Anselisms and adventures on Columbus Day

Life has been very full the last few weeks with 3 boys in soccer, 3 boys in piano, 2 boys in Cub Scouts, and a boy and a mom in a musical (with lots of rehearsals), a birthday party (with some out of control boys) a mom that very decidedly over-volunteered at the school this year, not to mention the regular stuff around the house and school!! But even though I haven't really had the time to blog here are some recent things that I thought were very blog worthy:

First another great Anselism:

Look at this picture and then read the following exchange between Ansel and Joe:


The weather is now turning crisp, and fall is definitely in the air these days. But, Ansel thinks it is still summer, going outside in his bare feet all the time. One of these times occurred when it was dinnertime and Ansel had been going in and out the back door into the backyard.

At one point Joe said "It is a little too cold for bare feet outside, your toes are going to freeze!" He looked down and said "Yep, look at your toes they are red, that means they are cold!"

Ansel replied, without missing a beat, "Nope, they are just embarrassed!"

An Adventure on Columbus day went as follows:

I had a pretty average morning getting the big kids off to school, paying bills, balancing finances, making a couple online purchases for a school fundraiser, getting Ansel off to Kindergarten, you know the drill. Around 12:30 is when I headed out the door to run some errands: getting gas, washing the car, changing the oil and getting a picture taken of myself, at the school, for my volunteer badge. I started off with the picture, which was done in no time at all, and then headed off to get gas.


In Oregon you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, it is illegal. So, when I pulled into the Chevron that I usually use, I did the usual. I pulled up, turned off the engine, rolled down my window, handed the attendant my debit card and said "Regular fill and a car wash please". He immediately went to the pump and swiped my card through the scanner. "Beep Beep" said the scanner. The attendant tried again "Beep Beep" went the scanner. The attendant came back to me "the card isn't working, do you have another?" "No", I say "It is probably the magnetic strip, just pump the gas and I will have them run the card inside" "Okay," said the teenage attendant, eager to move on.

The gas fills up inside the tank and soon we are done. I hop out of the car and go inside to pay. Remember this is my debit card, going directly out of my checking account (we only use that or cash - we don't use credit cards. We have one stored away for emergencies, we just don't use it). I know that there is plenty of money in the account so I am completely confident that the indoor attendant can easily enter in the card manually and we will be done. There should be nothing to it. Well, the same thing happens inside, only along with the beeps comes the word "denied". "What?!" I exclaim. "This is my debit card" why would it be denied? The attendant shrugs and asks "Do you have another card?" , "no", "Cash?" "no" I reply curtly. "I have checks". "we don't take checks" the attendant says apologetically.

We are at an impasse. I have no way to pay for the gas that is sitting inside my car's tank. Now what do we do. I tell the attendant that I have my cell phone and I will try to get a hold of my bank. I call 411 and get a number to my bank. I call, but they are closed..... That's right, because of Columbus day!! CRAP!! Maybe my Bank's ATM up the hill will take my card? Then I could give cash.

I sign away my life at the gas station so I can leave with my unpaid for gas, and head up the hill wondering, desperately what could be wrong with my card??!! When I get to the ATM I put in my card and get a moments relief. It does it's usual thing and asks for my pin number, that goes through, and then it asks for the amount I want to withdraw. GREAT! Things are going to work out after all. I put in $200 (just in case) and it accepts it,... but then it just spits out my card and no cash!! WHAT??? I try again for a lesser amount and pay closer attention. It does the same thing but this time I see in small writing, up in the left hand corner, the words "card denied". Great. If my card's own ATM won't take it then something is seriously wrong.

I feel a huge pit in my stomach imagining the possibilities. Did someone steal my identification and my card info and go on a spending spree since I last checked my account an hour before?? That doesn't seem possible.

Not knowing what else to do I head home and onto the WWW to see what it says online at my bank. First I check my e-mail. Ahah! A new email from my bank is there announcing irregular check card activity. It tells me to go online and look at my transactions to see if anything looks unusual. I go, ... I look... everything looks fine. I call the emergency number listed in the email. It is automated. GRRRRRRR. The voice tells me that there are 5 unusual card activities that have happened in the last hour and it mentions one for $200 and then asks if I did this one. I pause. I just tried to get $200 out of the ATM, but my card was denied before that so this couldn't be the cause. I push "no" for lack of a better option. I am directed to the "Fraud emergency services". Finally a real person. I tell her my whole story.

She is very sympathetic and looks through everything and verifies a bunch of transactions with me. Everything is on the up and up. The most pressing question I had? What about that $200 I attempted to withdraw? She assures me that it did not deduct from my account. PHEW!

The reason my card got tagged for irregular activity? Who knows, but it got tagged with my attempted purchase of gas! I asked her why, since that gas station is one I frequent. She said that it is a computer that tags the card and sometimes there are glitches. Great. How nice for me!

I mean, I guess I am grateful that they are so on guard so that I don't lose money, but it sure was inconvenient, not to mention embarrassing!! At least I was able to go back to the gas station and pay with my card and explain what had happened, saving face a little!

The lesson I learned was that one can never be too complacent about the ease with which we transact our business! All it takes is one little thing and everything is turned upside down and a person can be left with very few options to choose from! Maybe having a bit of emergency cash wouldn't hurt either!!