I’m not sure when my MacBook’s photo app started being able to find random things by just typing in their names. Like “llamas”. I mean this pic is not named or tagged “llamas”. It’s named IMG_0686.jpg, and I took it in 2015 with my old iPhone 5S in the exact location as the alpaca photo from yesterday.

At least I and Photos think these are llamas. I don’t know much about the differences between llamas and alpacas except that llamas are bigger. These guys look big. There do seem to be other aminals including maybe alpacas in the background.

I actually had to write a check to pay a bill. I do that fewer than five times a year. This year we got the moomincabin well pump fixed and the folks at the pump repair place probably don’t have the “chops” to set up an online payment system. Which is okay, I’d rather they focus on pump repair expertise. I was mainly concerned that the GG needed to make sure they knew where to send the invoice because there is an address at the moomin but there isn’t a mailbox and even if there was, no one is currently monitoring it.

But writing a check and putting it in the mail is a risky business these days, at least in our little city. People have been dredging mail out of the drive-up boxes, “cleaning” checks and writing in new payees and amounts, usually MUCH LARGER amounts. This sounds like an urban legend but it has actually happened to a good friend of mine. Fortunately her bank caught it.

My area post office and others have removed the big old drive-up drop-off boxes, replacing them with smaller ones with smaller slots. This prevents people from reaching down inside them to pull out mail but it also makes people get out of their cars to drop off their mail because the boxes (and their slots) are no longer conveniently located. This has also resulted in EXTREME vandalism at one PO branch where somebody destroyed the boxes completely and took ALL of the mail.

I have adapted. When I have a check I actually have to mail, I go over to the post office at 7:00 AM, when the “lobby” is open but not the service area (and NO ONE is around so I can easily park right outside the door). I get out of my car and go INSIDE and put the envelope in the slot. Then I cross my fingers that my check is delivered safely and watch my bank account like a hawk (which I do anyway) for it to clear.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2023 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.