Yesterday morning, Mark and I went down to Green Bay where he had a doctor’s appointment at the VA. There was snow on the ground!
After Mark’s appointment, he drove me to the airport in Appleton (about 45 minutes west of Green Bay) and we said goodbye as I was about to enter security. The Appleton airport is rather small, so Mark was able to watch me go through the security process through a window. What he couldn’t see from there was that when they asked for a photo ID, I couldn’t find my driver’s license so I handed them my military ID.
My flight from Appleton was a connector flight to the Minneapolis airport, so when I got to the gate where I was supposed to catch the next plane in a couple of hours, I sat down and tried to call Mark to tell him about my driver’s license. However, as I turned my phone on, I saw that I had a text message from Discover about a purchase on my card that I didn’t recognize, so I called them instead.
Here’s what had happened. On Monday, my last day at work at the Visitor’s Center, I contacted a bunch of places to let them know they will be able to suspend our services until next spring, and I tried to put in a change of address with the post office online. I ended up on a site that looked like the USPS site, but it wasn’t. It was something called SPL Update My Address. It had a bunch of writing that I probably skimmed through. I saw something about a charge of $1.05 for processing and I thought that was fairly reasonable so I tried to fill out the form. When it came time to put in my card information, it denied my card. I tried a second time and it still said it was denied. I began to wonder if this was really the post office site, so I backed out and got onto the official USPS site and put in an address change for our personal mail. Then I wanted to change Mark’s business address, and all I can figure is that I got into that other site again and this time my card worked. They charged me not only the $1.05 for processing that change of address, but they also tacked on $44.50. The person I was speaking with at Discover gave me the phone number for the company and I called them. The woman I spoke with at SPL Update My Address, said that I had read through and agreed to everything and I said, “All I remember seeing for a charge was $1.05.” She said, “You also agreed to subscribe to our service,” and I said, “Not knowingly!” She agreed to take $40 off, but she said she couldn’t remove the other $4.50 because they had put in my change of address already. I was so upset that I called Discover back to see if it was too late to stop the charge. I was in the middle of talking with someone there about it when our connection was cut and a recording said I had run out of money on my phone.
I dialed 6-1-1 and got hold of someone at Puretalk to ask if I could have some of Mark’s minutes transferred to my phone, and the woman said I wasn’t authorized to make the request. Mind you, I’ve been doing this for some years now and I have never before been told they couldn’t talk with me. I asked them if they could call Mark on a conference call with me and ask for his permission to talk to me. They tried that, but Mark didn’t answer his phone. As all this was happening, I heard a message over the airport intercom that my flight had been moved to a different gate. The woman at Puretalk said that she would hang up and try Mark’s number again and she promised to call me back in five minutes.
By the time I walked down to the new gate, my hands were beginning to shake. This is usually a sign that my blood sugar is dropping, and if I don’t get food soon, I’ll get a migraine. I had a few small candy bars in my coat pocket for just such an occasion, so I ate them, but the shakiness didn’t stop. I went to the airline hostess at the desk and asked her if this flight would have a meal on it, and she said they would only be serving snacks and drinks, but she said I could buy food from across the hall and carry it onto the plane. I walked over to a Panda Express and just as I was about to go up and order food, my phone rang.
It was the woman from Puretalk. She said she had tried Mark’s number again and he still wasn’t answering, but she said that in the interim, she had spoken with her manager about my situation, telling her that my husband and I were in different states and that I needed to have a phone in case of emergencies. They decided to take pity on me and give me some of Mark’s minutes. I almost cried and I told her that she was a good human being. I thanked God for taking care of this for me!
Then I went up to the counter at Panda Express and the tall young man at the counter asked me how I was doing? I told him I was stressed. I made my order and when we got to the cash register, he said, “Don’t worry about this. I’ve got it for you. I just want you to have a less stressed day!” I couldn’t believe my ears. He left to serve someone else and I told the other young man at the cash register to tell him I would say a special prayer for him. Thank You again, Lord!
When I got back over to my gate, most of the seats were full, but there was one next to a woman, and when I asked if it was available, she said, “Sure!” I sat down next to her and opened my food bag and discovered that I had forgotten to pick up an eating utensil, so I was about to collect all my things again when the woman next to me said, “If you’d like to leave your stuff here, I’ll save your place.” I thanked her profusely and ran back to get a fork and a napkin. I got back and ate a whole bowl of fried rice with broccoli and beef. By the time I finished, I felt much better. The woman and I had a nice chat and then her group was called to start boarding the plane. I was in the very last group to be called.
On the next leg of the journey, I had a window seat and I took lots of pictures. I am always looking for aerial shots that I could use for quilt patterns. I also found my driver’s license. Thank you, God!
When I walked out into the terminal, my mother was sitting front and center watching for me to come out. It was great to see her! As we were driving from the airport toward Portland, traffic slowed way down. My flight landed during rush hour. At least it gave me an opportunity to take a few shots before the sun went down.
You can tell from these last two pictures that the sun had gone down. We had one more adventure before getting home. We took the wrong exit, and in the growing gloom of the evening, Mom got lost. I was reading the street names to her and she recognized one, so I suggested she turn down that one. That took her back to an area where she began to recognize things and she found her way home.
I’ll write about today’s adventures tonight…
Hi Denise – I have not been on your site for a while. Great pictures and fantastic sharing of your trip across our great country.
Morris Ramsey
Wow – what a day!! Thankful for the bright spots of humanity you shared about!
Thanks, Sue! I just now found this comment from you. If you go onto my website and put your email address in the box in the left margin, my posts will come directly to you and when you respond, I’ll see your note in my email and reply sooner!