Had to drive my dad over to Ft. Walton this morning (I'd originally planned on doing that in the evening, after work), so I loaded the Cervelo into the wagon and we hit the road around 9am. Things went smoothly enough until we hit Pensacola Beach, at which point everything stopped. I guess a local police officer must have been killed in the line of duty, because we sat there for a solid half hour as - I am not kidding - at least 200 police cars with lights flashing came down the highway. There were police cars from at least four counties away, along with the state police and various fire departments. I have never seen so many police cars in my life. Anyway, we arrived at the house to find that the A/C was broken.
So I took off for a quick 25 miles up to Niceville and back (after fixing the tire that somehow went flat while sitting in the car), mostly riding on the shoulder of a 4-lane highway in dangerous traffic with about 60 psi in the front tire, and when I returned the repairman was there. As I'd already guessed, the blower motor was toast. The only problem was that (a) it was a Lennox blower that had to be special-ordered, and (b) it was rigged into a too-small space in such a way that in order to get it out the system had to be drained of refrigerant because a pipe was in the way. Naturally the repair guy said he could fix everything right away, but after he had taken everything apart he then discovered that he wouldn't be able to get the correct replacement parts for at least three days.
So the bottom line is that we're getting estimates on replacing the whole blasted thing since it's pretty much on its last leg anyway. The reason we came is to sell "The Boat." So naturally when we got here, "The Boat" wouldn't start. Hopefully the batteries will hold enough of a charge by tomorrow morning to start the engines. In the meantime, I'm at the local Starbucks - the same one I hung out at after the last hurricane evacuation - downloading a form from the bank fraud department to I can get reimbursed for the stuff some criminal bought with my stolen debit card information, one item of which apparently was delivered to my house today. If someone is going to go to the trouble of stealing my debit card information and placing orders in my name to be delivered to my house, the least they could to would be to order some fancy electronics or at least porn videos instead of nutritional supplements from smartscience laboratories of dubious value. Go figure. Hopefully I'll be able to get in a long ride tomorrow if the boat transaction goes OK. I have a feeling I'll need it. It will likely be a rather warm night without air-conditioning, so I'm in no great hurry to abandon this cushy seat at Starbucks. It's around 9 pm and the place is starting to fill up with the local teen crowd. Friday night at Starbucks. Havin' fun now, oh yeah.....
2 comments:
My wife has been the victim of credit card fraud recently, and it usually fits the same pattern: cheap items delivered to our house. I wonder if those bogus nutritional supplement companies have some kind of kickback mechanism for the criminals.
It seems like the one company the compromised credit card accounts all have in common is Netflix, which makes me sad.
- Ventura
My girlfriend was also the victim of this. My guess is the supplement companies or someone in their distribution channel buy the credit card information, then charge and ship the goods without an order. With high enough margins, they can make a bundle if a small enough percent of recipients do not complain.
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