8/2/07

-1) Wrastling with PayPal:
Last night (Wednesday, August 1, 2007), since it was only 9:30, I decided to try and see if eBay had -a) Apple-stickers, and -b) Ducati patches.
An Apple-sticker would be for the Bucktooth-Bathtub, and a Ducati-patch would be for a smaller denim jacket, since the current patch is falling apart. (An older guy at the YMCA yesterday asked if I had a Ducati — that jacket has started a number of conversations.)
eBay, like mighty Wal*Mart, had both (“It has everything”). But the Ducati-patch, though usable, would be different from the one I have.
But the Apple-stickers were fine — black, bluster-boy. So with great fear and trepidation I clicked “Buy it now;” $4.99-plus-$1.49 shipping for two. (“Ya coulda got ‘em from the faded blue Econoline for only 10¢!”)
“Congratulations!” an e-mail blared. “You won! Now pay up or shaddup!”
I clicked the “Pay now,” and was given the option of PayPal or certified check. With fear and trembling I clicked PayPal.
I remember what weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Linda experienced trying to get PayPal to pay for her Grow-Light.
“Login now; password required.......”
“Password? I don’t know any password. The last time I used PayPal was two years ago after much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And Linda had to set up a new password since to buy the Grow-Light.
Okay, try “register.”
After noticing their registration-page didn’t like a copy-paste of an e-mail address verification (it kept tossing it), I finally got to “continue,” and was told our visa-account was already registered to someone else.
Yeah, me — only I don’t know the password, and it ain’t my old transit badge-number, which we always use.
So guess I have no choice but to get PayPal to e-mail me the dreaded password.
Okay, “retrieve password.” I got sent to another site, and PayPal wanted me to prove my identity: by either -a) posting my Visa-account number, or -b) answering various questions.
“What was your mother’s maiden-name?” (“?????????????.”)
“Place of birth.......” —Who, me or my mother? I think she was born in the same city (Yada-yada, N.J.) as me, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Boom-zoom. “Your answers are invalid!”
“What? ‘?????????????, Yada-yada’ — all online purchases turn into wrestling-matches.”
Linda comes in and says try “??????, whatever;” answers she had made to similar personal questions when she tried to get PayPal to work for the Grow-Light purchase.
Again; boom-zoom. “Your answers are invalid!”
I gave up. By now it was 11:15, and the poor dog was suffering from all the frustration.
So our next move was to try the Visa-account verification (today), but that presented me with a Visa-account that expires this month — our new cards expire August of 2010.
They asked me to do a new password, so I did “*********;” my old RTS badge-number wasn’t enough characters — and didn’t work; nor did OL53998.
PayPal finally let me log in — password reset, to my old Road-Runner e-mail in the sky.
The dreaded Apple-stickers are paid for — a 15 minute online purchase that took three hours.
Now to try PayPalling a Ducati-patch purchase.
“I guess I’m no longer configured for such insanity — a stroke-victim,” I said.
“Seems I had similar insanity with the Grow-Light; and I didn’t have a stroke,” Linda said.

-2) Water-damage:

The Keed.

From gutter to above window, and at foot of door-casing.

Our huge window-replacement project is rolling along — most of the windows have been replaced without incident, and now they’re also doing doors.
But a major hiccup has been encountered: namely extensive water-damage on the north wall of the porch.
The assembled wisdom of the crew is that water leaked into the wall from the nearby gutter, and also puddled at the door-sill, leaking through to the sill-plate (no storm-doors at first).
The 2x12 headers, which extend over the window and the door, will have to be replaced; they are severely rotted above the window. The sill-plate will also have to be replaced below the door, but the foundation (treated-wood) is still sound.
I can hear it now: the bluster-boy will noisily advocate that Ty and his blue-helmeted minions napalm the house, or at least level the whole kabosh with big-boy toys. All for water damage on a small part of the porch. (“Demolishing a house is such fun.”) Haven’t seen an Extreme Home Makeover where they haven’t done it; the homeowners watching the mayhem from a nearby motel-room, after being carted there in a huge stretch Hummer.)

“The Bucktooth-Bathtub” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van; called that because it’s white and like sitting in a bathtub, and appears to have a bucktooth on the grill.

RE: “black, bluster-boy......” refers to the fact that long-ago Apple had their icon as a rainbow-colored apple. “Bluster-boy” is my blowhard macho brother-in-Boston, who suggested a rainbow-icon was the signature of gays; who of course he loudly abhors as misdirected males.

RE: “Ya coulda got ‘em from the faded blue Econoline for only 10¢!” refers to the fact all my relatives are always telling us how we coulda saved 89 bazilyun dollars.

“Linda” is my wife.

“The Grow-Light” is a light for growing starting plants.

RE: “my old transit badge-number......” I drove transit-bus for 16&1/2 years at Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, N.Y. My transit badge-number was my employee number. We use it as a password.

“The poor dog” is our dog Killian, an Irish-Setter rescue-dog, who had apparently been previously abused.

“*******” was a second Irish-Setter rescue-dog we had. She died last March.

“OL53998” is our family’s old telephone-number in Wilmington, Del. Olympia-5 3998.

RE: “Road-Runner e-mail in the sky......” is my old e-mail address, direct to the PoP-server “in the sky.” It still exists, although I can access the Road-Runner e-mails on the Pop-server with my current Internet e-mail.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.

“Ty and his blue-helmeted minions.....” is Ty Pennington, of Extreme Home Makeover.