New week, new heat wave
This week started weird (but is getting better.) Most of the weirdness happened against a blazing-hot backdrop of “HOW humid is it out there? UGH.”
Monday in the wee hours of the AM, a friend’s accounts got hacked, and in the way of such things, the hacker immediately started contacting everyone in their network. Since I don’t have FB or Insta, they contacted me via Discord.
The only thing that saved me from losing money to them was that after I responded to the initial 2AM weirdly-worded “hey, wyd? Can I ask a favor?” message with “sure, what do you need?” I did the ADHD squirrel thing, got distracted by a long walk, a bunch of garden work, a shower, and some reading before I sat down to brunch to read the urgent request for money.
By which time there was a ton of group chat activity and scamhackster warning alerts from the fraud victim & others, as well as worried message queries from mutuals who’d also been targeted for cash but didn’t have direct contact information for the victim.
Then followed a flurry of blocking & reporting & purging & discussions. I feel so bad for the person who got hit. They’re having to redo EVERYthing. I was only on the periphery & that wasn’t fun.
If there’s anyone out there thinking you’d never fall for whatever scam this other person did—squelch it, and then sit with yourself and try to cut that wronghearted response out of your emotional inventory.
Getting hacked like this can (will) happen to anyone. No one is exempt from social engineering any more than we’re exempt from gravity or chemistry. No one is immune from being tired and distracted and missing “red flags,” no one is immune from trusting messages from known and trustworthy people. Direct all blame and shame at the attackers, not their targets.
Make sure you have multi-factor verification running on every account that allows it, keep your credit reports frozen, use passkeys or the strongest passwords you possibly can, keep your finances firewalled away from your socials—and know that still won’t be enough to save you if you are really targeted. There are only so many bullets anyone can dodge, and the way the internet is designed, hackers spray the world with bullets over and over with very little cost or effort.
My metaphors got kinda mixed up there, but I think y’all get the picture.
ANYway. Onward.
The next disruption to my always-disrupted routine is that Spouseman is about to be employed again. He did his onboarding Monday, which meant taking pictures of voided checks, checking on various dates and addresses, and generally a lot of aaauuugh, forms to fill out online” stress in the atmosphere. Good things, but still stressful.
And then there was anextra workshift! Talk about throwing off the whole week’s schedule. I had to tell myself all day Tuesday that it wasn’t Wednesday just because I worked the previous night. The bonus shift was a good time. The library keeps their AC much lower temp than we keep our house, I got to chat with lots of library folks I rarely see on my regular schedule, and I gave out a bunch of stickers to wee ones and tweens.
Tuesday, I was up and out early, getting in a good long walk before the heat got bad, so I was outside when a buncha guys (4 pickup trucks and two big rigs with trailers worth) descended upon our neighbor’s yard. They were there to install a new utility pole in the corner of his backyard. That was quite the noisy show. The power never went off. They were meticulous at every step, lots and lots of communication and discussion before, during, and after every step. It was cool. Distracting, but fascinating.
And today? Today slightly lower temps were forecast (only 80s! Not 90s! When did that become”cool? But I digress.) After I stareted the laundry, I borrowed a wheelbarrow from my other neighbor and continued my “dig a trench in the wilderness garden” project. This of course also involved pulling up loads of weeds, trimming back trees and shrubs, and cutting out a few roots. INCLUDING ROOTS FROM A TREE WE CUT DOWN IN 2019. I made good progress, with no bruises this time, and I finished up my allotted minutes right before the rains arrived.
The heat finally broke with that storm,. Some thunder but mostly rain. Tonight and tomorrow there will be a celebration of Hot Foods cooked in The Oven, Because We Can.
That’s got me all caught up. Have some cute cat pics.
It looks like Pips is contemplating the meaninglessness of existence while resting his head on my leg, but really, he’s thinking, “Life is hard when you have to share the bed with people.”
It was 80ºF upstairs, because I like the office warm. Pips insisted on lounging up there anyway. You think he would hang out in the basement with Spouseman, but no. This is a typical pose, top of the stairs, glaring down at me.
That’s all until later!