Password Frustrations And Download Codes

I started the day off yesterday trying to get the audiobook download code for More Than Human that I sent to contest winner Tom Lemcool to work. Tom had written me to say that when he tried to redeem the code, he got a message saying it had already been claimed. This sometimes happens with Audible prizes, and nobody can seem to figure out why. Sometimes if the winner waits an hour or two and tries again, they accept the code, and other times they don’t.

I tried it for Tom and ran into the same thing, so I sent an e-mail to Audible asking what the problem was. I received an automatic response saying they would get back to me sometime in the next 24 hours. No way was I going to make our lucky winner wait that long if I could avoid it, so I contacted the book’s author, Heather Ashbury, asking if she had another code she could supply. Heather was quick to get it to me, and I sent it on to Tom. A short time later I got another e-mail from him saying that the new code worked like a charm.

Tom wasn’t the only one having difficulties with the world of technology. For some reason, a few weeks ago, the Microsoft Outlook e-mail app on Terry’s Samsung phone stopped working. Every time she tries to log in, she gets a message saying she is using the wrong password, though it’s the same password she’s used all along and the same password that she uses to access her e-mail on her laptop computer and tablet. But at the same time, she could get e-mails sent to her secondary Gmail account with no problem.

It seemed like the more she tried to resolve the issue, the more confusing it became. Pretty soon, Samsung was asking for a different password, as was Gmail. She was so darn frustrated by then that I tried to help her out, and I didn’t have any success either. I tried forwarding her Outlook e-mail under her travelinterry@gypsyjournal.net account to her Gmail account and got the same message, wrong password. She tried changing the password a couple of times, but no matter what she did, even though she would get a message confirming the new password, she got the same error message each time she tried it on her phone.

I finally told her we just needed to step away from the issue for a while and rethink what we were doing wrong or whatever the glitch is. I have a feeling we’re going to have to find ourselves a tech guru to figure it out for us.

Besides helping Terry with that, I was at work on my new John Lee Quarrels book, getting another 2,500 words or so in.

And then, just add to the fun, my new Chase Visa card came in the mail because the one I have expires next month. I went online and authenticated the new card and then decided to shred the old one. Dummy me, I forgot that it’s not a traditional plastic credit card. It’s a thin piece of metal sandwiched between two sheets of mylar-type material with the logo and name and such. In doing so, I promptly jammed up my paper shredder. It took Terry and I both, and a couple of pairs of pliers to finally get the thing back out. Then Terry had to use a thin screwdriver to bend the feeder fingers of the shredder back into place so it would work again.

We finished the day by having the rest of the ham and Swiss braid she made a couple of days ago for dinner, which was just as delicious as the first time around, then watched TV until it was time to write the blog and head for bed.

We have lab appointments for blood draws this morning for upcoming primary care doctor appointments next week. Since we have to fast before the blood draws, we will probably get a bite to eat while we’re out and run a couple of errands. Then it’s back to my desk and more writing for me!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. The sad thing is, they must have had a reason to put up this sign.

Thought For The Day – If there is a wrong way to do something, I will probably do it.