Happy Halloween

TWIT would like to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween today.  I hope that you, faithful readers, will get to eat a bunch of your favorite candies tonight, and the next few days. 

We've been celebrating all afternoon here at The Compound.  We started out with Halloween cocktails, cheese and venison summer sausage for an afternoon snack, and now we're in our usual recliner/couch spots as we watch the Breeders Cup with yet another cocktail.  Then we'll be having some awesome thin crust Pizza Hut pizza in about an hour when the pizza delivery person gets here, and then we'll probably have some candy as we watch the World Series tonight.  What a great day!

Flashback Friday

On the last business day before Halloween, it is the official trick-or-treat day at ZCO.  People bring their kids or grandkids in (complete with costumes) and they trick-or-treat in the office building.  Believe me when I tell you that the people at ZCO do not skimp when it comes to candy.  One trip through the office building and a kid is set with enough candy for more than two or three nights of trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.  But I digress.

We usually have a ton of kids, but it's sad that in the past few years, the number of kids has been steadily decreasing.  Today, it was pretty sad that we didn't have a lot of kids.  We all look so forward to it, and we were bummed about it. I know, I know.  The kids are growing up and getting older.  But still. 

This year, out of the small group of kids that we had, my favorite was a tiny Mickey Mouse.  

I'm hoping that some of the smaller kids will be toddlers by next Halloween so we'll have more kids.

Major Lesson Learned

Tonight, I learned a major lesson, faithful readers.  I learned a lesson in plumbing.  With guidance from The Old Man, I learned how to fix our leaky faucet in the big bathroom.  I learned a valuable lesson in how to shut off the water to the entire house, and then learned how to actually fix the leaky faucet, and then restore the water to the entire house.  

I made a mental note, and will contact our plumber in the weeks ahead and have him come and install shut-off valves for both of our bathrooms, and then we will be good to go at The Compound. 

Thanks again, Old Man, for taking the time and patience to teach me this lesson.  You were absolutely right - there will be times when I will be able to fix things myself instead of feeling helpless and having to rely on someone else to do it.

Really?

As I mentioned before, I belong to a Facebook page for my local hood.  Last night, one person in the group posted that they heard (and I quote) "trumpet sounds from the sky".  That's all it took for dozens of others to say they heard the same thing.  Some even said (once again, I quote) "It's all over Facebook and the world."  

After the day I had at work, I don't even have the strength to give my reply to this.  

Bye Bye, Patricia

The remnants of Hurricane Patricia made it to the Ohio Valley last night, and unfortunately, is lingering around.  It's rained ever since last evening.  The rain is supposed to finally move out tomorrow night, but I'm not holding my breath.

At least this will bring an end to the drought conditions that we have here in KY right now.  And with the ground being so darned dry, we didn't have to worry about much flooding today.  All in all, the weatherazzi was calling for 3-4 inches of rain by the time Patricia leaves tomorrow. 

Let's hope that Patricia will calm down tonight and get the hell out of the 'Ville.

Halloween Preview

I am happy to report that the Divas aka me and Diva Stacy came in second tonight in the Trivia Contest.  Every category tonight was Halloween-themed, and they weren't all gimme questions, either.  The Divas had to work hard for their win.

What A Snack

For our snack tonight at The Compound, we had vanilla bean ice cream with homemade caramel sauce by my best friend in the world, Diva Stacy.  I will say it again - I would have eaten leaves and twigs from out in the yard if they had that caramel sauce on them. 

I am tempted to visit some of the online loan places to get money together so she can go into full production on the caramel sauce.  Yep, it's that good. 

Wow

I was up early this morning to get to a meeting at church.  While I was getting ready, I was watching one of the local news channels on TV.  The "breaking news" story was of a double homicide in a neighborhood close to Churchill downs late last night. The 'Rents and I didn't even blink an eye at this news.  A couple of hours later, there was another report of another homicide in the east end of town.  Once again, we didn't blink an eye

This is an every day occurrence here in the 'Ville.  We've grown so accustomed to this happening every day that we don't even bat an eye when we hear of another shooting.

It's just like my Sweet Mother says - it's like we're back in the wild, wild west.  

Get Ready For Patricia

The weatherazzi has everyone worked up from Mexico to Canada over Hurricane Patricia.  As of this morning, the hurricane is being called the biggest hurricane ever to hit in the western hemisphere.  Yep, it's that big and powerful.

For us here in the Ohio Valley, they are calling for a total of about 4 inches of rain by the time it's over this time next week.  There's not much we can do about here in the 'Ville, other than make sure everyone's sump pumps are working fine and make sure the Shop Vac is handy in case you need to suck up some water in your basement.

On a positive note, the weatherazzi says that this rain will end our drought.  No shit.

Thanks, ISS

TWIT would like to thank the International Space Station (ISS) for another awesome fly- by tonight.  Tonight's viewing was the best so far here at The Compound.  The ISS was exceptionally bright thanks to the cloud conditions and the brightness of the moon, and we had a great viewing in the five minutes that it soared across the sky. 

More Tales Of The Supernatural At The Compound

We've got another report of a supernatural event at The Compound.  Well, I'm not convinced it's as much a supernatural event as it is a we-forgot-what-we-did-with-it event.  But we can't find our cool new apple corer/slicer contraption.  The Old Man said he will conduct a thorough search tomorrow morning for it.  But we have no clue where it is.  

As always, I'll keep you posted.

More Tales Of The Supernatural At The Compound

As I've mentioned before crazy things happen here at The Compound; a lot of them are unexplained.  For instance, the tale of the electricity in the family room.  Back in the spring just a week or two after Dad came home from the hospital, we discovered that all of the electrical plugs on one wall in the family room didn't work.  A few weeks ago, My Sweet Mother discovered that they are now working.  No explanation on that one. The latest bizarre thing to happen here at The Compound occurred last night with the TV.  All of a sudden during the baseball game, the screen suddenly got those effin annoying black lines at the top and bottom of the screen.  No amount of fooling with the remote or trying (key word) to Google the problem online seems to help. 

If anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of the annoying black lines, please let me know. 

As always, I'll keep you posted. 

Trivia Contest Update

It was another off-night for the team Divas at the weekly trivia contest.  We started out pretty strong but as the second round progressed, we didn't do so well.  We came in fourth place, which thankfully wasn't last.  But we could have done better.  We made the mistake of second guessing ourselves on a few questions, and we should have gone with our first answer.  We've vowed to make a big comeback next week at the Halloween Trivia Contest, complete with costumes.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Link Of The Week

Unfortunately, flu season is upon us.  Our company gave flu shots to all employees that wanted them this past Thursday.  I got my shot, and I hope to goodness we don't have a repeat of last year, when the 'Rents and I all three had the flu over New Years.

Take a minute to check out the weekly flu map from the awesome folks at the CDC.  Visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm and see what the flu sitch is for your area. 

Saturday Updates

I apologize for not posting yesterday - it was pretty crazy at The Compound with our California Relatives arriving in the afternoon for a visit.  We visited for awhile, and then went to an awesome dinner at our fave Mexican place, followed up by a great night out under the gazebo in the warmth of our cool fire pit. 

Last night at dinner, we celebrated the California Relatives selling their house.  When they get back home from this trip in a couple of weeks, the fun will start as they pack up everything and head back out here to what will be their new home in Indiana by Purdue University, where their youngest son works.  It sure will be awesome to have them just a three-hour drive away instead of 2400 miles.

Thursday Updates

I got my new debit card in the mail yesterday, and last night when I tried (key word) to activate it over the phone, it kept saying that the card had to be activated from the phone that was associated with the card.  Well, the phone number was associated with the card, and I tried a dozen times to no avail.  I was pretty degusted not being able to finally get to my money. 

This morning as soon as the credit union opened, I was there in the lobby waiting for someone to get this fixed.  It only took about five minutes and they had my card activated. 

Now, the ecomony will be rebounding with me being able to buy again.

What A Relief

Well, faithful readers, this morning, I thought I was one step away from going to the emergency room.  

When I got to work and turned on the computer, I couldn't read anything on the monitors.  It was all blurry.  I blinked my eyes a bizillion times, and ended up putting on my reader glasses and was finally able to read my emails and the monitor screens.  But something just wasn't right.  A dozen different scenarios kept going through my mind -- I'd had a stroke; I was going blind; etc, etc. 

I was ready to call my eye doctor and ask if I needed to go to the ER, then I decided to go to the bathroom and take the contacts out and rinse them with saline solution.  

As soon as I took out the contact in my right eye, I realized that I had the contacts in the wrong eyes.  I can count on two fingers the times that has happened in the 30+ years I've worn contact lens.  Boy did I feel equally stupid and relieved.

The Economy Will Now Rebound

I am very happy to say I got my new debit card in the mail today, so now I am able to access my money.  I'm sure that WalMart, Krogers, and Amazon have all missed me in the past week.  Never fear - I'm back in buying action.  I'm safer now, and am taking precautions when using my debit card online.  

I'm pretty sure the stock market will have a big day tomorrow now that I can shop again.

Trivia Contest Update

The Divas gave it their all tonight, but we fell short and I'm pretty sure we came in last place.  But it sure was fun.  And I learned quite a few things tonight, one of which is that the Panama Canal is in the Pacific Ocean.  I bet the farm that it was the Atlantic.  Well, not the farm, but I bet 4 points. 

Something You Don't See Every Day

We were on our way to church this morning, and had just turned from our road to the infamous, deadly Greenbelt Highway.  We hadn't gone 100 yards until I spotted a black bra in the middle of the road.  Hand to heaven, it was a black bra.  And it wasn't a small one, either.  Just from eye-balling it as I was driving by, I'm guessing it was at least a 42 or 44 DD.  

It's definitely something you don't see every day, especially on your way to church.

Security Tip Saturday

It's been one hell of a week, faithful readers.  Work was insanely busy, and I barely had time to go to the bathroom or get a cup of coffee all week long.  And on top of that, I had to deal with a very scary sitch:  someone hacked into my Walmart.Com account and tried (key word) to make two purchases totalling over $1300.  Thank goodness for Lifelock and the Card Fraud Detection software that my credit union uses. 

It turns out that the letter I received last week from the Card Fraud Detection Center was legit, even though when I did numerous searches for the 800 number on the letter I got info saying that it was a hoax.  First lesson -- we can't believe probably 90% of what we read on the internet. 

I called my credit union on Tuesday morning (while I was in the midst of a major crisis at work) and read the letter to them.  They told me it was legit and for me to call the number listed.  I called the number, and told them that there must be a mistake; I check my checking account at least a couple of times a day, and every charge that was listed was a legit charge made by me.  The guy asked me "On September 27 at 1:49 in the morning, a charge was attempted at Walmart.Com for $838.90, and our software blocked it.  Thirty minutes later, another charge for $438.90 was attempted, and the software blocked it, too."  I told him "The only time there is even more than $800 in my checking account is every other Friday morning at 12:01 when my paycheck is deposited.  Then within a few hours most of that is gone for bills."  He snickered, trying to maintain his stern professionalism.   He went on to say that I had two choices - to put a partial block on my debit card, meaning I would have to set up and use and additional PIN number when making a purchase in an actual store, but that I wouldn't be able to use it for online purchases.  Or I could put a total block on it and get a new debit card. 

Within a matter of just a couple of minutes, the old debit card had been blocked and cancelled and a new debit card was ordered.   I felt a little better, but decided then and there to make changes. 

First of all, I will no longer store my payment info for anything online.  Sure, this will only be a slight inconvenience, but it will keep me safer.  When my new debit card arrives and I am back to making payments, I will be 100% sure NOT to store the info at those sites, no matter how secure they are.  Second, I am going to use a prepaid debit card when I make any bill payments online or purchase anything online.  It will only take a minute to transfer money from my checking account to the prepaid debit card.  And I will transfer the money as-needed, and leave only a $50 balance in there; if someone were to hack in and get the prepaid debit card number, they won't be able to get much money.   Third, I'm going to try to be old school like the 'Rents and a few friends and try to pay with cash as much as possible, instead of whipping out the debit card for every little thing.  I'm not going to be toting around a purse full of cash, mainly because I don't have enough cash to fill one of my purses, but I will anticipate the next few days and get money from the ATM or from the credit union in person.

I hope that you, faithful readers, might learn from what happened to me.  Take a minute to think of how many places online that your payment account info is store -- Ticketmaster, Amazon.com, practically any online store.  Take another few minutes to go in and "un-store" that payment info.  You'll be glad you did.

Something You Don't Hear Every Day

Overheard at work today, and I quote:

"I think it's held there by centripital force."

Once again, I don't make this stuff up. 

Fantasy Football Update

I am bummed to report that I lost this past week by a mere 9 points.  That blew my perfect record, so now I am 3-1.  But I am in second place, so that's not too shabby, and we have a lot of the season left.  

It was still cool to say for three weeks, the teams that played against  me could say that they were beaten by a girl.

Still Decompressing

I apologize, but after the cray cray day I had at work, I'm spent.  I promise I will give an update on the drama that has been going on with me.  But for now, I need to detach and get away from it all for one night.

Oh What A Day

I'm not going to say this was one of the worst days ever at work or elsewhere, but it was eventful.  And it friggin wore me out.  I'm drained from everything that happened today, and I promise to update you, faithful readers, about it tomorrow.   But for now, I need to decompress. 

Stay On Guard

Today, I received a very official looking letter in the mail with the return address of "Card Fraud Detection."  As soon as I saw the name on the return address, I knew it was a scam.  It said "this letter is to inform you that there have been recent transactions on your card that indicate someone may be using your card without your knowledge."  Let me interject that it SHOULD have said "this is to inform you that YOU have been using your card too many times on Amazon.com."  But I digress. It went on to give a phone number for me to call immediately.  

The first thing I did was go to the Kentucky Attorney General's web page, and I found numerous complaints about this, and I took a few minutes to file my own complaint.

Please pass this on,especially to any elderly folks you know - I'm sure there are many, many unsuspecting people out there that would call this number and end up giving them their debit/credit card number.  

Only In The Ohio Valley, Part 2

Just as I predicted yesterday, we had the furnace was still on this morning, and then it warmed up and was very humid and then a/c was back on. 

Stay turned.  I'm sure we'll probably follow the same pattern for a few days this week.

Only In The Ohio Valley

Once again, we're having crazy weather in the Ohio Valley.  And once again, we go from having the air conditioner on one day, to having to turn on the furnace the next day because the high is only supposed to get to 49 degrees. 

Stay tuned.  I'm guessing it will be back up in the 90's in a few days.

Really?

I am going on record and saying that I hope that AT&T will stop their daily calling to get me to switch to U-Verse. 

I am not joking when I say that they call every day.  It has got  to stop eventually.  I do not want U-Verse.  And I tell them that every time they call. 

When will the madness end?  I'm guessing never. 

Team Bud Update

This afternoon was Dad's check-up with his cardiologist, and I am mega excited to say he got an excellent report!  Two weeks ago, after the results from blood work came back, the cardiologist called and told him to stop taking two of his meds.  Today, the doctor checked him over thoroughly and said that the current meds he is taking are in deed making his heart stronger, and his body is doing just fine after being off the other two meds.  The doctor said he's rarely seen an 81 year-old in that great shape.  I don't need to tell you that made Dad (and Mom and me) feel awesome.

Thanks again for your prayers and well wishes for him.