Taking Time to Be Patient and Kind

Yesterday morning I was pondering how much better life would be if people just slowed down a bit to be more patient and kind.
Then in the afternoon I pulled into a gas station for fuel.  Normally I would drive on through to the second pump, so it would be easy for someone to use the first pump, but as I got closer I could see that the second pump was out of order, so I stopped at the first one.

An older woman was behind my pick-up in a little car. She started laying on the horn trying to get me to pull forward.  As I was getting out she tried to cut around me. I gestured for her to open her window, so she rolled it down on my side.  Before I could even explain she remarked, "Well, you are not very bright, are you?" I just smiled and said, "The other pump is out of order." She looked crestfallen. Realizing that it was her that was none too bright, not me, just took the wind out of her sails. No point making her feel any worse so I just said, "You couldn't see it from where you were."

She looked embarrassed and went on about her business.

Pulling My Three Bank Accounts Out of Chase Bank

Today I got a notice from my bank I've long been expecting.  I had two free checking accounts at Wamu and a savings account that got bought out when Wamu folded.  Chase assured me nothing would change and my accounts would be free.  But every time I go in there they hammer me to set up a direct deposit.  Even if I wanted to I couldn't.  If I get ten checks a month they come from ten different places.  That is the nature of the beast when you do freelance work for a living. So I wasn't really surprised when I got a booklet from the bank today explaining how they are going to start charging a monthly service charge of $10 (per account).  There are a few ways to get around it, all which demand $500 per month lump sum of a monthly deposit, or a large minimum daily balance, or some other things that don't apply to me.  I have until Feb. to decide before I start getting dinged with fees. 

The reason I left Bank of America in the first place is that I was sick of paying $120 a year in monthly account fees.

Right now I'm leaning towards Wells Fargo bank. But they also charge a $5. monthly fee.  It's half of Chase so I may go in that direction, and their daily minimum if I want the fee waived is half what Chase requires.

As I was researching banks, I came across something called 'move your money'.  That lead to the video embedded here.  It truly is scary to see how big banks have us in their clutches.  I wonder if there is a small community bank I can trust in the Anaheim area. I've never had a lot of trust in big banks anyway, but I have even less now.  I'm about to start sticking my money under the mattress and hope the building never catches on fire.

One thing is for certain, there is no way I'm staying with Chase.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up Rant

It seems like Thanksgiving has been going on for ten days. Will it never end? At least I begged off spending the day with relatives. But it kind of backfired because I was too depressed to do anything I had planned. I just stayed home, felt disgusted at the news reporting that even Black Friday wasn't soon enough, and that stores were staying open on Thanksgiving too. Now I've worked retail, and those poor drones need a holiday just like the rest of you, but now they are stuck in the stores Thursday too. Is no one else disgusted by this? Like they can't drain our wallets of money fast enough.

I'm protesting Black Friday. Instead I'm going to sponsor a woman in Africa through the Women For Women organization. They teach job skills to women in war torn areas so they can better support their families.  I used to sponser someone but then the economy took a dump and I had to back off.  But now I want to get back to contributing to the welfare of others, even if it's a personal sacrifice to do so. There's more to life than buying a new sofa.

Random Thoughts About My Life

The crickets are partying tonight. One confused fellow was chirping about 5 PM. We are having a mini heat wave driven by the Santa Ana winds. After the rain last weekend, the heat wave is just rather confusing. I had to come back inside and change into a halter top.

The main noticible thing today is not what is there, but what is not there. Namely, all the political ads are gone from the TV, Facebook, radio, and other media.  I had about worn out my mute button.

My Dr. read me the riot act about gaining more weight. It seems the harder I try the more I gain. It makes me feel like not trying at all. What's the point? It just stresses me and everyone else out. On top of that my boyfriend's mom is losing weight so it's all she talks about. Points this and points that and on and on. I'm glad she's feeling better but I just don't want to hear it anymore. It's rather like a man who has been blind but can now see sitting in a room full of blind people and going on and on about how great vision is. My Dr. is convinced that exercise has nothing to do with weight loss; that only cutting calories will change your weight. I think he's daft. The science museum in San Francisco has an excellent display showing how fast you can lose weight if you combine diet and exercise, compared to either diet or exercise alone.

At any rate, people are bored to death about hearing how bad obesity is. I'm bored. I'd rather have a different problem, instead of this one all my life.

GMAIL is Really Starting to Bug Me

GMAIL is really ticking me off lately. First they disable my account because of 'suspicious activity.' They won't turn it back on without a text or voice message sent to the cell phone I don't have. I tried to contact them directly but they didn't respond in 24 hours like their instructions say they will.

So I dug out my old cell phone, and couldn't remember the number. So I
tried to log in to Virgin Mobile to find out my phone number, only I can't log in without my phone number! Ugh. Twenty minutes later I finally find the number. So I ask Gmail to send the new code. In the middle of the voice message with
the new number code, my phone battery dies.

 (Bangs head on keyboard). So now I have to charge the phone to try again.

Why does Gmail assume every person on the planet has a cell phone?

I know a few months ago they tried to make is so you couldn't even start a Gmail account without a cell phone verification. They may have dropped this though because my boyfriend just started a new Gmail account and didn't have a problem.  

I just hope when I finally get the code it works.

 

This was the original gmail message: 'Because we detected unusual activity on your account, we've disabled it for the time being. In most cases, accounts are disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service'.

Just the Way I Feel Today

I hate to say it but there are so many areas of my life I've just given up on. After years and years of plugging away and not getting anywhere, it's hard to get up any sort of enthusiasm. Pep talks only go so far. After a while you don't even believe your own words. If you lose every game, eventually you don't show up at the ballpark anymore.

Libraries Make Me Happy

Today I drove the 10 extra miles round trip to go to the big library. Usually I go to one of the branches, where they rarely have everything I need. Then I have to order books from the inter-library system, wait another week, and then go back to pick them up. I dropped off 14 books and came home with 24! If this keeps up I'll need to take a shopping cart to the library. Part of the problem is I'm getting books for 2 people. My boyfriend is a voracious reader but refuses to set foot in a library. So to sooth the savage beast, I bring home books for him too. He also reads about twice as fast as I do. And he's out of work, so he has a lot of hours to read. I feel I'm saving us money by going to the library. If he bought all those books, we'd be homeless.

My choice of books leans heavily to arts and crafts and biographies of famous artists. I was thrilled to find a book on Matisse.