Random 5 for August 23, 2020 – Shore, fraud calls, unplugged, bees

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Stone Harbor, New Jersey

Is this the shore? – I walked early this morning and there was a familiar feeling. We often go to the beach between now and the end of September. Mornings are hazy and humid, then the sun comes out and clears it up. Perfect weather for coffee on the deck. (OK, there’s a crumb bun too!) That’s exactly what it felt like – hazy and humid. No beach this year but at least I got a taste of it minus the sand. Sadly it was minus the crumb bun too. There is nothing like a Jersey crumb bun!

Hello?  – One day this week we started to get fraud calls every 10 to 15 minutes. It was the same number. Even though we didn’t answer and turned down the volume it was annoying. We tried blocking it. We called our phone carrier and because it was an 800 it can’t be blocked (that’s what they said). We called the government number to report it. Finally we unplugged everything. It’s our landline so we have cell phones available but neither of us carry them around. We can hear the ring of the landline everywhere in the house and nearby outside. Unplugging solved the problem. After 24 hours we hooked up and Mr. Nasty was gone. It may have been the dialing software going haywire but it was illegal. The caller kept telling us our iCloud was breached. We don’t have any Apple products, therefore we have no iCloud.

Unplugged – There was a nice side to being unplugged. Peace and quiet reigned. We don’t get many calls. Most of what we get are telemarketers. Didn’t miss them one bit.

Logic reigns — For those logical thinkers wondering why those old folks (that would be us) have a landline, it is part of a cable-internet package and it’s cheaper to get the package than just the cable and internet. We are also not good about carry cells – charging, carrying in nonexistent pocket, etc. We have elderly relatives (OMG! I’m going to hear about that!) who may need us.

Goodbye bees – Our neighbor who recently sold her house had bees. Yesterday the local bee club came to move them. I remember when she first started beekeeping. Some neighbors were up in arms. After all bees! In our nice neighborhood! Imagine that! I welcomed them. They pollinated my tomatoes and other garden plants. Honey bees don’t sting unless stressed. I never stressed them and they never bit me. That’s more than I can say for the crazy wasps that ripped up my arm and sent me to the walk-in center for a steroid shot. Twice!

So how was your week?

Our beach vacation with our siblings from 2013 when everyone was healthier. Oh yeah, and younger!

75 thoughts on “Random 5 for August 23, 2020 – Shore, fraud calls, unplugged, bees”

    • Our bedroom ringer is on silent. We use it mostly to get messages for appointments and whatnot. I can’t remember the last “important” call we got. Maybe 2 years ago when my brother was in a car accident.

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  2. Oh, Jersey shore! It is a nice place to visit once in a while, and yes to the crumb buns as well! I’m sorry you won’t be able to get there this year – that is a real shame. Also sorry the bees will be gone from your neighborhood – they are nice to have around for sure 🙂 We have had some all over our forget-me-nots, and I love watching them.

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  6. Pingback: Random 5 for August 23, 2020 – Shore, fraud calls, unplugged, bees — Views and Mews by Coffee Kat – Chikereze

  7. We got lots of fraud calls last week, too. Ours were about not letting the warranty on my car run out. I drive a 17 year old car, so that’s obviously not legit. Plus we got calls about Microsoft warranties. Considering we’re an Apple computer household, another annoying wrongness.

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  9. No landline here and don’t miss it. Very cool about the bees. How interesting to have had them for neighbors! We don’t see bees here, only strange little bees that visit the yellow kind of flowers that hang from palm fronds. They are pollinators though but don’t sting. We see very few butterflies and that makes me sad. Lots of dragonflies this time of year. Like to try a crumb bun. St. Louis has a crumb cake they are known for and it is delicious.

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  11. I still have a landline, as part of cable and internet package, but I wouldn’t give it up anyway, as I do NOT carry my cell phone around unless I go out. It is in my purse in the upstairs den so I usually don’t even hear it when it goes off. I seldom get telemarketers as I’ve had an unlisted number for years, but hear plenty of complaints for others, including silent or dropped calls where it rings once and you can’t even see the number on the call display. I went to the beach for the first time last week to take some pics, but like you may go back when the kids are in school, but then the lifeguards are gone too.

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  13. I have a landline too but not part of a bundle with my ISP as I don’t have cable either. Comcast pretty much rules here in SE Michigan. I don’t have a smartphone either, just a flip phone which I rarely use, except if I have to make a long-distance phone, as I took long-distance off my landline. I have caller ID and will return from walking sometimes and see 5-6 junk calls and it happens all day long.

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  14. Hi, Kate – From early 2016 to late 2019, I received annoying spam calls daily. In frustration, I quit answering any call that I didn’t recognize and I turned off the answering device on my cellphone (not easy to do). Five months later, when I reactivated my answering device (even less easy) I immediately received the same spam call. AAAAGGHH! I feel your pain!

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  15. What’s a crumb bun? Seems I’ve missed out on something.

    I, too, have a land line as part of my package. During this stay-at-home time, I think I use it more than my cell. I always know where it is.

    The last time I was stung by a bee was 1992. We were in the Russian Far East visiting our daughter. I bought a syrupy fruit drink at a market stall that sold all kinds of sweet fruit drinks, so there were lots of bees buzzing around. I was wearing one of those long, full cotton skirts. A bee must have flown under it, and when I sat down in the bus, I sat on him/her. If someone sat on me, I might sting them too.

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    • Oh my! I’d sting you too! A crumb bun is a sweet (not too sweet) yeast bread with a crumb topping. Very popular in sections of New Jersey. They are wonderful when they are fresh. There is another version that’s cake life but the ones I like best are yeast based.

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  16. I’m with you on the landline ! I need it for my computer – and my cell gets no reception inside the house !

    Honeybees die when they sting – another reason not to fear them as much as wasps, which can sting til they run out if venom. And the way bees are being wiped out, it was a blessing to have them near you. Glad they got moved on instead of abandoned or eradicated.

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  17. We also have a landline through the cable line. It’s still not the same as the old landlines though. The old landlines still worked if the electricity went out. These cable lines do not work without electricity. I can’t stand cell phones. The connections are often times warbly, and calls either cut out or drop, like when I was talking to my mom this morning.

    What was the deal with your neighbor’s bees? A hive outside? Inside? The world does need bees for survival.

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  18. I’m sorry to hear the bees have left. There are no human-sponsored hives in our area, but we have lots of bees in a huge bed of oregano and tiny bees in our catnip. The dog snapped at one the other day, and I cautioned her that they were spicy- she doesn’t want to catch it!

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  19. We live about a mile from the beach but I wouldn’t go near it in August anyway. I’m hoping that the kids will be back in school – online or IRL – in September so we can go without fearing crowds (even in Covid, there were crowds). Robo-calls are annoying for sure but what I find even more distressing is that – often older – people fall for the scams. It’s so sad.

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    • We always went at the end of the summer or beginning of September to stay away from crowds and that was before covid. Usually by the last week of August kids are either in school or getting ready to start and not at the beach. The flip side is that you can’t go too late. One year we went for the third week in September and many restaurants were already closed for the season. You probably don’t have that in your year round area.

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  20. I get spammed by Asian people claiming they are from Revenue Canada, fortunately, I have an app that automatically reports it as fraud, and blocks the calls. As for bees, well I bought some delish Okanagan honey from Armstrong, BC. Its really good!!!

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  21. We still have a landline too and have gotten those calls from “Apple” about the cloud issue. Unplugging is a good idea, why didn’t I think of that? We do have Apple products but I knew it was a scam right away. Great picture of your family! Happy Sunday.

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    • My husband did some researching and there is a lot of information on that particular number. It’s from a person/organization/group in Idaho and they frequently blitz a number. People be weird. Those were wonderful days at the beach with our siblings. Good memories.

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  24. You’re not alone with the landline thing. Ours is purely for a cheap broadband package and to make any business/banking calls as our mobiles aren’t secure. We don’t do internet banking but do all our business on an automated phone system for our bank. We rarely get calls, mainly because only two people know our number. Making calls is on the mobile and £15 is usually sufficient for the month.

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  26. Hang on, what? People DIDN’T want bees? 😱😱😱 Cocoa the babysit cat’s family have them and we love seeing them in our garden. Yes, we’ve actually managed to get to know them and recognise them by sight, although Sue Bee and Doris Bee look very similar so I often get those two mixed up. 🐝 How can you NOT want bees?

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  27. We gave up our landlines a couple of years ago because of spam calls. I don’t miss it but can’t remember my mobile number. We have to give a contact number every time we spend more than fifteen minutes in a restaurant or indoor venue but luckily my husband can remember his.
    We went to the seaside last week and I got to paddle in the sea.

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  28. Lovely family photo! Never heard of a crumb bun, but I am intrigued. My week has been an amazing whirlwind of holiday-ing with Joanne (and fellow bloggers Donna and Erica) who flew in to visit with me. I may need to sleep for a week when she goes back to Ontario 🤣🤣🤣

    Deb

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    • I take my cell on my mall walks so I can order my Starbucks at the end. I ended up buying a special over the shoulder small pouch to carry it. Sometimes my pants had pockets and sometimes they didn’t. I’d only realize it when I got to the mall to walk, then I had to carry the phone in my hand. Not a good idea.

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  30. I have the package with the landline as well. To be honest, I prefer to use it whenever I have to make an outgoing call because it’s easier to rest between my chin and my shoulder than a cell, allowing me to multi-task (like when on hold for who knows how long?). I don’t have it set up with any kind of answering recording and never answer it. I’ve been getting a lot more calls on it recently as well. I suspect it’s political telemarketing. Nonetheless, the number has been given to no one, so whomever is calling isn’t someone I need to have contact with.

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    • That’s how my cell is or was. I rarely give the number since it’s not reliable that I’ll get the call unless we are meeting up with someone. Since this lock down thing, when I have an appointment I often have to call from the parking lot and then they call me back to tell me when to come in. I don’t know what people without a cell do.

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  33. We have a land line and telemarketing calls are mostly what we get there. But it keeps us from getting those calls on our cells! But calls every 15 minutes – yikes!! I would have unplugged the phones too.

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    • I can’t believe it was intentional although people be weird. In any case, we haven’t gotten another call. The other thing was that the call was spoofed. The number we saw was not the number that called. Make blocking more difficult.

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  34. I’m still hoping to get to the shore this winter, fingers crossed and hope for a vaccine. 🙂 We got rid of our landline about five years ago, and never miss it except for when the power and wifi go down. Our plan coverage sucks but what else is new. I love honey bees, the ones that usually get me are the ground nesting ones that I do not know are there and I step on them or sink a shovel into their nest, and they decide to let me know the consequences of what I’ve done. The past week has been fine, uneventful, but safe. Stay well.

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