Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Saturday, July 09, 2016

I really am not a dingbat

although I'm feeling like one lately. On Thursday I stopped by Kroger to get a elbow strap for my tendonitis using my flexible spending card and a couple of drinks and a little bit of cash using my debit card. Nothing unusual about that, right?

I got the strap, and then was in process of getting the other when the lady in front of me grabbed me by the arm and thanked me for being so patient (they'd had some issues), and I guess it was at that point when the chip card reader beeped and said 'remove card', and I walked off. My mistake, of course, but I was distracted. I went to work, unknowingly, and did not discover the missing debit card until I'd dropped YKWIA off at his credit union and had gone to the pharmacy to get some medicine for him to conserve time. I was on my way back, on on my gas light, so I stopped by Kroger on Alexandria to get gas. That's when I discovered the missing card, its neat little place in my wallet terribly blank. I still had about $10 on me in cash, so I paid for some gas, called Kroger on Richmond Road, and happily, they had my card. After I picked up YKWIA, I went and got it, and all was good. Or was it?

I helped a friend move some of his stuff into his new place, and then later was putting everything back to rights in my wallet and I discovered that my flexible spending card was gone. Now, I had used it at the Richmond Road Kroger that morning, but it had been in my wallet when I discovered the debit card missing. Kroger's customer service desks were closed already by the time I realised it, and so the next morning I went to work, checked my entire purse and the bags I'd gotten the stuff in (I'd saved them for unexpected stuff that sometimes gets carried home in the rain), and they weren't there. I figured I'd dropped it while rifling through my cards looking for my debit card, so I called the Gardenside Kroger on Alexandria Drive and asked if someone had turned on in at the fuel station, but they hadn't. Now, I wasn't panicking yet, because unlike the debit card, the flexible spending card can only be used on certain medical, dental, and vision expenses, not even most over-the-counter stuff, and it has less than $200 left on it. If someone found it and took it to a gas station or liquor store, it would be declined. But I figured I'd just have to cancel the card and have it reissued, which was a bummer. Then I decided that I'd call Richmond Road just on the off-hand chance I'd dropped it when I put my debit card back in my wallet, and it was there. So after work on Friday, I took YKWIA to an appointment and then went by the Kroger and picked up that. They must think I'm a total idiot. I certainly was mocked thoroughly by my friend.

I think it bears mentioning that in the entire time I have had IDs, debit cards, credit cards, etc., while I may have misplaced something temporarily at home, I have never actually lost a card or had it out of my possession--and then I lose two in one day. Now there was the time (again, at Richmond Road Kroger) that I got all the way through the line and discovered my wallet was not in my purse. It had fallen out at home, and had somehow gotten wedged under the loveseat. That was fun, as I'd had no car, so I had to walk home, find the wallet, leaving my granny cart at Kroger, and then walk back to pay for the suspended order, then had to drag my granny cart of food back to the apartment. I certainly got my exercise that time. But I never really 'lost' anything like that before, or at least not since I lost a key to the house when I was eight. So it all worked out for the best, and I didn't quite lose my mind, but I'm glad I was able to pay my rent this morning without some terrible thing happening with my account, that sort of thing.

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