Comedy of Errors

Y'all...have I got a story for you! One of my credit card companies allows free credit report monitoring, which I use, almost daily. That's how I found out that some of my information has been exposed on the dark web...multiple times. :-/ I want to make sure that I get "in front" of any unauthorized activity.


I recently bought a house and now, it seems like EVERYBODY wants what's left of my money. It could be worse and I know that it will subside, it's just annoying. Then, one morning I was checking my credit report and something popped up. A medical debt from Memphis that was "charged off." Immediately, I thought that someone had jacked my information, because I haven't lived in Memphis for almost 6 years.


Luckily, the creditor's information was listed, including a phone number. So, I promptly called to get it all sorted out. The representative let me know that this charge was from September of last year from an ER visit. Whoops...that WAS me. I escaped Hurricane Irma in Memphis. While I was there, I was bitten by something and my leg swelled to twice its size.  Since, I had been doing a lot of traveling, I thought it might be a blood clot. After the Dr. asked me questions about my activity level, he was like, "probably not a blood clot." And, it wasn't...I never felt a bite, but my sister noticed a red dot on the back of my thigh - after the ER visit, of course...but I digress. Anyway, I paid my hospital co-pay in the ER and received bills from the doctor and labs, so thought I was good. Well, evidently, I owed the hospital additional money but never received a bill because those jokers fat fingered my address or something. Bear with me...it gets better.


The collection agency representative rolled off an address and asked me if it was correct. I sad "no." I never received any sort of bill. Was the mail returned? Did anyone do any sort of address validation (most companies have a process like this for returned mail, right?)? Then, she said, "well, we have a copy of your drivers license. Is this your address?" I said, "yes, until recently, that was my address." THEN, she proceeded to tell me that her collection agency is not allowed to work with people in FL (they HAD my FL license!! Did that not raise a red flag??), so they would never have called me or sent any correspondence. Ok, well how in the crap was I supposed to pay this? Had it not shown up on my credit report, I would have never known. I'm like a Lannister...well, without all of the castles, killing, conniving, and incest. Ok, maybe I'm not like a Lannister...but I pay my debts!


After talking this through with the representative, she agreed that this was handled poorly from the start. I was not given an opportunity to pay this and it should be taken off of my credit report.  Her manager approved for it to be removed, if I paid the balance that day.


Ok...I was born at night, but not last night. If I paid the entire balance, what motivation would they have to keep their end of the bargain? So, I said that I couldn't afford the whole thing, but could pay half of the balance and set up monthly payments for the rest. The representative agreed. Most of the people I told about this had similar stories and all of them said, "good luck getting it off of your credit report...in my case, it was removed after 7 years."


Well, I am happy to say, that it has been removed from my credit report, now!! It took two weeks longer than they said that it would, but I'm persistent and was prepared to tell the representative that they would not receive another dime from me until the item was removed from my credit...but I didn't have to go all "bad cop" on her. I may have to buy a lottery ticket because luck is on my side. :-)

Birthday 14er!

People who know me well, know that I like love challenging myself. I'll try just about anything once, if only to see if my body can do it (cycling a double metric century - that's 124 miles y'all, UMCA year rounder, Olympic triathlon and the list goes on). Just ask my brother who has "dared" me to do things practically my whole life. Haha!! I also LOVE hiking. Ever since one of my best friends who I've known since college, mentioned a 14er to me, I've had the itch to accomplish one.

Last year, another one of my besties moved to Colorado. Color me so excited to visit her! Last year, when I visited her, we hiked and hiked. It was a blast, but I was not in the best shape because...Florida. So, no 14er in the cards for me, then. However, we talked about it then and throughout the year. We tossed out the idea of doing it on/around our birthdays. Well, her birthday is two days before mine (I tend to have a ton of friends born in August...maybe we just "get each other") and our birthdays fell on the weekend, this year! Enter the birthday weekend, including a 14er!

We settled on Grays Peak. I received a lot of good feedback about it and read articles that supported it being a good 1st 14er. The trail was well marked, relatively easy (as far as 14er's go) and it was pretty popular, so if something went wrong, there were people around who could help or go and get help.

I landed in Denver and we took off towards Grays. Our plan was to hike, early in the morning. In hindsight, it might not have been the best idea to fly from no elevation to elevation and immediately go on a hike like this. Oh, well. It actually wasn't that bad.

The 2 miles of road leading to the trailhead was bad. Scary, insanely rough, bad. My friend had a 4 wheel drive and it was still scary. To give you an idea of how bad it was, it took 20 minutes to drive 2 miles! The road was rocky, with big boulders sticking up and huge potholes to navigate. Once at the trailhead, though, I knew I would have a great time hiking!

The hike was about 8 miles round trip with about a 3,500 ft elevation gain and we made plenty of friends along the way...

About 2 miles in, I started getting queasy. One summer when I was in college, I worked in Colorado, taking horse back rides through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was an amazing experience. I fell in love with the area immediately. Anyway, during that time, I became familiar with recognizing altitude sickness and remedying it before it got too bad. When I started getting queasy on the hike, I knew I need to eat something. Then, boom, I was fine. I drank a ton of water, so never really had much issue in that department.

 

View of Grays to the left and Torreys to the right

This part of the hike had the only bushes on the trail. If nature called, you either had to find a bush or big rock to hide behind. Basically, if you had to go badly enough, you had to put your inhibitions aside and just go. People were going to see you. They were going to know what you were doing, but c'est la vie. When you gotta go, you gotta go.



trekking up the side of Grays Peak

Mountain Goats!!

Around this part of the hike, we had climbed to about 13,000ft elevation. At least that's what someone's GPS read...anyway, it was shortly thereafter that the climbs got much more steep. After a super steep stretch, I would find myself getting a little light headed. Not bad, but just enough to stop, have some water and let myself adjust for a minute. I didn't mind...it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy the majestic scenery!

Almost there and still all smiles!

 Made it to the top! It was hot the day we hiked, so I was in my sleeveless top at the summit. After lunch though, it got a little cloudy, so I put my fleece and gloves on...basically, almost all of the clothes I brought!

 

Made it!

With the sign, to make it official. It's not official without the sign! :-)



view from the back side of Grays Peak

 

View of Torreys Peak from the top of Grays

 

View from the front side atop Grays Peak

The last view from the Grays Peak Summit, before heading back down

 

It took us about 8 hours, round trip, but to me, it didn't seem that long at all. We took our time going up - about 4 1/2 hours. At the summit, we had lunch, enjoyed the views and took pictures - there were SO many people climbing that day that we had to wait for people to clear out a bit, in order to get good views from all sides. So, we probably stayed at the summit for about an hour. Some people do Grays and Torreys in the same day, which is really doable. It's right there, as you can see...it makes sense to knock out two 14ers in one big hike, but we weren't trying to be heroes!

The hike was tough, but it really wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. I enjoyed every minute of it and absolutely can't wait to tackle another 14er. I'm so awed by what my body and mind can accomplish and am endlessly thankful that I have adventurous friends who are willing to accept these challenging journeys with me!! I've said it a million times and I'll say it again...I'm such a lucky girl!!

 

2018, So Far

It's been a fun filled year, so far. A lot has happened. Here's the condensed version of my mid-year review:





I spent time with family who visited & enjoyed the sunshine:

Went on long bike rides with nice, shady trees and met new friends:

Traveled to Memphis to work and enjoyed the view, while there:

Bought a new house and changed a faucet all by myself - well, with help from youtube:

Before (grody to the max!):

After (don't worry, I also changed the drain, too!):



Logged a lot of time at the beach:

And a lot of time on my paddle board:

Watched the sunrise and sunset:

Found time to run for coffee & spend Q.T. with friends:

Friday night Shuffleboard - not just for old people, anymore!

Excited to see Lynne Koplitz - one of my fav-o-rites!!

 And saw these two gems that made me giggle inside:

I hope you're enjoying your 2018, so far, too!!