Reconstructing my address book

Among the things lost in our burglary was my desktop computer. On it resided my e-mail address book. I doubt that anyone is getting e-mail messages from our burglar--of course, if you are, let me know as the sheriff might find the source interesting--but you are not getting any e-mail from me either. And you won't, because the address list is gone.

So if you should be in my address book, please e-mail me so I can add your address.

The LinkedWithin "You might also like..." links are always a bit weird on posts like this one. I wish they could be turned off on an individual basis.

Some of the thoroughly bizarre things you have to do to prove you are you

So the bank sends me this letter (hubby didn't get one) about my having updated my address. They send it to your previous address. We did not update our address. We changed all of our accounts.

It's probably part of that, but getting such a letter after a home invasion is a bit unnerving and I am starting to crack. It has reached a piece of me that is not believing the "It's just stuff It's just stuff" mantra.

So they send you online and since I've not accessed this account online before, part of the process is sending an identity code to your phone number. The three numbers listed are way outdated. I choose none of the above. Clicking next brings me to the same page. The explanation says I can change it later but I have to choose one of these.

Hubby and I discuss at length and decide that before anything else happens they will let me change the number, so I choose an old work number and click Next.

They sent the code to that number. Naturally, I cannot proceed because they have sent this code to a number I have not had access to for a number of years.

So I call.

"In order to proceed we will  have to verify your identity using information from your public record not associated with your account." (Where did they get this public information--the same place that says I am in my twenties and have lived here with a roommate for three years?--BTW I am in my 60s and have lived with my husband for 43 years--35 of them in this house.)

Which of these three names are someone you have known? Three names are listed and I recognize none of them.

Which of these three vehicles have you owned or leased? Three vehicles I have never owned are listed and I tell the nice Indian gentleman this (no offense meant--he was A team).

So three more vehicles that I have not owned are offered and I tell him so.

"I am sorry ma'am, but I cannot verify your identity. Please go into your local bank branch to verify this."

I will go into my local bank on Monday, and they will get an earful.

a brief break while I sort out the house

We returned from a lovely workshop at the National Park to find that the house had been burgled--totally ransacked. I must admit that one might have looked before and thought it to have been ransacked already, but there is a definite difference between one's normal mess and having every drawer upended--even drawers we did not remember we had.

We've decided on a motel for the night. It will take hours just to put the bedroom to rights.

And now the good news:
I never take the laptop camping. Guess what? I took the laptop camping. I had some stuff to finish up. Heehee.
They apparently were not geek enough to recognize what an external hard drive is. It is there on my desk--ready to hook up to the laptop.
Heehee.
They did not seem to have any use for a sewing machine. All my machines are present and accounted for.

And all the things they DID take can be replaced.

And I thought the flat tire we had on Friday was annoying! A well.

I'll be back to Wales and London when I have sorted things out.

No you can't!

Well, it only took:
--several double checks that everything was connected correctly according to the quick set up guide
--four rereadings of the quick set up guide.
--a page by page examination of the complete 87 page guidebook
--trial by hubby
--test by myself
--another test by hubby
--another look at the two guides
--an hour on the phone to customer service during which hubby had to spell his name again for each of three techs as well as explain that the number he gave is a cell phone  because no we don't have a land line and here is our street address but we don't have mail delivered to it and he had to write down a new transaction number for each tech and check the connections on the back of the unit and what the plugs they were plugged into the TV said and try everything the a each of the remote controls did when you pushed each button for the first two
...
before a tech who gave his name as JR (which we are quite certain from his accent is more likely to stand for Jawaral Rajeev than John Robert) said, "No, you can't record from broadcast TV with that model."
...
which was the only VCR for sale in our whole area yesterday.

So we will miss Survivor when we go to the Community Concert tonight.

No, don't tell us. We'll try to watch it on the computer's slow connection sometime before next week.

I wonder if that is why we couldn't record from the old new recorder, either.

Update:
And there were no questions asked when he returned it becasue he was the third person this week returning one for the same reason.

So why didn't the person who sold it to us mention that, since a lot of people in this area use broadcast TV--no cable--no whatever else there is?

Further update:
Wishing to change the station, he asked me where the remote was. Since he had handled it last I told him that it was wherever he put it.

Which, it turns out, is in the box that he took back to the store, since the one for the TV and the one for the VCR that won't record look much more similar than the one for the old VCR and the TV did.

My middle name...

My mother's name was Jane.

My great grandmother's middle name was Jane.

There are other great greats on back through history whose names or middle names were Jane. Keziah Jane. Sarah Jane.

My daughter's middle name is Jane. Her daughter's middle name is Jane.

But apparently I have been Jan for forty of my years.

Social Security asked for documentation of name change so I dug up marriage certificate.

"I don't know why they asked for this, we already have you in here with your married name."

Further investigation.

Forty years ago when I changed my social security number from my maiden name to my married name, someone dropped the "e" in my middle name. Since the card just had my middle initial on it, I never knew.

Till today.

I did not abandon you Jane Christina, Lodusca Jane, Keziah Jane and all you other Janes.

I am Jane again.

So what do these things have in common?

They are all things I have not been able to find when I needed them even though I had just had my hands on them a day or two before.

Okay. Calm down Katney. Sit down, say a prayer, ask St. Anthony to pass along the good word.

And voila! While looking for the flash drive, I spotted the Social Security Card--right where I put it. (Too late to go take the census worker test--that might have been a fun job.) And then I sat down and picked up a piece of paper and there was the flash drive--right where I had put it. The book I had tracked down yesterday--also under something else. And, you guessed it--right where I had put it.

So where is my birth certificate?

I guess that's different. I haven't needed it since we applied for our passports twelve years ago. It's probably right where I put it.

I am sick and tired of the spam commenter idiots.

What part of "I will reject all  your idiot comments" do you not get? Can't you see? We don't want you to hang around.

Of course, you are just a stupid robot anyway. You could learn something from Data!

Sorry. Had to rant. Comments from real people with something to say are always welcome.