Scammers at work again

Today the UPS man brought us two overnight envelopes from different states. In each envelope was a check for $3,000. Nothing else, just a check made out to my husband. Of course we knew better than to think we had somehow magically just struck it lucky so we started trying to find out where these checks came from.

A quick anywho search provided us a phone number to the companies who's accounts the checks were supposedly drawn on. One was a school and the other was a fairly large humanitarian grant and fellowship organization. I left messages at both places asking if they were aware that they had magically sent us these checks. I was fairly bored today so since I hadn't actually reached a person at either place I called the banks the checks were drawn on. This was fairly interesting. First of all I learned that yes, the account numbers and bank routing numbers were correct and the account holders were accurate. I told both banks that I believed these checks to be fraud on their account holders. I was actually told by one Wachovia bank employee that she didn't know if they were or not and I should just cash them. WOW! Glad I don't bank with that particular bank or branch.

From there I decided to call the people who's names were on the UPS envelopes as the senders of the checks. Again, I apparently have too much time on my hands today. The names and cities didn't match the checks so it was obvious that they were also being used by the scammers. I talked to a lady at one of the stores that supposedly sent the checks. She was familiar with what this was all about. Apparently their UPS shipping account had been hijacked by the scammers and their account with UPS has been used to send quite a few of these checks. Some people got checks as big as $15,000. Now I felt kinda bad. I was only worth $3,000? No fair. But anyway, she referred me to her corporate office and to a very intellegent and helpful lady. From there it's gone to the FBI.

These scammers have actually gotten a hold of legitmate checking accounts for companies and organizations and have printed out their own checks drawn on these people's accounts. The trick, as I've learned in the past, is that they send us a check for $3,000 to purchase something we have in our shop. The item they are purchasing is worth less than the $3,000 check. Then they contact us and want us to forward payment out of the overpayment to their shipper so that the shipper will come and get the item. There is no shipper. There is no one coming to get an item. They profit when someone actually does send them the requested money for shipping. The checks appear good until the account holder actually finds out their account is being used.

I've never actually fallen for this scam, but it's been tried on us numerous times now. Just thought it may be interesting to others out there.

And why that actually made life worse

So I said it. Apparently what I wrote was bad. My husband has took off out of here pissed at me. I haven't done enough. Apparently enough is something only he can define and I haven't met that quota. Oh well. I've spent too much time caring and I also have spent too much time trying. I'm on my own and I really wish I had someone that would be supportive of me. I don't and it's too late to hope that would change. I have to just focus my energy on what I need to to get through the next weeks or months or however long it takes. I hate the hypocrisy of this world.

The blog I shouldn't write - my memory

There are so many reasons I shouldn't write this and yet so many reasons I should. There are others out there who have been in my position. Some haven't had the opportunity to own this for as long as I have. Some have had the resolution happen in a short time. Some haven't ever lived to see it resolved. I have friends and family that fall into those categories and I hurt along with them. In no way do I make light of something that isn't light.

Here I am though in my own unique situation. I'm about to face yet another day in particular that has the potential to be the beginning of the literal end of my life. It's not today or tomorrow, but it's within the next two weeks. The exact date is my own personal secret. I keep it that way because I don't want anyone else to have the power to make it into anything more than I am willing to let it be. This is a mentality that I've been able to reform and develop over the past 15 years. There have been other days exactly as this one. I've had 4 such days in the past 2 years. They are getting closer and closer together, which is a little scary if I want to let it be, but they are still mine to decide who I share it with and who I don't. I told my own dad only last week that this issue is back and has been. Then I politely asked him to change the subject. He's seen family members he loved not make it and I know it worries him to see me face it, but still, if anything what I'd want him to learn from me is that it really doesn't define me and I won't let it. If anything, we should all have the ability to see "life" from this perspective. I can guarantee we'd view life differently as a society if we all saw it from this vantage point.

I have cancer. Then I don't. Then I do. I see a specialist every 6 months to monitor me. I don't totally understand it except that one of these days it won't be something to just "watch" anymore. One of these days it's going to be punt position time. I really don't want to understand it. I honestly don't care about big words and terms. If there's something I can do, then great. If not, don't confuse me with terminology that totally escapes anyone without 18 years of education. I got the news 6 months ago that the cells are back. I go in within the next 2 weeks to see if they continued to grow or if they mysteriously receded again. No one I've met in the medical field can tell me where this comes from, what causes it to happen to me or why it can't be stopped. No one can define it. I've had things pulled out of me that medical science can't actually name or explain in relation to this. The Mayo clinic hasn't ever seen something like what my surgeon sent in 9 years ago right before my son was born. So I guess if I have nothing else, at least I have uniqueness. And that's something at least.

Since I was 16 years old, I've never had the security of knowing I still had a lifetime to accomplish what I wanted to. I can't rely on the adage of "I'll perfect that attitude someday". I have to be ok with who I am TODAY. I've been faced with looking at my life as "what I wish I had accomplished" more than once, more than twice. I'm sitting on that precipice again. Have I done enough? Nope. Still nope. Even though I've had fair warning I still haven't done it.

I'm not criticizing myself by saying that. I've done some, but I don't think it's ever something that is "over". I don't think anyone can honestly ever say they've done enough and it's time to do no more. What I find interesting is people who try to think about "what would I do?" Tim McGraw does a decent job of posing the question. Live Like You Were Dying. Why don't we? If you were potentially given a "date" what would you do? What's important?

I've built a life that I can give to things that are important to me. I've managed over the past few years to do things I am proud of. Sure, I've still done stupid things I'm not proud of, but I've also made a difference. Not to many people I'm sure, but to a few and who's to say those few are any less important than a "many"? I've found the mitten given as a last gift to a child before his mom died. That's important.

We only get one time around. That time may end tomorrow or it may go on for a very long time. None of us should bank on the tomorrow though. I've gotten more enjoyment out of life not worrying about what people think of me or what tomorrow brings for me than anything. These times when it gets thrown right in my face make me way more aware of what I haven't done. I'm lucky my husband understands this to some degree, or at least accepts it. I don't play the game that most play. I'm not in this life to impress anyone. I'm not here to try to convince anyone that I'm somehow worthy of their respect. I'm just me and that's good enough. This time - I'm ready.

Jola Creations

I've started a new blog and am just starting to put some of my woodworking projects out there. Take a peek if you'd like

New Blog - Jolacreations.blogspot.com

New store - jolacreations.etsy.com

What to sell and What to keep?

I've been clearing out everything that I can sell to pull through this winter. Hoping there will be work this summer. If not, at least we put off the inevitable for a few more months. We've sold the big ticket items already. We're down to searching our minds and our closets. Personally, I don't have alot left since I went through this process a few years back in my divorce.

Then way in the back of a closet I came across this jacket. I smiled. The memories came back. I shoved them back. I still tried to smile, but things are different today, right?

Today I found a blog one of my follower's wrote and it simply contained some music and asked if we "remembered the 90's?" God no, I tried to block out the 90's, but wait.... what's this?? music... hmmm, I like music. I listened and the first song on the list was one that used to play at national snocross races. Right before the big finale. The one that got us all going and got the blood pumping and made us proud that we were there. The one that even affected those of us in the pits on the track. Larger than life? maybe a little. Hindsight being what it is, maybe a lot. My head actually raised up to that position it used to always hold. Strong, arrogant to some degree, a little mischevious grin on my face and I didn't look in a mirror, but I felt the sparkle in my eyes. Holy hell! I hadn't even realized it had been gone until I felt it come back.

The jacket stays. I don't care if it would put food on the table for a few days. It's something I can never replace and those memories just showed me a side of myself I had almost let go. If you're bored, search "Amanda Johnson snocross" on google. She's my baby sister, although we aren't really in touch anymore, but we were back then. She was a force to be reckoned with, still is I'd bet. I wasn't as brave, or crazy, as her back then, but I could hold down a fort better than the best and secure sponsors to continue the crazy. I loved being there and the other names you read in the articles were awesome people that I'm proud to have met. I could laugh, and celebrate, and live. There isn't a price I could put on those memories. The jacket stays.

Thank you Psycho W4nk for your post reminding me of the 90's. Saved me from selling off a piece of my memories.

Crab Legs for Dinner TONIGHT

THE BARGE HAS LEFT THE PREMISES!

My husband drove out of the yard at about 2 a.m. with the barge in tow. My son has been waiting over a year for this event. He's a seafood fanatic. He'd eat nothing but seafood if we'd let him. To try to teach him a little something about his "tastes" we told him that since his favorite crab legs cost quite a bit of money we won't be buying anymore until we sell this boat. We never thought it'd take a year to make good on that promise, but it has. He's spent the past 365+ days looking out his window every night to see if it's gone. Today - it finally is.

So today, little man will be picked up at school by momma and taken to the store. He'll be allowed to finally put that big package of crab legs into our cart and proceed to checkout. I love days like this when I get to see the little light in their eyes at the anticipation of something grand.

Birthday Present!

My sister gave me an awesome birthday gift. A box of Aveda Hair and Skin products! I've used these products for a few years and so far have found none that didn't live up to their promises. I could live without Aveda if I had to (and I very well might in the near future), but I sure wouldn't like to have to live without it. So thank you sis for giving me an extra Aveda stash for my bathroom cupboard!

Nothing to Be Ashamed of in Today's World....

Today was the February birthday party at my family home. My uncle, my mom, my son and I all share birthday's during the month of February. This year there weren't an over abundance of gifts exchanged which is a bit rare for my family. However, this year has been a bit different than we're all used to. We're all pretty much dependent on a non-existent construction industry. Our levels of dependency vary greatly. My dad is near retirement and has owned his own company for over 25 years and my uncle is retired and simply picks up extra jobs here and there to supplement life. They both are sitting in such a position where they can sit back and really dislike this economy and also know they maybe can't totally enjoy a life of leisure quite as soon as they wished, but they don't have to worry about losing anything. I have two sisters, one I honestly can't say anymore what effect this economy is having on her life, although it's also related to construction, as she moved a great distance away and there's a rift there that I can only hope time will eventually heal. My other sister was at my parent's house today. Her husband has actually had to relocate for work to a job way up near the arctic circle or face unemployment. She's managed to hold onto her job here and is still doing ok aside from being separated from her husband a great majority of the time. My husband and I have been holding onto our own company for the past few years through some really rough times. We've sold off most of our equipment, all of our toys and the savings account is gone. We're down to trying to decide what our next move is going to be and we honestly don't have that answer since the only thing we both know is how to keep going as long as we possibly can find a way.

I feel really good today though for one reason. Today it felt like, for maybe the first time in a long time, that we really were together as a family. Today there was no competition, no comparison and no expectation. Today it actually felt that there was acceptance. Maybe this will turn into a different kind of world in some good ways too.

Things I saw at the pizza restaurant

It's our "kid weekend". Being from previous relationships, my husband and I both have our kids here every other weekend. This is one of the weekends we have them all. We ended up eating out last night. We chose a family pizza restaurant where there are usually other people with kids. I guess I just don't feel right about dragging 4 kids under the age of 10 into a "nice" restaurant where big people go to actually ENJOY a dinner as adults. However, what I saw last night disturbed me even in a child-friendly restaurant.

One family came in and apparently the parents already knew they didn't want to sit with their own kids if they wanted any chance of a peaceful dinner. So, they put their kids in a different booth and went and sat down in a booth a little ways away from their offspring. The dad had to go do damage control a few times during dinner, but I'm also sure it was a few less times than the people seated directly by those kids would have wished for.

This was one situation where Karma popped up almost instantly though. The parents had just ordered and gotten their beverages when in walked a mom and 2 kids. They sat in the booth that was back to back with the first set of parents. This woman's 4 year old immediately displayed to the whole restaurant that evolution may be logical and yes, we may have originated from monkeys. He climbed up on the table and launched himself across the back of the booth, upside down, so that his head was hanging down into the first parent's booth right about eye to eye with the mother who had managed so nicely to ditch her own monkeys. He squaked and sqeaked and thought this was a hilarious game he'd just invented. His mother did nothing, didn't even acknowledge that he was doing anything inappropriate. He finally came back fully into his own booth when the waitress brought drinks to his table. He stood on the table, squatted down into a crouch and sucked a big slurp of his pop from his glass. Again, no response from mom.

Then I looked around my own table and sure enough, there sat our 4, chewing with open mouths, crumbs all around their plates and pizza sauce dripped down the front of their shirts.

I'm on strike again...... at least for today

I haven't written for a few days. I've thought about it, but just haven't had the time. I've actually attempted to WORK this past week. I've been to the accountant, the bank, spent some time out in the shop and on a job site and once again volunteered myself at school for the day this Friday.

Sounds good, right? Let's just say that in accomplishing what needed to be done I've succeeded in creating a newer, bigger pile of stuff to fall into the "what needs to be done" category. My desk is a fire hazard.

Yesterday I almost cheerfully tackled the biggest new project of switching all our accounting to accrual instead of cash. After about 4 hours of entering stuff into my accounting software, I printed out this really sweet looking little report of everything financial about our business AT THIS EXACT MOMENT! Wow, was I impressed (almost). Two hours later I proudly pulled my husband over to the computer to take a look at my impressive accomplishment. Big smile on my face, waiting for the pat on the ass that usually follows such a brilliant display of my abilities....... I opened the accounting program and ...... IT LOOKED EXACTLY AS IT HAD ON DECEMBER 31, 2008. Another shining example of how I can manage to go even further backwards while attempting to move forward.

God bless the "save" button and thank you "Murphy" for making sure I hadn't pushed it. Today I am striking from my own business as a way of protesting my own stupidity........

Blog Award - I'm a lucky winner!

I opened my comments today to find a special one from Pedro. He was kind enough to nominate ME for a blog award. Thank you Pedro.... much appreciated for sure!

Now the ball is in my court and I have a few rules I must follow as a recipient of this award:

1) choose 5 bloggers who I think are also worthy of this award to pass it on to

2) List 10 things about myself that others don't know

3) Post a quote

4) Now I can post the award on my blog

So...... here we go!

First of all I've run across many blogs that I enjoy. Here are 5 of my favorites:

1. Mrs. Robinson's House



2. The Gravel Farm



3. The Flawed Blog



4. Handbag Cave



5. Faker

Take a peek at them sometime. Some will make you laugh and others will make you think. Sometimes they'll do both!

Next..... 10 things about me... hmmm.. I guess they won't be secrets anymore

1. I'm pretty much the "black sheep" of my family due to my views and thoughts


2. I'm actually fairly intellegent and if IQ were truly any measure of how successful a person should be, I should me a millionaire any day now :)


3. Even though I sometimes come across as fairly crass, I do actually have a soft heart


4. I enjoy alot of the "old fashioned" hobbies, such as quilting and canning/freezing my own vegetables from the garden


5. I'm fairly creative and enjoy designing and building unique things out of wood and stone


6. I used to dream of becoming a concert pianist and love playing piano (especially classical music)


7. I grew up in an excavating family and worked in the gravel pits or on jobs on and off since I was a kid. I think that upbringing is a big part of why I don't do well in the confines of a typical office setting. It's also where I first learned how to swear like a trucker :)


8. I love to go fishing, but I hate eating fish. Good thing the rest of my family hates fishing, but loves to eat fish... gives me the peace and quiet fishing time and a useful reason for doing it


9. I have a high sex drive. Kind of personal, I know, but I'm running out of things to say!


10. I hate doing laundry and dishes more than anything else (except maybe cleaning the bathroom).

As for a quote, I don't know who said it, but I read it somewhere a few years back and it's always stuck in my mind:

Some people are like slinkies. They aren't really good for anything, but they're still fun to push down a flight of stairs.

The Day the Music Died

Photo of Monument at Crash Site from Wikipedia

American Pie Lyrics - Don McLean
A long, long time ago...I can still remember

How that music used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those people dance

And, maybe, they'd be happy for a while.

But February made me shiver

With every paper I'd deliver.

Bad news on the doorstep;

I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride,

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died.

So bye-bye, Miss American Pie.

Drove my Chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry.

And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye

Singin', "this'll be the day that I die.

"this'll be the day that I die."

Tonight marks a sad anniversary. A great loss to early American Rock and Roll. A case of the flu, a coin toss and a need to get some laundry done sealed the fate of 3 great musicians.

On February 3rd, 1959 in a frigid Iowa cornfield, in a small private airplane, JP Richardson (the Big Bopper), Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly lost their lives along with their pilot Roger Peterson.

Stepping outside tonight in the vast frozen "midwest" a chill runs through me. Not because of the cold, although temperatures tonight are already nearing -20 with the windchill where I live. My chill tonight is because I can't help but think about the events of that evening and how I too would have counted myself "lucky" to have won a coin toss to get a seat on that plane. My chill tonight is because it is so quiet, as it must have been in that field before the wreckage was found. Great artists, incredible music silenced.

The tour bus had a faulty heater and had already caused frostbite to at least one person. I too may have chosen to charter a seat on a plane for $36 rather than face another 5 hours or better on a freezing cold bus in the middle of the night. Add a case of the flu to the situation and I'd have also asked for a seat on the plane to expedite my arrival to a nice warm bed. (Waylon Jennings of Buddy Holly's band gave up his seat to the Big Bopper at just such a request)

I'm 32 years old. I don't remember the events of that night 50 years ago by first hand news accounts. I know of those events only by account of my parents and movies made since that day. I know the music of these men from listening to dad's "oldies" station in the truck all my years growing up or listening to mom's old records on the turntable.

Chantilly Lace, The Purple People Eater, LaBamba, Donna, Peggy Sue, That'll Be the Day..... and the list of songs they left behind goes on and on. Tonight as I sit here playing some of these songs from the past it occurs to me that the music didn't die. The music will live on as long as there are those of us who keep it alive.

Goodnight Mr. Richardson, Mr. Valens and Mr. Holly....... and thank you.