Call Before You Dig

I've seen a lot of ads lately reminding us to call before we dig. I had put off digging up a small flower garden in the front yard for a few years because I felt I had to call first, and I am notorious for avoiding picking up a phone. The thing is, the garden had been there for years when the gas company came along and shot their line right under it.  No digging required on their part, but it certainly put a complete halt to any digging I might do. My son, who used to work for Promark, tried to tell me that I wasn't going to dig deep enough to worry about, just moving flowers, but I figured if anyone was ever going to dig through a gas line, it would be me, so I just left everything to grow until it got completely out of hand.

Last fall I knew the day had come that I was going to have to bite the bullet and move that flower bed. I used a trowel and removed what I could and then we filled the whole area with rocks. This spring I discovered that I did not actually get all the roots and various things came up anyway. But at least I didn't dig through any gas lines.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for one of my neighbours recently. I heard sirens and went outside to see what was going on just in time to see a fire truck come down my street. It parked in front of a house a couple of doors down and another one came and parked just beyond our lot line, and blocked off the road. Of course several of the neighbours wandered down the street to see what was going on. One said, "Well, there doesn't seem to be any smoke or fire,"just before he spotted a small digger and decided the gasline must have been breached. At that point, he turned around and headed for home without another word. The house owner came over and I asked if they broke the gas line, and she admitted that was what happened.  A fireman came and told us all to disperse.  He told us to get away from the area as there was gas and it was dangerous. Lovely.

I didn't have the nerve to dig the depth of a shovel without calling but if I was going to use a mechanical digger, I certainly would have made the call first.

The fire department has to wait for Enbridge to shut off the gas. Enbridge seemed to take a long time to arrive and it was all starting to make me a little nervous.  But eventually the line was secured and all the fire trucks and Enbridge vehicles went away.

This week there was a major explosion in London, Ontario when a car ran into a house and ruptured the gas line. The fire department was there within two minutes but about 12 minutes later the whole neighbourhood blew up. Seven people were injured. One hundred homes were evacuated and ten of those will be demolished. That has nothing to do with digging, but it sure lets me know how lucky we all were here.

Now I'm really glad I have a few flowers that I just didn't dig deep enough to eliminate. I might have eliminated myself in the process.  It's important to call before you dig!

When the Cat's Away....

This week there was a bit of excitement in our village. I had been downtown and when I came back there was a police car parked on the road in my general neighbourhood. I say on the road as it was not exactly pulled off to one side. It was empty and that seemed to indicate that the police officer made a hasty stop before exiting his vehicle. I could not tell where he was or which of my neighbours I might need to worry about.

Eventually he came back out to his vehicle and moved it to a safer location at the side of the road.  It seems one of my neighbours was on vacation and when the person who came to check on the house got there, she discovered the window at the back had been broken by someone who wanted to gain access. I don't know at this point what, if anything, might have gone missing in the process, or what other types of damage may have occurred.

Now, here's the thing that I want you all to understand, and the very reason I'm writing this particular blog: The owner of the house mentioned an intended vacation a few days ago on Facebook, and has since been posting pictures of a a beautiful southern location. That's like advertising that the house is empty and apparently someone saw that and decided to take advantage of the situation. Personally, I would not have known the house was empty myself if I had not seen those posts.  Probably the friend  alerted the owner of this problem and a perfectly good vacation has been ruined. The owner arrived home the very day after the police were there.

Please people, when you go on vacation, don't post anything about it until you get back. That's a much safer time to share your pictures and stories. Enjoy your holiday, but keep safety and security in mind and keep your travels off social media until you return home.

Not Better by Design

Last fall, in my husband's ongoing quest to protect me, he purchased a step stool.  He had, on numerous occasions, seen me climb up on a kitchen chair to reach things in my cupboards. In the old days, I guess I was deemed young enough to climb on anything, and my chairs were the old sturdy chrome style that could support me without problem.  But now I have wooden chairs, that sometimes get a little wobbly and need regluing from time to time. Apparently he didn't like to see me climbing on those as I may be getting a little wobbly from time to time myself.

My kitchen is green and white but the stool is red, so I don't store it in the kitchen.  Rather than go and get it, I still drag a chair over to do my climbing.  There was another reason that I didn't use it too. When caught on a chair, and confronted with the question of why I wasn't using the stool, I just said it didn't work for me. 

It was only after preparing for Christmas that I was able to explain that statement to my hubby.  I didn't want him thinking I was looking his gift horse in the mouth. I finally had an example of why it wouldn't work, and decided to demonstrate the problem.

My kitchen sink is built over the stairwell to the basement.  That means there is plenty of room between the sink and the window behind it for a shelf.  I wanted that shelf nice and clean, so I'd have someplace to put such things as pies and cookie platters for my guests, without them taking up all the working space on my countertop.  From the floor, I can reach about half way back, to wash and polish that shelf.  From a kitchen chair, I can reach all the way to the windowsill.  From the new step stool I can only reach as far as I can if I'm standing on the floor, with nothing to climb on.  The problem is in the design of he stool itself. 

The first problem is that the stool goes from it's flat storage state, to an A frame, so the back legs prevent you from putting the steps close enough to the cupboard. There is a cure for that, I know you are thinking, but I'll address that in a moment.  The second problem is that the stool has a handle that, centers itself over the top step, and keeps my knees from going beyond that.  My feet go under it just fine, but the handle holds me back away from what I'm trying to reach. 

Now, I'm sure you wonder why I don't just turn the stool around sideways, so that I can snuggle it up against the cupboard.  I tried that, and I also demonstrated it to my hubby when he suggested it.  Once he saw that the handle had me standing so that my outer foot was not only right on the edge of the step, but actually hanging over the edge, he agreed that he didn't want me doing that.  I'd get busy doing the job in front of me and slip right off that step, for sure! 

I'm sure there will be things this stool will come in handy for, but as something to climb on in my kitchen, I'm better off standing on my kitchen chairs.  If hubby thinks they are too wobbly to be trustworthy, I will remind him that I have a wild assortment of glues available in the basement.

Shopping Online Safely

Years ago, when we first thought we might like to purchase something online, but were still not convinced of the safety of such an operation, we took out a special credit card to use on just such occasions.  It had a very low credit limit, so that if something did happen, we wouldn't be too concerned.

We have used that specific card online ever since, even now that we know online shopping with reputable companies is actually safer than doing so in person or on the phone.  It is, because the card numbers are encrypted and nobody ever sees them when you shop online,  so they can never be copied and used elsewhere. 

It was actually our regular credit card that ran into trouble. But VISA is very quick to phone you when their system flags unusual activity. Someone in Montreal was trying to max it out on Christmas Eve one year.  While VISA had me on the phone, saying we are not in Montreal buying anything, they also had the police on another line, and were ready to catch the person who was fraudulently using our card number. I was very impressed with how quickly this problem was dealt with.

We learned at that time that crooks often work at a gas station just long enough to collect some credit card numbers and then move on. They recreate the cards and then go shopping. After that we decided to use our "safe for online" credit card for gas purchases too.

Another time someone apparently tried to purchase a cruise, but they were using the safe card  number, and there wasn't nearly enough credit to complete the purchase. So they tried to book a lower priced trip and ran into the same problem. Once again, the flags went up at VISA.  I don't know if that person was caught or not, but they sure didn't get access to any of our funds.

Pay Pal came along at some point, and I got an account with them. I use it when I wanted to purchase things like flowering tea balls from China. I'm not about to give some unknown person in a far away land my credit card number, but Pay Pal is a safe way to deal with such vendors.  I've also had people pay me for photographs using Pay Pal. A lady in California sent me some money very easily that way. It's a much safer way to do business online. I don't have to worry about receiving a bad cheque from someone I can't track down in exchange for my photos. 

Then this week I got an e-mail from Pay Pal saying that someone in Nicaragua had tried to access my account and that it would be locked down until I signed in to verify it again. I was a bit suspicious of that message.  I signed in the regular way, without clicking on any links within an e-mail,  and immediately the phone rang. An automated voice was asking for the verification code that had popped up on my screen.  Once that was entered, the site was accessible to me once again, and I was happy to find out how well protected even Pay Pal is.

Since Pay Pal often wants to attach your account with them to either a bank account or a credit card, it reassures me to know how secure they are.  You can transfer money to and from Pay Pal from the linked bank account. Likewise,  they can just charge the balance of a purchase to your credit card when what you currently are holding in Pay Pal is not enough to complete the purchase. That beats waiting the three days for a transfer to go through.  Just like the low credit level card I hold, I also have a mad money account at a totally different bank from where I normally deal. That's the account I attached Pay Pal to.  I can transfer money to and from the Pay Pal account from there, and never worry about crooks getting access to my life's savings.

I was being very careful when I set up that account, and the little VISA card, but it's paid off.  While both VISA and Pay Pal have proven to be very safe, I also know I don't have to worry about too much money disappearing if anything ever is breached. Shopping online can be very safe with a few precautions.