Relative Something

*this* John W. Hays' take on things and experiences

Posts Tagged ‘wild flowers

Lazy Sunday

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The ground cover in our woods is making impressive progress in spring growth. It has already reached the point where it’s almost impossible to find Asher when he wanders away as we walk through the woods. I have an obvious fondness for finding trillium, both where we have transplanted it and in surprising places it shows up organically.

Those flowers are probably carpeting the woods up at the lake place, or will be soon. Ours are few and far between at home.

The busy, energy-filled day on Saturday gave way to a very low-energy Sunday for me. A little extra time standing quietly with the horses and lying down with Asher outside in the shade. A short nap early in the afternoon. Some puttering in the shop to tend to long-neglected clutter before making a little progress on a project.

I ended the evening watching Stanley Cup Playoff hockey. That ended up being the most stressful part of the entire day.

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Written by johnwhays

May 4, 2026 at 6:00 am

First Flowers

with 2 comments

That didn’t take long. A day after the new green of freshly sprouting leaves appeared on the raspberry bushes, the first flowers of the season blossomed on the forest floor.

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I don’t actually know what kind of flowers they are. Searching flower images brought me to Wood Anemone as a close possibility, yet I never found results that definitively matched ours.

Cyndie is home again this morning. She arrived to a stack of packages and mail that arrived while she was away. Her rummaging around last night after midnight woke me up. Those packages? She whispered that she hadn’t ordered any of them.

A week earlier, while she was in Florida with her parents, she received notice from her credit card company, checking on purchases. Cyndie still had possession of her card, but hadn’t used it while in Florida. The fraudulent purchases were being made over the internet. So, how does credit card fraud work when you order online? Couldn’t authorities just check where the packages are sent?

Well, not in this case. The fraudster had the items sent to our address.

Huh?

The last place Cyndie had used the card was at the airport parking lot. Getting out again was a trick, because she had canceled the card earlier in the week, as soon as they notified her of the unauthorized purchases. How do you get your car out of the ramp a week later?

Apparently they have a plan for that. Must happen often enough. There is a button you can push for help. The voice told Cyndie that, since she still had possession of the card, she could swipe it to get the amount owed, and then use a second card to pay.

What is making much less sense to us is, the credit card company’s response about our receiving the packages from the fraudulent purchases. An agent told Cyndie, “This happens all the time” in reference to purchasing goods and having them sent to the card holder address. I’m guessing she misunderstood what Cyndie was asking.

I know fraud happens all the time. I don’t see why thieves would frequently order goods they don’t receive.

Cyndie was told she needed to return the items, or would be charged, but the agent didn’t have a good answer about how we get the return shipping paid for by someone other than us. At this point, even the conversation with the VISA agent was sounding shady.

Cyndie had immediately reported the activity as fraud and canceled the card. Seems to me that nothing after that point should be her responsibility.

I suppose the whole charade could simply be a way to prank someone. Three identical, extra-large hoodie sweatshirts. Makeup. Perfume. Shoes. A dress.

We’re not laughing.

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Written by johnwhays

April 27, 2019 at 9:59 am