The Week That Was...

Wowzers, FBI (friends, brothers and inlaws:), sometimes it's a bad idea to get up in the morning. What a week I've had.

The most important thing to write is that I'm grateful for family, friends, wonderful people who do difficult jobs, efficient folks just showing up without complaint and, above all, God's kindness.

On Tuesday morning while sitting at the computer I got horrible chest pain and--long, short--took a trip to the hospital by Medic One and spent the entire day in emergency. The good news is that my heart was not responsible for the pain. The jury is still out on the gall bladder:) And that's more information than you want.

What I'm left with from that day, is an amazing respect for emergency medical responders. Within four minutes of the call going in, they were in this house and shortly afterward they could administer a twelve lead EKG. Impressive. And not once was I made to feel a nuisance or foolish. I felt a nuisance and I felt foolish but I did that all on my own!

Fast forward a couple of days and several must-attend-to-right-now family issues and arrive at Friday.

The world, my friends, really does have an inordinate number of creeps walking around. In the afternoon I handed over a credit card to pay for a purchase and it was declined. "Gasp," I said. "Why?" I asked. "Don't know but you can't use it," I was told.

I got home to find a call waiting from the fraud department of the credit card company. Cutting things down again, my card had been cloned, or whatever, and someone had managed to spend thousands of dollars in a few hours. Only today did we finally--I hope--get the leak completely blocked.

All of the two dollar charges at a Home Depot in New Jersey really had me puzzled until I discovered this sort of approach is standard in the "pinching other people's stuff" business. Those little charges are to test and see if the card is still working or has already been blocked. Imagine how they must have celebrated over the $4,000 jewelry purchase that worked just fine.

What's the point of all this? We can cope with just about anything that comes our way if we keep our heads and take things one step at a time. Both during my little health debacle and this credit theft, I encountered more and more people who knew what they were doing and did it! And they told me what I needed to know, and do, which kept me as calm as I needed to be.

All in all, I think this week as been a plus. I've learned a lot and gotten a valuable refresher course in how to say, "Thank you!"

Please take care of yourselves and your health. And although it isn't going to stop someone from ripping you off if they're determined enough, keep your eyes open and keep them on your credit cards. Don't let people walk off with them to take those imprints. Go along and watch the process. There's no reason for anyone to mind if they're honest. And take a peek at the ATM machine to make sure it looks okay, that there aren't any funny little wires, or tiny camera-thingies that worry you. Same goes for the gas station where a huge number of thefts take place.

Blessings,

Stella

What unexpected events have made an impact on you lately? Do you have any safety tips to share--on anything?