As we usually do, we wandered around the park seeing that many of the campers were preparing to leave or had already left. These had all come in for the game and now were heading back to wherever home is. I stopped to chat to a couple of them and one asked if I had come in to watch the game. We had a long conversation on the merits of Football of the American kind versus Football of the English and rest of the world variety which is played with the feet. The gentleman did admit to liking the round ball variety. I mentioned that I happened to catch a glimpse of the warmup for a football game as I was tuning in to watch my version of football and there were probably 100 players, all suited up and all doing various forms of stretching in unison. This must have something to do with the pageantry and pregame especially for TV viewers as there is absolutely no point in doing all these stretches if you are not in the starting eleven. Time to stretch is just before you enter a game, so your muscles are ready. But then again, if all you are is a blocker, I guess you do not need to worry about stretched muscles when the other guy is trying to kill you. As you can tell, Football of the American variety is not my favorite sport. But each to their own as it would be a very dull world without a variety of opinions, and I do respect the skills that it needs to play College Ball.
Back in the RV, I had breakfast, a bacon sandwich and coffee and contemplated on feeding the dogs but decided against it, knowing it would not get eaten. They did, however, gobble up the handouts from my sandwich probably thinking to themselves, “How come he gets bacon, and we have dogfood” …I cleaned up a little and noted that the pull-down shade on the door is not returning and then spent some time looking up how to repair it. It does not look to be a difficult task and my biggest problem is how to reach the blind as it is attached above the door, in the door well and I am just too damned short, as usual. I’ll figure something out, maybe bring in the expanding ladder and prop it up somewhere.
I did the usual email thing and then settled down to write in the blog. We have nothing planned for today. It is supposed to warm up back into the low to mid 90’s for the next four days before dropping back into the 80’s again. Shades of the retreating Summer. It does not matter to us that much as all we are doing is marking time as we wait for the Jeep to be repaired. Incidentally, my part of Texas is still in the mid to high 90’s and I am not missing it one little bit.
With everything caught up, I turned my attention to fixing the door blind. After watching a couple of videos on the subject, I had a good idea of what I needed to do. First thing was to get out the folding ladder kept in one of the storage compartments. Folding is not really a good description as it is more of an expanding/retracting ladder that works by sliding the ladder either up or down and then locking it in place. It works great and is long enough for me to get up on to the roof as this RV is not equipped with its own outside ladder. I expanded it enough so that it was resting above the door opening, not trusting the door to stay closed with the weight of the ladder and me, on it. Following the instructions from the video, I managed to wind in the blind and then turned the correct knob in the proper direction to tension it up. What is more is that it worked, and the blind now goes up and down as it should. Having learned something, I went into the bedroom and did the same to one of the blinds there although this one is not so important as it stays down all the time, mainly to keep the sun out.
Pleased that I had done something useful, I put the ladder back in the storage area and went back inside. The park is very quiet with it being a Sunday. All the visitors have left and again, it is empty. There is no sign of my Hispanic neighbors so they must have moved on. What is unusual about this is that normally when your neighbor moves, their RV moves with them but as these are rented RV’s, obviously, this is not the case.
I sat and wrote for a while before we went out again walking the park. We wandered around as we usually do walking in the shady areas as much as possible. I noticed that a couple of RVs had come in and were setting up. One could not make up its mind about which site to use as there were many open ones following the exodus of the Football Supporters, but eventually found one that suited them and went about the business of setting up.
We sat outside and listened to an Audiobook for a while although it was still bit warm out before heading back inside for the usual evenings repast and entertainment.
Written 09/18/2022. Read my other blogs at https://pondblog2011.com
Southgate RV Park, Fayetteville AR Monday Day 12 09/19/2022
We wandered around the park stopping to chat with one camper who was breaking camp and preparing to move on. His outside tent cover was festooned with Razorback symbols, and it was bright red, which is the school’s colors. With so many supporters gone, it must be that the next home game is a couple of weeks away. Sandy made friends with their dog who was one of the very friendly kinds, a big old, Golden Retriever. We went on our way and then returned to Quatro for the usual breakfast and coffee.
I sat and wrote for a while and posted the latest blog and the phone rang. Only then did I realize that I was in trouble. The person on the other end was a scammer and was working with another scammer so between them they appear to be fighting but we’re working together. They had managed to get into my computer and had locked it up. I was at a loss as to what I should do and then did all the wrong things. I agree to their terms I went shopping for money orders. It all started when I returning an e-mail from Best Buy Telling me that they have received my payment for $420 and if I wanted to cancel to contact them at a certain number. Turns out that was a scam. Bottom line I ended up calling my bank and I have now frozen my account. The problem with that is that I can’t get to it either. It’s not over I’m sure.
I spent the rest of the day chasing around trying to resolve the issues and in the end I went home. All the while I was doing this my phone was being monitored and every now and then. A voice would break in and tell me what to do. It’s pretty frightening not having control and reminds me of Big Brother. My bank and I had a very long conversation about the problem and as I said before, now my account is frozen. It’s frightening and to most people unimaginable that someone can take control of both your phone and your computer without your knowledge. It also pissed me off that there are people in this world that will stop at nothing to steal from others this way. It did no good to get mad about it but I felt a little better.
I fed myself and the dogs and watched a game on the television and my friend BJ called to chat about the problem. I eventually went to bed but was not able to sleep tossing and turning, waiting for the morning to arrive.
Written 09/19/2022. Read my other blogs at https://pondblog2011.com
Reading about the scammers makes me angry all over again. The fact that you lost money is bad enough but the agony they put you through for six hours is unforgivable.
I have never been so scared and so angry at the same time when they showed me my accounts at zero on the screen. That is when I started to get really worried. Incidentally, 8 nights later and I still wake up with cold sweats about it.
I can just imagine how awful that entire experience was.