The Coffee House

[jeffashman]

You know what it was that bit you, bee or wasp yeah?

My tally is, 1 bee, 1 yellow jacket & 1 spider "unknown" though. I guess a snake bites next.

It was a spider I'm pretty sure. It was during the night sleeping inside, and I've been stung by bees and wasps before, and they smart, but don't cause numbness for me.

 

[terri]

No worries! Despite possible appearances to the contrary, I really have been pacing myself. Long walks with the dog, puttering around the garden, painting, art class, a few photo outings – but not as many as you would think. Starting this week I am going to add in a couple of days a week at the gym

Today and tomorrow, I am going to spend the days editing my photos from my leaf peeping day and from the northern lights. Hopefully the rain will let up long enough for a walk with the dog at some point, and if there’s any time left, I will get some practice painting in.

Cold and rainy here today. Harlie and I are in front of the fireplace keeping warm while I download all my pics.

It sounds delightful! And of course, in the middle of all that is still the shopping and cooking and cleaning and laundry - day to day stuff that sometimes consume the better part of a day, whether we intend for it to or not!

It rained here too, all night long. Overcast and chilly right now, more rain coming. We've had a long gorgeous period of sunny dry weather, so the rain is actually welcome.

More leaves starting to come down - fall is in the air!

 

[jeffashman]

Howdy! Summer is refusing to leave us, 93F yesterday and it's supposed to reach 96F this afternoon. Texas. Good news for us is that a cool front will come through tonight, and tomorrow's high will only be 85F. No rain until next Saturday. Next Sunday they say it will only get to 83F, so hoping I can take the camera for a walk out in nature.

In other news, I'm getting more questions from co-workers on my retirement plans, and even my Manager has asked. Health permitting, I'll stick it out until I'm 70. I've been at Southwest for almost 21 years, and before that I was 20 years in the Air Force, but I'm just not ready yet to make the jump.

Got another letter this week informing me that my personal data was exposed in yet another data breach at a health company. At this point, everything is out there, although there's really nothing I can do about it. In a way, its moot. When I was stationed in Berlin, we would have to travel through Soviet checkpoints, and they would scan our military ID, which had everything on it, date of birth, Social Security number, you name it, so I'm 100% sure all my info is in a folder in the Kremlin "basement." Hoping that Congress will take a breather from their petty bickering and address this issue, because I'm pretty sure at this point 90% plus of Americans have their personally identifiable information out there on the dark web. Time for a replacement of the SSN with something more secure.

 

[SquarePeg]

Howdy! Summer is refusing to leave us, 93F yesterday and it's supposed to reach 96F this afternoon. Texas. Good news for us is that a cool front will come through tonight, and tomorrow's high will only be 85F. No rain until next Saturday. Next Sunday they say it will only get to 83F, so hoping I can take the camera for a walk out in nature.

In other news, I'm getting more questions from co-workers on my retirement plans, and even my Manager has asked. Health permitting, I'll stick it out until I'm 70. I've been at Southwest for almost 21 years, and before that I was 20 years in the Air Force, but I'm just not ready yet to make the jump.

Got another letter this week informing me that my personal data was exposed in yet another data breach at a health company. At this point, everything is out there, although there's really nothing I can do about it. In a way, its moot. When I was stationed in Berlin, we would have to travel through Soviet checkpoints, and they would scan our military ID, which had everything on it, date of birth, Social Security number, you name it, so I'm 100% sure all my info is in a folder in the Kremlin "basement." Hoping that Congress will take a breather from their petty bickering and address this issue, because I'm pretty sure at this point 90% plus of Americans have their personally identifiable information out there on the dark web. Time for a replacement of the SSN with something more secure.

Ugh. I agree that it is all out there at this point. You probably have free access to your credit report from one of your credit cards or bank apps. Check it once a month to make sure no new accounts or weird credit inquiries. You can put a passcode on your credit but that can be a pita in reality. Another item that you can monitor is the deed to your home. Most county registries now have an option to sign up for alerts if there is any activity - scammers out there are selling homes they do not own! An expensive problem to resolve if it happens to you. Lastly, you can check on ssa.gov to make sure no one is using your SSN to work or to collect SSA. I had free credit monitoring as a perk from my job before I retired. Now I'll need to either pay for monitoring or commit to monthly check ins on my credit and SSN.

 

[jeffashman]

Ugh. I agree that it is all out there at this point. You probably have free access to your credit report from one of your credit cards or bank apps. Check it once a month to make sure no new accounts or weird credit inquiries. You can put a passcode on your credit but that can be a pita in reality. Another item that you can monitor is the deed to your home. Most county registries now have an option to sign up for alerts if there is any activity - scammers out there are selling homes they do not own! An expensive problem to resolve if it happens to you. Lastly, you can check on ssa.gov to make sure no one is using your SSN to work or to collect SSA. I had free credit monitoring as a perk from my job before I retired. Now I'll need to either pay for monitoring or commit to monthly check ins on my credit and SSN.

I have "free" credit monitoring from several companies now due to breaches, plus I have it through TurboTax as part of my tax prep each year. It's a real mess out there. On a positive note, after I contacted Chase about an issue, they reassured me that the banks have protections in place for credit card fraud, but of course that doesn't cover things like you have mentioned, the mortgage, or SSA, and other things. It's a mess.

 

[smoke665]

Such are the dangers of a "connected world". At least in my case it's been more health organizations that have had the security breaches.

 

[jeffashman]

Such are the dangers of a "connected world". At least in my case it's been more health organizations that have had the security breaches.

Yep, healthcare organizations have been dragging their feet in implementing required protections. I work with data daily and Federal law enforcing personal credit information (PCI) protections has been around for almost two decades now, so there really is no excuse for a data breach compromising PCI, or personally identifiable information (PII). That data is required to be encrypted if stored in a database by a company or vendor. In the meantime, credit freezes and fraud alerts are our friends, because they make it more difficult to commit fraud.

 

[Rickbb]

You should also put a freeze on all 3 of the credit bureaus. That will at least stop 99% of people trying to get a loan and such in your name.

 

[Digger...]

Pretty cool capture.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

The big telephoto lens is still at the shop, only got the 70 to 300mm kit lens. There's a comet here tonight and it sucks not having the big fella.

I got no idea if the 300mm will do a good enough job for the adventure if there is one, would 300mm be worth going up to the small mountain lookout to photograph it?

Do you know roughly what direction and when you will be viewing?

 

[Digger...]

Do you know roughly what direction and when you will be viewing?

It's a few degrees just above the horizon in the west at sunset, Ah clouds came over by then so yeah didn't go up to the lookout.

Cloudy for the foreseeable future too so wont be able to see it, it has the return journey though if it doesn't get eaten by the sun.

Maybe then, and I'll have the long lens back by then. It should be ready this week as he said 3 weeks.

 

[SquarePeg]

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian TPF members!

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Much thanks! My "holiday" started off cloudy and cool (about 60 deg F) and cleared up by the afternoon (still about 50% cloud cover). Sun was visible by the evening, but it was never really clear.

I have been hearing odd things about Russia. Anyone else hear anything?

 

[KJ_North]

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian TPF members!

Thank you. I always bug my best friend in Denver and tell him Canadians celebrate it before the Americans because the Pilgrams stopped here first.... we gave them food and beer and then they continued farther south

 

[smoke665]

Morning y'all. After an extremely warm fall the temperature seems to be dropping here. According to the weather we might see some patchy frost in the morning.

Lost a friend yesterday, he was the brother of my ex, he was only 60, and I've known him since he was a little boy. When the ex & I divorced her family wasn't very happy with her, and much to her chagrin has remained very close to me over the years. Doug was the baby of the family and could be mischievous, irritating, funny, endearing and thoughtful, all in the space of a few minutes time.