And no one's gonna save you

A Halloween driving experience...

It is Halloween night, a little bit after 8:00. Darkness has fallen--which has not yet stopped trick-or-treating in my neighborhood. I have just made a quick stop at home; hurried due to the lack of candy in my place and the proximity of a group of 5-7 kids rushing to an across-the-street neighbor with a couple of escorting parents trailing behind.

I am driving down the 6-lane road near my house, headed back to a nearby mall to redeem a $10-off coupon on a shirt I found about an hour earlier (i.e. I'd gone home to get the coupon so I could head back to the store and have it applied to the purchase). My car is in the right-most of the three lanes of traffic, approaching a red light where three cars are already waiting in the lane I'm currently in. As I'm a good distance from the back of the closest car, as well as the intersection itself, I decide to move to the middle lane. I apply my turn signal and move over.

As I get a bit closer to the light, and have just come up next to the first of the cars, I spot two gentlemen (using that term lightly) jaywalking across the street. Now the fun: as I pass, one (and possible both) begin to yell at me to watch out for them. They are not in the lane of traffic I'm in--they are actually just entering the lane to the left of where I am. The front man is actually dark-skinned and wearing all black clothing; while the second is in dark (blue?) jeans and a white t-shirt--the latter is much easier to see than his buddy who is doing a good job blending into the night. They are also about 100 feet away from a crosswalk (at the light I've come to a stop at).

I have passed by them fine, and with a good clearance distance. They did need to pause their illicit street crossing, but they have made it to the sidewalk. And both have already flipped "the bird" at me, which I catch in my rearview mirror while sitting at the light. Also, before I leave the light, I hear the guy in the white t-shirt continuing to berate me from the sidewalk where they are walking forward toward (tah-dah!) the crosswalk.

The light changes to green and I get to drive off and leave them behind, before I'm compelled to teach them about how not to be a jaywalking idiot....

Was this a trick? Or a treat?


Cause it's a thriller
Thriller night
An no one's gonna save you
From the beast about to strike

Come Mr. DJ, song 'pon de replay; (Mr. DJ won't you turn the music up)

Following up on my calls from last Friday, I called Wells Fargo today to check and see if the payment I put in the mail last Wednesday (11/21) had been received. It has not. This has me a little concerned: it should not take more than a week for mail to get to Los Angeles from here in Fort Lauderdale.

In talking to the WF rep on the phone, he somewhat indicated that the payment may have been received in L.A. and then forwarded to South Carolina.... Now, I sent the payment in the self-addressed envelope included with my paperwork, which had an address in L.A. I am a bit concerned about this, as the letter accompanying this already-addressed envelope says to mail payments to an address in South Carolina.

So--based on today's call--apparently the envelope didn't have the correct address on it; rather the address in South Carolina listed in the paperwork is the right one. Ah fun.


In other news, my nights this week have been rather occupied:

• Monday night had a staff meeting (after hours: oh joy);
• Tuesday was dinner for a friend who's about to move to South Africa;
• last night (Wednesday) I was supposed to go see the new Michael Jackson movie This Is It, but plans fell through. Instead, I ended up watching the Russian movie Day Watch (which I enjoyed--it's actually the sequel to Night Watch, which I watched over the weekend and very much enjoyed).
• tonight, I ended up working late, then called WF, and have just purchased the book Night Watch (upon which the aforementioned movies are based). The cool part about my book purchase: I paid $4.23 for the $15 book, via a combination of a 40% off coupon and a $5 reward (thank you Borders Rewards).
• tomorrow night is when my trip to see This Is It has been rescheduled.

So, all-in-all, a busy week of nights.


Let the bass in the speakers, run through your sneakers
Move both your feet, and rock to the beat

How long has this been going on?

Ever wonder if the right hand talks to the left hand at some larger corporations? I had an incident today which made me think they weren't talking to each other at Wells Fargo.

Yesterday while eating my lunch, I got a call. As I was eating I didn't answer it, nor did they leave a message. However, once I'd finished eating, I called the number back: it was a collections call from WF. They called because the last payment I made on my mortgage was $300/so less than my normal monthly payment; and as such, my file was entering into loss mitigation.

Why did I pay $300 less? Because I'm in the trial period for my Making Home Affordable qualifying, and the paperwork for that says to pay the amount listed. This is what I've done. Unfortunately, I am the one that got to tell this part of WF that I'm in said-program, and that yes, there was a reason the payment was less.

After work, I decided to call one of the two numbers I have for WF related to my refinancing--the collection call didn't come from one of these two. The rep on the phone said I should pay the missing amount; that it would not effect my qualifying. He also suggested doing a check over the phone, rather than mailing in my check--the two payments options I have. I then asked him why I couldn't pay online, to which he responded that the system is not set up this way (which is strange, since to date, I've paid all my payments through my bank online, and isn't a check by phone basically the same thing?--but I'm following instructions of the paperwork). In any case, as I wasn't able to scope my bank account records while on the phone as I wasn't home--and I'm not terribly fond of paying over the phone in the manner--I declined to do a check over the phone then and postponed it to after I could get home and check on things (I also didn't have my checking account # handy).

So later last night, after I got home, I found my paperwork related to the MHA program. It says:

"If the trial period payments are made in amounts different from the amount stated your loan may not be modified." (their underlining)

So, I called the other WF number I have, to check on whether/not I should pay--and potentially do the phone pay for both the October & November differentials (as I sent in Nov's payment earlier in the week). The rep on the phone this time told me to not pay the missing amount... ahh, the fun.

So, I've decided to not pay the difference--per the mailed instructions I've received. And I'll check back next week sometime to see if they've gotten the new payment.


Kiss me once, then once more
What a dunce I was before
What a break, for heaven's sake
How long has this been going on?

I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha

The great achievement is to lose one's reason for no reason...

from Book 1, Chapter XXV of Don Quixote
(translation by Edith Grossman)

The above is a quote from Don Quixote, which I read yesterday on my flight back from Grand Rapids. The sentences around it are:
"Therein lies the virtue," responded Don Quixote, "and the excellence of my enterprise, for a knight errant deserves neither glory nor thanks if he goes mad for no reason. The great achievement is to lose one's reason for no reason, and to let my lady know that if I can do this without cause, what should I not do if there were cause?

A different translation--by Charles Jarvis--of the same passage is:
"There lies the point," answered Don Quixote, "and in this consists the refinement of my plan. A knight-errant who runs mad with just cause deserves no thanks; but to do so without reason is the point--giving my lady to understand what I should perform in the wet if I do this in the dry.

I like the former better....


I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha
My destiny calls and I go
And the wild winds of fortune, shall carry me onward
Oh whithersoever they blow

When I grow up...

A brief post today, of a recent Mother Goose & Grimm strip, as I head to GRR for a clinic in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, this weekend (I'm looking forward to cold weather). Enjoy.


When I grow up I'll be stable
When I grow up I'll turn the tables