Odds and Ends

A Tuba Heard Along the Road

I got up early on Saturday to go to Kohl’s to do some shopping. I had a $10 coupon from Discover. If I used my discover card at Kohl’s and bought $30 worth of merchandise, I would get the ten dollars off. I needed some new dress pants so why not go. Ended up buying two pair both of which were on sale to begin with. Ended up being under 50 bucks for both.

That’s the set up to this story.

I decided I wanted to go early in the day. I was out the door before 8:30. The Kohl’s is probably about 30 minutes from my house.

Traffic was light because it was so early. I was stopped at a light and all of a sudden I heard a tuba playing. (I had my windows open because it was a cool morning.) I looked around and couldn’t for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. But it was definitely a tuba. Then a few second later I heard flutes and piccolos.

I was in College Park where the University of Maryland is located. I looked off to my left and there was the marching band practicing. The various cheer leading squads were there as well.

What they’d done on one of the fields was create a football field. They’d set up the line markers. They also had the stand for the band conductor as well. Another minute or so passed and the whole band started playing. Then the light turned green and I was off to do my shopping.

I looked for them on my way back from shopping and they were still at it.

Lost a Credit Card

I was at the ATM machine the other day getting money when all of a sudden I noticed that one of my credit cards was not in my wallet. Of course the ATM was at a Metro station so I couldn’t exactly empty my wallet right there and then.

I did make a quick search but the card seemed to be gone. I had a thirty minute Metro ride to think just where it might have been and when I last used the thing.

I figured out I had not bought something online recently. So the card would not be next to my keyboard on my desk at home. I’ve left them there from time to time if I bought something online.

I next tried to figure out when the last time I used the card. It came to me it was when I was at a Nats game and I bought the final game ticket and one for me this past weekend. I figure I must have somehow lost it there.

When I got home I checked to make sure that I didn’t have any odd charges on the card. What was on it was what I expected.

Next step was to cancel the card. I called the credit card company. Thankfully I didn’t need to input the entire number of the card because I wouldn’t have been able to find it. On the bills for this company, only the last four numbers of the card are listed.

I made the call and cancelled the card. One other thing I asked about when cancelling was that there was a notice when I went on-line that said a replacement card was on the way. I asked if that had been sent or not. I was told it hadn't and I didn't have to worry about that.

The new card should be arriving by the end of the week.