Well, dear readers, it was the best of days, it was the worst of days, it was the day of wisdom, it was the day of stupidity, it was the epoch of knowing, it was the epoch of stupidity, it was the day of getting, it was the day of not getting, it was the morning of hope, it was the early afternoon of despair, we had things that should have happened before us, we had things that didn’t happen before us, we hoped for Heaven and we got some Hell – in short, it started out poorly and ended up well. That’s a dickens of an opening, isn’t it? All true. The good, the bad, and the ugly, not necessarily in that order. Let us begin with the bad and the ugly, shall we. I got eight and a half hours of sleep, arising at noon-thirty. I woke up the computer, hoping to see a text about the second payment. There was no text. I checked the tracking on the UPS envelope – it was delivered on Thursday morning at eleven. Say what? So, shouldn’t that have triggered the payment on Thursday, let alone Friday? I immediately wrote the claims person, telling her when it had been delivered, that she’d said the payment would be triggered when it was delivered, and that I really didn’t want to lose the car I was purchasing. She responded very quickly saying she understood I wanted the car, but that the paperwork had to be approved and it would happen in a timely fashion. I began to write another e-mail to explain that a timely fashion would have been on Thursday or Friday morning and in the midst of writing the phone rang – I should have known better than answer it, but it was an 818 number, so I did. Mistake. And here comes The Ugly.
My mind was so concentrated on the money and the e-mail I was drafting that I was not thinking properly at all. The woman said it was Medicare and they were verifying information for the 2025 cards and asked me to confirm my address, which she had. I did. Then she asked my date of birth, and I gave it to her. Then she asked for the card number, and I began to get irritated because my mind was on other things. I thought she was talking about United Health Card, and I said I didn’t see any kind of number she was talking about and that I didn’t want to give any more information and that it sounded like a scam call. Of course, like all good scammers, she assured me it wasn’t, but at that point I just wasn’t thinking, and I just wanted to get her off the phone. She finally said it was the Medicare number, and I got that card out and barked some numbers at her. She then began asking me questions about my health results. At that point, I said hold on and I went to Google and searched Medicare scam – it brought up a bunch of crap about people thinking Medicare was a scam but not one thing about scam calls. I answered one question, then on the next question I got really angry and said, “Why are you asking me these stupid questions – don’t you have my file in front of you?” At that point, she said, “Expect your new card in January” and hung up. I knew I’d just been scammed and if I’d only added the word “calls” after “scam” in my Google search, I would have seen instantly that it was a huge scam that had been going on for the past few months.
I was so angry with myself for my complete stupidity – I know about these things – I’ve watched endless YouTube videos about these things, but these people are really sophisticated, and when they have your name and address it just seems plausible – but I KNOW these things, I know you are NEVER supposed to give out information – I mean, the stupidity of me not immediately realizing when she asked for the card number that SHE would have it. I should have asked HER to read it to me so I could verify it – that would have been Game Over. Again, my only excuse for my going to stupid land is that my head was totally in payment land. I immediately called Medicare and spoke to someone in fraud, told them everything, and he said they’d noted my account. I don’t know how it all works, and it’s not something that’s going to affect me personally as they don’t have my social security number or my bank information – this scam is just them billing Medicare under my name and number for things I’m not having done. But since it goes through United Health Care, perhaps that will help. I think on the CS link I have I can see summaries of what’s been billed, so I’ll keep my eyes open there, but I’d hope that if there’s suddenly a plethora of things that they’d call me. But the second I see anything out of the ordinary I’ll call both United AND Medicare.
Back to the bad, I finished writing the e-mail, which wasn’t nasty at all, and she wrote right back as if I’d offended her, beginning with “Excuse me” – she said she’d handled everything quicker than most would have, and that the approval can take between twenty-four and forty-eight hours. I instantly wrote her back and told her that I wasn’t criticizing her, I was frustrated, that I thought she was great, and that in every e-mail sent to her I always include “thanks for staying on top of things” and “much appreciated.” I also reminded her that twenty-four hours had come and gone. That was the end of that volley. Of course, the question is does she work on Saturday – the forty-eight hours is up this morning at eleven – or will this now have to wait until Monday. I guess we’ll see. I then took a shower to wash all that scam crap down the drain. It was already two o’clock, so I booked an Uber and he arrived a minute later and off we went to La Crescenta and thus began The Good. The traffic at two o’clock was appalling – probably because this is the last day of work for a lot of folks. Anyway, we got there.
I then spent a lot of time signing a lot of papers for the new motor car. After that, we went to the car and went over things and how they worked, as this model has a lot of things that work differently than the model I had. We paired my phone with the car, so that’s set up. I saw the different functions for things and how to get to them, and the rest I can learn on my own. The hardest thing to get used to is not having the gear shift thing where it usually is on a car. This one’s on the right side of the steering wheel and will take some getting used to. Then he put the temporary registration and plates on the car, took a Xerox of my license and new insurance card and at four-thirty, dreading the horrible rush hour traffic that I’d be facing, I was on my way in the new motor car. It really does drive much more smoothly than my other car, it’s slightly larger (a four-door rather than mine, which was a two-door), but I’d already found KUSC was listening to nice music on what sounds like a really good car system. I have to figure out, now that the phone is paired, how I listen to the music on the phone which is virtually my entire music library.
I got on the 210 freeway east, transitioned to the 2 south, and then to the 134 west. Well, The Good presented itself again because there was no traffic at all – everything was moving along at a steady clip, and I got to the mail place very quickly. I picked up my new DGA card and two packages. The main package turned out to be an assortment of brownies and other little treats, homemade, by the wonderful producer of Hit Song, The Musical. So, I will admit to putting aside the “no sugar” thing to sample two small things, which were great. I think they’ll go over very well at the upcoming Do.
Thus ended the day. I ordered my chopped Eyetalian salad and a cup of creamy tomato soup – I only ordered that because if you ordered over a certain amount, you got six dollars off – so basically, I got the cup of soup for free. It all arrived and was very good and very filling. I then sat on my couch like so much fish and watched yet another French movie from France.
Before I tell you about that one, I’d also watched one after I’d posted yesterday’s notes. It was entitled Just the Two of Us and it was yet another movie about a seemingly perfect husband who turns out to be an obsessive and verbally abusive jerk and ultimately physically abusive, too. It was mostly good due to the leading lady, who I’d just seen and loved in Revoir Paris – Virginie Efira. She’s the real deal, and in this one she gets to play her role and her twin sister. It moved right along and ends enigmatically as they go the mediate a divorce – we don’t see the result.
So, last night’s movie was entitled The Girl with the Bracelet, about a teen accused of killing her best friend by stabbing her seven times with a knife. It mostly takes place in a courtroom and it’s always interesting. The French justice system works quite differently than ours. The teen girl is seemingly cold and unfeeling, and very promiscuous. Even her parents have harbored doubts about their daughter, but the daughter maintains she didn’t do it. What’s interesting is the prosecution basically putting her promiscuity on trial, since they have no real evidence. I really enjoyed it. Turns out the Americans aren’t the only ones who jump on a prior film to do a remake – this was a remake of an Argentinian film from just a year before. That one, apparently plays much more like a legal thriller – you know the type – and I’m interested to see it and it’s cheap to rent on Prime. And finally, at long last, here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m hope, I’ll pray that the payment comes through, so yes, please send your most excellent vibes and xylophones, I’ll do whatever the HELL I want, including banking IF the payment comes through, picking up my dry cleaning, and getting something to eat, perhaps from Gelson’s, the good Gelson’s next to the mail place. Then I’ll just putter around the house, I have to pair the garage door opener with the car, which I tried to do when I got home yesterday but I was doing one step wrong so it wouldn’t take, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, Monday, she of the Evil Eye comes so I’ll go do what little Do shopping is left, Monday evening I’ll make two batches of tuna pasta salad and prepare the garlic, mushrooms, and onion for the spaghetti sauce, the Tuesday is the day of the Do and making the spaghetti sauce and getting everything ready. I may have to buy more paper plates and some cutlery, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, pray the payment arrives, bank if it does, pick up dry cleaning, stop at the mail place and Gelson’s, come home and pair the garage door opener with the car, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Have you ever fallen prey to a scammer? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the day ended with The Good, after having begun with The Bad and The Ugly.