Halloween Trick and Treat

In preparation for our tree being planted this morning, I went outside to move some boards and the hammock stand.  Little did I know that this time I was the victim of our midnight marauder. I was mistaken earlier in the blog when I said Rick had stepped in doggie do-do.  It actually was cat crap. Today while I was working outside, I stepped in it and dragged it into the house.  %$#* ! Rick researched cat repellents online.  One person suggested land mines.  He said they would eliminate cats and fertilize the lawn at the same time.  I am tempted... We have to do something because the problem is even worse than last year.  A call to animal control may be in order. That was our trick for the day.

The post hold digger marks the spot where we
want the new tree to grow.

However, we also had a treat this morning. We finally have encountered a contractor who makes good on his word.  Eden Nursery called us yesterday and promised us we would have our tree planted today between 8:30 and 11:00 AM.

A two-man crew arrived on schedule and within 15 minutes they dug the hole, they planted the tree, they showed us how much to water it, and they were gone!

Meet our new bottle brush tree!

The tree is a bottle brush, so it should bloom with wonderful, fuzzy, bottle-brush shaped flowers.  We know from the almost dead one in our front yard that this tree also attracts parrots.  I hope that they eventually find this little one in our back yard.

I told Rick to stand next to the tree so we have
a height reference point.

The tree is placed in the center of the yard for two reasons: we can see it well from the dining and Florida room, and it has full room above to grow with no interference from either the live oak or the camphor trees that partially shade our back yard.

We have not even reached 10:00 AM, but already we have had both Halloween tricks and treats.

Disheartening Day

We have had a busy couple of days. Yesterday started with an early-morning text from Lindsay telling us that snow was falling in Green Bay.  While I am glad that we are not putting up with the cold weather, we see so much work down here that we want to do (with no money to do it), that we are not having much fun here either.

For over a year now, we have smelled a slightly musty smell when we opened the center doors on the vanity in the main bathroom.  Rick took the vanity top off and together we flipped the vanity over.  The bottoms of the vanity sides were never sealed, and after we had a slight flood in the bathroom last year, the water seeped up into the vanity.  The smell emanated from that area. Rick sealed the boards with two coats of Kills, so hopefully once the Kills smell dissipates, we will have a fresh bathroom again.  We are happy that we do not have to do any major repairs on that room this year.  We have neither the inclination or the budget to do so.

The upside down vanity rests as the second coat of
Kills dries before we reassemble the bathroom.

Yesterday also was a momentous day because I called our pest control agency and told them that their services were no longer needed.  I am totally done with having them rip us off each year.  Rick sprayed around the house with a bug spray that is equally as good as their spray, and he probably did a more thorough job than they would have done.

In the afternoon, we went to a neighborhood estate sale.  Apparently, the people who own the house are moving permanently back to New York, so they are selling most of what is in the house.  We bought a small rug for Owen so he can drive his cars on it.  The rug is from the movie Cars 2.  I hope he likes it.

Owen will have fun zooming his matchbook cars around
this rug.

Although Rick pumped up our bike tires, we have yet to take a ride.  The weather is still quite warm, so if a person does not ride early in the morning, the opportunity, as far as I am concerned, is gone.

Last night, we started to plan sectioning off a small part of the backyard for a garden.  Nothing but weeds grows under the tree, so maybe I can just add a flowerpot and some stones to keep the area from turning into a mud patch.

For a few hundred dollars, we can turn this into
a small, attractive garden.

Today Rick finished the vanity, and we reassembled the bathroom.  Then we went shopping to try to find some small items for the house.  Most of what we searched for turned into disappointing failures.

One thing we did buy was a tarp that we could put over the hammock so we don't have to haul it in each night.  I would like something that was fairly waterproof and that protects the hammock from tree debris and bird droppings.  As I tried to construct that today, even that did not turn out the way I had imagined.  I give up.  This has been a totally disheartening day.

The only good thing that happened this afternoon was that we received a call from Eden Nursery. They will be here tomorrow morning to plant our new little bottle brush tree in the back yard.  I hope that since I will not have a hand in that, perhaps at least that will go well.

Plans and Plants

This morning started early with an appointment for me with my rheumatologist.  The good news is that my strength is fairly good and the current medication dose I am on seems to be working well for me.  The plan is to reduce my medication in half, perhaps, in three months if the blood work comes back with positive results.  Hooray!  I am more tires and achy at night, but perhaps that has to do with a different routine now that we are back to walking and working a little outside.  (Actually, much of the walking and working of late centers around running to stores for half the day!)

We were home by 9:00 AM and waited around half of this morning for the Schwan's delivery man to arrive only to discover that our delivery time had changed from 9 - 11 AM to 11 AM to 2 PM.  He actually came in the middle of that time period, so we once again have a freezer full of good food.  We have spent a king's ransom on food in the last week, but we should have several meals to choose from for quite a while.

In looking at financing, I guess we are back, once again, to putting pavers in the front for our sidewalk.  Rick and Steve ripped the uneven, hazardous front walk out almost three years ago, so we knew that this year, once we have the palm tree removed, we would have to put in some kind of permanent sidewalk.  We have changed our minds ten times over whether to go with cement or pavers, and whether to do it ourselves or to have the sidewalk professionally installed.  If we were to choose a poured sidewalk, that would have to be professional.  However, we could do it ourselves with pavers and be much more cost effective.  The latest vote is to use pavers for a front porch and sidewalk.

A friend who used to teach masonry told us
to always lay out a paver design with a hose first
to plan the project.  This rough design shows where the
porch and sidewalk will go.

Once the palm tree is gone, the sidewalk will lead
out to the driveway and provide a border for a
flower garden in front of the kitchen windows.

We know for certain that the two main trees in the front yard will be removed this year.  That is already contracted and scheduled for late in November.  After that, we can work on the sidewalk and then plan on the front yard landscaping.

Steve came over today to tell us about the "trumpet tree" that he and Chris just purchased at an area nursery.  He told us that they saw a beautiful bottle brush tree there and thought we might be interested in it.  We have planned on planting a bottle brush in the back yard to replace one of the trees we removed a couple of years ago.  After lunch we went to the nursery, looked at the tree, and purchased it.  The price was good and installation charges were very reasonable. They said that they could deliver in a week or so, so we are excited about taking the first step toward actually growing something in our yard instead of just taking overgrown plants and dead trees out.

This bottle brush tree is beautifully shaped and will provide bright red
"bottle-brush"-shaped flowers this winter.  It will fit well in our back yard.

Today was a turning point in many areas.  We finally feel as if we are moving forward with our plans for our future and for Gladys' future as well.

Blinds, Bargains and Bugs

We awoke to promised rain this morning, so it definitely was not a day to work outside.  We needed to stay around the house this morning because a man was coming to check the heat pump for our yearly inspection.  Last week we heard a terrible noise outside that we thought was our unit, but the inspection today showed that all systems were full and ready to function well this coming winter.  Check one more task off the list.

While Rick was dealing with the heat pump inspection, I continued to work inside on cleaning our plantation blinds.  Having the blinds on all of the windows in the house is great; we can control the light that comes in during the day, open them wide for an unobstructed view, and close them securely against prying eyes at night.  However, all of those blinds means that I have literally hundreds of slats to clean.  Many years ago, I ordered a mini-blind cleaner brush, and I prayed that I had actually brought that tool down here on one of our trips.  Thankfully, I found the brush in my cleaning closet and got to work.  (Last year I took each slat out of the blinds in our bedroom and wiped them down individually.  They were clean, but the process took hours.)  Yesterday I cleaned all four blinds in the master bedroom in about an hour's time.

The blind-cleaning brush works well to wipe
down each side of the slats.  After each window,
I turn the wool rollers one-quarter turn, cleaning
four windows each session.

The brush is designed for mini-blinds, but it easily adapts to the spacing for the larger plantation blinds.  Once the cleaning is complete for the day, I can wash the wool tubes on the tool and let them dry overnight.  Today I cleaned the blinds in both of the bathrooms.  I do not understand why (perhaps the humidity?), but the blinds in the bathrooms always tend to attract more dust than any other blinds in the house.  If I can do one room a day, I will have the house finished in another three to four days.  The Florida room actually has six windows, so that may take two days to complete.  In the end, the blinds will be clean enough to get us through the winter.

Once the heat pump inspection and today's blind cleaning were complete, we ventured out to run some errands.  A trip to the post office allowed me two mail a couple of cards, and then we went to Kohl's Department Store.

I had $35.00 worth of "Yes" points to spend, and coupons for 20% off.  I wanted to get some more towels, but the sales right now at Kohl's were not good.  Generally I can find really good sales, spend the "free" money, and get a percentage off on top of that all.  Today I did not get as much off as I would have liked, but I still managed to buy a greeting card, a three-piece set of Kuhn Rikon Swiss paring knives, and two woven placemats for fall.  The total price to us: 67 cents!  I guess I did not do such a bad job after all.

My colorful new knives are razor-sharp, and
since they were virtually free, why not?

As the rain continued outside, we scooted over to Whole Foods for some fresh pears but decided against their very pricey soup.  We had a quick lunch at home followed by a visit from Steve. We all expressed our dissatisfaction with the pest control companies that we use here in Florida.  We both are paying lots of money each quarter to see very little being done to protect our properties.  Steve noted that no one else in his neighborhood seemed to have any pest control, and we agreed that the same was true in our area.

After Steve left, as if on cue, the man from our pest control company called.  He was supposed to call us a week ago today after we arrived in town.  Ah, well, only a week late is almost prompt where this man is concerned.  He wanted to come out and to spray insecticide all around our house.  When Rick told him it was pouring rain here, he suggested that maybe he could come and sprinkle granules around the perimeter of the house.  Rick told him that he could not come while it was raining.

That was the last straw for me.  I have been thinking for over a year that the pest control salesmen were all selling the proverbial "snake oil" to us gullible northern Snowbirds. We had nothing sprayed in the house for over six months and came back to a house with less than a dozen dead bugs and nothing crawling.  I told Rick I was not going to be taken advantage of any longer and was done with this pest control company.

Are their bugs in Florida?  Yes.  Do some of them cause possible damage to a house?  Yes. Does something have to be done about them?  Yes.  However, Rick is smart enough to inspect the house twice a year for signs of termites, and companies are available right in the city that sell the exact same chemicals to consumers that pest control companies use .  (Rick also reasoned that for the $250/ year we spend on the pest control termite "insurance" we get by having them come in, we could save the money for 10 years and have more than enough to tent and to fumigate the house again, if need be.)

Our mail today came loaded with coupon books and offers.  One book had a 15% off coupon for pesticide chemicals at a do-it-yourself pest control dealer in town.  Our neighbor said that her husband has used chemicals outside that have kept their house pest-free for years.  We drove to the small shop, talked to the man inside, looked at what he recommended, and came away with a sprayer and the items we need to spray the soffits, around the windows and doors, inside the garage, and around the perimeter of the house.  I am done being ripped off by major chains of pest control companies that talk out of both sides of their mouths.  Rick can do a better job than they can, and he is smart enough not to try to spray around the house in the pouring rain!

Splash-Splash

Yesterday we started the day by meeting our new pastor at church.  He certainly has changed the service presentation by bringing in a large-screen TV and PowerPoint slides to enhance his sermon and the service.  He has kept some of the traditional parts of the service, but his way of relating what he is saying to our lives today is welcome and refreshing. He is young and energetic, and that is just what our small congregation needs. Everyone we talked to seems to really like him.

After church, we headed home and got to work.  Rick dug out the power-washer and proceeded to give Gladys a well-needed bath.  Six months alone left her with cut-grass splatter at her feet, an overall layer of dirt, and cobwebs and bugs under her soffits.  Rick worked a long time to get Gladys back to her freshly-painted splendor, and then he tackled our white fence.

Rick sprays the bottom of the walls to remove the
grass clippings that splatter up when the
lawn service man edges around the house.

The south wall changes back to our original yellow
thanks to a little water pressure.

After he finished with the house, the sidewalk pavers in the front were the next thing to clean. The heat and humidity in Florida are just the right mix for mold to grow on cement.  At least once a year, concrete surfaces need a good cleaning.

Rick cleans the patio blocks that serve as our
temporary sidewalk to the front door.

Notice how the water washes away the black mold
and the white concrete appears.

This morning Rick finished cleaning most of the driveway which also needs a yearly refreshing to remove the black mold.

The fence, too, was badly in need of a good bath.  While Rick took care of the grime and pasted-on grass cuttings at the bottom, I took care of taking a bucket of water and a rag to wipe down the top edge and post tops.  I must admit that I was not thrilled to find the "signature" of many birds who perched on the top of the fence sections!  As it stands now, though, everything is clean and ready for another year.

Our neighbors have a new dog, and we met her yesterday also.  Her name is Morgan, and she seems like a sweet dog.  We never hear her bark, but today while Rick was bringing our garbage can back to the house, he stepped in dog poop in our side yard.  We are not saying that it necessarily came from Morgan, but someone in the neighborhood certainly is letting their dog roam freely.  Last year we had problems with stray cats, and this year we might have a slightly larger problem.  We'll have to watch our yard carefully and to address the issue when we find what creature is causing it.

After lunch today we took a drive south to Sarasota and to Osprey.  Rick needed some new shoes, so he found a New Balance store in Sarasota.  From there, we went to Osprey so he could get a few insulated Turves glasses that he can use outside when he works.  The traffic was horrendous, but we made it back safely.

We are both tired this evening... me, just because, and Rick because he drove so far.  I suspect that this evening will consist of a short walk and a relaxing evening discovering what Rick has taped on TV.  Rain is predicted for the next three days, so that will determine what tasks tomorrow brings.

Time and Money

As the title of this blog suggests, we have been spending a lot of time getting Gladys set up for the winter and a lot of money doing so.

Our ventures today started with a trip down to a palm tree nursery we found last year where we want to get the palms for our front yard.  Currently our front yard is decorated with an almost dead bottle brush tree and a half-dead Queen palm tree.  We made arrangements yesterday to have both trees removed.  Sadly, the tree service says that they are booked for about five weeks, so we are looking at the week of Thanksgiving to have the trees removed.

In place of the bottle brush, we would like to plant two palms with a small
garden between them.  Where the palm is in front of the house, we would
like low bushes to hide faucets and to bring color to the yard.

Our trip south to the nursery was to see if that schedule would put us too far into the winter to have a couple of foxtail palms planted.  We are "colder" here in Dunedin than are communities further south, so we had some questions as to how cold-tolerant foxtail palms would be.  The person who waited on us assured us that the foxtails would be fine.  However, he wants to send someone out to our house to help us plan our palm tree garden.  (Read: talk us into more vegetation than we want or can afford to plant.) Anyway, the nursery is supposed to call us on Monday to make arrangements.  We'll see...

From Seminole we crossed over the I275 long bridge into Tampa to visit the Container Store.  I bought a couple of small items for Gladys.  We then had lunch, found a salon that sold the shampoo and conditioner we wanted, and headed back to Pinellas County.

Our final stop of the day was in Seminole to see my nephew Jon.  He has moved into a new house as he begins his second year of teaching.  His house has a great layout and a cozy charm to it.  We took him some homemade cookies and had an enjoyable visit with him.  I know that he is crazy-busy, so we hope that we left him with enough time to get some correcting completed before tomorrow.

We are looking forward to church tomorrow as we meet our new pastor for the first time.  Our old pastor retired, and the new pastor is supposed to be young and energetic.  That is just what the congregation needs.  Maybe we will get some younger people to join the church and get some life back into the elderly congregation.  I'm interested in what changes he has made to the service and to the routine of the church.

As usual, after dinner this evening we went for a walk.  We wanted to really look at landscape to see what other people did with their front yards.  Those who have had professional help with their yards are obvious.  I want to try for variety, texture, and a little color in our garden to give Gladys some curb appeal.

She herself is looking fairly good.  Yes, we need to give Gladys a good bath with our power washer to remove a layer of dust, but overall she has weathered the wet summer well.  With some new plants and flowers at her feet, she should be beautiful once again.

Home Again

We have been in our Florida home less than 48 hours, and it already feels like we have never left.  We have two homes, and we are to the point where both finally feel like home.

Our flight to Florida was thankfully uneventful.  Rick has been watching the flights to Tampa all

week, and each day they have been either on time or slightly ahead of schedule.  We drove to Milwaukee on Monday to get an early Tuesday morning flight to Tampa, getting up at 5:00 AM Tuesday to be to the airport on time to take the rental car back and to be checked in to our 7:45 flight.  The hotel was convenient but not really conducive to a restful night.  We had no problem turning in the car, so we ventured into the airport only to discover that our flight was delayed until 8:20 AM!

Apparently the plane needed repairs before it took off from Washington DC, so it was delayed getting to Milwaukee.  Ah, well, I guess I would rather have the airline personnel find and repair problems before I got on the plane.

We had paid $85 each last fall to go through the security check which would allow us to get Pre TSA approval.  We have had, by chance, Pre TSA tickets in the past which allowed us to move up to check-in in a special line, to not unpack anything from our bags, to put only phones and pocket items in the security trays, and to walk through the scanners without problems.  That luxury, apparently, is in the past.

This time we still were able to move quickly to the front of the check-in lines in a special lane and to get checked through quickly.  The person who checked us in gave us each a blue laminated "pass" which allowed us to keep our shoes on.  Those two things were the only perks of being Pre TSA.  We still had to unload all of the computers and electronics, everything in our pockets, and all liquids.  Additionally, they pulled our bag off to the side and told us that they needed to hand-check it.  Rick said, "I'll bet you want to check out the cheese."

The agent replied, "You are right." We had packed four pounds of good Wisconsin cheese since the cheese in Florida is both expensive and tasteless.  The agent checked that the cheese was just that and waved us through.  We had to repack the whole suitcase and computer case before we could move on. So much for paying $170 for Pre-TSA privileges.  Rick guessed that perhaps the security risk was high right now.  I can only imagine what it will be like at Christmas time!

Once we got to the gate, we started to count the people sitting in wheelchairs who would have pre-boarding privileges. We always have several people in wheelchairs going to Florida, as were we, to escape the cold of the Midwest winters.  This time, however, was excessive.  Twenty-two people in wheelchairs plus their companions (yes, 44 people!) were able to get onto the plane before the poor person who had ticket A-1.  We were tickets A-32 and A-33, so boarding took much longer than we expected.  Kudos to the pilots, however, because once in the air, he tried as much as possible to make up time.

We had no problems getting to Dunedin from the Tampa airport, and returning the rental car also was easy.  While the house needs a good power washing, Mother Nature did a great job of decorating both the house and especially the garage with cobwebs for Halloween!  We were pleased to see the inside showed no signs of water damage from the pounding summer rains, and since we left it clean in May, Gladys is in pretty good shape.

A trip to the grocery store left us $150 poorer, but our pantry is restocked.  Other expenses to buy new furnace filters and such means my bank account really took a hit, but that was somewhat expected.  Opening a house is always a costly endeavor.

A drive around the neighborhood showed that most of the vacant houses in the area have now been sold.  New people have moved into the houses at the end of the street, and the house behind ours, which has been vacant for four years, finally was purchased by an investor.  He put on a new roof, totally ripped out the overgrown landscaping, and painted the formerly pink house a neutral beige. What an improvement!  The house next door to the one behind us also was sold this summer.  A couple from Michigan is in the process of restoring that one, so there is hope for this neighborhood yet!

After dinner (Publix sandwiches), we took a drive down to the Marina.  We discovered that the vacant lot at the end of quaint Victoria Lane which the city sold to a developer is now turning into an atrocious monstrosity of condos and shops.  It is obtrusive, ugly, and not in tune to the neighborhood or the cobble-stone streets which represent the spirit of Dunedin.  How sad!

The new development looms over the sidewalk
and spoils the looks of the neighborhood.

One nasty surprise that we found was that the neighbor built a gate to fence off his property in the back.  We are not opposed to him doing so; however, we are not pleased that he butted his gate post right up to the side of our fence.  He technically is 6 inches on our property since we purposely put in our posts and fence panels well INSIDE our property line.  We need to do something under the fence so our landscaping services do not keep weed-wacking the posts, and his intrusive posts and gate add a further hinderance to our plans.

The last two days have been expensive, busy, and productive.  We both are looking forward to a day were we can relax a little and enjoy our bikes and the hammock which we put up (but have not yet used) in the backyard.  The weather was great today; that was a reminder of why we chose to buy Gladys in the first place.

On our walk tonight, we passed one house that was really getting into the Halloween spirit.  This picture is for you, Owen!

Happy Halloween!

Ready to Roll

We have been working hard the last few days to get things in order before we travel south.

One task was getting our bedroom set up so we did not have to do anything with it in December.  We had purchased a new bedding set a couple of weeks ago, and today Rick moved curtain rods and hung the valances that matched the new bedspread.  We still have a bit of wall patching to do, but that can wait until we have a bit more time.  For now, we are pleased with the new look in the master bedroom.

We selected another quilt for our bed.

The simple greens and blue pattern work well in the room.

Yard work occupied almost one whole day.  The leaves are late in falling this year, so we have contracted with the service who removes our snow in the winter to come in next week to do one final "fall clean-up" of the yard.  I have taken care of cutting down all of the hostas and other plants that needed trimming before the winter, and we took a huge load of debris and leaves to the yard recycling center.  A final raking of the yard will get us set for winter. Since we saw a few lazy snowflakes drifting down on Saturday, I think our preparations are none too soon.

On a side note, the City still has not completed the construction on our road.  We suspect that they may come in on Monday or Tuesday of the coming week to blacktop the street -- if the weather is not too cold for them to do so!

Today was a day of final laundry, final dishwashing, and packing.  We are getting better at this game, and what we need to haul down south is less each year.  Actually, we want to take some bricks of good Wisconsin cheese to Florida, so those and our electronics (computers, iPad, phones) take up the bulk of our suitcases.

The temperature of the average domestic refrigerator is between 35 - 40 degrees.  Why do I mention this?  Because right now is the perfect time to open that door and to really LOOK beyond the food to see what the refrigerator holds.  Has it been a while since you washed out the inside?  Do you have mysterious things growing mold on the lower shelf?  Are the shelves themselves beginning to resemble a science experiment gone rogue?  If so, do what I did today and getting scrubbing.

The weather is cool enough that refrigerated items can be put in a plastic tub or cooler and left in the garage while you tackle the task.  Actually, this moving from house to house every six months is the best thing that happened to my refrigerator because once I empty the 'fridge, I have no excuse not to clean it.

The refrigerator is no longer in danger of the
Board of Health closing down my kitchen.

Earlier today, we transported to Lindsay all of the not-consumed refrigerator and freezer items.  Then a sink full of hot water awaited the shelves and baskets of the 'fridge.  An hour or so later, it sparkles. Now I will not be afraid to store something inside when we come home in December!

If you are a procrastinator, I will give you a half-pass.  Wash out just the refrigerator part now.  You can wait until your garage becomes nature's own deep freeze to store your frozen items while you tackle the freezer later in the year.

All that is left is a little bit of packing, and we are on our way.  We had our first hard freeze of the year on Friday evening.  That is my cue to travel south.

Dust Bowl

Construction workers returned to our street this week to prepare the street for paving.  To that end, they have brought in a huge machine to dig everything down about 24 inches.  Then large trucks bring in loads of gravel which they mix with some of the dirt.  That mixture then is returned to the hole where it is compacted and smoothed over as a "sound" surface on which to pave. Those same huge trucks, empty of their load of gravel, then fill with the left-over dirt and drive away.

The problem?  What is waiting to be dug up is a mixture of old concrete, concrete dust, sand, dirt, and stone.  When the trucks rumble past, they raise such a cloud of dust that everything is covered.  We cannot even walk across our lawn without raising dust like Charles Schultz's character Pigpen.

A passing truck leaves such a cloud of dust that we cannot clearly
see our neighbor's house across the street.

 Walking in the neighborhood is almost impossible. For now, our exercise must take place either in our basement exercise room or out of the neighborhood. Our street was supposed to be completely finished last Friday.  I doubt it will be complete by this time next week. Needless to say, washing cars or windows or dusting inside the house is a lost cause.  I'll wait until the dust literally settles to do any serious cleaning in this house.

Warning About "Unknown" Calls

Twice in the last two weeks I have received calls from people who have said, "Hi. I see on my 'recent calls' that I missed you, and I was wondering what you were calling about."  In each case, I both had NOT called them and did not know them.  Mystery.

I assumed with the first one that I had just somehow "pocket dialed" the number.  I apologized for bothering the woman and hung up.  When the second call came in the same way, I decided to investigate.

Rick reminded me that I could not have "pocket dialed" anyone because my new iPhone 6s has a security lock on the screen.  Without my fingerprint or the correct code, the phone is locked from all access.  OK, so there must be something funky with my new phone.

A trip to Verizon, my phone carrier, revealed that I was not the only person who had complained about something like that happening, but the mysterious calls had nothing to do with the type of phone I had.  Instead, the Verizon personnel told me to call the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) to report that someone was "cloning" my number and using it to sell bogus products to others. Terrific.  The "that only happens to other people" nightmare was now happening to me.

Back at home, I called 1-888-CALL FCC to report the problem.  The nice FCC lady was very helpful and educational.  I learned:

1. What was happening was not "cloning" as Verizon personnel had said.  Instead, I was part of something called "Caller ID Spoofing."  Remember, these are the Feds we are talking about, so one has to get the vocabulary correct.

2. There was nothing I could do about it.  The FCC lady said that some criminals (probably in an off-shore location) were using my number and calling people in order to scam them. You know those calls -- they can give you a better rate on your credit card, and all you need to do is give them the number, or you have won a fabulous new car, and all you have to do is send $500 to pay to have it delivered to your house, etc.  If by some chance you are lucky enough to miss the call, what appears on your caller ID is a number -- in this case MY number -- that cannot be traced back to the scamming organization.

3. The only people who can complain to the FCC are the people who receive the calls.  If the FCC receives a complaint from someone who receives such calls, they can investigate and try to shut down the scammers. If you receive such calls, immediately use the number listed above to report it to the FCC.  No complaints = no action.

4. If you check your phone and see a call came in from a number that you do not recognize or the ID says "Unknown," DO NOT CALL BACK.  The FCC lady said that in some cases the scammers DO use their own numbers, and calling back will just encourage them to call you more often.  Never respond to such calls.

Once again, I am saddened to think that someone who is smart enough to set up a system whereby my number is used even though he is calling from a different number would want to use his knowledge only to try to rob others.

I thought about changing numbers, but then the scammers have at least scored a little victory.  Changing my number and letting my friends, family, doctors' offices, church, insurance companies, financial advisor, and the million other places that have it would be a royal pain, and in the end, the same thing could happen to any new number that I would get from Verizon.

So if I call you, I hope that you have your phone set up to reveal my name along with my number.  If a missed call contains an unfamiliar number and is accompanied by the tag "Unknown," don't call back.  Chances are the person who called you truly is unknown to you. And if you really want to talk to me, call me. You know my number.