poisonwood's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sigh Yesterday morning, I looked onto my B of A account just to see my balance and so on. I noticed 3 charges that I couldn't remember making. I looked more closely; two of them were Yah*oo and one was A*OL. I have never spent any moeny with either of those companies. Twenty minutes later, I'd cancelled my card. I also called AOL to try and figure out who made the charge. This person had an account, and I provided the information, so supposedly it's "being worked." We'll see. The question is, how did both my credit card and my debit card get stolen with one month? Coincidence, or something else? It makes me nervous. The only things I can think of are (a) mail fraud or (b) having used both cards with a single vendor. Neither seems likely, but I've cancelled paper statements from my bank and credit card accounts. I already have paper statements from one brokerage account, and the other goes to work, which I think is safe. I save all my statements, which is why I hadn't gone to paper statements before. I've also resolved to use the same card for ALL internet purchases - my credit card. That way, my debit card (which is more vulnerable and more difficult to get money back from in cases of fraud) shouldn't get stolen. If it is, then I'll know it's not through the internet. I guess the next thing I should do is check my credit and make sure nothing else is going on. 10:23 a.m. - Feb. 09, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- back to health care They say a cold takes 3 days to come, 3 days to stay, and 3 days to go. Well, I started feeling poorly last Friday. By Sunday, I was miserable. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I languished, though I began to see light at the end of the tunnel Wednesday night. Today, I'm finally feeling a bit better. I imagine by Saturday night I'll declare myself healed (cross my fingers.) Usually, getting sick is what knocks me off the running wagon. I read, however, that there is no reason not to run if you have a head cold; it shouldn't make it worse. I took off Monday and Tuesday when I was feeling truly horrible and ran short and easy Wednesday and today. From the article: "The Census Bureau says 38% of the uninsured earned more than $50,000 in 2006, 19% above $75,000." My Dad thinks healthcare is a right and a responsibility. For a country as wealthy as ours, he's probably right. All this will probably be very expensive. I figure I should expect my healthcare costs to double. Just like we pay 14% of our salaries for Social Security (that's right - 15%) we should probably all expect to pay that much or more for health care. Either that or live with the fact that lots of people will do without. I would love to have a system that penalized smoking, obesity, failure to go to regular checkups, get enough sleep, exercise, etc., etc., etc. - but it's probably not practical, especially since many of the above are associated with poverty. The article about biofuels is interesting as well. Best quote: "Draining and clearing peatlands in Malaysia and Indonesia to grow palm oil emits so much CO2 that palm biodiesel from those fields would have to be burned for more than 420 years to counteract it." 8:10 p.m. - Feb. 07, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- georgia exit polls I continue to find exit polls fascinating. In Georgia, a state I lived in for about 2 and a half years (if you add up the months I actually spent there), the Republican race is more interesting than the Democratic race. Some interesting tidbits . . . 4:45 p.m. - Feb. 05, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- overachiever Should we be surprised that Obama and McCain have been too busy campaigning to introduce any legislation, yet Hillary has managed to introduce not one but 4 bills in Congress? I think not. 9:23 a.m. - Feb. 05, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- tuesday eve Another person's opinion. As usual, I agree with some but not all of what she says. We shall see what happens tomorrow. I am hoping that Hillary conclusively wins, of course. Regardless, I will caucus on Feb. 9. This is just lovely. I'm sick today. The sore throat started Friday and got progressively worse. It seems to have stabilized, though. I don't feel worse than yesterday anyway, even if I don't feel better. Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow. Feeling sick is extremely demotivating at work. 5:11 p.m. - Feb. 04, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- running and rain I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming half marathon. It's still a long way off, of course - not until April 13. I finally got around to reserving accommodation last weekend, and managed to find what must have been the last available room. 13 miles seems like a long way - and not such a long way. I was reading about one elite runner who ran a half off runs not exceeding 9 miles. That was basically my strategy in the last half I ran - my longest run was 9.5 miles. I'd like to run faster this time, though, so my strategy is definitely to run more miles in preparation. So far, so good. The most important part has been to keep getting out there even when the weather is nasty, which is the vast majority of the time. Today, for instance, I had a 6 mile run on the agenda. I left my desk for a run as soon as I noticed it had stopped raining. The dry weather held long enough for me to get about 2.5 miles, and then it started again, moderate intensity, for the rest of my run. The dog didn't mind, but I did. I read Kris*tin Armstrong's blog sometimes, on Run*ner's World. She's a good writer . . . and a good runner. Reading today's entry I noticed her PR is about 1:35 for the half. I've been flirting with the idea of going for 1:45. That's 8:00 miles. My last race I ran 1:51 - 8:30 miles. 8:00 miles should be achievable, but maybe not. My body is not always capable of what I think it should be. Also, a half marathon is a painful distance to find out you can't keep up the pace. Anyway, reading Kris*tin's blog made me think that if she can run 1:35, darn it, I should be able to run 1:45. I'm not sure what my rationale for that is! i think part of it is just realizing that if things don't work out, there are definitely more races. Anyway, this weekend is a 9 miler. 8 miles last weekend was a nightmare, but only because it was snowing and raining and freezing cold and the path was incredibly slippery. Here's hoping for better weather this time around. Apparently, my county has actually been declared a disaster area because of all the snow. I'm pretty low down, so it's just been rain where I am. The major highway across the state is closed due to avalanches, right about where we often go snowshoeing. 9:40 p.m. - Jan. 31, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- flying south Today on the plane, I ran into a bunch of kids who have just joined the Mar*ines. They were headed to boot camp. They just seemed so, so young. I actually sat next to two of them. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that they might go to Iraq and *die*. I've spent a lot of time worrying about what will happen if "we" leave Iraq. I feel like bad things will happen, actually. If any Democrat gets in office and starts pulling out troops, they are going to have a major test early in their presidency when things start to fall apart in Iraq. I've always thought, we started it, isn't it our duty to finish it? What about all the innocent civilians that will be killed? However, sitting next to those kids, I couldn't help but think that it's not fair to put their lives on the line. They're too young. As many have said, the country is not suffering equally. The war basically does not affect me directly in any way, except possibly the mounting debt. Others, however, mostly poorer others, lose loved ones - their children, and their husbands. Anyway, hopefully a Demo*crat will get elected any we'll get out of there before any of those kids I was on the plane with get hurt. Hopefully, the fallout will not be too bad. That's probably wishful thinking. I'm in San Die*go staying in a very nice hotel for a conference . Normally, I don't stay at hotels this nice, but since the conference was there, and there was a bit of discount, I decided why not. It's my first trip here. 9:08 p.m. - Jan. 28, 2008 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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