Losing a Friend

I lost a dear friend this week, very unexpectedly. I can hardly believe it's true. I keep thinking I'm going to get an email from her, telling me it was a big joke, ha ha. Except it isn't. I'm  not sure how to process it. I met my friend in 2007 in Fort Resolution when I moved there to work. She moved in a month or so after I did, bringing her long-time partner, with her. She was unlike anyone I had ever met before and have ever met since. She was the most memorable character and a real straight shooter. You knew exactly where you stood with her, and I liked that about her most. I hate head games and she wasn't a player. She had a heart of gold, and called them as she saw them. I've seen her at her most tender moment, and at her most volatile, often following a scorned moment. She had a miserable rotten time in Fort Res, and I had a wonderful time, and in spite of this glaring difference, we hit it off from the start. We laughed, we talked for hours, we shared travel stories, past hurts, current challenges, and a shared affinity for tv hospital dramas and George Clooney. She was a nurse practitioner who always had time for her patients, and even in the most stressful moments, was an ocean of calm. She nursed all over the northern communities of the frozen arctic, collecting heaps of artwork along the way from carvings, to paintings, to fabric art, to mukluks, to a huge assortment of jewelry, to birch bark canoes - you name it, she had found it, and made a point of taking a photo with the artisan and the article if possible. To her, the artist was every bit as important as the art produced. She traveled the world with her longtime male companion, exploring what she could and squeezing out of life what was there to be had.

We kept up contact since we both left Fort Res, and although it was nowhere near as frequent, due to our respective busy lives moving on, we could still share a laugh, and were interested in each other's next adventure. She was excited for my new life I'm about to start in Australia, and her last words to me in an email were all so positive about her own life. I visited her when I passed through Kamloops, and we enjoyed each other's company.

I don't know for sure just what happened, other than she entered the hospital for some reason last week and never left. What I do know is that I shall miss my friend. Letting go is hard. Forgetting is impossible. She sent me a parcel of things after my apartment building burned down last year, including several dozen items of jewelry she had amassed over the years, knowing how much I loved interesting pieces. I will remember my friend as I wear these pieces, and think fondly of her as the grief eventually fades. Sometimes life is just not fair. I miss you Indigo.

I HATE Scammers

I have my van listed on Auto-trader and got an email from this guy yesterday morning. He asked to respond to him privately through an email he provided. So I did, just told him it was still for sale. This is what he wrote back, the scammer.

"Thanks,i really appreciate your quick response over my request,i think the price is negotiable as i will like to know the lowest price as you have stated.And I would have come for an inspection..but due to the nature of my job and location...i will not be able to come for inspection,am a very busy type as i work long hours everyday,i have gone through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it.As for the payment..i will be paying you via the fastest and secure way to pay online(PayPal).I have a private courier agent that will come for the pick up after the payment have been made and he take up everything after payment have been make ...so no shipping included.thanks for been kindness and considerate...await your response asap

Thanks

Mark"

The first red flag was the request for use of a private email address. The second red flag was his willingness to buy the van sight unseen or inspected, and then the red flags just kept coming - not wanting to meet in person, sending a "courier", offering to pay for it via Paypal, which was not even offered in my ad; and the terrible grammar that regular English speakers would never use. It reeked of scam. So I emailed him back:

"If you want to buy my van, you will have to see the van in person and pay me in person. I am not accepting paypal payments. I expect either a cashier's check from a Canadian bank, or cash. That's it. If you're looking to scam someone, you are barking up the wrong tree."

So his next response was even more desperate:

"Thanks,But I insisted on paypal because i dont have access to my bank account online as i dont have internet banking,but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i would have sent some one to you by cash but i only want to make this as a surprise for my friend and the whole entire family..bcos my dad is celebrating his birthday and i want to make this as a surprise for him.i will need you to give me your paypal email address so i can make the payments asap and pls if you dont have paypal account yet, it is very easyto set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up and you can receive payment directly into your account without any delay , after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through.I have a pick up agent that will come and pickup after i have made the payments.With the issue of my details,transferring the name of ownership and signing of all paperwork will be done by the pick up agent so you don't have to worry about that."

BULLSHIT. Sure...you can't use your bank account online - but hey dumbass - they do still have tellers in real banks that can do the transaction for you. Won't send "some one to you by cash" because he wants to make it a surprise - first for his friend, then for the whole family, and then for his father. BULLSHIT. Anyway - smells so strongly of bullshit I reported him to Paypal and to Auto trader. This was my response to his desperate attempt:

"I find it very difficult to believe that you are willing to buy my van sight unseen. I'm sorry, but I have to insist on certified proper payment, and transfer of ownership in person - this means me and whoever is going to own this van are both going to ICBC in person to transfer ownership. You haven't said anything about where you live, who your so-called "agent" is, asked where is my van, so I'm sorry if I find your whole approach rather suspicious and I have forwarded your information to Paypal. If you are legit, they will tell me. If you are willing to spend thousands of dollars for a birthday present for your father, then you should have no trouble following proper procedure to make sure the transaction goes smoothly. Sending me an email about payment options that are not even offered in my ad before even asking a single question about it the van just sounds pretty scamworthy. I don't know anyone who would spend that amount of money without wanting to know more about it. "

The grammar continues to be terrible in his emails, so there is no way I am doing business with him. 

And then I hooked another idiot scammer today. They sure like to insult my intelligence. Read on:

Hi,

My name is Dawid Mark, a car dealership based in the United Kingdom I

would like to know if this car is still available for sale and is price

negotiable? or get back to me with the total cost, please,do get back to me

soon so we can discuss business.

It smelled of scammer but I wanted to see if he would lay it out in the next email so my reply was:

"Yes, this vehicle is still for sale, as it was only listed a few hours ago. The price is negotiable."

And he sure did. What a moron.

Thanks for the quick response i really do appreciate it,am willing to

pay $10,500 for the car and i will be paying via PayPal or Bank

Transfer since i'm not available to pay cash,i will also be including

the sum of $2000 for the shipping duties and immediately you confirm

the payment my shipping company will come and pick the car at your

location.do get back to me with your PayPal account or Bank Details so

i can send the payment and we can complete this transaction asap.

Yeah, dude, I'm sorry, it isn't going to happen for you. So this was my reply - I let him have it:

"Why don't you take your fake money and whack off with it you wanker. Take your scams elsewhere you scumbag. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I refuse to sell to anyone who can't show up in person to buy it."

I sure wish someone real would inquire about the van...

And then I got these emails from someone else claiming to be interested...I figured her for a scammer when she asked such stupid questions. 

Her first message was: 

Hi am interested in your sale, let me know if you still have it??

Thanks

She didn't say much, but it was a dumb question. I just posted the ad about 5 minutes prior, which was noted in the ad. I wrote back:

"Yes, considering I just posted this ad about 5 minutes ago."

Her next message was this:

Hello, ok is nice hearing back from you...Can you tell me the price and how many years have you been using this and what is the present condition , i am really interested in this cos my uncle uses the same kind and it has really serve him good, that is why i am buying..Thanks

Soonest reply needed.

There we go, the crappy grammar, the typos, and crappy spelling, and also in a rush. So I replied to her again, just simple:

"Well, the price is in the ad - $8500. I have been using this van for just a year, traveled most of the year with it. It is in excellent running condition as also mentioned in the ad." 

Then came the expected scam - so friggin' obvious:

I am happy with the condition and it is ok for me.....

What address is this vehicle park ?

So that i can confirm with the shipping agent if they can pick up at the residence...

Thanks

I wait your soonest reply.

Yeah, sure, you can send your shipping agent. Bullshit. She got my very terse reply:

"You can forget it. If you are not coming to pick it up yourself and paying in cash, I'm not at all interested in dealing with yet another scam artist. Fuck off."

Damn scammers. I am insulted more by their terrible grammar than their lack of originality. 

Revisiting the Falls

I wrote this post nearly 6 years ago. There have been just a few spectacular falls since then.

1. I was shopping in Superstore with a friend in Antigonish, and did not notice the empty pallet left on the floor and went SLAM to the ground when I tripped on it, making quite a commotion. I scraped up my knees and hands. I got up off the floor and kept on going...
2. While visiting our great capitol city of Ottawa one summer, I was staying downtown and walked to see Parliament Hill. I was looking at the buildings as I walked closer and managed to trip over my own feet, sprawling right in front of a tour bus. The bus driver came flying out when he saw me go down, and helped me back up. I limped the rest of the time I was there, and had quite a bruise on my foot.
3. I was waiting at the walk-in clinic at the Superstore Mall in Dartmouth for a chest cold and had time to kill so went across the hallway to Superstore. They had just installed that black ribbon tape to herd shoppers into the self-checkouts since I had last been there. In doing so, they cut off about 100 feet of access to the store, so not wanting to go all the way to the end of the store to get in, I ducked under the ribbon. They are retractable, and what I failed to realize was that the one I ducked under was already ALL of the way out, so when I ducked under, it brought the pole directly towards me as I went to duck under and smacked me right in the forehead, splitting my head open. I had to go to the hospital after I went to the clinic to get 3 stitches in. Superstore mailed me a letter later telling me it was not their fault (I hadn't said it was).
4. And I almost forgot the fall I had the night my apartment building blew up and burned down - I was crossing the street to see how things were going and tripped over the fire hose, tore my pyjamas and skinned my knee pretty bad.

It's been about a year since my last fall. I'm about due. My mother used to call me Calamity Jane, but I never knew why. Calamity Jane was never known to be clumsy...

***post script - spoke too soon - managed to fall down the ladder here at my cabin, and skinned my knee, and tore my rotator cuff. Ouch.