The Hat Trick

I’ve been back in Vernon for a week.  The little house was well taken care of by Mo and Priscilla, and Donna had collected a big bag of ‘Morning Stars’ that went immediately into the recycle and mail that was mostly junk.  I drove to Kelowna on Tuesday morning to have the car summarized at the Mazda dealership there and then have lunch and a good visit with Bert and Peggy.  Wednesday I went to see the neurologist, a serious young man who spent a long time looking at ultra sound images of my right shoulder and arm.  I could actually see the white line of the nerve, where there was a nerve, not as exciting as making out the dim image of the child in your womb, but technically impressive none-the-less.  I liked him because he was thorough and admitted to not having all the answers.  In fact he had no answers, so we will wait and I will see him again in a month.  Aside from continuing to do the exercises that the physiotherapist gave me to keep the arm from freezing while I wait for up to 6 months for the nerve to repair itself, he mentioned that there is a surgeon in Vancouver who does an operation to repair the axillary nerve.  HOWEVER, he uses a nerve from the foot.  That gave me pause.  If I’m going to have to make a choice among my limbs, I think I would prefer to have 2 legs and 1 arm rather than 2 arms and 1 foot.

I hope that I wakened this morning, Wednesday, May 1, workers’ day, to a fresh start.  It’s sunny, and I’ve been for a walk on the Grey Canal with Marie, so perhaps my hat trick of difficulties is behind me.  On Monday, March 11, I dislocated my right shoulder, on Sunday, March 24, dad fell and broke his hip and yesterday I succumbed to a scam.  I made the mistake of turning on the computer before I’d washed my face and had coffee and breakfast.  When I tried to unpack my e-mails, I couldn’t.  A glitch that had been in my system for about 2 years, that I had always overridden, seemed to have finally bucked me off.  I couldn’t open my G-mail account.  I panicked.  It’s my lifeline to friends and relatives.  I googled Google tech support, found the name of a company on contract to them, phoned that company, in India of course, and began to discuss my dilemma with a salesman whose day I must have made.  Not having thought about the situation, let alone discussed it with anyone, I was vulnerable and took this guy to be my friendly helper, when, nice as he may have been, he was a salesman.  He had a service I needed, reconnect my g-mail account, as well as products, Spyware and Malware and god knows what otherware, I didn’t.  After listening to more of his pitch than I should have, I paid $300.00 dollars for the Full Monty.  AND I did it all on my Mastercard.  As soon as the money changed hands, he and then other technicians in India began moving the cursor of my laptop around for hours.  It’s spookier than watching the 3 cornered stool move on a Ouiji Board.  It took a long time because I had never fully erased any of my e-mails; there were almost 8,000 of them to put back up.  As soon as that was over and the mystery ware installed or not, I took my laptop to the local Mac store and found out for free how to really delete.  I probably should have gone to them in the first place.  Now I have the cleanest in box in Canada.  Can that be taken a few ways?  

I felt fine for a while, and then I began to wonder about the Mastercard information that I had so thoughtlessly divulged to ‘whomever’.  Just about that time I went on Skype to talk with Jay.  He began by telling me about a weird e-mail he had received in my name.  That reminded me that the salesman had mentioned Jay’s hotmail account at one point, thinking it was a second account of mine.  PANIC!  Jay thought that I should cancel my Mastercard, and I agreed.  Then we decided that I should look into my web banking, even though he had heard somewhere that TD Easy Web was very secure.  After a bit more serious discussion, Jay suggested that I not send money to any young person who phones or e-mails me saying that he/she is somehow related to me and is stranded in the Congo.  I laughed and laughed and felt more grounded than I had all day.  We ended our Skype a bit earlier than usual so that I could call Mastercard and TD, but I felt I’d come through relatively unharmed.  Losing $300.00 and waiting a week for a new Mastercard doesn’t hurt as much as a dislocation, and I’ve learned to be more wary of scams, I hope, to say nothing of how to really delete e-mails.  And my g-mail account no longer has the irritating message popping up every time I open it. 

One thing about living alone after having been married for almost 40 years with someone with whom you could share ideas, even if you didn’t always agree, is that you aren’t able to express yourself in words before you act, and that can be dangerous.  I often think best in dialogue.  As I discussed this with Mo last night on the phone, she assured me that I could phone her any time about such things.  In future I will stick to Jim’s rule about not doing anything business-like when you’re tired and I will talk with Jay, Mo or some sane friend or relative before I give out all my Mastercard information.

The main street of Vernon on the first hot summer day.  It's cooler now.

The VOC on the last Sunday hike on East Vernon Hills.  The snow-covered Monashees are in the distance

A view over Vernon of Terrace Mountain, taken from the Black Rock

A view of Incheon that Jay got while hiking near where he lives.  We took these pictures at almost the same time.  The season and blossoms are similar, but the cities are very different