The Gloom

 as we await, freezing something. Sleet, pellets- its March, could be snow

I went visiting, yesterday, a slightly older cousin had invited me over.

We did not grow up together, she was always more aunt than cousin. Yet, we have so much in common b/c we did see each other monthly or weekly, depending.

Follow up. ' Rebel in  the Rye ' the story of J.D. Salinger. Luckily, ' Cathcer in the Rye ' is  published and explodesonto the literary scene. Unfortunately, so does the person, Jerry Salinger. Salinger is uncomfortable w/ the acclaim and ' lionizing ' he has achieved. His withdrawl from the world and his mentor and friends is predicatble as you watch the time pass.

J.D.S. has a few more successes but that is not enough or rather too much.... way too much. The solution ... keep writing but  do not publish. That is what he does. Never again.

Sadly, for you, I'll keep writing but you can stop reading or abetting  the blog.

And then - here is the story from here. we haven't been travelling to the U.S. and certain services have expired or gone dormant. Our pay- as - you - go Tracfones no longer have service or a phone number. We basically, need to start all over in the next few weeks.
We went online and purchased new SIM cards. However, twice the Tracfone site refused to accept our U.S. debit card from Wells Fargo.
I switched to our Canadian card and success. The cards got to our American firends who will relay the cards on.
Then this weekend, I needed to check Wells Fargo and found .... yes, two charges from Tracfone < for cards that cannot be ordered and have no order number >.
I got hold off a Tracfone rep. who assured me the charges did not go through.

And Wells Frago. M s card expired. We tried to get a renewal but M doesn't have information on our data page at WF. M cannot get new card w/out visiting an actual branch < like 400 miles from here >. 

Brilliantly, I asked ' can I order a second debit card ? '
" Yes ". Great right.

We waited and today two cards appeared and 2 PIN codes seperately. However, one PIN didn't match the debit card 16 digit #. I called Wells Fargo and explained. The agent then says ' I see that you ordered 4 cards"
FOUR ? No wonder a PIN didn't match b/c that PIN is for a card still in transit or the ether. And we await 2 more Debit cards and PINs. The agent said to keep what we need and destroy the rest - well, actually, if the Debit card is not acitvated w/in 10 days, the card expires.
The upshot is - we will carry 3 Debit cards to the U.S. - figure out which ones work and destroy one later.
The one Debit card that we had here expired in 2023. The new Debit cards exp 2026. Crikey ! Never easy. Never dull.

So ends the saga, for now.