Weather in the Tries: Need I say more? Screen shot of phone Sunday morning It’s not even cooling down at night all that much.

Public Service Announcement: I recorded a new poem, For Daddy on Father’s Day and posted it in the Spoken Word. I tried to get it up for Father’s Day, but I’m old, and not overly computer literate, and… Anyhow, it’s up, now.  I hope you enjoy it.

Another Review: On Amazon

by Tower Lowe 5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprise of Words

Verified Purchase

Marking the Hours is a surprise of words that uncovers the hidden structures of grief. An emotional look at endings, this collection of poems brought me to hard memories of the past, some regrets, and, yet, it also brought healing. The last work, which Good labels “A Personal Essay in Poetic Form,” brings the whole collection to a thoughtful conclusion. I highly recommend this work. I suspect, like me, that you will re-visit it many times as you pass through life.

[I cannot put in words how important these reviews are, nor can I explain how good they make me feel. I love it when someone invests both their time and their money in one of my books, and when they think the investment worthwhile, they shout it to the world. Thank you, Tower Lowe. –Lenora] 

My Try as a Spy:

Yeah, you read that right. I was willing but couldn’t get the “right” people interested.

I received a Friend request on Facebook from a gentleman named Abubaker Abdullahi. Now, I can’t tell if the name is Palestinian or Pakistani or Californian or something else entirely. He claimed to be from LA. However, I do have a few bona fide friends on Facebook who are African and live in African nations and, I think, one in Bangladesh and one in Singapore with Muslim names. So, I accepted, thinking Abu was a friend of one of them. His page that I could see before we were friends, was pretty patriotic stuff, almost too patriotic, but I could only see a bit because we weren’t yet friends. Besides, I can always unfriend, right?

So, I Friended him and immediately, we went to Messenger. OK, he probably doesn’t have a computer and uses his phone. I’ve got a couple friends who do that. Then he tells me he was born and raised in LA, but English obviously isn’t his crib language, for sure, for sure. Then “he” tells me his real name is Jason Morgan and he’s a General in the United States Army, and he’s currently in a war zone, in Syria, and he found my name while searching for an old friend.

(And my name is really Wonder Woman and I have a bridge for sale back in NYC!)

He went on to explain how his account was hacked by the Taliban, and when he got it all straightened out, Facebook wouldn’t let him use his real name any more, so he decided to keep the hacker’s name as a nickname. How military of him! Not.

Now, several bells went off, but I strung him along until I could contact someone to see if there was a law broken, or if they wanted me to continue stringing him along. The phone message at our local FBI office said to contact IC3.gov. I filled out the forms, submitted, but since I hadn’t actually been scammed, yet, they aren’t going to be interested. Then I contacted Army CID. They weren’t interested, either. I was more than willing to string this guy along, but if I did, I wanted guidance and backup. Oh, the local cop shop told me to contact the Better Business Bureau ScamTracker. Huh?? Obviously, the sweet young thing who answered the phone didn’t listen to what I was saying. As soon as I said scam her brain went into automatic and that was that.

There were several tells that this guy was fake, in fact, I think he is probably a she, and probably from one of the SE Asian countries. After we were “Friends” I went back to his page, and there was only one. He’s middle aged, widowed, no friends, no pictures of family, though a couple with a young boy that could be his or a grandson. No back pages. No education listed. Ring-a-ding-ding!

But the biggest tell of all? He’s a General in the US Army, stationed in Syria, a war zone, and he is texting in my time zone, he’s not using a military suffix on his texts (maybe they don’t), and how would a GEN in a war zone have the time to go through my Facebook page and comment on my posts. I’d post something, he’d comment, short, not pithy, inanities almost immediately. Oh, and he called me Dear right off the bat. 

So, I blocked him, and reported him to Facebook. But I’m willing to bet a donut of your choice he is really a she in a sweatshop somewhere setting up people for scams. So much for my being a spy for fun and country, eh? Not worth my time unless they wanted to trace/track and get the ring. 

Two days later, I had another Friend request. His page looked like the ‘General’s’ page, different name, different photo. I clicked the Decline button.

A few years ago, I friended someone allegedly in Africa, where I have several Facebook friends, but things quickly went, well, odd. Through phraseology, and people smarter than me, I determined he was not African but Chinese. Mentioned it to a friend who lived at the time in The Netherlands, and she said the cops there had just raided a sweatshop full of Chinese women working with cell phones setting up these fake accounts, etc., and most of them were posing as men. They like to go after women they perceive as having more money than common sense and relieving them of as much as possible, preferably the money. Hence my guessing that my General is not only Asian, but a She.

Photo of the Week:

Entertainment:

Netflix: Finally finished Lucifer. Corny in a few places, but a great ending! Hope they leave it up a while, it might be fun to binge from S1E1 to the end 😉 Now I can go back to my Korean series of sturm und drang, Hospital Playlist, Season 2.

DVD: My DVD of Allegiance, The Broadway Musical on the Big Screen by George Takei came. I’m saving it for Sunday the 4th July.

Books: Remember, when I finish a book, I review it at Rainy Day Reads.

I am still reading Calling Bullsh*t: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World —by Carl T. Bergstrom / Jevin D. West. 

Have started The Glass Constellation by Arthur Sze. Two good books going on at the same time. I think Auntie Lenora is going to get little else done but reading for a few hot days 😉

Education: Ah-ha! I am counting the above two books in my education slot 😉 

Writing: The manuscript originally called Coffee Break Escapes is now going to be called The Bride’s Gate and Other Assorted Writings: an eclectic reader for eclectic readers. It’s coming along nicely, thanks to some good and helpful friends who are helping me identify and kill my darlings. 😉

Quote of the Week:

“If you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money.” — Guy McPherson

Sammy Brave Dog is happy with the heat. His human isn’t complaining. Yet. When the electric bill gets here… Actually, it shouldn’t be too bad, I have the a/c set at 82 during the day, a little cooler at night. In the meantime, if you find a stash of that calorie-free ice cream, share, please 😉