Results are in

I finished the test in a little over an hour. Did well on everything but the
algebra. I haven't used it in so long that I wasn't up to speed, I guess. So
that means I'll have to take a beginning algebra class with my other
courses. No problem, though. I aced that course in HS (back in the Dark Ages
<G>).

Now I have to get my college application filled out and turn it in, then
figure out exactly what courses I need to take.

Thanks for all the good wishes!

http://nancyeddy.com

A word of warning --- Keep an eye on your debit cards

My truck driver husband has just had someone steal his debit card number and empty his account. At one of the locations where he stopped and used his debit card, apparently someone got hold of a merchant copy of the receipt, which contained the card number and expiration date.

That's all that anyone needs to create a fake card with a vacuum machine, which they can either sell or use themselves.

 

We think the card was sold to someone else in California, in a city near the Mexico border called Calexico. The card was used five times in a Wal-Mart for over $200 on Sunday, along with a purchase at a Jack in the Box and a "Food4Less" grocery store. We called the bank and cancelled the card on Monday morning. When the last two charges that my husband made before we found out about this hit the account, the account became overdrawn and we were zapped with to overdraft fees.

 

Then today, we found out that someone tried to use the card in Mexico after we cancelled it.  And that even after we fill out the paperwork at the bank tomorrow (after the debits have all cleared the bank tomorrow) to challenge the charges, it could take ten days to get the money back into the account, and that we might lose $50 as a 'liability charge'.

 

I hope the bank's fraud department finds these people and hangs them by their thumbs.  Or maybe draws and quarters them. Throws them into a cell and tosses the key into the ocean. 

 

They're lower than low.  I hate this.  We can't afford to keep the bills paid as it is, and now we're lost $200 and don't know when (or if) we'll get it back.

 

Be aware of what's on the merchant's copy of a debit or credit card receipt. If the number and expiration date is there, black it out as best you can. Or at least black out the expiration date.

 

Now, we have to get a new debit card for him to use on the road next time - and go through filling out paperwork to try and get the money back.

 

BTW - in case you haven't heard, you can use your MasterCard debit card as a credit card again at Wal-Mart. They stopped taking them as signature cards, and requiring a pin for a few months in early 2004 because of a dispute with MasterCard. Halfway through the year, they reached an agreement, and started taking the cards as signature again. They didn't publicize it, but you might try it next time you go to Wally's World if the idea of using your pin where others might see you punch it in bothers you. 

 

Nancy

 

http://nancyeddy.com

Update for 2 June 07

Well, since my last update, I spent almost a week in the hospital.

 

It was a long time coming, I think. Back when I first got pregnant with my son, almost 25 years ago, I had what I'm convinced was my first gallbladder attack. It ended quickly, and I didn't have another spell until a few years ago at work.

 

That time I ended up in the ER, thinking that I was having a heart attack. They gave me some antacid and sent me home, telling me that it 'might' be my gallbladder, and that I should have it checked by my personal physician.

 

Uh, if I'd had a personal physician, I don't think I would have been in the ER. I'm a church mouse. No money for seeing doctors. No insurance through work. Too expensive for my husband to get through his work.

 

So I didn't have it checked.

 

Fast forward to a few months ago when I started having intermittent spells with my stomach. Major pain the abdomen, nausea, gas. Usually it would pass in a few hours, ending as though someone had flipped a switch.

 

Then over the last week before I went into the hospital, I had four attacks in seven days. Two in one 24 hour period.

 

Last Thursday (24 June) I took Stacy to the clinic to get her med level checked as an attack was just starting. By ten that night, my husband had called several times, insisting that I needed to go to the ER and get it taken care of.  Since he was stuck in the Northeast, he called my dad and then my mom.

 

I was hurting so bad that I finally agreed to let my mom take me to the ER. I really thought they would do what they'd done before: give me some antacid and send me home.

 

It didn't happen that way. After a CAT scan and bloodwork, (and being put on a saline IV on the inside of my right elbow) the doctor informed me that I was going to be hospitalized with pancreatitis, and that I would be having my gallbladder removed.

 

Damn.

 

They put me in a room (luckily, after that first night, I was in the two bed room alone for the remainder of my stay). I started feeling better on Friday, but my bloodwork showed that my numbers were still majorly high (the nurse told me later that they usually start observing a patient at 1000, my numbers were at 8000). The lab people couldn't understand why I wasn't begging for pain meds. I guess I have a high tolerance for pain.

 

I wasn't allowed to eat anything solid or drink anything but water until Saturday afternoon. I got to drink some apple juice and then Sprite. Since I tolerated it well, they gave me some broth.

 

And then real food! Hospital food tastes good when you haven't eaten for two days. LOL! Turned out that I probably passed the gallstone that was blocking my pancreas on Friday. They did an ultrasound on Friday as well, and scheduled surgery for Tuesday morning (due, no doubt, to the fact that Monday was Memorial Day, and it would have cost a fortune to put a team in place).

 

The extra time allowed my pancreas to settle down as well. They said I had acute pancreatitis due to a gallstone trapped in the shared duct. The chemicals from the pancreas were backing up into that organ, causing my pain.

 

After the surgery, I found out that I had something like 50 gallstones! I wish I'd thought to ask them to save the stones and possibly check with the Guinness Book of World Records people.

 

They let me come home on Wednesday. I'm hoping I can convince my boss to let me go back to work on Wednesday instead of Thursday, as he's got in mind. Frank leaves early tomorrow morning to go back on the road (he got home last Sunday afternoon). Thank God for my mom, since she was able to have Stacy come to stay with her while I was in the hospital.

 

I received some lovely flowers from my online friends at the SteeleWatchers yahoogroup. My mom, daughter, dad, brother and sister in law and aunt came to see me - but not one of my coworkers came by or called. That was a little disappointing, but maybe they were too busy working, since I wasn't there to help. (At least, that's what I tell myself happened.)

 

My son and his wife called almost every day to check on me.

 

The nurses would come in to see if I needed anything, and usually I didn't. Some of them seemed a little sad to see me go, since they said I was such a good patient.

But it's good to be home. I'm not in that much pain - and have been able to eat just about anything without any problem. We'll see if that continues. LOL.

 

Anyway, that's what I've been up to for the last week.

 

I did finish a story when I got home. Another "Close to Home" fanfic. It's posted at my CtH website 

 

Enjoy!

 

Nancy

 

I've had it up to *here* with the major networks and their stupidity!

Well, it looks like I won't be watching much in the way of TV this fall - at least on the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX). NBC canceled Crossing Jordan, CBS canceled Close to Home. CJ I can halfway understand, since the ratings hadn't been that good for this season. Of course, it didn't help that they gave the show almost *no* promotion and put it up against American Idol (WHY do so many people like that show?  I've never understood the draw of it and other 'reality' shows).

But Close to Home was winning its time slot on Fridays. At a time when not a lot of people are actually at home watching TV. And for the season (okay, *series*) finale, they *won the night*! But did they get credit for it from CBS? Nope. Not even a mention in their press release today. There was a report on Saturday that CBS was going to order 13 new eps for next season.  The show's fans were hopeful. But tonight, word came down that the show was canceled. To be replaced by some silly vampire dramedy. Sorry, CBS, I won't be watching.

The CW canceled what I considered to be their best show several months ago: Reba. The rest of what that 'netlet' has is teenage dreck, imho.

So, I now have a total of three must see dramas and one half hour comedy on the nets.

NBC: SVU
FOX: House, Til Death (Bones if I'm home when it's on)
ABC: None
CBS: NCIS (and Shark, IF they don't put it up against SVU as they're reportedly going to do)

I'll watch Criminal Intent on USA, but that's not a major net. It's a satellite net. I'll stick to repeats of well liked shows (JAG, MASH, Diagnosis: Murder, movies on Hallmark, et al) on satellite channels such as TVLand, USA, etc.

All of this could have been avoided if the networks weren't so set on attracting the 18-49 demographic. That rating ideal was created back when the Baby Boomers were young, and hasn't changed since. It's now an artificial construct, which has no real bearing on today's viewing habits.

With computers and TiVO and DVRs and IPODs, people today don't watch tv the way they used to. The younger kids aren't watching as much tv anyway. The viewers have been dropping off for the last several years. But the networks just keep plugging away, certain that they'll find something new and exciting to pull them back in.

Well, they have an audience waiting for them to put someone on that will pull *us* in - but they don't care about us. They say we're too set in our ways to try new products. That our money goes on tried and true things, while the younger generation is more gullible and easy to convince to try something new. I'm willing to try something new. Give me a good product at a good price, and I'll try it. At least once. And if it's good enough, I might keep buying it.

Maybe it's time that the networks started to rethink their programming. Factor in the increasing age of the population and put things on that *we* want to watch. I don't need fancy, jerky, blurry camera work. Or 'hip' songs. Just give me a well written, well acted show. Be it a half hour sitcom or an hour long drama. Give me characters who are interesting and that I can come to feel that I know as well as I know the people I see every day. 

If I want "reality", I'll watch the news or the History Channel or Discovery or such.

Crossing Jordan will end with a cliff hanger, never to be resolved. That's something else that I hate about shows today. They always have a cliff hanger. Like they need some kind of hook to get you to come back the next fall. If it's a good show to begin with, the fans will be there - cliff hanger or not.

I'm really down about losing Close to Home. I felt that the show was just gelling with the changes in cast. A few more episodes, and they would have been a hit. But CBS wanted too many budget cuts to keep it going - even on what is rapidly becoming another 'dead night' for the nets, like Saturday. They gave up on Saturday a few years ago. Now, they're heading that way with Friday.

Oh, well, I won't be watching anyway. 

Killing Fields?

Before I start this, I want to say that what happened in Blacksburg, VA was a tragedy. The families of those people are suffering and have my deepest sympathies.

 

The young man who killed them had some serious mental problems - problems that should have prevented him from legally buying a weapon of any kind. But someone dropped the ball by being more concerned about his future than about the future of anyone he might hurt or kill.

 

And now the anti-gun forces are out en masse - claiming that if private citizens weren't allowed to own guns, then this young man wouldn't have gotten one to kill all those people with. But we have something in this country called the "Bill of Rights" which provides for the private ownership of weapons for self protection. Leave it to them to interject politics into this tragedy.

 

Which brings me to what this is about: Have we, by allowing the anti-gun, "save the children' people to remove the right of citizens to keep and bear arms at various locations, such as schools and hospitals etc, inadvertently created 'killing fields'?

 

People with mental problems wanting to kill others know they can go to a school, and kill as many people as they can without anyone to stop them until the police arrive with their weapons (or until they do as this young man did and kill himself). Self protection is a right that we have - and I think it's horrible that we can't exercise that right that anymore - because someone's afraid of a gun.

 

If even one person at that college had been allowed to carry a weapon (legally, with the so-called 'right to carry' permit) on campus, that person could likely have prevented so many others from being killed. Most school and college security forces aren't even armed. And the police can't be everywhere.

 

If my kids were still in school, I'd be all for a couple of teachers or the school/campus security having the right to carry and being armed (not that I'd let the students know which teachers had that permit. Let them wonder. It might make them think twice before they do something like this) to prevent something like what happened at VT from happening somewhere else. 

 

For an example, take airline pilots. After 9-1-1, the option came for them to arm themselves to protect their crew and passengers from terrorists. Now, many pilots have gone through the course that allows them to carry a gun into the cockpit - and no one knows which ones it might be, so a terrorist would have no way of knowing if he was on a flight with an armed pilot - or air marshal and would end up dead if he tried to take over the plane.

 

Are our children less precious than airline passengers? Why not arm the people who are there to protect our children from things like this so that they can protect them?

 

Oh, and for all you foreigners who are so aghast that this happened, and are placing the blame at the door of our being able to own guns - people don't need guns to kill each other. Even the young man in Virginia considered setting off a bomb instead of using a gun - and a bomb could easily have killed more people.

 

So don't feel so high and mighty. We still have the 'right' (what part of that do you not understand?) to keep and bear arms. And we also still have the right to say what we want, even if it's not in agreement with the government's stand on an issue. Without guns, we could easily lose that right, because the politicians would know that they were governing a heard of sheep - not human beings.

 

Disclaimer: As usual, the above is my opinion, and I have a right to express it. If you disagree, fine. Get your own blog to tell others about it.

Weddings and other stuff...

Aren't they cute?

My son got married last month.  To a wonderful young woman with two adorable kids. The only problem I have is that they live over 1500 miles away and I never get to see them. They're supposed to come down for a visit this summer once my son gets home and the kids are out of school - if they have the money to do it, anyway. I hope they do. Her family made us feel very welcome while we were there. Yeah, we had a few problems on the flight up and back, due to Jet Blue's lack of notification when a gate changed at the last minute at JFK and weather - but overall, it was a wonderful, very tiring trip.

I'm trying to learn to call my daughter in law as often as I can, but I have a rough time some days remembering to call my mother, much less anyone else. LOL!

But I'm trying. I really am.

Looks like Frank's going back out over the road driving a truck for National again. There are just no jobs around here that pay anything at all - even if they do more than take an application and don't call anyone in for interviews. So he sent an application out over the net, and within five minutes National was on the phone, asking him to come there on Monday morning about going back to work. He liked working for them before, but had some issues with his dispatcher that caused major problems.  Hopefully things will be different this time.

I hope he starts soon. We really need the money. Not sure how much longer I can put off the bill collectors. We're behind with the electric and the phone (cell and land line) - and I'm going to have to use most of my check next week to pay the back rent on the storage shed containing the stuff we couldn't put in this small trailer. That won't leave much to stretch out to the other bills. And Frank will be needing the cell phone for work.

At least he'll be working again. Of course, he's not happy about having to leave his computer here - he needs a laptop - but that's going to have to wait until we get things caught up.

My health's getting to be problematic as well. I've been  having stomach pains combined with chest and back pains. They've been keeping me awake. I'm hoping it's nothing serious, since I can't afford to go to the doctor (no health coverage). Although Frank was a hair's breath from taking me to the ER last night when I was suffering so much and unable to sleep (which meant that he couldn't sleep. It started around 9 last night and lasted until around 6 this morning - and then stopped, giving me a chance to get a little rest, anyway. It's been aching today, but not nearly like it was last night.

Keep us in your thoughts.

Yahoogroups AWOL list owners rant

I'm crossposting this to my both my Blogspot and my LJ blog , to make sure as many people read this as possible.

 

I'm on a *lot* of Yahoogroups email lists. Most of them are no problem, other than the usual YG 'glitches' that occur on a frequent basis.

 

This rant is about the 'absentee' YG list owners. People who start a list and either forget about it, or think the list will 'run itself' and lets anyone and everyone join, without setting the list to 'moderated for new members'.  This allows spammers to join the list and post their trash. If the owners stopped it from happening, that would be one thing, but I'm on more than a couple where the same people (or people with *very* similar email addresses) send the same things over and over again - and the list owner apparently isn't paying enough attention to see it, is gone, or has forgotten all about the list (maybe even changed their email address and *their* email is even bouncing), or simply doesn't have the time to properly run the list.

 

One *very* easy solution: appoint moderators. If you're going to start a list, and it becomes more than you can handle on your own, check around with others on the list, see if one or two of them are willing to help you moderate it - help keep an eye on the member requests, the messages, spam. Then you won't have to spend so much time on it yourself.

 

As a list owner myself, I always set my lists to either have me approve members before joining so I can 'vet' the address against a recognized list of spam email accounts and/or set new members to moderation, meaning that I have to approve their messages until I know they're really on the list for a legitimate reason. If they send spam in their first message, they're removed from the list and their email address banned.

 

I know that if someone slips through the cracks on my lists, I jump on the matter immediately, I don't wait for ten more similar emails to get through to my membership before I act.

 

It's something that anyone can do - even someone who's busy and can't attend to a list every day. But people should know that running even *one* list takes time. Even a little time every few days or once a week for a low-traffic list. I've seen too many AWOL owners the last few weeks. Owners that you send a spam email that came over *their* list back to, and never hear from - or the email bounces back to you for some reason. 

 

There should be a way for people do 'adopt' a list that's been basically abandoned. Or a way to turn them over to Yahoogroups so that they can delete them if they *have* been abandoned. I know that if a list doesn't have any new messages for a length of time, YG will delete it after a warning to the owner, but these lists aren't going to be eligible for that, since the spammers are sending messages, keeping the list 'alive' in the Yahoogroups database.

 

The only option that anyone has now is to simply choose to unsubscribe from these lists and to let the list know *why* they are leaving - because the list owner was too busy or uncaring to take care of the list and prevent the spammers from taking it over.

 

Agree? Disagree? I'd like to hear from you, and from some of these AWOL Yahoogroups list owners as well, if you're out there.

Going to New York

My son's getting married in Feb. So hubby and daughter and I will be flying to New York state to attend. I'm very excited about this, since it will be the first time I've flown on a commercial aircraft.

 

My son will be coming home for a two week leave, and will go back a week after the wedding. I finally talked to his fiancée the other night. She seems very nice and sweet. I'm looking forward to meeting her and her children.

 

I hope I make a good impression.

 

And I hope they'll be very happy with each other.