I get an RSS feed from a homesteading site. These people merely collect and distribute articles, as opposed to writing about their own experiences. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes what they share makes my head spin. Here are two consecutive articles they posted: Christmas Tree Strawberry Brownie Cupcake Mix, and How To Make A Stun Gun With A Disposable Camera. I can just see a thirty something homemaker, coifed and ready for a cell phone youtube video session in the kitchen, whipping up cupcakes and stun guns. Makes me wonder about people’s sanity.
I continue to receive the feed though, because occasionally there are gems included, like cleaning your fireplace glass door with newspaper and ashes. I am passing on cupcakes and stun guns though. Take what you like and leave the rest is sensible approach to such things.
Today is full of excitement. The freezing rain is pelting down out there, driven by gusts of wind, roaring up to 50 km an hour. These winds are not damaging though, and nothing in comparison to the 100 mile an hour winds on the West Highlands of Scotland, described in a Crofter’s blog that I read.
Other distractions for the day: I caught the bank making a self-serving and invisible change to my credit card account, and got us out of that mess. I found records of a previously unknown relative and have been entering the data from BMD (birth, marriage, death), and Census records. Tonight’s supper is started, in the cast iron dutch oven. If we lose hydro in this wind I will need to get busy, and fire up the little wood stove downstairs, so that I can cook dinner on it. And I am decorating the Christmas tree, slowly but surely.
Mist is snoozing in Attila’s seat, which she regards as HER seat. There is often a bit of a scrap when Attila wants to sit down!
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Complaint Department: Right Here: Right Now
The BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA in Ontario, Canada, changed my credit card from a monthly billing VISA to a line of credit, where interest is charged the second you use the card, long before you ever see the bill. Same old card, brand new method of charging interest. Quite a stunt. Caught them on day three, with only 50 cents interest to their credit. That is a credit card that will be cancelled and burned! And I’ll be closing all my accounts at the BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA as well. Credit Unions are looking pretty good.
The BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA slipped that one by me in some kind of mysterious small print deal, I don’t know how, because I never would have knowingly agreed to that kind of an arrangement for a credit card.
They did call here trying to get me to switch to a different kind of credit card, with a monthly fee, but I liked the card I had so I said no; they didn’t mention anything about the existing card switching to a line of credit debit thingy though, in fact they didn’t mention any changes to my existing card, only offered me a different one. IF it was the bank who called me, one cannot know for certain.
I don’t do business with banks who call me, too many scams in the world for that kind of trust to be sensible.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
7°C
Date: 12:04 PM EST Thursday 5 December 2013
Condition: Mist
Pressure: 100.5 kPa
Visibility: 10 km
Temperature: 6.6°C
Dewpoint: 5.0°C
Humidity: 89%
Wind: W 30 km/h gusting to 50 km/h
Quote
“I don’t believe in blooming where you’re planted. I’ve been in too many sterile to hostile soils to adhere to that.”
Allen, Anchor Struck
THAT RESONATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, I am not up with stuff like that on credit cards. What made you notice it? I’m beginning to think that living one’s whole life via the internet is going to be more and more problematic for us all, one way or another. I think the people, like you it seems, who live life in a more simple, back-to-basics way, have the right idea.
Oh by the way, Maggie, whenever I put in a comment, it seems to go thru OK but I always now get the pop up box that says this: “A username and password are being requested by http://www.maggieturner.net. The site says: “Protected” ”
then there are two boxes, one for my “user name” and one for my “password” – neither of which I have in here. Is anyone else getting this?
I have disabled the comment edit function for now Bex, it was for you anyway and if it isn’t working for you then it serves no purpose. Let me know if commenting still requests a user name and pasword from you, it should not be doing that. And your comments are coming through just fine.
Ah, yes, the credit card billing trick at the bank. I noticed it because I used the credit card to pay for a HUGE bill, which I was going to pay off in full when the credit card statement came in. I had gone in to make sure the billing had gone through to the credit card OK, and noticed that although I used my VISA card, the billing was showing up under Line of Credit. It had never done that before, so I called to ask what was going on. That is when I found out. Maybe it was when they asked me if I wanted a line of credit, and talked me into it, that they switched the VISA bills to come out of the of credit. They sure didn’t make that clear at the time they were pushing the line of credit. The girl on the phone seemed a little sheepish about it, so I think they may be getting frequent complaints about this. I don’t like this kind of “fooled ya” BS from people I am trying to trust my money with, so I am moving my money out of the Bank of Nova Scotia to another bank. This is the second really BIG BAD SURPRISE from this bank. Years ago, without consulting me, when the interest rates were really high, they moved all my savings into an interest free account for me. I didn’t catch that one for a few months, and fought for a long time to get reimbursed for the missed interest.
testing… to see if comments is without authorization box now… testing 123
that did it Maggie… No pop up box any longer. I just need to pay more attention and maybe type slower, and put my glasses! Thanks!
Wow.. Maggie, those bank shenanigans are just awful… I’m wondering if the amount you charged (the large amount) maybe was the trigger… like maybe they have a policy that if you charge a really big item (like a car or something) it will go on the line of credit rather than the regular credit… just guessing here. It’s hard to keep above the waves with less than honorable businesses these days.
BTW, have you seen all the havoc the weather is having on Great Britain this week?
Here:
Arctic winds batter British coastline
From Scotland down into Northern England, into Wales and over to the east, the weather is totally wild there right now. Even in Ireland.
Glad to hear it is working as it should now Bex, too bad the comment edit thing caused problems! Oh well, I will keep my eyes open for another solution. As far as making typing mistakes goes, well, I don’t even notice them really, too busy thinking about what you are saying.
Bex, the amount, although large, was not over the card limit, and she told me that every purchase from now on would automatically be billed into the line of credit where it would start accumulating interest. It is paid in full now, and that credit card has no future with us.
Wow, the weather in Great Britain is something else! I don’t think we have had anything here quite so widespread and destructive, although Hurricane Hazel in 1954 was pretty intense, with a lot of destruction and some loss of life. New laws were brought in at that time, preventing housing development on flood plains, where most of the people who were killed by Hurricane Hazel lived.