Sigh -- annoyance -- and, oh, hee hee

Good news: A former friend who owes me quite a bit of money sent me a payment.

Bad news: The man, who is 50 years old, did something that just made me facepalm. Instead of tearing the perforated counter cheque off like a normal person, he cut it out around the middle so that there is my name, his signature, and the amount, but no routing number, account number, or even a cheque number. Basically, it is a useless piece of paper. He did the same for someone else I know. And probably all the ones he sent out for bills. When he was told that this does not work, he was surprised and then the true horror of what he had done dawned on him. I am considering framing the otherwise weird little slip of paper for future cackling. Hopefully, he will send a real cheque when he gets the ones he ordered.

Not surprisingly, I did something really stupid yesterday

Anyone who has had AAA knows that when they send you a card for the new plan year, the only real difference between the cards is the printed year that it's good through. I had both my old and new ones in my wallet during the transition between October and November and yesterday had the bright idea (at the gas station, when I stopped in for gas, oil, and the newspapers) to get rid of the old one.

Only I cut up the new one.

Fortunately I looked one last time before I put it in the trash and saw the '2009'. Today I called them, and they're sending me a new one within 14 days. In the meantime, my number is still good and everything, and I still have the two halves of the card, so she said that would be fine as proof should I need road service.

But that was a silly thing to do, even for me.