Me

Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis remember my credit card problem. If not, let’s recap:

• In October, I found a charge on my credit card for $340. It was from Google advertising.
• I promptly disputed it.
• Three months later, the CC company told me that they investigated the charge and determined it was valid
• The reason for that determination was that the vendor had provided documentation.
• I asked for a copy of this documentation.

In the meantime, I was not happy with the support I was getting from the credit card company, Barclay bank, so I decided to apply for a card from another bank. I figured that with a credit score of 815, I could get any card I wanted. I was correct. I got a cash back card with a large credit limit and even more favorable terms than the one I was using.

I recently got a call from Barclay’s management team. They decided that the charge was not authorized after all, and told me that the charge would be credited back to the card. When I asked the manager where the documentation was that I requested, the caller danced around it and made vague noises without actually admitting what I already knew: they don’t have any documentation.

Taking the charge off was too little, too late. My new card came in the mail today and I will be taking my business elsewhere. Of course I won’t cancel the card. I will simply stick it in a drawer and stop using it. That way it stays as a positive tradeline on my credit report.

As I sit and type this on Monday morning, my thermometer says that it is 28 degrees outside, making this our first freeze of the year. To tell the truth, I was beginning to think that Florida had decided not to participate in winter this year. In a typical year, we have usually had our first freeze some time in December.

A Central Florida winter isn’t like winters anywhere else. In winter here, we will get a frost or a freeze, but the temperature usually only stays below freezing until the sun comes up. The temperatures during the day will get to the 50’s or so, then will drop back down as soon as the sun sets. This will last for two or three days, then we are right back to daytime highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. This cycle will repeat three or four times from mid December to about mid February, then the spring thunderstorm season begins.

Not this year. We have been in the 80s during the day, and the mid sixties at night. No frost, no cold. No cold weather until last week, when it dropped to 34 degrees on Monday morning, and our first below freezing this morning.

I remember when I was a kid, we once had a solid three days that temperatures stayed below freezing. My brother and I were amazed that a bucket of water left outside froze. We had never seen ice that wasn’t in the freezer before. I only saw snow twice before I joined the Navy: once in New Orleans when I was three, and once when we went to visit our cousins in Tennessee.

It isn’t climate change. It’s just weather. Four years ago, we had a snow storm around lunchtime, and even though the snow didn’t accumulate, the kids loved it. Next winter won’t be as warm.

Because we are so depleted by COVID positive employees having to stay home, I had to work a 16 hour shift yesterday (the most we can work under hospital policy) and I got off work at 3 am. I get 8 hours off (the least we can get under hospital policy) and I go back for another 12 hours. That isn’t the point of this post.

For the last several hours of the shift, I worked with a pair of women that I have never worked with before. Both of them are from New York City. They spent the last two hours of the shift comparing New York City to Florida. This is what I heard:

• The people here are (and I quote) “Backwards, backwoods hicks”
• The schools in Florida are awful and don’t teach anything. They can’t understand why the schools don’t teach anything. NYC schools are SO much more advanced
• You can’t get good Chinese food, Pizza, or baked goods here
• One complained that the stores here didn’t carry her specific brand of orange juice that she liked.
• There isn’t much to do here. It’s boring
• The shopping here stinks.
• They pay here is low, and employers expect everyone to get by on peanuts
• They both said they spent their first two years here crying nightly because this place is so awful.

Here is my answer to all of that:

You took Interstate 95 going south to get here. Did you know that the same highway goes north as well? You can always go back. I’m sure, with it being so great and all, you would be much happier.

Here is some advice to those of my readers who would want to move from places in the north to places in the south:

• The people who live here don’t appreciate being called backwards, backwoods, hicks, or any other names. Your new neighbors won’t like you much if you denigrate them.
• The schools in NYC aren’t any better. Actually, Florida and New York schools are fairly comparable.
• The food here is fine, just made how we like it, and not how you like it. Just like you don’t prefer the Chinese and pizza here, I can’t find good biscuits and gravy, Bar B Que, or fried chicken in NYC.
• This is Florida. There are dozens of orange juice brands here. Many are locally produced. I’m sure that one of them is to your liking.
• There is plenty to do here. Florida is a popular tourist destination.
• Have you heard of Amazon? Besides, how can people in NYC shop? Haven’t you been locked down for two years?
• The pay is lower than NYC, but taxes and the cost of living are much higher. Here in Florida, you don’t have to pay $3,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment. We also don’t have to pay 15% state and city income taxes.
• If you really are miserable, go back where you came from, but stop trying to make here like there. You left there for a reason.

This is the attitude that people from New York City are famous for. It’s why most of the people in the rest of the country don’t like New Yorkers. You are arrogant, loud mouthed, and insulting. If that is your attitude, STAY IN NEW YORK.

Rant over.

Not with the virus you think. Nope, I went to a hockey game in Tampa on Saturday. We were in the club level. Buffet. Open bar. Spent the night in a hotel right next to the arena.

Came back to a rough case of pink eye. Damn that is irritating.

When my wife got home from work, I told her the story about my aborted range trip, and her first response was “That ammo can still shoot someone in the face if you need it to, right?”

Back in October, I found a charge on my credit card for $340. The merchant was listed as GOOGLE*ADS4756092809. I didn’t recognize the charge, so I called the CC company and reported fraud. They cancelled my card, and I had to wait two weeks for another one.

I got a letter today that the investigation is complete, and the merchant (Google) has confirmed that it is a valid charge. That letter had a phone number on it, so I called.

The reason that the charges were considered valid, according to the woman on the phone, is that I provided no supporting documentation, and the merchant did provide some.

My first question was how I am supposed to provide documentation of a charge that I had no knowledge of. She didn’t know.

So I tried a different approach. I asked what documentation the merchant provided. She didn’t know that either. She said that I would have to contact the merchant directly.

So I asked for the merchant’s phone number. She didn’t know that either. She then unhelpfully suggested that I contact the Google Advertising Department and gave me that number.

I asker her what my options are. All I can do is refuse to pay it, and if I do so, the credit card company will cancel my credit card, then report the delinquent amount to my credit record, with interest each month. They will put a note on there that I dispute it, but that means nothing. My credit will still be trashed.

So next, I called Google Ads. The person who answered the call told me that they can’t release any information on the account, because I am not the account holder. I tried using the automated system, and all I know is that the account was suspended for violating Google’s terms of service.

It looks like I am going to have to pay this. I could call a lawyer and sue, but that would cost me more than just paying it, with no guarantee that I would win anything. I have no other recourse. I don’t even know what this charge is for, who it was paid to, or how they got my CC number, but I am just screwed out of $340.

One of the things that I have always been big about is personal freedom. I may or may not want to go on a cruise, but it is my right to decide. I may or may not want to get a vaccine, but it is my right. As long as my behavior isn’t directly causing harm to someone else, I expect others to mind their own business.

I also expect and respect the same of others. If you want to have a sandwich delivered by Doordash, that’s your business. If you want to take a cruise, or if you want to hide in your house from the black helicopters, again that’s your business. If one man wishes to marry another man, I will argue that the government has no business in stopping them. Likewise, if another man refuses to perform the ceremony or to bake the wedding cake, I believe that is also outside of the government’s legitimate authority to force them to do so.

When I see people on the left AND on the right who say, “I don’t care if the government passed this dictate or that restriction because I don’t want to do that, anyhow,” I believe that it diminishes all of us.

I may not agree with your speech, your religion, or your chosen pursuit of happiness, but I will fight for your right to do so, just as I expect you to do for mine. Either we all hang together, or we will surely all hang separately.

No post today. I am at my son’s wedding.

When I did my end of the year post last year, I didn’t think that 2021 would be a good year at all. As it turns out, the year didn’t go as badly as I had feared. The country could be doing worse, and personally, I am in pretty good shape.

• In January, this blog left blogger and came here to its new home.
• I had an emergency room trip in February.
• In March, I had enough of being a teacher and went back to the medical field.
• April saw my house get hit by lightning for the third time in the past four years.
• In June, I managed to spend a few days in Las Vegas.
• In July I went lobstering in South Florida and spent a few days fishing in Maine.
• I spent August working many hours of OT in the COVID wings.
• In November, I went on a cruise.

I worked a lot of hours this year. My average workweek at the hospital was right at 50 hours a week. I know that some changes are coming, because I can’t keep up this schedule, and I am also convinced that my boss couldn’t lead a platoon of Marines into a whorehouse.

In the meantime, I will continue preparing for the bad times that I think are coming. For today, I will just enjoy the last day of 2021 as I wonder what 2022 will bring.