Saturday, July 8, 2023

Culture Shock

Quiet weekend thus far here at the complex.

Believe it or not, my little stalker is still around — week three I think this is, but I've been fortunate in that I've seen and heard her before she's seen me, so I've been able to lay low.

I think too that inasmuch as I didn't relent and let her come upstairs with me that day she so sweetly asked, "Can I come to your house", her grandma Talker got the message and is not letting her knock knock knock.

Returning from running errands today, I detoured by the Mail Center and, looking over at the Black Witch’s patio, saw her patio furnishings gone, replaced with shipping boxes.

I’d heard she was leaving "end of month" but was beginning to think it might not be so when the end of month came and went with her patio furnishings undisturbed.

So, today was the day. Moving after all she is. Taking the side eye hateful if looks could kill way she looks at me with her.

Word is she’s moving in with her daughter out Palm Springs way.

Hot as it is here, Palm Springs is even hotter, but it’s a good place for her body to adjust to heat, since her final destination is hell.

I myself do not believe in a literal hell, but the Black Witch is one of those fake bible thumping church going Christians — you know the kind that act all virtuous in church on Sunday, but are very unchristian like during the remainder of the week.

I know that type very well, because my mom was such. She could really turn it on when she wanted to, especially on Sunday in church. Not so much after church and during the remainder of the week.

In fact, mom met her last husband at church.

Not in church but outside after church.

His back yard, where he lived with his wife and grown daughter, abutted the church's parking lot and somehow mom, in her church usher outfit, charmed him. They began talking over the fence after service let out.

First thing I knew, sweet, charming Christian lady mom seemed to be, he left his family and married mom.

Nice man, I liked him, and they stayed together happily until he passed away, with mom showing a side of herself he didn't see, a face he's never seen, but which side and face she showed to his daughter, which kept daughter from coming around to talk to her dad.

The Black Witch's Christian fellowship would be shocked to see the behavior and face I've seen.

At any rate, I'm sure Black Witch does believe in hell, and what one believes is what one creates, so the Palm Springs heat is good practice.

Because of how ugly the Black Witch can get when she, for one reason or another, drops that sweet old Christian lady act she puts on until she doesn’t, I surmise the living situation is going to be hell for her daughter as well.

During the week, I did learn I was correct in assuming only those of us who are not Section 8 received rent increases — $78 one-bedroom units; $91 two-bedroom units.

I’m still hoping for management to throw us a bone in the form of a luau or party of sorts before summer is over.

One of the errands I ran this weekend was to the bank for some walking around cash.

Talk about culture shock.

After driving to a bank in a populated area where it felt safe to withdraw cash, I was surprised to find the bank empty, doors locked, no explanation.

No worries, thought I. I’ll just drive a city over to another safe banking area.

Again, it was bank empty, doors locked, but a sign that said "temporarily closed".

For how long is "temporary" and why? Were there robberies? Did the banks go out of business?

Because of what I’ve read about skimming machines, I don’t use ATMs. I’m one of those who prefers banking inside.

That may have to change because, after driving to a third area with no luck in finding a bank that was open, I decided not to waste my time checking out other locations. I’ll wait until I have free time next week, then call around to find a branch that is open.

Upon googling what the heck with the closures, I learned it’s a "cost saving measure" since so few of us bank inside.

Well, that’s all great and good for the bank’s corporate officers, who make such decisions so they can up their bonuses, but it’s inconveniencing those of us who want or need to withdraw a significant sum. It’s forcing us to use the ATMs, which have a daily limit, and leaves us vulnerable to skimming machines and bank jugging (thugs watching you withdraw cash then following you home or break into your car to rob you).

I’m beginning to think my grandma had the right idea in keeping her cash under the mattress rather than in a bank.

30 comments:

  1. I've been with a credit union for a long time. They have actually opened a new branch recently.

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    1. I'm going to open up my own branch in the mattress, like grandma.

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  2. My grandfather kept the cash under the mattress, too. My grandmother stole it and put it in the bank. He never noticed.

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    1. ROFLMAO! Good to see you up and returned to blogging so quickly after surgery, but I'm a gonna need an explanation as to how he didn't notice.

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    2. Same here. We knew for fact my grandmother kept tons of cash in the mattresses and at least one other location in her bedroom. But my mother is one sister who still lived with her and her hateful husband, upon her death none of my mother's siblings or the one that lives in my grandmother could ever find that money. To this day we swear it was my youngest aunt's husband that took the money. We urged her for years to put it in the bank, and unfortunately my young aunt what's so weak against her husband she was just gave into whatever he wanted.

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    3. Well, I hope youngest aunt's husband enjoys his ill-gotten gains when he gets to Palm Springs, if he hasn't already, where the Black Witch is headed. Money is nice, but it pays to do the right thing.

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    4. He is dead. A massive heart attack. No one attended his funeral except my mothers youngest sister, his wife. What he put my grandmother and family though isn't worth telling....and since then just this past November, that said aunt too passed away. What a sad life she had with him.

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  3. I have a friend who works in banking and it's exactly for the reasons you state and most banks are only keeping one to two people inside the bank to work it's crazy. He said in the five years he's been there, the number of people coming in drops drastically. I understand at ATM machines many companies are going to start requiring a password attached to your ATM card to go any further in the process and for safety reasons. Many banks around here have already started it. That said most banks during the week here are open from 9:00 to 6:00 inside. And on weekends till usually noon or 2:00 p.m. maybe you do have some robberies out there?

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    1. Would have been nice to send customers some kind of notice that this bank that bank whatever will be "temporarily" closed or closed on weekends, etc.

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  4. "Hot as it is here, Palm Springs is even hotter, but it’s a good place for her body to adjust to heat, since her final destination is hell." HAHAHAHAHAHA this line made me laugh out loud!

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  5. "but it’s a good place for her body to adjust to heat, since her final destination is hell."

    I'm dying.

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  6. They tell me using cash and checks is going the way of the dinosaurs sooner rather than later. They want us all to use credit and debt cards and our computers Isn't that just dandy!

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    1. The hackers will love this move to cards. More opportunities to skim and steal identities.

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  7. The skimming machines are just scary, because so many people have recorded themselves finding them at ATMs and at convenience stores when they go to use their card in the little machine. I would much rather carry cash but then you have the added stress of not knowing whether or not somebody's going to try and mug you when you're out using your cash.

    I'm not very religious, I don't go to church or any of that I pretty much consider myself to be agnostic. I grew up going to both a Mormon church and a Baptist Church from both sides of my family but once I became an adult I was all done with all of that stuff. People are just too two-faced for the most part, go to church act all religious come home and be the worst type of person that you can imagine. I've seen it can't stand it.

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    1. I myself would rather see my attacker, so I'd have a chance to fight back, rather than some unknown someone draining my account. I too was forced to grow up in the church, saw the hypocrisy and chose a different path because what I was being told in church never made sense to me. I was a seeker of truth and luckily found what did.

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  8. How strange that all of your bank's branches are closed. I use the teacher's credit union in our area, which is opening more branches, and is almost always crowded (thus the reason for opening more branches).

    I try to stay away close to holidays (before or after), pay days, and Fridays as this credit union doesn't open until 10 on that day and I like to do my banking earlier. I go in for walking-around money, or another way to refer to it--religious money--small denominations.

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    1. Further investigation tells me the bank is in trouble "accused of (and ordered to pay $3.7 billion) for loan mismanagement". I'd better look for some convenient place to move my account.

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    2. Oh, yes, I would get my money and take it elsewhere. You are living dangerously with a bank that is being forced to close and also pay that kind of money (where are they getting it?) to get out of trouble.

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    3. There is no elsewhere. When I tried to leave this bank a few years bank, transfer funds to a credit union, an overzealous loss prevention guy caused me so much grief that I withdrew and sent the money back to the bank. And bank of america is as bad as my current bank. Headline today was "Bank of America hit with $250M in fines and refunds for 'double-dipping' fees and fake accounts".

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  9. I just finished reading a book about Elvis and Las Vegas and was surprised (guess I shouldn't have been) that Colonel Parker always insisted on being paid for Elvis' appearances in cash, no matter the amount.

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    1. I bet Parker did it for tax purposes. To avoid declaring it as income and inasmuch as he was in control, there was probably no 1099.

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  10. The Black Witch sounds like so many Evangelicals these days... and Yes, I've met the Type too, such hypocrisy. As for Banks closing or closing down their Drive-Thru Services, it's happening here at an alarming rate too... and, if you do go inside, they have One Teller... or One Customer Service Rep. I'm a Retired Bank Executive, from my 1st Corporate Life, so, I see the decline in the Industry, that is worse than the whole 1980's Fiasco of Banking. Predatory Lending is again exploiting unsuspecting Borrowers. Glad you've been able to avoid The Stalker and lay low. We are currently having troubles with a Teen Stalker who has Targeted Princess T and is apparently infatuated with Isaac... the one from over Two Years ago... so, the whole situation blindsided our Granddaughter and all of us. We hope the charade ends and we don't have to involve Police, but, Threats I do take seriously, so many Troubled people in this World these days. At least Little Stalker is just a Tot... once they get Older, it gets creepier and more dangerous when they become Obsessed with someone.

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    1. Me thinks the little beoch doesn't know who she's messing with. Princess T has her mom, you, grandad, the grandson and his husband standing behind her. Not to mention that bulldog. But would be a good idea to get a restraining order so, when you guys do beat her arse, they'll be a record to cover your actions.

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    2. And btw. Another "No good deed goes unpunished". Princess T and the family were there for Isaac when his own family wasn't and here he is now starting crap for you guys.

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  11. I have no idea how he didn’t know. But when he retired, she showed him the bank book and he said, “You see how I take care of you!”

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    1. Sounds like a sweet couple. He took credit and she let him, LOL.

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  12. Some local chain drug stores here have my bank's ATM machine, inside the store. Feels pretty safe there. I gotta get real quarters for my apartment's laundry room, so I go to the bank during the weekday when humans are inside my bank. Try a credit union; they have lower interest on their credit cards and sometimes longer hours on weekends, considering most started as teachers' credit unions. Linda in Kansas

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    1. That would be great if the bank set up atm's inside the store. I had a bad experience when I went to leave this bank a few years ago, transfer funds to a credit union. I'll check to see if I can find where I blogged about that experience.

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