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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Routine Sketch with Travel Saga

Yesterday we went for our  blood draw for our checkups to follow soon.  I sketched in the waiting room on my iPhone with Brushes and my fingers for Scavenger Hunt 539.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1446608 

Number 1, free choice - clock on the wall as you enter the actual lab


It is always good to get back into a routine.  It takes a while and the older "we" (Gene and I) get, the harder it is.    We have to think more now as we age.  Before when we traveled, everything was automatic.   The packing for a trip became a routine.  We had a place in the car for suitcases, cooler, trike, art stuff, etc.  Each suitcase was filled with the same items every trip except for clothes, winter or summer??  Angel Fire in the summer requires winter and summer clothes.  You get the idea, though.  We just filled in the blanks.  Now it is more complicated as we have to think to remember what to take and where to put it.  Now it is "where is that thing?"  It is not in the regular spot so is it someplace else or did we forget it completely.  Sigh ... growing old is not for sissies they say.

We had an unusual thing happen in Arkansas.  We stopped at a rest stop.  There was a man taking photos with what looked like a large phone or iPad.  Gene asked if he was taking our photo and posed for him.  The man ignored us even though he appeared to be looking right at us.  I exited the facilities first and the guy was looking at a big map on the wall.  I went out and walked around the area.  Gene came out and asked the guy again about the photo and he sort of chuckled and walked hurridly away.  Thinking back he seemed nervous, but back to the story.

We got in our car (Expedition, large SUV) and went on down the road.  About 50 miles farther we received a phone call from an Arkansas number.  We may not have answered but a friend of ours has a granddaughter in Little Rock in college and we had asked if we could take her to lunch on our way through.  So we answered thinking it was her.

"Is this Mr. Castillo?", she pronounced it Costello. 
"Yes."
"This is the Arkansas Department of Transportation and we have your backpack with a computer and passports in it."
"What?  It's in the car with us."
"No, we have it here.  It was found at a rest area on top of a trash can."

Whoa!  We looked in the back and the backpack and a computer box were missing.  We turned around and went back to their office and sure enough they had the backpack.  The two female workers told us that the two men working at the rest area found the bag on the trash can.  (While trying to contact us, they had also left a couple of messages on our kids phones, finding the numbers in the computer.  Jennie called us and asked if we had left our stuff at the hotel after receiving the message.)

"Did they find the computer box?  It was filled with paint and acrylic supplies?"

They hadn't found the box and it was only a few miles farther to go to the rest area, so we thought we would go look.  The paints were probably $150 worth or so.

When we drove up the two workers met us.  The workers in the office told them about the box when we left.  They had already emptied the trash to the dumpster and went and found my box of paint.

Can you believe it?  We did not lose anything and the workers even went back into the trash to find my paints.

It seems that the crooks had some sort of electronic device to capture our code when the car locked with the button on the keyring.  They opened only the back glass on the door and took the two items.  Something spooked them and they dropped the items and took off.  Funny when you think about it, they thought the paint was a new computer!

We wouldn't have known anything was missing until we got to Nashville to unpack at the hotel, several hours later.  Imagine trying to get our passports redone.  Someone watches over old folks and fools, right? 

We took turns at the rest areas after that.  Completely bizarre.....


6 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

very odd but just a reminder to people of any age to pay attention. technology can be great but also not :/

Jo Castillo said...

Jennifer Rose, Technology can be either way as you say. Thanks for stopping by. :-)

Bag Blog said...

Wow, that is a wild and crazy story! Kind of scary! You read about things that could happen with people stealing your info using some sort of cell phone, but you think that could never happen to you. I'm glad you got your stuff back, though. What a world we live in!

Jo Castillo said...

Bag Blog, yep, you never know. People that smart could probably get a good job with their tech savy and work less!

Joan Tavolott said...

Thieves are so far ahead of us...you never know what will happen next. Glad you got your stuff back.

Jo Castillo said...

Joan, thank you so much. I didn't expect comments from you down under, you must be having a great time!


About Me

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Bastrop, Texas, United States
I Grew up in a small town , Magdalena, New Mexico. I enjoy art and the pleasure other people get from my work. I always donate some of my sales and art to charities, especially for children. That started in Bolivia with Para los Niños. "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." -- Winston Churchill

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