4th of July

We spent Independence Day with our married kids and all our grandkids. While the fireworks weren't as grand as in the DC area, they were still pretty nice, and with a little tweaking using photo software, you can make them even nicer. Above is a composite of three of my favorite fireworks photos put together.

Have you checked your credit card lately?

I made a couple of online purchases at the end of May. I read on a message board Friday that several people who had ordered online from one of the places that I'd ordered, had been having fraud problems with their credit or debit cards that they'd used for their purchase.

So I checked mine. And yes, it had been fraudulently used. Not only that, but either none of the security procedures (that should have raised a fraud alert) were used, OR my identity has been stolen, too. The thief somehow added himself/herself to my account. That shouldn't have been able to happen, because I'm the primary card holder. I'm supposed to be the only one who should have been able to do it. And the thief changed the email address, home address, and telephone number on file. The thief shouldn't have been able to do that either, unless he/she had enough info to convince the credit card company that they were me. In which case, my identity has probably been stolen, too.

Hopefully I caught this early enough to minimize the damage, but my husband had his identity stolen in 2001, and that was a nightmare.

For the record, there is no guarantee that it was the online shopping. It could have been a gas pump I used locally. So now my husband and I will be paying cash for gas, and no more online shopping, either.

It also could have been unrelated to either the online purchase or the gas pump. My husband and I can't help but wonder if it was an inside job at the credit card company since the security precautions appear to have been ignored or overrided.

Whatever the case, the investigation has begun, and a fraud alert has been filed with the credit bureaus. So now we wait and see, and deal with any problems that may arise, one at a time.

As a side note, the guy who stole my husband's identity in 2001 DID get caught and prosecuted. Hopefully this person will be, too.

So, have you checked your credit card lately for anything questionable? If not, do yourself a favor and don't wait till your statement shows up. It might not ever come. Most cases of identity theft aren't discovered for awhile, like a month or two or three. By that time, the thief has done a LOT of damage!

Oh, HAIL!!!

May 14th we got a hailstorm that was the worst I've ever experienced in my 30 years of living in Virginia. The odd thing is that it seems to have hit our little neighborhood the worst. We got hailstones as big as 1.25 inches while a neighborhood east of us got hail about .75 inches, and another neighborhood a little farther to the southwest of us got only rain!

Needless to say, it did some damage. It dinged our siding really bad, and broke one of our security lights. I'm grateful that no windows were broken. I picked up some of the hail from our porch and yard and put it next to a ruler on my stove, so you can see in the above photo how big it was.

Biopsy results

It wasn't malignant yet, for which I was very grateful. However, it wasn't benign, either, and the edges weren't clean, which meant more surgery.

The stitches didn't hold it well enough, so the biopsy site ended up looking almost like a bullet hole. Today the doctor took the rest of her "pound of flesh" -- not really a pound, but I now have an incision that is a little over an inch long. To prevent a recurrance of the incision popping open, I can't do much of anything. It's because of the location, which is a difficult spot, so it's hard to avoid stressing the incision.

It hurts a bit tonight, but at least this should take care of this particular problem so it won't develop into Melanoma.

Time for a check up!

Recently my brother was diagnosed with malignant Melanoma, a type of skin cancer which is easily treated if caught early. In that case, removal is hopefully all that is needed. If left too long, however, Melanoma can be deadly.

Our grandfather had malignant Melanoma. It started with a black mole on his cheek.

Thankfully my brother's Melanoma had not spread. What surprised me, though, was that his Melanoma was red, not black. I didn't realize that Melanoma could be red, white, and blue, or even just different shades of brown.

However, I decided I'd better get checked by a dermatologist. So I had my appointment on Tuesday. The spots that I was worried about were nothing to worry about.

However, the doctor found three moles that were of more concern. Two are to be watched carefully for awhile. The other mole she removed for a biopsy. So now I wait for 7 to 14 days to find out if it's malignant.

If it is, then I'll get to have more pieces of flesh carved out, just as my brother did. It's better than the alternative of nothing being done, though, and letting it spread.

Regardless of how it turns out, I'm suddenly feeling a bit mortal, and rethinking my priorities. I also went and got a full physical from my regular doctor. If anything needs to be fixed, there's no better time to do it than now.

Life can be short. Treasure your loved ones. And get a check-up from your doctor(s). I'm glad I did.

Spring at last

What a difference 6 weeks can make! Although today is a bit cool, and the temperatures haven't been as warm as a couple of days ago (it reached the low 70's), it's glorious to finally have Spring come. The daffodils, crocus, and hyacinths are starting to bloom, and even some of the cherry trees are blossoming!

While I don't know if we'll manage to get down to see the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin this year, the header on my blog is of the cherry blossoms taken in a previous year.

Unfortunately, spring also brings allergies, at least that's what I assume has been giving me grief for the last few weeks.

Allergies or not, though, I'm happy that spring has come at last! I'll try to post a few pictures when I have something to show.

Digging out

The snow finally stopped yesterday, later in the afternoon. My husband and son shoveled out our very long driveway but were too worn out to dig out our cars. Normally we don't work on Sunday, which we keep for worship and family, but we didn't have a choice. It couldn't all be done in one effort.

The final total snowfall appears to have been about 2 feet, give or take a half an inch. That was based on measuring various locations around our home, such as the top of the trash can lid and driveway. Nearby areas reported more than that, so I don't know whether my measurement is accurate or not, but it certainly wasn't less than what I measured. It just might have been more. Wading through the snow in the back yard, it was above my husband's knees.

It was a lot of snow, especially for our area. We're supposed to get more snow in a couple of days, too.

When I went out to take pictures yesterday, I realized that our neighbor's tree had fallen over and just missed possibly damaging our home. It fell between the wall of our house and the corner post that holds up our porch roof. The top of the tree is resting on our concrete porch. There was a glob of snow where the tree grazed the porch roof as it fell into the gap. How thankful we are that it fell into the gap instead of directly against the wall of our house.

All in all, we came through the storm pretty well. We're counting our blessings.