Pull backwards is not the same as Push

It's LLUP.

I feel like I'm being pulled backwards... with a push! Just when I thought I had a clear view ahead and could move forward on life's potentials, out of nowhere comes a line of big financial surprises. $350 here, $3,500 there. Yikes. And when I look back over my records I find that, yes, indeed it all comes back to me and my responsibility. (Where were my eyes when I was recording my records!?!) And what big fish is on that line for tomorrow...?

One flounder waiting for me, that was not my doing, was two identical $718.78 charges on my back account. Neither Kim nor I knew what they were about. Wells Fargo, our bank for this account, was immediately very helpful with the problem, and thankfully we noticed this on the day of the charges. I was able to identify the company the items were charged to and gave them a call. Speaking with one of the owners, we determined that their suspicions that my wife and I didn't really want a remote control airplane model and four model helicopters were true. Still, it was disturbing at the beginning of the conversation to have someone on the other end of the line insisting that they had spoken with me earlier that day, twice.

Ultimately I learned the store had been dubious about the on-line order when they couldn't get through on the phone number that was submitted. When they got a direct call from the "customer" they were suspicious and refused the request to instead deliver the merchandise to a different address. Both addresses they had given are in my area, and they had the 3-digit security number from the back of one of our debit cards. The toy store owner very sympathetically and helpfully gave me all the information he had, including the order's originating IP address, which I turned over to our local police that night. Not sure who to call, I called 911 -- and they were the right one to call. They sent an officer over to our house to talk and collect the information. We speculated that the bandits may be one of some recently-used taxi drivers in the area, but the officer was doubtful if they would actually be able to catch, let alone prosecute, the perpetrators.

The bank charges were removed from the account, the toy store were able to stop the shipment. That all worked out, but a scare nonetheless. Another flapping flipper in this net of financial fumbles: although we had our 2005 taxes prepared, we never actually submitted them. Got a friendly letter asking us, "What's up?" Ouch. All this and more just in the last 3 weeks. I pray these things are the climax and not foreshadowing.

A thread throughout my life is that whenever I have a sense of accomplishment, of getting somewhere, life reminds me that is an illusion, an imbalance. It's not that I don't get things done or never arrive, instead it is that sense of having finished and passed to somewhere of reduced obligations that is to be corrected. I can check-off items on my to-do list, but the list never gets shorter -- sometimes it appears longer! If I cannot control or even manage what's to come, at least I can take refuge in simple honesty!