Wednesday, February 17, 2021

 

A  satisfactory day, except that I’ve had three recorded phone calls, purportedly from Amazon, to say that an Apple iPad has been ordered on my account. I checked, and there is no such item there; and anyway, how do they know Perdita didn’t answer the phone? But it leaves me feeling a bit assailed and anxious.

 

It was a bright and cheerful day, a bit colder than yesterday. Helen came, and we circled the garden once. 2377 steps.

 

Lengthening the Evendoon is very pleasant knitting, mindless, with a yarn that runs pleasantly over the fingers. The idea is to put in two more broad rows. (See photograph yesterday.) I’ve done one of them, and the following two-row white stripe. I’ll be ready to re-start the ribbing soon.

 

Ivy (comment yesterday), if “ochre” means what I think it does, you have used what would be the natural next colour in the sequence for your sign-off. That is a tempting idea. The colour is an awfully good one, and nowhere else in the pattern is the sequence interrupted. I think I’ll try it your way. I can always take it out.

 

Comments

 

Shandy, I tried to leave a reply for you last night, but as so often, Blogger wouldn’t let me. Yes, indeed, I saw the obituary of Lord McPherson and enjoyed it, and emphatically agree with you about the pleasure afforded by a good obituary of someone comfortably older than oneself.

 

Joni, Helen also asks sharp questions about cider-drinking. I think I felt slightly stronger during my dry January, and I don’t think I’ve lost ground since then on my new regime: four-days-off, three-days-on. But it should perhaps be noted that I have started walking about the house with a stick. That happened in mid-January. I continue to enjoy pasting virtual stickers onto my app every day (Dry, Drank as Planned, Drank).

 

Kirsten, Meg offers (or used to) a CD-ROM in which she walks us through the knitting of a Fair Isle Sweater, steeks and all. The pattern is included. I found it useful when I was designing Alexander's most recent Fair Isle vest (seen above). But CD-ROMs are clearly yesterday’s technology.

 

Reading

 

Still only Fontamara, in which everybody is miserable. I will try to write about it tomorrow (in Italian, for my tutor). My Italian might show signs of improvement, if I did that more often. It’s very hard, which is no doubt why I don’t.

12 comments:

  1. Jean you are clearly further down the list than us - we usually get our three calls from Amazarn on a Monday morning - ours say my Amazarn Prime account is about to renew - clever that since I have never had one in the first place. Nothing ever happens.

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  2. Thanks to everyone for their help with my forthcoming foray into fair isle (the alliteration pleases me). I have decided to start small, and bought the book and the yarn for the Osaka tea cosy from J&S, as the cost of the yarn or kits for a top gave me pause for thought. I found the Alice Starmore and Meg Swenson vests; very wantable.
    I'm so impressed with your step count, Jean!

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  3. Jean, yes, the calls are probably a hoax, but do check your credit card(s) carefully. Last fall someone created a sub-account in my Prime account and used my credit card to buy some items. The order did not show up in my Amazon account but the items arrived on my doorstep (the scam is that the crooks plan to swoop by and grab the packages before they are picked up —which did not work for them this time). Apparently my Amazon password was compromised in a large hack. My credit card company was much more helpful than Amazon in resolving the hack and clearing the charges. At least our local house of refuge for homeless families got some new equipment — I donated the items to them.

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  4. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Your calls sound like opportunists, hoping you will tell them your Amazon account and bank details. I doubt they know more than your phone number.

    Sarah in Somerset.

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  5. I get 4-5 calls per day from some company regarding my non-existent auto warranty expiring soon. I understand I am not alone with this. I wonder if those old DVDs are available digitally...

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  6. =Tamar12:29 AM

    I doubt that the scammers even know your phone number. The machines they use routinely call every number possible.

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  7. Anonymous12:59 AM

    I'm sorry, I missed Kristen's comment when I posted earlier and didn't mean to sound dismissive. Glad the credit card people sorted things out and the refuge benefitted, but a nasty experience. Maybe we should all think about changing our passwords now and again.

    Sarah.

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  8. Anonymous10:06 AM

    I got almost the exact same call from "Amazon" about an Apple product. But it was cut off abruptly before I could reach for the off button. Only mine was regarding a desktop. Chloe

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  9. Anonymous10:12 AM

    And I live in the U.S. Those scammers sure get around. Chloe

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  10. When I was in high school Spanish class, I read that the way to improve was to learn to think in the language I was trying to learn. It's possible I read it in a murder mystery, no recall on that point. It did help.

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  11. I got the recorded call from Amazon twice on Wednesday, also about an iphone and I'm in Australia so they certainly do get around. I just shout 'you're a scam' and hang up

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  12. I received a call from a credit card company telling me there had been suspicious charges on it and would I please tell them the last several transactions that I had made on the card. When I said I couldn’t the young man got a little shirty with me for not being cooperative. When I repeated myself and added that the card had not been used in over a year HE became flustered and hung up! I guess his script didn’t cover that response.

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