A Long Day

Walt and I both had long days today, at opposite sides of the state. Yesterday, we ordered our Pergo and Thursday Home Depot is sending someone to measure the room so all the cleaning had to be finished. He had finished painting the room (I love it) and moving most of the stuff out. The heavy pieces of furniture are left, but we are paying Home Depot to move those, so we don't have to wreck our backs trying to do it--we aren't as young as we were when we moved them all in here!

While I was gone, he got all the vacuuming and cleaning of all the rest of the stuff that he could done. The room looks so nice I hate to move the furniture and tsatskes back in!

As for me, the day started early, with driving to my mother's. Several things had to be done. The first was an attempt to thwart all these goddamn would-be thieves that are trying to steal money from her bank account. She's been dealing with them and the bank for so long that when she walks into her bank, a woman sitting at a desk across the room looks up and calls out "Hi, Mildred!"

Her stepson and I decided that we should finally change her telephone number to a new number that will be unlisted. She has had that telephone number for about 40 years, so this is a huge adjustment. But she finally agreed to give that a try, so by noon tomorrow, she should have a new number, it will be unlisted, her phone will no longer accept blocked phone calls, and when she calls out, her number will be blocked.

Now, granted this isn't going to catch those calls that just try random numbers, but she has had to change her bank account number four times in the past six months because every time she gets a call, even though she insists she does not give out any information whatsoever, suddenly ~$300-$400 is transferred out of her bank account (fortunately, the bank has been able to block the transfers because her account is flagged). The last time they were able to trace the ultimate destination for the money to the Philippines. Maybe this, and the police report filed, will finally stop it. We can only hope.

After the phone number was changed, she had a doctor's appointment. She had developed a bit of a problem and I have learned from past experience that you simply cannot let her go to the doctor alone. She thinks she can, but she gets lost in the hospital and then she can't remember any of the doctor's instructions when she leaves and it is very important that someone be with her to be her ears...or, more appropriately, her memory.

And it's kind of fun. Like they had her fill out a medical history supplemental form and when she came to the question about the date of her last menstrual period, we were trying to remember if it was 40 or 50 years ago. (We giggled)

It turned out she needed a minor surgical procedure, which was performed in the office, and then she needed to get antibiotics. She also has a follow-up appointment next week, which is going to be tricky because her appointment is 9:30 in San Rafael and I am doing an interview at 11:30 across the Bay in Berkeley. I am going to have to really hustle!

On the way home from the doctor's, we stopped at the bank to let them know her new phone number and to talk about the situation, which is apparently frustrating not only my mother but everyone at the bank. A woman about my age, who was waiting to see the account person, overheard our conversation and came to talk about how her mother had nearly been scammed by some of the same people and she talked about some sorts of things they had tried.

One problem is that with her technophobia, my mother doesn't understand the mindset of the gang that is doing this kind of thing and she feels that if she makes them feel bad for trying to defraud an old lady, they will feel guilty and give up. She feels the need to let them know that she won't give them any information. She can't just bring herself to hang up on them without saying anything. The callers identify as representatives of the bank or of Social Security and she goes along with some of their requested answers but when they ask about her bank account, she tells them to call the bank and hangs up. We have to get her to hang up as soon as they identify from one of these groups without saying a word.

But we've done all we can for now and I guess we just wait to see how effective it is. In the meantime, of course, she had to call everybody and let them know what her new phone number is. Which is a huge pain in the butt.