VIGILANT & CAREFUL

 

At least I thought I was, but yet I was easily tricked and hacked! A number of my friends have been as well. A close one recently retired, a successful business woman far more tech savvy had her identity stolen. She's the last person I ever thought this would happen to, she was just too smart!

A different retired friend refuses to be on social media at all! And now insists I should not be either, that I'm just putting myself out there for dangerous things to happen.

Plus she claims never should I pay for a restaurant meal with my credit card as is my habit. It's too easy for someone to take a photo of the number with their phone. This actually happened to her and her husband.

Well I'm not going to let this experience stop me from living my life! As an independent author I need to be on social media. Also thanks to the pandemic and runaway inflation Facebook's largely my social life these days. Seldom can I afford go out and enjoy the things I did only five years ago.

I recall my Aunt Kiki, a beauty and former model. She was an extreme extrovert, outgoing with confidence to spare. However she was terrified to fly in an airplane. As a young bride she witnessed the gruesome aftermath of a plane crash on her street. The sight of severed and burned human limbs, heads and organs scattered across the pavement left her traumatized.

Back in the 1970's when I was jetting all over the world she feared for me. But I have glorious memories of all those wonderful countries I visited and the fabulous experiences I enjoyed.

I vividly recall my first flight at age seven. Ironically my mother and I flew to Detroit to visit HER!  This was also my mother's first as well. I remember her saying right in front of me that our plane was probably going to crash! I was petrified!

Our flight was late night which made it even scarier! I expected to be dead before morning!  -- My mother also told me in the 1970's that I would probably die in a plane crash!

Yet I remember waking up in my seat the next morning to the sight of the most breathtaking cloud formations I'd ever seen before or since. A sight so ethereal and beautiful I felt as if I was soaring thru heaven, all my fears vanished!

By age thirty, I'd flown more times than I can count. Yes, there were some close calls along with negative experiences, but never regrets.