Yes, I'm a geezer. Mostly happy about it. There have been a lot of good things in my many years, and I like to think I've learned from the ones that weren't, so much. There comes a time however, when you just can't add another thousand pointless changes to your life skills, and have to draw the line. Especially when adopting those changes adds a heck of a lot of unnecessary costs to your life.
OK, I know that generations of you have been taught by persistent marketing that you "need" the latest piece of electronic gadgetry. Item J does one thing better than item I, which did two things better than item H, which wasn't better than item G but did everything two seconds faster. You didn't actually need H, I, or J, but "everybody" was bragging about having them and showing them off. My much older "D" is good enough and does what I bought it for very well. Still. After all these years. Even better, I'm familiar with how it works, and by now, when the brain gets distracted for a mental hike around the block, muscle memory can take over and manage things just fine.
A letter brought it back in today's mail. That philosophy can apply to a lot of situations. In this case, I got a new credit card. Not an additional one, but a replacement for one that received a bogus charge. I called the card company, they deleted the charge and canceled the card, arranging to send a new card with new numbers on it.
The letter it came in started out by telling me to use a tiny QR code to find out how to start the new card. Say what?
Is anybody reading this surprised to learn that I don't "do" QR codes, never have, don't have the app, never plan to get the app, and tend to get annoyed when others assume "everybody" communicates that way?
I pulled out my cell phone and called the customer service number stored there for many years for the credit card company. I got a machine. A helpful machine. It asked for the last 4 numbers of my card. I gave them - from the new card of course. It compared those digits with the number I called in from, informed me they matched their records, and I could now go ahead and use my new card.
It doesn't get any easier than that. Who the hell needs a QR code?
There was also a reminder to destroy the old card. I had been putting that off... it's been hellaciously busy these last few days, complicated by a nasty cold. Who needed extra stuff to keep track of? As soon as I ended the call I put the new card where it belonged and pulled out the old invalid one. It felt amazingly sturdy.
I tried bending a crease down the middle, my usual go-to for destroying one. It sort of had a gradual bend in it. Not good enough. I repeated a dozen times, added teeth to try harder to crimp the bend, and looked at it again. Most times by this point damage was visible, some crack showing, even possible partial separation.
Hmmmm...now what? I have no cutting tool sharp and sturdy enough to create separate pieces. So-o-o-o not planning to ruin any good scissors. Normal hardware pliers didn't do it after jewelry quality tools also failed. I so had been hoping to put one piece in a bag of trash for this week and the other in a bag of trash for next week. I figure the odds of any individual piecing them together out of a whole landfill are negligible... enough.
I came up with one more destruction idea, but it would take careful prep, the "just in case" kind. I decided to burn it!
First, I located a pair of jewelry pliers that would safely and securely hold it. I made sure it would grip, not slip. I pulled a small stainless steel bowl from the cupboard and filled it 2/3 full of tap water, setting it next to the stove top. After turning on the closest burner, I got a tight pliers grip on the card and held the part where numbers showed on the flame for about 5 seconds. Warping happened, a tiny flame appeared, and I dropped tool and card into the water. Looking at it several seconds later, numbers were mostly obliterated.
The other side however still held the bright symbol logos looking perfectly OK. Oooh, goodie, another chance for some damage! A repeat from the other angle did both color changes plus more card warping. Nobody would ever be able to slide that card through anything! But now in warping both sides in different warps, they melted together along the middle seam I tried to bend in two for separation. Not only hadn't it separated, but the miniscule flaws where a layer had been dinged a little bit were now fused together in a fat ridge, completely rigid, and not just sort of unbendable but unbendable squared!
OK, time for news, weather, a TV schedule and some food. Oh yeah, and don't forget the big double fleece lap blanket. Whew!
No comments:
Post a Comment