Wiser gets scammed and his beloved birds are returning
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
When I first began my Wramblings, my title was Wiser’s Words. Shortly thereafter with that title seemingly too “presumptuous,” I changed the title. I frequently modify words starting with an “R” with a “W.” What motivated that, was noticing that words like “Write” and “Wrong” were written that way. I’m not sure if the etymology of the “write word” would be that the word “rite” already meant something else, but that’s possible. Just now as I wrote (another of those words) my word combination above sounded like “wright and wrong.”
If you wonder where I came up with my titled word “Wrambling,” just “wre-read” that previous paragraph. I do seem to wramble at times, or perhaps even more often than “at times.”
Spring has definitely sprung around here. The returning migratory birds appeared a little earlier than usual this year. The end of the first week of May is when we typically see them. Since we have started keeping track of the return of migratory birds, an April sighting, while not frequent, is rare compared to normal May dates. Our first sightings this year occurred on the 27th of April. On that date we observed both Baltimore Orioles and Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, but no hummingbirds. That early migrating birds return has happened a few times, but not often.
As I typed the word “sighting” my first inclination was to type is as “siting.” That didn’t pass the “Wiser sounds right” test so I changed it but then checked a reference to see where the other form of the word came from. My research revealed that “A sighting is when you see something unusual or significant (e.g., “There have been three sightings of the bear on the outskirts of the town”). Siting is a rarely used word that means “locating” or “selecting the location of” (e.g. “The siting of the nuclear facility will be very problematic,” or the “site” of my bird sighting blind is perfect.
Over the past few weeks, we, or more specifically “me,” as I do all the debit/credit card purchasing in this family, have received evidence of two fraudulent purchase attempts using one of my debit cards. The first sign of fraudulent access to one of my bank accounts was upon receipt of a notification from Amazon that my purchase of a $6,230 item had been declined due to insufficient funds. That caused some (or a lot of) concern as I had made no such purchase. Upon investigation there was a name of an individual in Colorado that had attempted to use my debit card number and identification to make the purchase. I immediately canceled that card. A few days later I received confirmation of another purchase attempt, through Amazon for an Apple IPad. This time it was from a different debit card. I had made no such purchase as my name isn’t Mr. Phillips. I immediately canceled that card also, and notified the bank once again of the fraudulent use of one of my cards, and forwarded the information, as illustrated herein, to the bank.
As of this writing I have not received any information back from the bank but am still hopeful that they will reimburse me. I have heard that they typically do in a case such as this.
More importantly, I would hope that they are attempting to track down the perpetrator, but I’m pretty sure that the ID information as noted is a “masked” identification. I guess some thieves do wear masks in retrospect.
As I began with the inclusion of this topic in my Wrambling, I decided that it may be a topic of further discussion. I have also notified Amazon as to the fraudulent use of my purchase information but have not heard back from them either.
Somehow, some way, somebody has been able to obtain my debit card information. I can see how it may have happened with the first card as I had previously given my card ID information when making an Amazon purchase. In that case, and with the first card used, I had provided the 3-digit code PIN from the back of the card. This was against my first reluctance to do so, but I guess my immature faith in Amazon and their discretion with my personal information was misguided.
I’m not sure if it’s a related issue or not, but my new laptop computer had been acting up lately and I thought that despite having some virus protection included therein, my computer may have a virus. I took the laptop to Wellsville Computers, where I had purchased it, and Rob fixed it up, removed the virus and advised me of some possible schemes out there that would allow illegal access to my computer. A “hacked” phony Amazon account could have been the source of not only my computer hacking, but also the source of my debit card account intrusion. Sadly, the world is now full of people who are too damned lazy to earn their living by standard, legal and morally right methods. My unidentified bank accounts mentioned above have both been frozen and canceled, and new cards have been provided.
My wife has sternly advised that I should never have used the card and shouldn’t ever use one anywhere. In this day and age, it is nearly impossible, not to. I have taken her sage advice and have started carrying a “healthier” amount of folding money in my wallet and am using a standard check for other purchases. Believe me, it is a real nuisance sliding numerous bills into the check out payment slot than just swiping your card. It is equally, or maybe even more difficult using a check through one of those payment devices.
This is a reach out and admonition to “do as I say, and not as I do.”
On a grammar note, I used the word canceled above and it reminded me of a grammar nuance that caught me off guard one day in the long distant past. I try not to be critical, or vocal, about other people’s writing and spelling but occasionally do mention something when I think a suggested correction would be more beneficial to the recipient of my comment than an insult. If I see something blatantly incorrect, especially in a published or public display, I may offer a suggestion to the “author” feeling that they would appreciate the heads up, as I would. I may mention it privately or subtly, and not publicly.
As I walked past another professor’s classroom one day during my teaching days, I noticed a sign on the door advising that classes were “canceled” that day due to illness. I stopped by the secretaries desk a short distance past that classroom and asked if she had put up the notice. She had. I told her that that one word in the sign looked to be incorrect and thought she might like to be aware of that.
Color me with “egg on my face” as I embarrassed myself with my own ignorance of grammar. She stated that the word “canceled” was correct and that the word was properly spelled. I said Ok and that I was sorry for my mistake…although thinking that it wasn’t a mistake. When I got back to my office, I accessed my Google Grammar Groans site and surely enough she was correct, and I was wrong. It seems that the modification of the word “Cancel” was acceptable either as “canceled” or “cancelled.” I tried to get a simple explanation of the rule but the “Doubling Rule” is more confusing than just using my “gut reaction” rule of going with what sounds best, but, double check if you are publishing publicly. A couple of the explanations follow…
“In a word with 1 syllable, double the final consonant ONLY if the word ends in 1 vowel + 1 consonant. In a word with 2 or more syllables, double the final consonant ONLY if the word ends in 1 vowel + 1 consonant AND the final syllable is stressed.”
A simpler version goes as follows “When a base word has one syllable, has one vowel, and has one consonant at the end, double the final consonant before adding a vowel suffix. This is the Doubling Rule.”
Even simpler yet…“ “CVC stands for “consonant, vowel, consonant.” When the last three letters of a one-syllable word follow the CVC pattern, the last consonant should be doubled when adding the ending. Consider the examples below: 1 The word “drop” becomes dropped or dropping.” ”
Back to my own thoughts. Nearly every word that I discover the “doubling” situation in is a “two syllable” word although most examples are one syllable . These are things that often keep my head from going empty when I don’t have anything more productive to think about.
My aching back has been a common theme at this household lately. I believe I mentioned previously, the wisdom of doing a complete tear down and starting a construction project as “a clean slate.” After the fact, I didn’t follow my admonition “Do as I say, not as I do.”
This picture doesn’t do this beam re-build project justice as it looks better to me in person now, after many back aches and pain pills. No worries…they were all non-addictive low drug content pills. The wall is plumb and straight. 12 Foot long 6” X 6” Pressure treated beams are not fun to maneuver around. I can lift (barely) an 8 footer but I have to deal with the “12 footers” one end at a time. I can get very creative when it comes to “wrassling” those babies around.
I end with my standard invitation …
If you have any comments, questions or concerns please feel free to email me at IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com
