Not working and full of advice

Linda told me I should take the afternoon off. What she means is that I shouldn't pick up the threads of some insurance or collection agency thing and then stew about it all weekend long. That's probably a good idea. A little relaxing grading would be better than that, so I'll probably do that instead.

I should say that the bank has apparently managed to reverse the second check that was not supposed to have been cashed on my account. I'm not reluctant to reveal now the identity of my bank, Bank Midwest. They have been really excellent about helping me get this straight. For future reference, I would recommend to others out there to just do the proper stop payment thing in advance. I think they would recommend it too. Much simpler.

Speaking of stewing. I realized something this week about myself. I'm not cut out to be an attorney. That's not to say that I don't think I could do it, and I think I might even be good at it. But I don't think it would be good for me. I would stew over things all of the time, thinking about cases, going mentally through arguments, refining ideas. Not the life for me. I have a lot more empathy for my brother-in-law though!

Speaking of him, he was kind enough to point me to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which was a very interesting read. It's definitely worth looking through. I think back to my first phone conversation with the credit people. They asked me, "What do you intend to do about this account?" If you find yourself in the position of talking to one of these people, I believe the correct response is, "I intend to review the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If you would give me your number and extension, I'll call you back in an hour." It's best to get things started off on the right foot. Oh, and tape your phone call.

I recommend taping all of your phone calls (with medical people, insurance, collectors, the bank). Earlier than you think you need to. I wish I had been taping my phone calls from the beginning now. When seemingly reasonable people turn on you, you'll want the recordings from early on to contrast with their later unreasonable behavior. The pivotal conversation where they expose their dark side is probably particularly important to record, and you won't know it has come until after. So you just want to be documenting, and there's no easier way to document than to tape it.

It's been particularly easy for me. Since Linda never answers the phone, I am almost always in the position of returning calls. I use the phone in the bedroom which has a tape on it. I always dial "time and temp" 627-5752 and record the date and time, then I make my call.

I bought my tape recorder from Carl's Electronics Inc. It's just a mini-recorder with a $5 phone attachment, and I probably paid too much, but I've seen a lot more outrageous prices on the net. Look under the very drammatic section title ``Spy and Surveillance'' then ''Finished Products.'' Or maybe just ask at Radio Shack for the $5 cable and use your own tape recorder.

So there you are. No work and lots of advice.