flemmings | (no subject)

I assume it's the pressure changes that are making me so sleepy and headachey. We haven't had that much snow, and I don’t know if there's any ice under what there is. The temps didn't plunge that fast, and certainly my steps seemed OK after I swept them off. But I wasn't about to do more than that.

Miraculously, in view of the English PO and our banks' SOP, both incandescens' present and my new bank card came in the mail today. And now the poor posties who slogged about in today's wind and slick have four days off, and more power to them.

My bank card seems to be tappable-- 'no need to enter your PIN'-- which strikes me as extremely dangerous. So if I drop it somewhere, anybody can use it to access $500 worth of merchandise? In what way is this safe and secure, guys? I shall be very very careful with it from now on, as I wasn't last week when I absent-mindedly stuck it in the freezer: is why I have a new one.

I may need to reconsider Kindle Unlimited Except Not. Their reasonable fee is in US dollars which becomes borderline questionable once converted. Am I likely to read $13 worth of ebooks a month, now that I see the end of Mrs. Bradley approaching? Well, maybe. Shall keep for the time being. Have just started on The Worsted Viper, which I in my innocence thought was about a viper that Mrs. Bradley got the better of. It's not, of course. Worsted as in wool, a Britishism from my past. But if you're calling things worsted, why is Laura wearing a sweater? and if that sweater wasn't in the original, what else has been changed?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've had contactless cards for years now. The limit has steadily crept up, but it's "only" £60 now, which is a lot less than $500. Is that really the contactless limit for your card? And they do track unusual purchases and block the card. At least twice now I've triggered the "something unusual is going on here" algorithm and had my credit card stopped briefly while they phone me to see if it really is me making the purchases. Yes, I say, I'm spending a few days in Cardiff and have been doing some shopping. Then they re-instate the card. :-)

Re "worsted", it's a medium weight of yarn, so very suitable for sweaters, in case that's important to the plot.

If I'm reading the fine print correctly, yes, $500 canuck. As this is a debit, I don't think they track purchases, not like my credit card. Or maybe I just don't move outside a certain confined circle, which is certainly true.

It's actually a snake, made with the four pin method I hazily recall from my childhood.

My understanding is that a sweater can be made of anything, so long as it is knitted. Worsted is a kind of woolen yarn. So a sweater could be made of worsted, but isn't always.

Edited 2022-12-24 10:09 (UTC)

As per the title, it's actually a wool snake but made with the four pin method, whatever that's called. (googles) Spool knitting, evidently.

I think of worsted as a particular kind of woven woolen textile, but OED online informs me that it can also signify:

Closely twisted yarn made of long-staple wool in which the fibres are arranged to lie parallel to each other; a piece or thread of this yarn. Later also: spec. a medium-weight yarn of this type used in hand-knitting, embroidery, etc.; (hence) (chiefly North American) any knitting yarn of this weight.

I too thought it was a material, but yes, this is a long thin spool-knitted snake made of lightweight wool, with a little felted snake's tongue attached for versimilitude.

I had "tapping" disabled on my debit and credit cards for this exact reason. In my present state, I dare not take such risks, even in Pandemic times.

Either my debit is so old that tapping wasn't an option then or I too had it disabled. Probably the former because I can't remember when I actually got the card. Also a nuisance, because you have to go to an actual branch to disable it and RB is stingy with thei outlets.