It's in the Cards

I have a routine when I get up in the morning, still before the chickens though not before my brother, Adam, that sometimes causes me to rush into the early morning hours more wide-eyed and wild-eyed than wary and wily (the twin coyotes from different mothers).

It happened again last Thursday. The first thing I check when I go online is my bank statement, even though it's really NOT a bank but, rather, a credit union statement. Anyway, listed as 'pending' last Thursday morning was a purchase on my debit card from "Amazon Luxembourg" for sixteen dollars and change. It didn't ring a bell with me.

I checked the 'on order' account with Amazon, hoping that I was trying to surprise myself for my upcoming birthday with a frilly, pretty something or other, but nope, I wasn't. I'm so thoughtless that way.

That was followed by a phone call to a very nice and bright person with a relentlessly cheerful voice at wherever the help center is located, who canceled my card and the purchase (we have a yellow sun so conventional limits on super powers do not generally apply) and arranged for me to walk (because it's that close) to the nearest branch and get a new debit card.

I then got to spend a not inconsiderable amount of time amending all those different on-line activities where I've stored the number on the now old card to pay for goods and services. FWP, I know, and yet here I am still getting weepy-eyed remembering the travail of it all.

I'm very appreciative of the superior customer service though I remain a little disquieted that I've now go through this same drill twice in the last six months. It competes for time and space in my front lobe with the sense of puzzlement that comes from trying and failing to understand why someone, somewhere would expend all the energy and time to nick my account to steal something worth under twenty dollars. Talk about possessed by your possessions; time for an upgrade.
-bill kenny