Numbskulls, Fat Beagles, Running Away, and Internet Piracy

First, the Numbskulls:

A little over a month ago, I received a notice that repayment would begin on the student loan I took out to pay for graduate school on March 7. I logged onto the loan company's website and registered for automatic payments, and was told that it would take 30 days to process my request and the first automatic payment would not take place until the April 7 payment date. A few days later I got a letter in the mail thanking me for enrolling in their automatic payment program and stating again that the first payment would take place on April 7. I knew that I needed to send a check for the March 7 payment.

Fast forward to March 9 when I cruised through the ATM at my credit union to make a quick cash withdrawal. Except I was told that there were insufficient funds for the withdrawal. Huh, I thought, I could have sworn I had well over $100 in that account, but maybe I paid a bill that I forgot about. When I got home I checked my checkbook only to find that, indeed, I should have had $138 in my account, definitely enough for my measly $50 withdrawal. So I logged onto my account to discover the problem. Not only had my check to the loan company cleared, but they had also taken out the automatic payment!

I didn't think they could do anything about it, but I wanted to make clear to the loan company that I was pretty annoyed that they had overdrawn my checking account, so I called them. They swore up and down that it always takes 30 days to process the automatic payments, but I was living proof that, this time, it only took about a week. In the end, the loan company offered to redeposit one of the payments back into my checking account, but it would take 10 days so they could be sure my check cleared (uh, did I not mention that I KNOW my check cleared already... hence the problem?). But anyway, I checked my bank balance every couple of days to see if my money was back, but was always disappointed. I logged back onto the loan company's site last week to discover that I was no longer credited with the extra payment, but still no deposit to my account... where the heck was my money?

Finally, yesterday, there was a check in my mailbox. Oh well, I thought, must be they couldn't do it automatically. And then I opened the envelope. They refunded BOTH payments to me. And yet they are still crediting me with one of them. Is it any wonder that these companies go bankrupt?

Next, the fat beagle.

For the last few months, whenever anyone has come to the house, it seems they have commented on my little girl's chubbiness. I knew she had put a few pounds on over the winter, but didn't think it was any big deal. Spring is here and we'll be going on more walks and running around the backyard a lot more soon.

And then we went to the vet for her heartworm test yesterday. She walked on the scale and I gasped... 41.4 pounds! On a dog that should max out about 35! She has put on seven pounds since she was there in September. So I guess the denial is over. She's not just a little chubby and it's time to go on a diet. I guess it just runs in the family, but I feel so mean when I deny her the extra treats.

Next, running away.

I was worried late last week when I hadn't been to the gym in nearly two weeks that I had lost all the ground I had gained in becoming a runner. The day before I got sick I had run nearly two miles and was quite proud of myself. Luckily, my illness and absence from the gym didn't hurt me all that much. When I ventured back on Sunday I was still able to run a mile in quarter-mile increments. Then, yesterday, I couldn't get to the gym due to Copper's appointment (I refuse to go after dinner... it's far too busy and I can't get on any of the machines), but it was a fantastic day (76 degrees), so I went running outside. Knowing that it is more difficult to run outside than on a treadmill, I would have been happy with a half or three-quarters of a mile, but I still managed to get in the full mile! Then, today I was back at the gym and I did 1.25 miles (plus three-quarters of a mile of walking) before getting on the elliptical machine. Oh, and I finally got my heart rate monitor fixed so I can keep track of calories burned again, too. Turns out it really was just a dead battery, so the lady at Walmart who told me the battery was fine was wrong. Plus I didn't know there was a little reset switch to hold down after changing the battery, so thanks to the nice guy at Timex who helped me when I called.

And finally, Internet Piracy.

That was where this post was supposed to end, but when I turned on my laptop, it failed to connect to my wireless network. I looked at the available networks to discover that my own network has somehow become a secured network since I used my laptop all of two days ago, and I have no idea what the key is to log onto it. Guess I've got some investigation to do. In the meantime, it's a good thing that one of my neighbors also has an unsecured network that I was able to connect to. What's a little sharing among friends? I'm sure more than one neighbor has used mine at some point.