Square Peg, Round Hole

Flusterating...

Sometimes I just make up my own words.

I'm a hendecagon being hammered over the head to fit into a round hole and it's not working. A hendecagon is an 11 sided polygon. Not twelve, not ten, but eleven.

That's me. Something odd.

Blogger/Google.
With so many mega corporations taking over others, I live in chronic confusion. As a traveler using blogger for posting, I am often "locked out" of blogger writing about travel... because I travel. Sometimes I reach a stale mate. Blogger won't let me in for days! I "flunk" proving me is me.

Now isn't that rather inconvenient?

Blogger/Google doesn't "recognize" me as me if I travel... writing about travel.

Duh.

I have been a bit miffed that google has demanded to know my exact past whereabouts on past occasions and refused to let me access my account, accusing me of "failing" the tests and tricky questions, even though I have given them the correct information. They keep demanding I give them a phone they can text and call me on. I just want my private unlisted telephone to speak with my friends, some who live in far flung ports and therefore defeat the caller ID or whatever they call it these days.

Speaking of technology errors and terrors...

One day I went shopping, bought gasoline and groceries in an area I had been camping in for awhile, matter of fact, I had made purchases at the same gasoline and grocery store several times before. Next I tried to make another purchase for an RV part. Card declined. It was embarrassing. After about about an hour on the phone of computer recordings and ear splitting horrible musical hold, I managed to get through to the bank. My card had been blocked from further use because of suspicious activity! I was of course alarmed and tried to find out what suspicious activity my card had been involved in. When all was said and done, it was my purchase of gasoline and groceries that triggered this "suspicious" alert.

Was I the only person in America to buy gasoline and groceries at stores I had previously shopped at? What was so suspicious about buying gasoline and groceries?  I was never able to get an intelligent answer from the bank on this.

I don't want more robots and computers calling me. I feel harassed enough as it is, that when I answer my phone there is now only a 1 in 10 chance it will be from a someone I know. It used to be the other way around!

Helpful people  suggest  "Don't answer your phone". Well, for me, having friends I wish to talk to... this is downright inconvenient. I have a phone because I want to use it to talk with my handful of close friends, some who seem to be scattered around the world because they travel. I don't want to play telephone tag. Most of my life, I worked in traveling occupations that crossed borders on land and sea, so I never really settled long much of anywhere and most of my friends were working travelers as well.

Am I the only person left standing that wants to actually use my telephone to talk "live" to people I know and love?

I know oodles of folks who don't do text, don't do computers, don't do internet, don't do email, don't do TV and some that don't even do phone... period. There is a whole world out there that is beyond technology. Some of us just don't want to be forced into it, or we just want to use a tiny bit of technology. Like using a phone to talk "live" which is becoming harder and harder these daze. Yes daze! I am in a daze that technology is changing faster than I can walk the doggy around the block.

Maybe I just don't belong.

I am a nonbelonger.

On a funny side note; in the British Virgin Islands where I hailed from a chunk of my life,  citizens were called "belongers" or "non-belongers" with huge discrimination between the two.

I guess I have to face facts, that perhaps I've lived a very unconventional life and I just don't seem to fit the perfect mold that mega corporations and governments who want to track my every single move, expect me to fit.

For instance I dropped my personal Facebook account awhile back  because my privacy was seriously jeopardized. I know this method of communication seems to work for the masses, but it wasn't working for me. I am still on there as an author, but for some reason I don't understand, I don't have regular privileges or whatever they call it. Posting on my author account as Dear Miss Mermaid has become problematic as you can do this but not that and so on. I take a stab at it now and then, but Facebook has updated so rapidly, I have to keep relearning the program and that just adds to the frustration and sometimes I am locked out of Facebook too because of my traveling. Good grief.

Where do people find the time to keep up with all this madness?

Of course, just yesterday I was out riding my bicycle. I was frustrated with technology and I was hopping mad and somewhat angry about a ridiculous situation involving an RV engine part, computers, robots, shipping delays and tracking. I decided to load  up the doggy and go for a bicycle ride to calm down. I could take my anger and frustration and use that bad energy in a positive way,  by pumping the pedals and gliding along.

Lo and behold I was run off the road and nearly into a tree, which I managed to miss by a half inch of sheer fright because another bicyclist was coming at me head on, pedaling rapidly all over the road WHILE TYPING on his phone with both hands, wearing earplugs and riding his bicycle with two legs and look-mom-no-hands!

He never saw me, because he was watching his phone, using both hands to manipulate the phone, not watching the road and his earplugs prevented him from hearing my bicycle bell or me yelling "HELLO! HELLO! WATCH OUT!" in an attempt to get him to quit wobbling and seemingly re-aiming dead center at me and my puppy who was riding up front in his basket. I would veer, and he would veer over towards me, still messing about with texting or surfing the internet on his his phone and I wanted to go around him the other way, but there were cars and one narrowly missed hitting him when he wobbled into their path, blowing their horn at him. He was oblivious to this horn honking  too. Were his earplugs playing music so loud he couldn't even hear a car horn?

I guess I should admire the fact he could pedal fast enough to not need his hands on the handlebars, for steering, but he was wobbling around in an erratic manner, yet managing to stay upright and balanced. Perhaps it would have been nice if he had occasionally looked up from his phone to check the traffic around him and maybe he should wear only one earplug or earbud, whatever they are called now and not two when out in busy traffic on a bicycle so maybe he could hear a loud car horn or bicycle bell or some crazy woman yelling "HELLO! WAKE UP!" because he is about to cause a head on collision.

OK, I shall calm down now.

I made it to a city park where I locked up my bicycle to the only tall post I could find. It was the one with the puppy poop bag dispenser. I took the doggy for a walk around the park so he could exercise some. I never did see any bicycle racks. I thought that was kind of funny since I had seen many bicyclists along the way. I still have trouble with one hand going numb, so I often have to stop, exercise and might as well walk the doggy too.

While walking around the small park, I met a nice lady walking her dog who asked if "the bicycle" was mine. I claimed ownership. She told me I shouldn't leave my bicycle because it might disappear. I explained I had locked it up with a heavy duty cable. She mentioned she didn't see a lock on it. While we were chatting my mind began to wonder... was she distracting me while someone else was trying to remove the lock? Had I forgotten to lock it and just dreamed I had?

I speed walked the doggy back to our bicycle in record time. He was confused because he wanted to sniff and piddle around. What's the big rush?

PHEW! My bicycle was still there, firmly locked to the tall post. Thank goodness for small favors.

Life is goof.

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