Tuesday,
August 10, 1999

I should have known things were going too smoothly

Everything was shaping up nicely for the California trip. I pick up my tickets on Tuesday, Lyndon leaves for New York next week and may even be able to make the con (cool!), I'm meeting tons of friends at the con, I'm also spending two days with the ineffable Janis Cortese beforehand and a weekend with the lovely Lisa Beard in San Francisco, Lyndon will be meeting up with friends in SF -- all was well.

Until yesterday. While I'm at the store, I pull out my bank card to check my balance, and notice my English credit card behind it. On a whim (I think it was those self-preservation gnomes at work again), I pull it out and check the expiry date. And gulp.

August 99. Oh, crap.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem -- the credit card company sends replacements, we get them, all is well with the world. Except that our official address for the bank is in England, with my in-laws. Who are very busy at the moment with a lot of foster kids, and have been letting our mail pile up a bit as a consequence (no, the cards aren't there yet -- we called and checked). And because my youngest sister-in-law ran up a quarterly phone bill of £1000 (calling her boyfriend in Sweden every day for hours at a time), Mum had the phone company disconnect long-distance service, so even when we do get something important they have no way of getting in contact with us unless they go down to the corner and call from a payphone.

Arrgh. And arrgh again. Because of two previous vacation disasters, Lyndon likes to make sure that we take as many money sources with us as possible when we go to the States now -- bank cards, credit cards, cash, and travelers' checks. If we don't have all those safety nets, he gets tense and can't enjoy himself at all, which is completely understandable. Now, we did budget for this trip and will have money in the bank during the vacation (and our bank cards work like credit cards in the States), and Lyndon has his business cards in case of another emergency. But it's just nice to know that we've got the English credit card as personal, non-TBS backup, as well. And now we don't.

Luckily, we have the card through the Co-Op Bank, which is extremely customer friendly and dedicated to solving problems, so Lyn's going to call them tonight and see if he can expedite getting the cards sent, then have his folks overnight them to us. And if we don't get them in time, I'll just have to find other ways of relaxing him during the vacation.

Heh, heh, heh...