Andy seemed unusually interested in me this morning while he watched me from the top of the computer.

Andy was very curious. Was it the Egg McMuffin or me he was fascinated by? We’ll never know!

Maybe it was all the stuff I took out of my billfold. Seems I’d lost it yesterday, did a panic, cancelled credit cards, contacted the police, cancelled my museum duties so I could search for it while the trail was hot…or not so cold, since I had no idea how long it’s been since it went missing.

What a damn nuisance! The only good thing seemed to be the license examiners come to my town Thursdays and Fridays, so I could take care of applying for a new driver’s license the day after I discovered the billfold missing. Though you can apply for replacements on-line, you wait 20 days for it to come, and I couldn’t wait that long for a license!

There is limited public transportation here. You call for a ride, they come, and eventually you get where you are going. It’s a matter of knowing how these things work. I’m used to getting into a car, taking care of business, and being done with it in short order.

Lost several months ago and found yesterday…in my car, barely sticking out near the driver’s side seat track.

The police station woman didn’t encourage me to drive without a license to get to the DMV office today, but I decided I’d risk it. At worse, in the mile drive I might, might pass a police cruiser, but more likely I’d safely get there, license or not. I have a clean driving record.

I’m 67, have driven since I got a learner’s permit at 15 1/2, and in all that time I’ve been stopped once in South Dakota (they were checking local cars for something, so sent me on with a wave…) and once in Nebraska (my idiot boss made me take the company van to drive him to the airport in the next town even though we both knew a headlight was broken out, courtesy of a Nebraska Department of Roads dump truck that “tossed” gravel at the van when someone else was driving it; I got a “fix it” ticket, which was done the same day and should have been done before I got the van in the first place. I was pissed!).

Must have been the Egg McMuffin because he went over to his blue carrier perch on the settee after I finished eating the food.

Cancelling three credit cards was a revelation. Chase VISA was a nightmare to deal with, with automated menus offering several choices, including one where I was asked to punch in the first three letters of a password. Fine, except I have a primitive flip phone. Two of three letters in the password were the first letter possible for the key concerned. The third letter required punching the key twice to get to the correct letter, which is to say, the automated Chase system mistook for the first letter, not the second.

I am a life member of several organizations, and I didn’t look forward to getting these replaced!

Follow that? I was yelling obscenities at a machine before I finally got a human. The human noted I’d be able to take a short survey after we took care of our business. I wisely hung up rather than tell them just how I feel.

The 1st National Bank of Omaha card was a little less unfriendly to cancel and arrange for a new card, and the American Express process was simple, fast, all on-line, and offered the fastest replacement time – two days! The others assured me I could see a card in one business week.

As fascinating as I was, Andy had other priorities!

And the lost billfold? This morning, while putting on my light jacket to leave for the DMV, I felt a lump in the left sleeve, an odd lump…! Yes, somehow my billfold ended up in the sleeve lining. Oddly enough, it was still in the pocket I usually put it in, and the pocket was what was stuffed…JEEZ! After all the fuss, then, I still had everything, but was getting all new credit cards. I didn’t have to go to the DMV (illegally driving there) I’d got ready to go to, and I had the added bonus of finding that lost car key!

This business was a damn nuisance, but things turned out just fine!