How to spend (waste) a day:

 Make a list of icky things you need to do and attempt to follow it, or at least reduce the number of tasks.

1) I've been locked out (again) of my online bank account. The double verification or whatever it's called is so tedious a process that when I locked myself out a month or so again, I didn't bother to try to log back in. Who needs it anyway, I can wait for the mailed paper statement.

   But I wanted to verify some  information on a check I had written, so decided the day had come for the log-in. I open the site, and the red banner tells me I can't log in because I'd had too many failed attempts; I think the forbidden  number is 3. So I follow the re-log-in directions on site, entering my bank card number, my magic number and the first 5 of my SSN. But the red banner reads I can't log in due to my past flubs, and that I need to call the bank, number provided. So I call the bank, go through the list of options and choose help with logging in. All the same info I enter again. Finally the robotic voice issues a code, orally, which my diminished hearing can not distinguish; the code is repeated, but still not clear.  So I go through the machinations again, entering all the numbers and choose the option to speak to a rep. I explain to her that I had received the code but was unable to decipher it. She provides me not with a new password, but with a new code. I am to receive it through email and read it back to her, and then she can give me the password to log in. I open my email and retrieve my code, but lose the connection to deliver it to her. My fault, I'm sure. So I call back, and once again have to go through entering all the numbers, account, debit card number, my first 5, and once again select the live person option. Eventually she asks me what code I had received. I tell her what I think it was, and learn I have transposed the letter "n" with the letter "m." I ask her to give me a word with beginning letter. Now I know "m" stands for MOOSE. I say if that feature had been on the robot voice, it would have prevented my problem. She was nice enough to stay on the line while I used the valuable log-in information. Success, and thank you very much.

2)  Back to my list of unpleasant, therefore put-off tasks. As a valued member of the AARP, I sometimes, usually in the dead of night or early morn, enter some of activities, trivia type games and accrue points, easily thousands of said points. Those points can be entered on various commercial sites for various prizes. No winner is the usual outcome. But last February I was the recipient of a $10 Gift Card redeemable at any Walgreens.  I had brought the card to the local store and the cashier asked the manager. He perused the Gift Card and said he had never seen nor heard of such an offering, suggesting  it might not be valid. Not wanting to embarrass anyone, including myself, I acknowledged his doubt and when I got home stuck the card in the to-do pile. 

  Today, clearing papers, I almost discarded  it, but then thought it's not much but would I throw away a $10 bill.  There is an AARP telephone number on the card for any problems, so I called it. After not too long a wait, I was connected with a live person. My only question: Is the card valid? But before the rep could answer the question, I had to provide all my info, pretty much the same as the Bank had asked. Then the rep told me that my membership had expired. A surprise to me and I told her so. She checked and came back, repeating the same. As did I. Then it came to her that there are sometimes duplicate memberships and she would check on that. She came back again. AHA moment. I had a duplicate membership and one had expired. Sometimes when renewing a membership process, whoever does whatever and it happens. She mentioned my husband's membership and on being informed that he was deceased, she needed to go to the file and whatever. She was pleasant and apologetic for the lengthy time it took, but finally said my membership is taken care of. OH, I said what about the Gift Card, that I'd called about. She went to check and said it's valid, try taking it to another Walgreen's. 

***ON one of the above calls, I was asked for verification purposes, the maiden name of my father's mother. I couldn't recall it. What, she says, you don't know the name of your own grandmother? I finally came up with it, sort of a guess. AND, I stayed civil.