Trees, a crowd

There are three Christmas trees in my house. One is your standard tall tree bedecked with lovely lights and ornaments. But, ah, consider the other two:

* One is a replica of Charlie Brown's pathetic little tree. I consider it the finest Christmas decoration in my home.

* The other is a three-foot tree decorated by me and me alone with nothing but Donald Duck lights and ornaments. Some say I am walking a frayed tightrope of sanity.

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Christmastime rekindles a lot of warm memories, such as the time my late friend Ralph popped open a can of beer during Midnight Mass.

A never-forgotten Christmas in Connecticut

For complex reasons, my brother  and I  found ourselves spending Christmastime 1946 with my Aunt May and Uncle John in Somers, Conn., more than 100 miles from our home in Massachusetts. Now my aunt was a sweetheart of a human being and my uncle fooled no one with his gruff exterior, so staying with them was a pleasure. But I was 6 and my brother was 7 and being well away from home, we worried  whether anything would be waiting under the tree for us on Christmas morning. Would Santa even be able to find us at our temporary location?  

Come Christmas morning,  we worriedly tiptoed down the stairs not knowing what, if anything, was waiting for us. We needn't have been concerned, though, for beneath the tree were two wooden wheelbarrows, both painted blue. On the side of one, the name "Richard" was emblazoned  in red, and  "Kenneth" was on the other. Both were fairly overflowing with presents -- toys and games and candy and all the little things that help make Christmas so merry for young boys. 

 

The years flew faster than Santa's sleigh. My uncle John (who, were learned long after, had built the wheelbarrows) passed away, and  several years later so did my Aunt May. Her children had the sad job of emptying out her house in preparation for selling it. They later told my brother and me that when they went to check what was in the attic, they spotted a couple of items tucked deep into a corner. 

 

 There they were, more than three decades later -- the two wheelbarrows, with the wood now split and the paint faded and flaking. Those wheelbarrows no longer held presents, of course, but they were filled with something perhaps even better: the memories of a Christmas made wondrous and joyous by the love of an aunt and uncle.

The above item was written for, and read on, the Sentimental Journey radio show, which originates in Nova Scotia, is heard on several Canadian stations and has a worldwide audience via the Internet. 

 

Usurious credit-card companies strike again

I never received my BJ's credit-card bill for $18. Consequently, they imposed a $39 late fee and refuse to waive it. Take heed, BJ's and Barclaycard customers.

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This is rapidly turning into The Gripe File.

Apple's iTunes strikes a sour note

For the second time since the dawn of the Computer Age, I have been defrauded online. And while neither episode has cost me money, I have paid a price in stress and wasted time.

A couple of nights ago, I was trying to download an App for my iPod touch when my password was rejected time after time, even though I knew I was writing it correctly. The following morning, on a hunch, I checked my online credit-card statement and found three new iTunes transactions, each totaling $40 and change. These certainly weren't mine, so I called my credit-card company, and a fraud squad rep told me the card would be canceled and all copies of it should be shredded. I will get a new card in about a week. Meanwhile, I am being kept busy cancelling all recurring payments with the shredded card, as well as other scheduled payments.

I suspected my password had been breached and  tried to call Apple, but got a recording telling me to e-mail the company. The response was relatively quick but awkward, since I had to keep e-mailing back as other questions arose. My iTunes account was temporarily suspended and the Apple rep informed me that someone had changed both my password and e-mail address. She wrote, "I urge you to contact your financial institution as soon as possible to inquire about canceling the card or account and removing the unauthorized transactions. You should also ask them to launch an investigation into the security of your account.  Your bank or credit card company's fraud department should then contact the iTunes Store to resolve this issue. The iTunes Store cannot reverse the charges." That sounded to me as though the credit-card company has to do most of the work, but what do I know.

Fortunately, the iTunes charges had never passed the temporary authorization stage in my credit-card account and in any event my account has fraud protection. But what a bleeping nuisance. I checked the Internet and found similar stories from other  iTunes customers. Apple, with all its sophisticated technology,  really has to come up with a way to prevent such scamming.

(My other defrauding incident took place on eBay a couple of years ago and involved an evil person who stole my password and had me buying and selling objects for thousands of dollars. I saw no way the defrauder could profit by this and concluded it was done out of sheer malice by someone I don't even know.)

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As if this weren't enough, last night my iPod Shuffle went through the wash and shuffled off to iPod heaven.

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The experts say that you should create passwords that are a combination of letters and numbers and even symbols, that you should have a different password for each site you are subscribed to, and that you should change those passwords frequently. I for one am going to take that advice.

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Such is the power of Halloween in Salem that my Salem State College geezer classes will not be held all next week so that we will not have to deal with the mobs of zombies, ghosts, witches and a**holes descending upon the city.

It's a fat world after all

Many things amazed me during my recent visit to Walt Disney World but none more so than the girth of many of the visitors. I saw more obese people at Disney than even in Las Vegas. Some had rented motorized scooters for $65 a day because they were too bloated even to walk much. And all of this seems to have occurred since I last visited Disney World, about two years ago.

Obesity has become a national epidemic. According to the National Institutes of Health, about two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight (I myself could lose a few pounds) but almost one-third are obese, having an abnormally high proportion of body fat. Overweight and obesity are known risk factors for diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood cholesterol, stroke, hypertension, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and some forms of cancer. I could go on, but you get the idea. All of us who need to do so should strive to lose weight. The lives we save may be our own, and a thinner America will be a better America.

Shine on, shine on island sun

The sun has been shining almost all of my first week on Prince Edward Island, and all is right with the world.

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Sunny days find me at the beach, where I wonder when pregnant women decided that bathing suits that expose their bulging bellies is the height of fashion.

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The only way things could possibly be better would be if my SPF 30 sun lotion hadn't slid into my right eye, where it is currently burning a hole.

Seen my keys? My glasses? Or how about ...

This has been my week for losing things. I can see losing a set of keys. I can see losing a spare pair of glasses. But how could I have lost a 26-inch suitcase?

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During last night's downpour, the air conditioner in my bedroom was apparently placed in such a way that the raindrops created a loud PING every few seconds. After an hour of that in the middle of the night, I fully understood the efficacy of Chinese water torture.

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If President Obama had said the Cambridge, Mass., police acted rashly instead of saying they acted stupidly, I don't think such a hullabaloo would have ensued. And the president is usually so careful in choosing his words.

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I'm off to Prince Edward Island for a two-week stay, after spending a night in Bangor, Maine, at the local casino/hotel. Here's hoping I have money left to spend on the island. Chances are I won't be doing much posting for a couple of weeks, so enjoy the summer and maybe find something that's actually worth reading..