Acrid Takeover

The Universal Solar Calendar calls the 29th day of Childwinter, "Acrid Takeover." I don't know Angus MacLise's reasoning for the name, other than possibly because it sounds cool, but today was the first day after my bank account was hacked last Friday night that the banks were open, and I was finally able to take back control of my account. I would probably call the takeover of my own account "acrimonious" rather than "acrid," but close enough. No one ever claimed the names were meant to be prophetic or anything.

I went to bed early last night as I wanted to be at the bank right at opening, and I hadn't been anywhere before like 11:00 am in quite a while.  But some time very shortly after I turned out the lights, power in the entire neighborhood went out. I slept uneasily, worried about oversleeping, until the lights came back on around 3:00 am.  I reset the alarm clock but was quite tired when it finally went off at 7:00 am.  

I got to the bank around 9:30 am, probably the earliest I've been anywhere in years. On the way, I saw a fallen tree on the main road, with branches still tangled in the overhead power lines and blocking a side road. That must be what knocked the power out last night. Yesterday, I noted that the gusty winds knocking out power across town hadn't affected me "so far," but perhaps I had spoken too soon. Another fallen tree to further stoke my anxieties. 

At the bank, the manager was completely understanding and quite helpful, and all my worries about bureaucratic hassles - not to mention lost funds - were never manifested. Like so many other things, the worst part of the whole ordeal was actually in my mind.  I was back home just slightly after 10:00 with a new account. My old debit card works with my new account, and new checks (which I almost never use anymore, but whatever) are on their way.

I went on line to update my direct deposit information for Social Security, and was annoyed to see that the earliest they could deposit into a new account was April.  I didn't want my February and March payments going into cyber-limbo, so I called the office and surprisingly got a real, live human on the phone in less than a minute. She understood my dilemma but was still annoyed that I hadn't left my account open. She took my new account information and said that February's payment "should" go to the new account, but wasn't making any promises. If the payment still goes to the old, closed account, she said, it will kick back and eventually get corrected or maybe someone will call me. Or something. Who knows how these things work?

And that was that. Acrid takeover complete. It appears I survived a cyberattack with my money intact. I'm still under the spam onslaught, but at this point, it's just like more spam than usual instead of the 100s of emails per hour I was receiving Friday night.

Time to see what fresh hell life has in store for me next.