Of voice and money
It's been quite a few weeks.
A week ago Thursday,I found quite a few envelopes in my mailbox with
the bank logo on them. When I finally opened them,I had all sorts of notices of overdrafts and charges.This puzzled me,since I knew I had money
in the bank.Then I opened the larger envelope with the monthly statement and found a check had been cashed for $639.00.

Panic ensued. Had someone forged a check?

Then I looked at my check book and found an entry for the same check but for $63.90,the minimum payment on my car insurance.
They'd cashed it for $639.00

I called the bank and the clerk I spoke to told me it was too late in the day
to do anything. He assured me he would notify the Research Dept and that they would call me back in a day.

They didn't get back to me on Friday..or Saturday.

I called the car insurance company. They told me they would research it as
well, and if there was a mistake, they'd get back the money to me in two weeks.
Meanwhile,after I deposited my paycheck on Friday, I had an available
balance of -$175.00. That's MINUS.
I called the bank on Monday and learned the Research Dept knew nothing at
all about my dilemma. The lady cashier I spoke with was sympathetic and told me they would get back to me by Tuesday, and agreed to send me a copy of
the check when they found it.I wanted it, because by now I wondered if I had made the check out incorrectly.
Upshot of it was I had written it correctly, and the bank replaced the money
on Tuesday. But I have to say I've never been as frantic as I was those four days in all the time since Ma died.
Meanwhile, I had a headcold, and by Wed. I had the start of laryngitis. On Friday, my voice was pretty much gone. It's only now, on Sunday, that it is
close to normal
Fun, eh?

Man, I hate the cold..and colds...
But guess I'm stuck with both at the moment.
I'm at one of those periods where I can't seem to write more than a
few sentences at a time in a story. This is not a good time for that to happen
since I'm supposed to be writing a 50,000 word attempt at a novel this month. Not a lack of ideas, mind you..just a lack of attention and energy.
Today was busy at work and I think it was the first faint stirrings of the
migration of the Holiday Shopping Hordes.
Lord have mercy on us all.

Tuesday Night
We had Mitch Albom in last night to sign books at the store. He drew
quite a large crowd and he seems like such a nice guy.Very down to earth.
I must confess I've never read either of his books.When his first book came out, my mother was dying of liver and bowel cancer.It was a painful
process for her,and it was hard to watch a woman who'd been active and vibrant become just a person lying in a bed, trying to hold onto life while she
endured pain I can only imagine.
The last thing I needed was a book to feel better about death.I never got
around to reading it.I still can't.
I'd like to believe there is something after life,but I'm not sure it would be
any different for me than this life has been.If there is something,I hope they
have a Suggestion Box up there so I can file a few complaints.

A Lazy Sunday
A rather pleasant one, actually. I slept in until around 1pm and then
returned a call from my sister. Cheryl and I had been talking about taking in
a movie the past two Sundays but circumstances had prevented it. But today
we got it in. She picked me up at around 4pm and we went to see the
Clint Eastwood film Mystic River.. We got there sort of in between shows and had nearly two hours to kill, so we went to the restaurant Ricks Place next door and had Greek Salad and pizza.
Cheryl paid since this was sort of a delayed birthday present.
The film, btw, is excellent.
Then back home here for a late dinner and some time on the internet.
The weather is definitely turned colder and most of the leaves on the trees outside the building have fallen.Temps in low 20's tonight,so I'm off to bed.

Just some stuff...
Some conclusions I've reached about customers:
1. It's near to impossible to pitch addon sales to someone who doesn't
understand or speak English very well.
2. Classical music customers are a breed apart. Not only do they want a
particular piece of music..it has to be done by a specific
performer or they turn their nose up at it. Picky, picky, picky.

I had three classical music customers in a row today and it was not the
most pleasant experience. It must have been an All Souls' Day vibe or
something like it.

In other matters, I signed up for the Nanowrimo novel writing and as the
second day of November dawns, I've yet to start..man, will I have a lot of
catching up to do.

A beautiful day today for November. Temps were in the 70's. And I was
inside the store working for all of it.