My cell phone and credit card both died

This is a little bit interesting.

My eight year old flip-phone puked yesterday.  It powers up and then just sits.  It has not had an easy life.

It has gone swimming with me after I came home dripping sweat from long, summertime runs.  It sat out in snow banks.  It has been dropped a countless number of times.  Just for the record, I have never been swimming with any of my firearms, nor have they been buried beneath a snow bank for several weeks, nor have I dropped one.

The cell phone finally gave up the ghost.

I am leaning toward a Casio Brigade.  They can be had, used, on fleabay for about $25.    They are a "ruggedized" slider with a QWERTY keyboard.  Mrs ERJ suggested that it would be nice if my end of our text conversations were more than single, short words.

My problem is that my credit card ceased functioning three days ago.  I was not too worried.  It expired at the end of this month.  I looked through my mail and was not able to find the replacement card.

Hmmm!  Cell phone communications compromised.  Credit locked up.  Now I know how Mr Putin feels.

A more likely explanation for the lost credit card lies with the US Post office.  Our rural delivery people had been driving their own personal vehicles and were reimbursed.  My delivery person drove a four-wheel-drive Ford truck.  They were reimbursed on a per-mile basis.  I don't think any of them made money on that reimbursement.

In an effort to save money, mail trucks that were no longer good enough for urban areas were reassigned to rural areas.  These trucks have oversized, aluminum bodies on underpowered, two wheel drive chassis.  They were purchased in 1989.  The floorboards have rusted through so they have "Flintstones" braking capability.

These vehicles are not competent on icy or snowy dirt roads.  I saw one stuck, unable to clamber back up the smooth, icy crown of the dirt road.

USPS delivery people have become very conservative about delivering the mail.  They are not taking any chances.  Situations that they could have blithely plowed through with their rural Michigan capable personal vehicles have become no-go zones with the USPS urban reject vehicles.  This winter has seen many days when the mail was not delivered.  So the letters go back to the post office and drop out of the normal process flow.

The other plausible destination of my replacement credit card has it falling through the rusted out floor board and on to the road.

Welcome to Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA...third world country.

My credit card company is sending me a new card.  Maybe this one will get to me.