Scam and Action Taken

On Monday Dan and I read this article in the NY Times that relayed the story of a horrible scam that a retired attorney had fallen for.   Here's the article and I hope you can read it for free.

Here's some of the article

For nearly three months, Barry Heitin, a 76-year-old retired lawyer, thought he was part of a government investigation that felt like something out of the movies. He was actually assisting criminals in stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars — of his own money.

Last fall, he spent just about every weekday doing the legwork and making withdrawals from his bank accounts as part of an intricate scam: He believed he was helping the feds safeguard his money and catch thieves who were after it.

“They kept telling me, ‘This is a big case and we are going to stop a whole ring of people,’” Mr. Heitin said. “It was like a rabbit hole. I was going down the hole with them.”

It cost him almost all of his retirement savings: roughly $740,000.

******

Dan and I came away from this vowing never to open up pop up screens, always going to the source using telephone numbers we had and not those suggested in an email or pop-up, and most importantly having a Trusted Contact attached to our accounts. A Trusted Contact will be contacted if suspicious withdrawals appear on our accounts.  It should be someone younger than yourself so we selected our oldest daughter.

We got right on the phone to add a Trusted Contact to our retirement and savings accounts.  We have all those with one big firm and we accomplished that task.  We approached our bank, too but they don't provide that ability and assured us that their fraud department has in place protections that should work like the trusted contact.

As we age we know our ability to judge situations will change.  We already get strange requests through emails and iMessages that we know to ignore.  We don't answer calls that don't identify the caller. And we ignore any pop ups.  But scammers are getting smarter and we're getting older.  I can only hope we'll stay ahead of them.

What’s Blooming Now?

 

Above and below in pots on the deck. Pots took a beating while we were away. 

Bee balm which all pollinators and humming birds are loving.

    Shasta daisy

Gloriosa daisy

Day lilies of several varieties. 

Dahlias.  I have these planted in lots of places this year and most have their first bloom.

Oregano is blooming and loved by this bug. What is it, David?

Glad to see this day lily. It was a favorite at our house in Columbia and then at the Lodge. Must have come to us from daughter who dug some up when we moved. She had it in at least three different houses before giving it back to me. 

Both hydrangea varieties are blooming. 

From Jennifer Rubin

 The Washington Post

July 26, 2024

by Jennifer Rubin

Distinguished person of the week

We are so unaccustomed to politicians doing the right thing that when one does (e.g., Liz Cheney) we are left slack-jawed. Biden will be remembered for a long, illustrious career as well as a willingness to put his own ambitions aside for the good of the country. Having declined reelection in the tradition of George Washington, he has earned a unique place in history. Biden may be among the most consequential modern presidents. He defeated Trump in 2020, leading the country through the horror of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He rolled out a comprehensive, complex vaccination plan that freed the country from the covid-19 stranglehold. His American Rescue Plan saved thousands of businesses, spared hundreds of thousands of people from eviction, offered the single most effective anti-poverty measure for children (the child tax credit) and kept first responders on the payroll. Crime plunged, employment soared, the manufacturing sector revived and now border crossings are way down. Biden’s legislative accomplishments include the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, the Pact Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (with a historic investment in green energy and a cap on prescription drugs). Despite MAGA antics, he kept the government open and his agenda intact. He appointed about 200 diverse, extremely qualified lower-court judges and nominated the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice (who has exhibited her brilliance in one dissent after another). He ended the grifting, nonstop dissembling, cronyism and misuse of the Justice Department that characterized Trump’s first term. On the world stage, Biden reentered the Paris climate accord, rejuvenated and expanded NATO, rallied the West to Ukraine’s side, constructed new alliances (e.g., AUKUS) and stood with Israel in its greatest time of peril while insisting on providing aid for Gaza and pushing for a cease-fire. He ended a fruitless 20-year war in Afghanistan. To be sure, he had his stumbles — the process of withdraw from Afghanistan was painful, he may have indulged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu too long, and Biden was at times too parsimonious with weaponry for Ukraine. But on balance, he restored America as the indispensable nation, earning the widespread praise of our allies. And finally, despite sniping from the media, he focused the country on democracy and the preservation of the rule of law. He defined the stakes for the election and presented the question for voters: Authoritarianism or democracy? (That, in large part, explains how Democrats did historically well in the midterms, defeating election deniers and forced-birth zealots across the country.) For all that, Biden has earned his place among the ranks of the very best presidents.

Reichenbach Falls

If you are a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series these falls will not be a mystery for you.  For those who haven't indulged in that mystery series,  Reichenbach Falls is the site of the demise of Sherlock Holmes and his mortal enemy Moriarty.  Alas readers of Conan Doyle were so aghast that he would kill off the protagonist, that  C. D. was forced to resurrect Sherlock Holmes.  He reappears after several years with a story as to how he survived the fall in the falls.

Reichenbach Falls is in Meiringen where we were based for our vacation.  In fact we could hear the falls and see the base of it from our backyard.

Dan and I walked over there to travel up the funicular and experience the falls close up.

We later stopped in to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum in town.

It was once a church.

Baker Street reincarnated.

So if you haven't read Sherlock Holmes now you must.

I took a paperback copy of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes to re read while I was there.  I left the book in the apartment for future visitors to read and enjoy.

Get Out the Vote

 Link here.

Cheese Making the Old Fashioned Way

 One museum we spent a lot of time visiting was the Ballenberg Swiss Open-Air Museum. This was an assortment of buildings assembled here from their original locations throughout Switzerland and representing different regions and periods of time.

The cheese making house was a going concern that day and we stayed and spoke to the cheese maker.

I took videos and tried to keep them short to load here.  I went too long on one so it's not included. You should be able to get a sense of what's happening.  Above he's sitting stirring the large pot of milk and curds are forming.  He gave us tastes of the curds and granddaughter #1 drank some of the whey.

Notice the stick he is stirring with.  He called it a Christmas tree.

He gathers the curds and lets them drain then takes large fistfuls and fills molds to make the cheese.

Matt, my son in law, bought some cheese too.  Not sure if they ate it before we left Switzerland or if this was the cheese forgotten in the freezer.  It was remembered as we stood waiting for the train to arrive to take us back to Zurich on our last day in Meiringen.  Not enough time to run back to apartment to get it.

The Big News

 A must watch commentary complimenting Biden for the incredibly difficult decision he made for the good of our country.

Watch here.

Blueberry Season

 

My neighbor's blueberry patch.  I learned today it was planted 40 years ago from another nearby resident who arrived after I did to pick and said he remembers helping to plant these bushes.

My photo above does not do justice to the size of this patch.

Pick all you want for $2 per pint.  A real bargain.  This is my second trip to the patch next door and I'll be going back again.

Some of these are destined for topping on a Dutch baby pancake tomorrow morning and the rest in a blueberry cobbler.

Switzerland is for Children

 When I knew I wanted us to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary by offering the family a trip with UnTours, I polled the UnTours staff for the best location for children.  Their response was Switzerland. Our two weeks there proved them so right.  

Here's how Switzerland is for children.

Gondola and cable car travel to mountain tops.  Here we are headed to Alpen Tower which looks down on the valley where Meiringen is situated.

Snowballs to throw on mountain tops.

Toys!  Even Dan had fun.

Tree houses and play grounds.

Even Emily had to try this one.

Grills everywhere to warm you up when you're cold or make lunch.

Very fun trails like this Maze Trail. Everyone got a ball to send down the mazes along this trail.

Lakes and pools to swim in.

Here at Thun Lake on a warm day but the water was still very cold.

Ruins to explore like Resti Tower. in Meiringen

And caves, too.  This was St. Beatus Cave.

Castles like Oberhofen.

This one had a special activity for kids to find a mouse hidden in the castle and different places.  There was also a ghost.

Boat trips on the lakes.  This trip across Thun Lake was from the castle to Speiz to catch the train back to Meiringen.

Special hikes in the rain like the one through the Aare Gorge.

Learning about cheese making - a favorite food of granddaughters at Ballenberg Swiss Open Air Museum.

More toys and Matt had to try this.

More gondola rides to the top of Schilthorn.

And more playgrounds.  I think the granddaughters tried every one of them in town.

Bouldering walls.

And of course ice cream sundaes!

So as you can see we made lots and lots of memories.