I spent a lot of time yesterday evening, resetting my Apple ID and password.  It was really quite a hassle for an old goat like myself.  My first inclination is that I just don’t have the skills or the confidence to adapt to change, but does make me feel better when the technical support people can’t figure it out either.  I was simply trying to add the Vendmo app, allowing me to send and receive money from friends.  My bank uses Zelle that I have used to send financial relief to my son, but everybody seems to have their own preference, so I agreed to use it to get reimbursement for some tickets that I bought.

I had changed my passwords because of an e-mail I received that may or may not have been a scam.  I’m pretty cautious anymore, especially when I receive e-mails or texts that include links.  Instead of just clicking away as I have in the past, I will often times first dial the number to personally verify the sender.  I worry more and more about identity theft, and carefully monitor my accounts for unusual activity even in spite of several services that I subscribe to.  There’s nothing that could screw up a retirement more than diversion of funds electronically wired to me each month, or the theft of money directly from my accounts.  I’ve got a good thing going here post-career, and I would hate to see it destroyed by a hacker named Bonnie or Clyde.  As it turns out, some of my phone apps were established under an old but still active e-mail address, and so I will have to delete and reinstall all one hundred or so apps to change my Apple ID, and that could be an even bigger hassle.  Also, with any password change, it obviously affects other devices in your home, and some of those existed at my old address.  I try to record each change, but over the course of time it leads to confusion.  I just wish I could use finger-print or eye-scan technology to access all my accounts, but even those still require me to remember a password from time to time.

As I was working with tech support, my wife was asking me to buy movie tickets, but my Fandango password wouldn’t work either, so I was delinquent in getting a good seat.  We ended up staying home last night rather than sit in the front row.  Today, the hassles continued as I tried to redeem a Groupon deal that I bought for the OMSI Pompei exhibit.  I finally got to the front of the line but my confirmation e-mail didn’t have a QVC code, and I couldn’t get into my Groupon account.  Is this old age or some kind of conspiracy?  I had purchased, arrived, and waited, but I couldn’t get in and had to stand aside trying different combinations to finally get it to work.  My wife thinks I’m an idiot, and wonders why I’m not better prepared.  This also happened at a baseball game with her earlier this year, but I really am trying to be ecologically correct and not print tickets.  Instead, I’m making a fool of myself.  Apple Pay seems like the most efficient way to store tickets, but not every ticket service lets you make that transfer, or at least that’s my excuse.

The Pompei exhibit was worth the discounted price of admission.  It made me feel like I was traveling to a different city, since we haven’t been Portland’s OMSI before.  It reminded me of our recent weekend getaway to Seattle to see the Terra Cota Warriors, although we also didn’t get to go see Tom Petty (and unfortunately will never get to again).  The Pacific Science Center in Seattle and our smaller OMSI are similar facilities designed for children and retirees.  The only difference is that we haven’t seen the real Terra Cota Warriors in China, but we have been to the real Pompei in Italy.  In both cases, I enjoyed the fact that we didn’t have to travel far to feel a sense of history.  The volcanic presence of Mount St. Helen’s here in Portland, also added a sense of reality.  I have no fear of being attacked by clay warriors, but I do respect earthquakes and Volcanoes, both concerns in this area.   This weekend marks the end of our seven-week stint of staying near home, perhaps one of the longest this year.  Next weekend we travel to L.A., followed N.Y., and Chicago.  It’s a good thing because I have the seven-week itch!