Sunlightbay

I rode up Mt. Magazine with some friends and members of the Arkansas Bicycle Club. Jim, the club president scheduled the ride. There were 7 of us that made the ride. Some folks spent the night on the mountain at the Lodge. They rode down the mountain the next morning and rode back up with the rest of us. I drove from home, which took about an hour and 45 minutes. We started up the mountain at 10:30.

It was a beautiful day for a ride. The temperature was in the 80’s and got cooler as we rode higher up the mountain and was in the 70’s before we reached the top.

We parked at Havana, a small town at the foot of the mountain in Yell County. The mountain is visible from quite a distance before Havana.

The road up the mountain is a paved two-lane road but is pretty rough in places, although I was thankful there were very few big pot holes. Everyone rode at their own speed, which meant that we all rode most of the way alone. Jim stopped and waited for me a couple of times, which gave me a reason to stop and rest.

The road went through the woods. Only after I got near the top could I see anything below. The view, although not very open, granted me encouragement because I knew the top would not be very far away.

After about 8 miles I reached the overlook. Jim waited for me there, and I took some pictures and rested a few minutes. We rode to the Lodge together. It was another 4 miles to the Lodge. There were some more hills to climb, but the worst part was over.

We had lunch at the Lodge at the top of the mountain. It’s a gorgeous place; Ann and I stayed there once. The rooms are very nice, though expensive.

After lunch, Ted and I rode down the mountain together. It took over 45 minutes to get down. We averaged about 16 miles per hour. We could have gone a lot faster, of course, but we braked a lot and arrived safely.

It was a difficult ride for me to say the least. It took me over 2 hours to cover the 12 miles to the Lodge. I stopped 3 times to rest for a couple of minutes. I was exhausted and sort of hurt all over by the time I finished.

I measured stuff and recorded data about the ride. I broke the data into 2 parts—the ride up and the ride down. During the ride up, my heart rate averaged 145 beats/minute. I’ve never recorded my average heart rate that high before. My maximum heart rate during the ride up was 159, and that’s about as high as it ever gets. Basically, my heart rate was at almost 90% of my maximum rate for 2 hours while riding up the mountain. That’s enough to make any old man tired. The average speed going up the mountain was about 6 mph. However, much of the time my speed was 4 or below, which is the speed necessary to keep the bike upright.

I rode up the mountain one other time. I remember that it was a hard ride but not nearly as hard as yesterday. Reasons for the ride being harder now is that at 75 years old, I’m 7 years older and 17 pounds heavier than when I rode it the first time. I can’t get any younger, but I hope to lose some weight if I ever decide to ride up the mountain again.

More about the case of the stolen wallet

As we were sitting on the patio enjoying a glass of wine last night, we heard a loud pounding on the back door. To my surprise, it was a police officer, looking for Ann. He said a woman tried to purchase some furniture at the Big Lots store in south Little Rock with a check and used Ann’s driver’s license for identification. When the clerk questioned the woman about not looking like the picture on the driver’s license, she ran away. Big Lots called the police, who took the license and check.

The policeman showed Ann the license that was used, and, of course, it was hers. He asked if he could keep it for evidence. Since Ann already had another license, she agreed. The officer said he searched the police database for Ann’s name looking for a report of a stolen driver’s license, but for some unknown reason he didn’t find the report about her stolen wallet. So, his report is a new case, but he said he would link it to the previous report.  He said he asked for and got special permission from his supervisor to come to our house, because west Little Rock is not part of his territory. I’m glad he came to discuss the case with us face-to-face.

We asked if we could see the check. He said we could see it but we couldn’t touch it. He put on rubber gloves to handle the check. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t another check from Ann’s mother’s account. But, it wasn’t. The check looked authentic to me. It had Ann’s name and address in the upper left corner. The officer said that on close inspection there were some indications that it was a fake—slightly misaligned margins, for example. The woman signed the check, Marilyn Bridges. So, the woman didn’t even try to copy Ann’s signature. Ann usually signs Ann Bridges, and that how she signed her driver’s license.

We asked if the woman who tried to use the check was black, because the woman who distracted Ann while looking for the Chow-Chow was black. The officer said the woman who tried to pass the check at Big Lots was white. Who knows how she got Ann’s driver’s license.

It happened in aisle 6 in the Kroger store. A woman distracted Ann for a moment, while a man grabbed her wallet and ran away. This happened a couple of weeks ago.

She had her wallet in a large purse, which was in the shopping cart and wide open so the wallet was visible. A women sidled up to Ann and asked if she knew where the Chow-Chow was. Ann took a couple of steps away from her shopping cart. As she pointed toward the Chow-Chow, a man came by and made a “thumbs-up” sign to the woman. Ann immediately recognized that something was wrong: the woman didn’t make a move to reach for the Chow-Chow, and the man motioned to his accomplice as he ran by. Ann quickly went back to her cart and discovered her wallet was missing. She started yelling loudly, “That man took my wallet!” She followed him to the end of the isle but by then he was out of sight.

I was out for a bike ride with a group of friends, and we were just finishing our coffee break at Panera, when Ann called me. Obviously, I could tell she was very upset, but I told her I was only a couple of miles away from my car and could be to the Kroger store in a few minutes. When I got to my car, I called her back to she how she was doing and suggested that I not come to Kroger but rather go home and cancel her credit cards. She agreed that was a good plan.

So, within an hour I had canceled her debit card and her credit card. For these cards, I spoke to a person who assured me that the cards would be canceled and that we would not responsible for any charges. Since I can see on line all transactions as they are posted for both cards, I could tell that the cards had not been used.

While I was canceling the credit cards, Ann talked to the assistant store manager that day. He helped her call the police. Ann described both perpetrators to two detectives who took information for a report. The detectives weren’t very optimistic that the thieves would be caught. By the time I got to Kroger, the detectives were gone. I paid for the groceries and we came home.

Ann tried to remember what was in her wallet. She remembered 4 more credit cards—one from Belk’s, one from JC Penney’s, one from Sears, and one from Steinmart. I called all these places and got almost identical responses from all—everything was automated. All the cards were issued by Syncrony Bank, and I never spoke to a person. Even though I didn’t have the credit card number, I was able to provide enough information for the cards to be canceled. The automated “person” said the cards would be canceled and new cards would be issued.

She also had a Sam’s Club card (not a credit card) and a Kroger card (not a credit card). Also, health insurance card, and a Medicare card. Up until last year, your Medicare number was the same as your social security number. That causes us some concern to know the thieves know her social security number. She also had some checks (possibly only 2) from her mother’s checkbook. Ann is on her mother’s bank account, but seldom needs to write a check so she only had a couple in her wallet. Thank goodness her main checkbook was not in the wallet. But, she didn’t remember that she had any checks in her wallet.

We discovered that she had some checks stolen when we were alerted by email by Ann’s mother’s bank that she had bounced a check. Ann’s sister, Kay, and I both have on line access to monitor that bank account. When I learned that a check had bounced, I went on line to discover that two checks had been written—one for a bit over $1200 and one for over $1400. The checks were written to Sam’s club. As you may know, you can’t get into Sam’s Club store without a Sam’s card, but, of course, the thieves had Ann’s Sam’s card. The robbery didn’t cost Ann’s mother any money, because she didn’t have that much money in her account at that time, so the first check bounced. When we told the bank that some checks were stolen, they refunded the fee for a bounced check. Kay eventually closed that account and opened another account to be sure we had no further problems.

Although we had canceled all the credit cards within an hour or so of the theft, the thieves were able to use one of the cards anyway. We discovered this when we received an email alert from Equifax—one of the three big credit reporting companies in the country. These credit companies receive information any time something changes about your credit. For example, when you pay your credit card bill, Equifax will send an alert that the balance on that card when from $XXX to $0. Ann received a free subscription to the Equifax alert system, when some of her information “may” have been compromised. I think it was when lots of information, including Ann’s, was hacked from Target a year or so ago. Nevertheless, we received an alert from Equifax that Ann’s Penney’s account changed from $0 to ~$1200. That caught my attention, because I had canceled that card 4 days before. These charges were made at Walmart.

I immediately called the fraud department for the Penney’s card. At first, the person I talked to offered apologies for our loss but said we had not canceled the card immediately after learning that is was stolen. I won’t go into what I told this guy, but after checking for several minutes with others he finally said that he could see that the card had been canceled promptly using the automated system, but it was not actually canceled for several days later. He assured us that we would not be responsible for the charges. Since then, we have received a bill showing that we owed the money, and the next day we received another bill showing we owed nothing.

By the way, she had $65 cash in her wallet. But, if I charged very much per hour for the time I spent clearing this up, it would be a lot more than $65.

Some lessons

Crime pays. As far as I can determine the thieves made off with about $4000 for their efforts. The detectives called Ann a couple of days later with an update. No, they had not found the thieves, but they might check with Kroger to get the surveillance videos to help in their investigation. Yes, they sometimes do catch some of the thieves. However, the thieves usually make bail and are out on the street the next day.

Be careful. Don’t provide an opportunity for the thieves to have easy access to your purse or wallet. A couple of days ago we spoke to the manage of our Kroger store. He says that he admonishes people all the time to not leave their purse in the cart and walk away. He often tells them of the risks of that behavior. He said that some appreciate the advice, and some get huffy as if to indicate that it is nobody’s business how they shop. I’m pretty sure they haven’t had their purse stolen yet.

Memorize what is in your wallet. Ann knew almost everything. That allowed us to act quickly to cancel credit cards. She didn’t remember the checks, but that really didn’t matter. If we had known about the checks, we would have had the bank stop accepting checks. But, for all intents an purposes, that’s what they did. The checks bounced. Sam’s Club is who lost money.

Be vigilant and wary. This is good advice for all. You never know who might try to do you harm.

[stextbox id=”black”]How about carrying a gun?  No, not a good idea in this case. First, the thief might have stolen the gun, had it been in your purse by your wallet. Then, the thief could have shot you with it. Second, it all happened so fast that you would not have had time to retrieve the gun and shoot. Third, if you did shoot, you could have killed or wounded an innocent person. Fourth, even if you could have shot and wounded or killed one or both of the thieves, would you have wanted to? Then, the rest of your life you would carry the burden of wounding or killing someone for $65. No, please don’t carry a gun.[/stextbox]

A couple of days ago, we were in Kroger and by chance we saw the store manager as we entered the store. Ann mentioned to him that she was the person who had her wallet stolen and wondered if he had any information about the crime. He said he didn’t think so (the police usually handle everything) but he would check and catch us before we left. As we were checking out, he came up to Ann and gave her a beautiful flower arrangement. That made her/our day. Of course, it was not Kroger’s fault. But, there is a lesson here. When a business screws up, it is often the way they handle the situation that is remembered. If they seem to go out of their way to make things right (even if they can’t), that’s what will often be remembered.

It goes something like this. Congratulations you have just won the sweepstakes (lottery, etc.). All you need to do is send us some money to cover the taxes (processing, legal fees, etc.), and we will bring you the money. This recently happened to my 91-year-old mother-in-law (MIL).

We became aware of this crime when my sister-in-law reviewed her mother’s bank account on line, which showed a withdrawal of $4000 from a saving account. She called the bank and the teller confirmed that MIL had withdrawn the money on Tuesday. MIL told the clerk she was sending the money to a person in Colorado and gave the teller the mailing address for that person—Ruby Ridley in Aurora, CO. Although the teller suggested that she use a cashier’s check rather than sending cash, she insisted on having cash.

Her daughters talked to their mother on Tuesday afternoon by phone about the withdrawal of money. At first she refused to discuss the transaction and urged the girls not to worry. She was very nonchalant at this point and would not say why she withdrew money. She said that everything was fine, there was no need to worry; everything would be over the next day.

By Wednesday we had gotten more information from her about the scam. She thought that she had won about $70,000. Apparently, she had been talking to the scammers for several weeks. The plan was that after they received the money, someone would meet her at her bank to bring her the money. That transaction was supposed to occur on Thursday. She still didn’t understand then, and probably for several days, that she had been duped. She wanted someone to go with her to receive the money, so my brother-in-law went there on Thursday. Of course, we were certain that no money would arrive. Sure enough, someone called her on Thursday morning to say that they would not be able to bring the money until later.

MIL had talked to her nephew’s daughter’s husband who is a lawyer before she sent the money describing to him what she was thinking of doing. Of course, he told her under no circumstances should she send any cash through the mail. She did it anyway.

She sent the money by US Postal Service overnight mail. It arrived the next day, on Wednesday. We were not able to get the tracking number until it was too late to intercept the package.

After the scammers received the money, they continued to call, saying they needed more money to continue processing the award. Surprise, surprise!

One of her daughters called the phone number a couple of times that was frequently used to call MIL. A person always answered, but the conversation was never pleasant. He said MIL was his friend and she gave him the money. He claimed to be in New York City, although his phone number area code was 876, which is probably in Jamaica. Apparently, scam calls from this area code are very common. My sister-in-law told him to stop calling her mother—we are on to your scam! He was defiant. He once told her that he would stop calling her mother if she would send him $500. He once told her that if she were in Haiti, he would have her smothered. He called her back once to say, “You will pay…”

Right away, we knew the address of where she sent the money, because she left the address with the bank teller. She also kept the receipt from the post office which had the address and a tracking number.
The address was an apartment building in Aurora, CO. It seemed to be a legitimate place, because I could find it on the Internet. I called the post office in Aurora and talked to a supervisor. I explained what had happened and asked for his help. Because at that time I didn’t have the tracking number, there wasn’t much he could do. I didn’t realize at this point that the money had already been delivered. However, he offered to try to intercept the money by alerting the mail carrier to watch for a package from Arkansas.

I called the Police Department in Aurora for assistance. The dispatcher said there was nothing they could do and advised me to call the Attorney General’s Office in my state, which I had already done.

I called the Postal Inspector’s Office and filed a report. They suggested that I also file a report with the Federal Trade Commission, which I did. I talked several times with the Arkansas Attorney General’s office. They provided advice about how to avoid being scammed, but they did not file a report.

When the scammers continued to call after receiving the money, it became clear that they would try to get more money. If so, why not set a trap, so to speak. I thought the police, Postal Inspector, or someone from the Federal Trade Commission could go to the address in Colorado when the next “payment” was due to arrive. So, I called all these folks back with this proposition—let’s catch them in the act! However, they all said they couldn’t do anything like that. Since I had already filed a report, that’s all I could do.

I fantasized about having Eugene or Vinny show up there with a baseball bat or a double-bladed ax. Perhaps, a few broken bones would send these bastards a message.

We learned much later that MIL had sent two overnight packages to the same address in Colorado. The first time was about three days before she sent $4000 in cash. We don’t know how much she sent the first time, because she doesn’t remember. We believe she probably sent about $200. We monitor her bank account withdrawals, and there was only one unexplained withdrawal—a $200 check written to “Cash”.

We are resigned to the fact that the scammer will not be caught. We arranged to limit the amount of money MIL has access to. We monitor her credit card and bank accounts. If she is scammed again, they won’t be able to get very much money.

One month after I filed a report with the Office of the Postal Inspector, an Inspector called me to say they planned to visit Ruby Ridley in Aurora, CO as part of their investigation. They promised to call me back with an update. I hope they take a baseball bat with them…

This episode emphasizes an unfortunate truth. The elderly are very vulnerable to these kinds of scams. Changes in their brain make them more prone to act in irrational ways. It’s our responsibility to assist our elderly loved ones so they won’t be victimized.  If we have to break a few legs along the way, so be it.

I had my first subcutaneous infusion of immunoglobulin (IGG) today at home. The doctor switched me from monthly IV infusions to weekly subcutaneous infusions in hopes that weekly doses of a smaller amount would provide a more constant level of IGG compared to a larger dose administered once a month.

A nurse came today to help me with the first infusion and teach me how; she will probably come once more to help me, but after that, I will administer the infusion myself.

The nurse brought enough supplies for a month (4 infusions), including the IGG, which I will store in the refrigerator. Each month a courier from the pharmacy will bring more supplies and more IGG.

I mowed off some of my belly hair so the tape to hold the needles in place would stick onto my skin better. I rubbed a lidocaine cream on my belly to help deaden the pain. I stuck the needles in myself; they are pretty small, about 1/4 inches long.  I felt no pain. The needles were taped to my belly to hold them in place.

We used 2 big syringes to administer the IGG. We filled the syringes with IGG from 2 bottles/vials each containing 40 ml (about 3 tablespoons). The syringe was connected to five small tubes, which were connected to tiny needles. We wore gloves and wiped my belly with alcohol. The syringe was connected to a pump, which automatically dispensed the IGG. It took about 30-40 minutes for each syringe to empty. I felt almost nothing when the IGG was going in, except for a slight itching at the very start of the infusion.

I took Tylenol and benedryl before starting the infusion, because that I what the doctor ordered when I had IV infusions at the hospital. By the time the infusion was finished, I felt pretty bad with a headache and a feverish feeling (but no fever). I felt about the same as I did following the IV infusions. This surprised me a little, because I didn’t expect the smaller dose to cause the same symptoms as the IV infusions.

I’m still hopeful that IGG infusions will eventually make me feel better.  I have not felt very good at all since the last IV infusion.  Like the doctor, I hope this type of infusion will work better for me.

I had my sixth, and last, infusion today. I was diagnosed with Common Variable Immunodifficiency (CVID) several months ago after feeling bad for more than a year. I’m not really very sick, but I just don’t feel good. On a bad day, I feel like I’m coming down with the flu (eyes burn, headache behind my eyes, my skin feels tingly like I’m about to have a fever). That’s as far as it ever goes. I never get very sick. In fact, I didn’t even have a cold all last year.

Although most of the time I manage to do normal activities, I’m not up to par. For example, in 2012 I rode over 5200 miles on my bike. The next year, I started feeling poorly and only rode a bit over 4200 miles. This year I have ridden only 2300 so far, whereas last year at this time I had ridden 3700. (I know, lots of data, but I was a scientist). You might argue that I’m older now than last year. But barely! The point is I haven’t felt as spry in the last couple of years as I usually did.

I may have been a little more bitchy than usual, but I think I have a pretty good attitude. At least I’m trying to keep a positive attitude; I’ll really get the blues when I get really sick.

I saw my doctor a couple of days ago. He recommended that I stop having IV infusions every month and do sub-cutaneous infusions once a week at home. The in-home treatments involve sticking yourself with several needles under the skin to inject the immumoglobulins (same medicine as for monthly infusions). It takes about an hour, and a nurse will come one or two times to show me how to do it. The doctor pointed out that the weekly infusions give a smaller, but more frequent, dose. With monthly infusions, I get a big slug of immunoglobulins, which are gradually removed from the body in about a month. With weekly injections, the levels would never be as high, but would never be as low. It should provide a more steady level of immunoglobulins—no highs or lows.

I agreed to try this new injection method for a while. My doctor was reluctant to take me off the infusions completely, because the blood tests show I have a compromised immune system. However, I can’t tell the infusions helped much and were certainly not a cure.

This last infusion was the easiest of all. I was given Tylenol tablets and benadryl and steroids with the infusion to mitigate the side effects. This was the same treatment as last time. For some reason, I didn’t feel as bad as before. I had a headache and felt somewhat bad and I was drowsy from the benadryl, but overall I felt pretty good. Maybe I’m on the road to recovery!

I had another infusion of immunoglobulins today.  This one was about the same as the previous two.  I get an IV and the stuff drips in over a period of about 3 hours.  I don’t feel much of anything as it drips in, but the infusion usually causes me to have a bad headache.  I got Tylenol before the treatment started to help with the pain.  I don’t believe the headache was quite as bad this time.

I have been feeling a little better since I’d been having the infusion, so I hope the treatment is helping.  I was a little disappointed that the treatment didn’t result in an immediate “cure”.  I will have three more treatments after this one and then evaluate the situation.  I’m still optimistic.

This happened soon after we returned from our trip back East to visit our kids. She had significant pain in her foot, so she went to the foot doctor. The doctor took some x-rays and gave her a cortisone shot. The doctor gave her a boot to wear in case there was a stress fracture that didn’t show up on the x-ray.

Her foot didn’t get better and she went back to the doctor for a follow-up visit today. This time the x-ray showed that her foot was broken. So, she must wear the boot for 8 weeks to allow her foot to heal.

She doesn’t know how she broke her foot but wonders if chasing after the grandkids as they were riding their bikes, or racing through the Atlanta airport to catch our connecting flight could have done it.

Naturally, having to wear the heavy boot has put her in a bit of a foul mood.

This occurred to me. Here’s a woman in a foul mood wearing a huge boot on her foot. I immediately thought of entering her in an ass-kicking contest. I do believe she could win. I looked around and was ready to enter her in a contest, but she was adamant that she would not participate. She did indicate that she might see how far she could kick the boot up you know where.

So, the ass-kicking contest is out. I’m helping more around the house until her foot heals. Thank God she doesn’t have to wear that thing to bed.

Allow me to brag a little.

Matthew was recognized for being one of the best ENT physicians in Richmond by OurHealth magazine. Members of the public were invited to vote on which physicians had the best bedside manners. Matthew received an honorable mention among Otolaryngologists. This indicates that he is a nice guy as well as being an outstanding surgeon. He specializes in facial plastic surgery, especially rhinoplasty (nose jobs). Go here to see some of the noses he has operated on.

I got in a fight yesterday and today.  I was attacked by the meanest and ugliest of the Rrhea boys, Dia. He attacked me from the rear.  There was nothing I could do.  Yesterday, he attacked many times, but finally gave up and left me alone.  So, I had a nice dinner and felt fine.

But, this morning he was back and this time he had an accomplice, in the form of a big Amazon, a so-called, Miss Vomick.  I had no power over her.  When she came at me, I would fall on my knees and break out in a cold sweat.  When I didn’t think I could take any more, she would let up, but often that Rrhea boy would hit me again from the rear.  This continued all day.  By late in the day, the attacks had stopped.  The savage attacks left me meek and weak, and I don’t plan to eat much of anything any time soon. I hope they will forget about me.