Fri-yay 3 ~ Milestones, Storms and Thieves

It’s Friday of the first full work week of 2020 ~ here are my 3 Random Thoughts for Fri-yay.

Ready? let’s go!

1 ) Milestones – Attended a retirement party recently for the woman who hired me 18+ years ago. How did we get old enough to retire already? Ironically one of her parting gifts was a beautiful clock. Maybe it’s me but I found it funny that others assume someone who’s not going to be “on the clock” anymore wants … a clock? We had a good visit and lots of laughs and she whispered joyfully, “5 more alarms to go…” #IsntItIronic

2 ) Winter Storm Watch – the Midwest is bracing for a wild weather weekend. TV forecasters are salivating, their eyes wild with excitement as they breathlessly provide hour-by-hour updates. Stores are stocked, aisles are jammed, and folks are getting ready. It’s 45F right now but expected to drop with rain then ice then snow then .. trees down, ice and snow, etc. Regardless what happens .. we’ll be as ready as we can be. #WinterinMI

3 ) Thieves – over the Christmas break I had my credit card number skimmed at a local (chain) retail store. Thankfully I have alerts set up and received a message, via text, about suspicious activity. (The text also looked suspicious, to be honest). I didn’t respond to the text but instead called the credit card company, verified my identity, and confirmed I was home in my jammies and not trying to book a Hotel in Delaware! After that whole mess I set up additional alerts to the account – transactions > a certain amount, change in security, debit charges, withdrawals, etc. Make technology work for you! If you have a credit card, I suggest you set up similar stop-gaps. Thieves have no problem helping themselves to your good credit and assets. #StillAngry

P.S. ~

After the “skimming” incident I called the store where I’m certain the thievery happened and asked to speak to the manager. What sounded like a 12 year old came to the phone. *SIGH* After explaining my dilemma and urging her to check their security/IT network she countered that, “Oh no, that couldn’t have happened here ’cause we.. like … check our machines.. like … all the time.” When I offered that there is a current problem (since I hadn’t otherwise used the card in nearly a month anywhere else OR online and the attempted charges happened 2 hours after I shopped at their store) she responded with, “Well OK then … no worries, Thanks for the call ….” It was obvious, by her dismissive response that I wasn’t getting anywhere with Mandi with an i and ended the call.