Venturous Randy

I finally got to talk to someone at my Credit Union, even if it was meeting a person outside and giving them all my information which he scanned and gave back to me. I also included a cover letter with all the bullet points covering each step and each response from Paypal. He said he would immediately submit all this to Visa as they were the ones that made the decision. He also made a copy of the picture that I submitted to Paypal. I have also reviewed the statutes from the USPS website on mail fraud and this clearly fits their definition. I am considering not only submitting what information I have on the seller, but including Paypal too. As you all can tell, I am pretty pissed about this. Randy

Well, I diligently went thru the process of calling Paypal to talk to a human at the time they said they would be open and after providing a bunch of info on my denied claim to a recording, I was then told that no humans were available and the office was shut down. I am now in the process of trying to get help with my Credit Card provider and am trying to get in to talk to someone at my local Credit Union, but all are only doing business thru the drivethru. Every way I turn, I am hitting a wall for help. Randy

I do have PP's number and called it and was advised that their hours are from 6am to 6pm Pacific time. They also advised by recording that they have limited help due to the virus thing. As I look at this, it is obvious that this was a scam from the beginning and since it was mailed thru USPS, it should even be considered mail fraud. I will try to get thru to PP first and that don't work, I will contact my credit card company tomorrow. Randy

My DIL was working in an OBGYN clinic that was taken over by some other doctors just as this virus started. They ended up laying her off and she applied for unemployment and she is supposed to also get the $600 additional a week. I have not talked to my son to see how that is going. Been there, done that on the layoff thing. Almost every company I have worked for since I got out of the service 47 years ago is long gone. Some were bought out by bigger companies and taken to Mexico or China and some were just run into the ground by the 3rd generation. Either way, I always managed and am now glad to be retired and doing what I want. I wish you the best and do you know if you will be eligible for the $600 a week thing? Randy

I used the normal receipt type program I have always used. The seller email is; ptfqkr@hoteymail.club. At the time of purchase, I did not confirm the email address was valid, which it turned out to be invalid. Now, after I look more at the email address, I have never seen hoteymail. Also, if you break down the first part, pt (not sure about) and fqkr sure does sound like something else. The only way I could respond back to Paypal was to do the survey on what they could do better. Yep, I gave them some suggestions. I think that Monday that I am going to contact my Credit Card supplier, which is the local Credit Union that I use. This is the picture of the envelope I also included with my original dispute. Randy

About a month ago I came across a listing on some DeWalt impact wrenches, which may have been on facebook marketplace. I ordered some and used my Paypal account to pay for them, which was about $97. When Paypal posted that the seller had responded with shipping information in an email, they did not post any shipping information as that part was blank. I did later receive an envelope with the tracking number on it, but it was a card with sticky smiley faces on it. I tried to contact the seller and their email was not valid. I then filed a dispute with Paypal describing what happened and even included a picture of envelope and the card of smiley faces. I just received a denial on my dispute with Paypal as they stated I received the item with the correct tracking number on it and this time, the tracking number was listed on their information. I have tried to contact Paypal using the transaction ID number assigned, again explaining what happened and it just immediately comes up as another denial. What are my options now as Paypal has no way that I have found of disputing a denial response. Do I now go back to my credit card company and take issue with Paypal on the charge? I thought that Paypal was supposed to help the buyer. Randy

Do they list a serial number on it? It needs to be above 1413 unless 2nd gear has already been fixed. Randy

Yes, but how about all those that die from the flu, as happens every year, and there is no COVID-19 test done? My thought is how many will get counted as COVID-19 deaths? There are going to be a bunch of people die that are not going to be tested for the virus as you are stating. Randy

It would be interesting to know how many are dying from the normal yearly deaths from the flu/pneumonia without adding on all that may or may not have had the covid-19 virus. Given that I suspect a very high percentage of those that died from the normal flu/pneumonia were never checked for the coronavirus, how is it to know who dies from what? Here is a chart that shows some history of the flu/pneumonia deaths. It sure is interesting with the massive drop in flu/pneumonia deaths, isn't it. Randy

First of all, let me say that as far as me being into conspiracy theories, I am about as far away from them as you can get. In my absolute boredom in the middle of the night due to my days and nights sleeping problem I clicked on a film that I found interesting. I am sure that many on here may have seen this before, but as I say, I generally don't give these things much interest, so this was new to me. Anyway, here is something to pass some time while we are trying to stay home. Hope it works. Randy

This is an old video and I am sure many have seen it, but for those of us bored at home, it is worth watching. Randy

Gasbuddy.com is showing gas down to .99 cents down in South Caroline. Areas around Evansville, IN are down to $1.14 a gallon. Oil prices are less that $20. But, not going anywhere, so it don't matter much. Randy

The going rate for oil is below $23 a barrel, the lowest in 18 years. In looking at gasbuddy.com, reg gas is down to $1.33 south of Evansville, IN. Locally, here in NE TN, we seem to be dropping slower than most places. We are still running about $2 a gallon. Other that Asheville, NC, which is always higher, most of NC is lower than we are. Dropping down into SC is even lower. What gas prices are you seeing? Randy

cowpuc, Linda and I are doing ok. She is still healing where she broke the ball off in her left shoulder. On her last doctor visit, it was determined that one of her screws is loose. Well, I have had some suspicions about that for much longer than her shoulder injury. We have not been getting out much as I have been doing all the shopping. We are supposed to be 78 degrees here tomorrow and cloudy and I told her I am going for a top down ride in one of the Miatas. She has decided we are going on a picnic because she does not want to eat out anywhere. The biggest problem we have had is getting our days and nights mixed up. I am routinely wide awake all night, but real sleepy and napping all day. Maybe tomorrow, with going for a ride, I can start to turn that around some. Randy

Hey cowpuc, hope you are doing well and adequately disinfected. If there is one thing that I wish I had done earlier, it was the change from stock gearing to the RSV trans and the VMax final drive. That change made my 83 more usable all the way around. It also eliminated all the 2nd gear and gear tumbler issues with loose pins. For those not familiar with this, what you get is approximately a 10% lower 1st, a 5% lower 2nd, 3rd and 4th are the same and a 5% higher 5th gear. This made the bike much better at low speeds loaded up and especially if pulling a trailer and when running at internet speeds, it made a surprising difference on wanting to have one more gear. I ran a VMax final drive with a 10% lower gear for a while before the trans change and even though it was fun, interstate speeds for me then was not. Randy

Hoping you get back on track soon. Something I just have to say, because I care. I just went through the loss of a very good friend from lung cancer. And I have to say that lung cancer is a horrible way to die. He was a life long smoker and even after a heart attack, he went right back to smoking. He just could not give them up, and they killed him. If you are still smoking, this might be a good time to start working on stopping. Randy

My dad joined the Navy at 16 and not much later he was in Times Square when it was announced about Pearl Harbor. After that, he spent his entire time in the pacific theater and was at Guadalcanal when the war ended. He did not talk very much about that time, but on one occasion, he did describe standing on the beach looking out over a bay area with a supply ship sitting there. He said that all of a sudden, the ship turned cherry red and blew all to pieces. He said there were body parts floating everywhere in the water. I wish there had been some of the documentaries on TV earlier as there are now about that time that I could have shared with him.. Due to him joining and not being drafted, when the war ended, he had to serve out his six years instead of going home like the draftees did. My dad died in 2000 and definitely was part of the greatest generation. Randy

Wow, it sure was a good thing you were there as that could have been terminal. Glad she is recovering well. I have had a few scares with Linda as several years ago she was working in a nursing home and had a heart attack and ended up having the "widow maker" vein on the back of her heart replaced. A couple months ago I was getting ready to go some place, but got delayed. I noticed that Linda was not responding to our discussion and when I checked on her, her sugar level was in the 30's and she was completely incoherent. I was able to get some sugar back into her and she was okay. If I had left when I had intended, she may not have survived. Now, we are in the process of getting her healed up where she fell and broke the ball off in her shoulder socket. BTW, I posted an update with pictures of the x-ray, but it appears it has not been noticed. The thread was "Not our best Christmas'. I must admit, the x-ray is hard to look at. Again, glad she is doing and especially glad you were there for her, then and now. Randy

I have always loved the small block Chevys and have had 327's 350's and a 400. They were all good engines and were run very hard in my time. Between a 350 and then a warmed over 327, I put about 156,000 miles on a 72 240Z Datsun I built. That was a fun car. The replacement has been the LS series engines and I have heard good about them. This is one of the popular upgrades for Miata conversions. I believe the aluminum block version 5.3 actually weighs less than the Miata iron block 4 cylinder. You can buy a crate engine 5.3 with up to 525 HP. That makes a Miata run pretty good. Randy

When I was a kid, the local walk up DQ was a block away from the city swimming pool. This was when DQ had the small burgers that were like Krystals has now. At the time, they were 12 cents each and tax was 4%, so we could get eight little burgers for one buck. I am one that thinks DQ soft serve is about the best soft serve around as it is always very creamy, as compared to the iciness of some soft serve ice cream. That was when I had my 125 Ducati Bronco and there was always some young girl that wanted to go on their first motorcycle ride and in their swim suit, no less. Yep, those were the good old days. Randy

Linda and I want to thank everyone for the prayers and well wishes. She is doing good and we are getting ready to start some physical rehab. I am going to try to add one of the x-ray pics. I don't know why it is coming out sideways and I don't know what the loop things are in the pic. My concern is the screws are going completely through the arm bone. I believe the black line is where the paper was folded. Randy

Well, we had another motorcyclist death before the warm weather spell ended. On this one, The guy had a problem with his bike and parked it on the side of the road and started walking down the side of the road where he was hit by a tractor trailer. This happened at night. Randy

It has been great to have a break in the weather with some mid 70's. There sure were a lot of motorcycles out around here yesterday. The down side of this, and it happened two days ago, is we had a motorcyclist fatality where a guy ran off the road and hit a tree. It seems to happen just about every time we have a warm spell in the winter. Randy

Linda did not get to come home today because she now has pneumonia. So, we will see how this goes. Randy

Update on Linda. She had surgery this morning and the good thing is, it was a clean break. They were able to put it back together with a plate and screws and hopefully she will get some of her range of motion back. The Dr said that if she is able to raise her arm high enough to brush her hair, that would be pretty good. We want to thank our family here for the thoughts and prayers. Randy