Woe Is Me

I’m back from the two-day conference with fifteen continuing education credits under my belt and a couple of decent job leads. It actually all went pretty well until we got ready to leave and my car (parked in the underground garage associated with the hotel where the event was held) wouldn’t start.

By way of background, the week before I was at home from Thursday through Saturday. I didn’t leave the house because of snow and projects I was working on, and my car had been left outside for three days when I finally went to start it Sunday morning. The 12 Volt battery was stone cold dead. I hadn’t gotten any warning signs that the battery was getting weak,so I assumed this was my fault. Further supporing this theory was the little incident I had earlier in January when I inadvertently left the dome light on overnight, effectively killing the battery.

This time the Prof asked if I’d left my GPS plugged into the car outlet, and when I verified I had he said it was probably the GPS’s fault and I should always unplug it when I turn the car off. So I started unplugging it, and I had no trouble with the car until we went to the conference. Even dense little old me can see a trend when it slaps my backside the head. Either the alternator is going, or (more likely) the battery is losing its ability to hold a charge. Either way, I have yet another opportunity to spend money I have not got.

I called Sears, hoping to take the easy way out. If I brought my 2002 Prius over and it turned out the battery was the problem, would they have one in stock? After a brief check the clerk informed me that the 12 volt battery wasn’t carried by Sears, and that I almost certainly wouldn’t be able to get it anywhere other than from the dealer.

Toyota, of course, is in the middle of a massive recall. Even on a good day it’s difficult to get my car into the dealer same-day. Right now a more appropriate word for getting a car into a Toyota dealership same-day is “impossible”. I explained to Mr. Toyota Service Rep that if I didn’t bring my car over today I probably wouldn’t be able to drive it over at all, so he agreed to try to fit it in, emphasizing the “no promises” part of his side of the discussion.

So after taking care of the cats and getting my stuff out of the trunk (where the Prius’ battery lives), I drove over to the dealership. I then used the dealer’s shuttle service to take me to a nearby Barnes and Noble, which is where I now sit, killing time and waiting for my Acer’s battery to give out on me. [aside: It now occurs to me that this is becoming a battery intensive day – I just had to replace the battery in my wireless mouse.] Barnes and Noble, it appears, has free Wi-Fi, but no outlets to plug into in the vicinity of the café. I’ll wait here until 1) Toyota calls me to tell me they’ve had a chance to look at my car or 2) the Prof is done with his afternoon plans and can rescue me. Either way, there are worse places to be stuck than a bookstore.

While I was at the conference I got a call from American Express, asking if I’d made a purchase on Monday of this week from some outfit called C2Call in the amount of $30. Not only had I not made such a purchase, but I’d never heard of the outfit before. American Express had apparently anticipated this response, because they’d already invalidated the purchase. Based on this, they’ve cancelled my card and are issuing me a new card that I will not get until the middle of March. I tried to get my online statement last night to make sure there were no additional surprises on it, but apparently I can’t access the account while all this is going on. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that AmEx caught this for me before any real damage could be inflicted.

It’s my understanding that credit card thieves frequently make one or two small purchases with a stolen number before they make any large purchases, sort of testing the water to make sure they won’t run into any problems. What concerns me most is how they got my card number to begin with, since the card has always been in my possession.

Just to make sure things stay complicated, this is the card I use most of the time because AmEx has a really good cash-back plan. I would have used the card at the hotel, which would have gotten me 2% back. I understand that isn’t much, but it’s more than I got on my Visa card. I feel like the insults to my injuries have themselves just been insulted.

And now the insults’ insults have been insulted. I just lost this entry and had to re-input. I had the rough draft saved, but had done final editing in the entry window. If this is the Fates’ idea of humor, they need a serious attitude adjustment.