a few plastic baggies, snacks, water, etc, depending on the event. I absolutely believe that a port-a-potty in the van or suv will pay for itself a hundred times over. Ever been stuck in traffic? Oh man. Pain.

Schedule quiet time for yourself. This applies to both parents. If you have to, hire a babysitter or invite an adult friend or relative over to watch the kids for two hours(or four)and go get lost. Go to a bookstore or a coffee house and vegetate. As a matter of fact, schedule together time for the parents—away from the kids.

Here’s a favorite of mine: Spend individual time with each sibling in the family. Having a parent’s undivided attention—not competing with another sibling or with another parent for attention—is a wonderful way to discover the child’s unique personality, not to mention building really terrific memories for the child.

And finally, remember that not everything is going to go your way, or the way it was planned. Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. Let it go. Remember, they are kids. Remember, you can’t control the weather. Heck, you really can’t control anything—but how you choose to react when things don’t go “right.” Believe me, your spouse and children will remember how you react. (And the kids will learn from you—for better or for worse.)

None of this is really new. We parents have all probably heard some or all of this before. So—hope you didn’t think it hurt too much to be reminded again.