Apparently I don’t charge enough on my credit card because I got a letter from Bank of America yesterday saying they were cutting the credit limit on one of my cards by half after reviewing my past credit balance history. Including my other credit card, my effective credit limit is now down about 1/3 from where it was before.
And to further wring money out of their customers in the form of fees, another letter came in today to tell me the fees from cash advances and balance transfers and fees for international transactions were going up as well.
All this “trendy” green/environmental stuff going on these days is giving me a serious case of deja vu. In fact there are a lot of things that I was doing back home that have only recently (in the last 5-7 years or so) become more mainstream in the US (debit card purchases come to mind).
Safeway was where I did most of my grocery shopping when I was living on my own back home. It was conveniently located between school and my apartment within easy walking distance. I carried my groceries home white nylon fabric bags with big red Safeway logos on them and only got the plastic bags whenever I had too many groceries or forgot to bring my bags. Got away from reusable bags when I moved to the US because I just got funny looks from the cashiers when I gave them my bags. Now I’m back to using them again and not getting funny looks anymore.
My early childhood was spent in the 70s, and throughout elementary school conservation was the big message. All the light switches had stickers on them reminding people to turn out the lights to save electricity. Walk to save gas, take the stairs, reuse things, etc. Then the 80s came around and most everybody seemed to throw it all out the window and continued to do so in the 90s and well into 2000. Now things seem to have come full circle and conservation is being encouraged again.
Funny how things always seem to repeating themselves.
The Hutterite made leather wallet that I’ve been carrying around for the last 20 years finally gave out on me this year with the stitching starting to become undone.
This Wallet has served me well since I bought it at the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market back home 20 years ago. After I moved from Edmonton, it also served as a reminder of home, bringing back memories of my weekly visits to the farmer’s market where I would do a good chunk of my grocery shopping (and munch on some phenomenally good sausage sticks, also made by the Hutterites, while shopping).
After the stitching started coming apart, I even entertained the idea of trying to find someone who could restitch it for me (still considering it). Needless to say, The Wallet carries more than a little sentimental value.
When I saw the stainless steel wallet at Thinkgeek.com, I decided that when replacement time finally came, this would be the one to take the place of The Wallet. A couple of days ago, I finally got tired of the loose thread always getting caught on stuff so I decided it was replacement time. Today, New Wallet arrived.
New Wallet is a little larger than I expected, but much thinner too. Since it’s made from woven steel threads, it’s not nearly as flexible or stretchy as The Wallet is, so I’ve had to drastically cut down what I stuff in New Wallet to just the essentials. It’s fairly light and feels nice. Doesn’t look like it’s made from stainless steel threads. It’s also supposed to protect RFID enabled cards from attempts at drive-by readings. I wonder what kind of reaction I’ll get when it goes through an airport x-ray scanner.
Since Thinkgeek was also giving away these cool QR Code shirt as well, I decided to throw one of those in too. This is the code that came on my shirt.
This is not the free t-shirt you are looking for. You can go about your business. Oh, and buy cool stuff at thinkgeek.com. *waves hand*
