Merry & Happy

My day started out nice, at 5:00am.  Cold, but nice.  Since I got an early start of it, I was ready to head out the door bright & early to do some Christmas errands.

Animals fed, business emails checked and replied-to.  Car warmed up.

I hopped in, headed down the highway, and it was then that I bothered to put on my heavy-duty mittens for the 11º temperature.  (I have "special gloves" with which to feed animals, because what might seem just fine in 11º starts to smelling pretty darn awful after the car warms up and the Bloodhound smells start to thaw.)

Eau de Drool.

So, I slid my cold hands into my clean and toasty mittens.  Ah, nuts.  I had two left-handed mittens.  I was going to look silly and lopsided.  Well, too late.  I continued on into town.  I made my first stop: Hobby Lobby.  I collected my things, and went to checkout.  I swiped the credit card.  The lady told me to hit "cancel" and so I did.  Credit card: DENIED.  Silently, I think to myself: IMPOSSIBILE!  She told me to swipe it again.  And told me to hit "cancel".  I did, and: credit card: DENIED.  Again, I thought to myself: IMPOSSIBLE!  But I shyly looked around and thought, I am a total loser.  Ughhh.  Two left-handed mittens and my credit card was denied.  I hope I don't see anyone who knows me.

Loserville.

The cashier said brightly, "Don't you hate when that happens?"  I said nothing.  I was thinking to myself: IT DOES NOT HAPPEN.  IMPOSSIBLE!

I wrote a check and made a bee-line for the door.

I still had errands to run, but I sure wasn't going to submit myself to further humiliation, so I went to the nearest ATM and got lots of cash. UGHhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  From there, I went to points A-Z and did my holiday fun and games, all with that heavy cloud of Credit Card Denial hanging overhead.

Upon returning home, I began lunch. I do love me some garlic, and I grabbed the garlic press and went crazy over the pizza I was making for lunch.

BOOM!!!

My garlic press broke.  I swear, I go through garlic presses like nobody's business.  Can no one make an industrial-strength garlic press?!

I took lunch into the study and immediately began my banking detail on the computer to determine WHY I was in a left-handed mittened, no-credit- and no-garlic-press world.

Hey.  My credit card was just fine.  Fine and Dandy.  What the heck?!  No stolen identity, no "over-the-mark" nonsense, just ready and willing to be used and used and used during the holiday season.

Sigh.

As for the mittens and the garlic press: I still need to address those situations.  But I am thrilled that no cyber security has been breached, and my holiday shopping can go rolling merrily along.

This melody is how happy I felt after lunch:

Shepherd's Pipe Carol