The End of the Month--Already!

Today's high temperature was: 63 degrees

A few sprinkles, but a nice day

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I didn't wake up today until 11:00 a.m.--because I was still wake at 4:00 a.m. last night.  

I watched this out my front windows:

The manager Rob and Jackie discussing something.

She is not happy with new neighbors coming in.

OH LOOK!  

Do you see the dog?

GUESS WHAT? 

Another Shih tzu--just like the one who lives behind me.

I will get to have a YAPPY DOG chorus--

in stereo.

I can hardly wait!

Cutting up the sod and ready to lay foundation

for their storage shed 

Pearl called at 1:30, wanting me to come down and help her get her credit score--FICO.

I walked up at 2:00--after my SOAP and back to the computer we went.  I had her sit down and show me how she was trying to enter her account to get into creditkarma.com.  She was very frustrated.

Come to find out, she had put in her e-mail address in CAPS--which is okay, but she had entered (dot) com, instead of (dot) net and it was telling her it was an invalid e-mail address.

We got that straightened out and finally got in to the website.  She didn't want her credit REPORT, she only wanted her credit SCORE and guess what?  You have to pay $1.00 for your FICO score AND they enroll you in a 7 day trial program, that, if you don't cancel within the 7 days, they then charge your credit card $29.95.

Knowing that Pearl would never remember to cancel her subscription--I stopped her and we searched around for FREE credit places.

WELL GUESS WHAT?  NO site, not even the government site, will give you your credit SCORE for free--you gotta pay either $1.00 and a free trail, or $4.50 to get just it.  You can get all the credit REPORTS you want for free, but not your FICO.

So--after 90 minutes we gave up.

"Why do they want to charge me?  It's my score!  I should get it free.  Where can I get it free?"

"I don't know for sure."

"I'll bet the credit bureau would give it to me."

"Yes--ah no.  Credit bureau?  They are the ones trying to charge you."

"My bank?"

"Not unless you want to take out a loan."

"Well-----all I want is my number!!!"

"I tell you what.  Go up to the car dealer up the road.  Pick out a nice new car and tell the guy you want to buy it.  The business manager will take you into his office and start getting the paperwork ready.  Along the way, he will check your credit score--realize that you can't afford the new car and tell you your credit score is too low.  THEN, you ask him what it is--he will tell you, and then you say, 'we didn't want a new car anyway.'  You walk out knowing what your FICO score is.  Problem solved!"
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Karen called today--we talked about her great accomplishment and she said, "Oh Mom...you know I'm not the greatest writer--I know what I want to say, but have a hard time getting it down on paper.  I almost called you to have you read the portfolio and edit it for me."

"You did a great job!!!  I like the different personal touches you added, like how you remembered some assignments that you dreaded because............"

"Yeah.  We had a seminar with the prof the other day, and he mentioned that.  How most of the other people in class just wrote, 'I did this or I did that', and I put in my feelings and what I got out of the assignments."

"Well--you posted it on FaceBook kind of late last night, so I stayed up and read the whole thing--every chapter and sub-chapter and....I thought it was fantastic!"

Then we talked about the camping trip they just got back from--to Arcadia National Park in Maine and how they hiked up (I can't remember the name of the mountain) to see the sun rise--the first place in the US that the sun hits in the morning.  Then, she told me, she wanted to do a Cathedral tour of Canada and they went to Quebec and also Montreal.  Come to find out, they visited the same place my Grandma and I visited in 1956--the summer between my junior and senior year of high school.

"Did you get to the St. Anne of Beaupre shrine?"  I asked.

"Oh yes.  It was wonderful!  Were you and great grandma there too?"

"Yes--wow, 58 years ago.  People went there for cures as they say the water is blessed--kind of like Lourdes."

"YES!"

"Did you go to the Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal?"

"Yes--it's beautiful.  Did you and great grandma go there too?"

Yep.  Grandma paid for a chauffeur driven guided tour of Montreal.  And, she got some Holy bread from the Basilica."

"I didn't know great grandma was Catholic!"

"She wasn't.  Her mother, Great Grandma Augustine was--you know that picture Aunt Susan has of the Madonna and Child?  My great Grandma, brought that over on the ship on her wedding day.  She was French and her husband was English.  My Grandma--grandma Helene was Methodist, but she still kept some of the ways her Mother probably taught her.  I know she treasured the little knots of bread that the Priest blessed.  She carried them in her purse until the day she died."

"I had no idea!"

Then, she invited me to Madeleine's 18th birthday, this Friday.  The WHOLE family of mine is coming--Jen included.
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Tomorrow, I am driving up to The Farm to visit baby sister Susan .  I'm also going to stop in at the Byron cemetery and visit Beth's sons' grave and then drive on out in the country to "our" cemetery to make sure all my ancestor's and Fred are okay.  

I do love cemeteries!!!