Mercury Square Uranus

OK, to hell with finishing "A Cautionary Tale" - it's only eight o'clock and I've already lost my temper twice, which I'll be the first to admit probably has more to do with my not having taken Celexa for a month than with Mercury squaring Uranus later today, but still -

Let's calm down a minute here and start at the beginning. Wake up, get up, let cat out, make coffee, let cat in (27 degrees out there), take coffee back to bed, read email.

Message from Citibank Customer Service" "Good News! Credit has posted to your account!"

We are pleased to inform you that credit(s) have been issued to your account for the disputed fraud charge(s), including any related fees and interest charges. At this time, no further action is required by you. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you. Sincerely, Your Customer Service Team

Disputed fraud charges? What disputed fraud charges? Is this the riding stables in the midwest that Citibank called me about two weeks ago after I ordered the boots from Denmark?  They knew then the charge was fraudulent - didn't they take it off right away?

Go to Citibank website, log in, go to credit card account, click on it, get a message telling me to enter my authorization code. Authorization code? I just logged in with user name and password. What authorization code? Oh, I see, if I don't have one click this little box and Citibank will auto-call me and give me one. Click the little box, am taken straight to a screen giving me the place to enter the code, get out of bed (29 degrees) and bring phone back but nothing happens.

Do it again. No phone call. "If you're having trouble with this process call us at 800 whatever it is," it says on screen,"and choose Option 0," and silly enough to think calling that number will immediately allow me to choose Option 0, I call. RoboVoice welcomes me to Citibank and asks for my card number. I am not yet so afraid of being hacked again I sleep with my credit card under my pillow. My credit card is in my wallet in my handbag. In another room. I leave my flannel sheets, get my credit card (32 degrees) and come back to bed.

I call Citibank again. I tell it my credit card number. I tell it my secret word. I tell it the last four digits of my Social Security number. I get a person who is far, far away from Silver City who asks me for my credit card number, my secret word, the last four digits of my Social Security number and my name exactly as it appears on my card. I tell her all of those things and a bit more and she tells me she understands my frustration and thanks me for being a valued Citibank customer for nine years.

I have been a valued Citibank customer for fifty years so help me God and in my storage locker in Randolph I have a photograph of me drinking a complementary cup of coffee at the 1963 opening of the Citibank branch on 79th and First in Manhattan to prove it, and now it is time to go and play tennis and I have just realized I washed my tennis clothes last night and didn't dry them so I have to find something else to wear, so just like "A Cautionary Tale", this will have to be continued.