Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1079 - Be a Human - Panic averted due to kindness, New Tech PDX, and Father's Day with BIG TOTEMS

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1079 - Be a Human - Panic averted due to kindness, New Tech PDX, and Father's Day with BIG TOTEMS

Hi Mom,

PANIC!!!!

So, let me tell you something about panic and then something about real human beings, real empathy, real compassion, something we are not seeing right now by the party in control of the federal government.

At the end of this entry, various photos, including some father's day stuff. But first, the story.

I went to Portland last night to attend New Tech PDX for the first time, a meet dedicated to new techie start ups in the area or just new technology ideas by people who work in tech in the area. This alone was a big a adventure, more reporting of this event in the forthcoming. The thing I went to focus on is what happened when I went to pay for parking (after finding my car, which was not easy, and is part of the overall adventure).

I went to pay for my parking, paying at a machine. I had no cash with me, which is fine since the machine only takes cards. I opened my wallet and... NOT ONLY was my debit card missing, the one from the credit union in Michigan, which would be VERY time consuming to replace, but the debit card from the local bank here was also missing. What does this mean? The cards that provide access to basically all of our money -- mine and my wife's -- were not in my wallet.

Before heading to Portland, I had gone to the Safeway grocery store in Woodland for some supplies and had taken out cash to pay for Ellory's day care on Wednesday. I remembered that as I was leaving the store, and juggling to put the cash in my wallet, I changed my mind and kept it with the receipt and grocery list in my hand because I had intended to set the cash aside, near the door, ready to pay the dog wrangler on Wednesday. In my panic, I hoped that the two cards were with the cash or the receipt and list. I was pretty sure that they were not with the cash as I remembered sticking down the two $20s (I had to pay for last week and this week) on a plastic bin with a sticky note. So I HOPED the cards were with the receipt.

Fortunately, we have credit cards that with available credit, so I was able to pay for the parking. Needless to say, I did a bit of speeding in my urgency to get home and check on the location of my cards, after searching my car and my bag pretty thoroughly.

And of course, when I got home, no cards. This left the possibility I had been dreading. What if the cards fell on the floor at Safeway, and (obviously) I did not see them? If so, what were the chances that someone would pick them up and return them to the customer service desk, presuming that when I noticed they were missing and retraced my steps that eventually, I would end up back at Safeway?

So I left the house and headed to Safeway, which thankfully stays open until 11 p.m. It's past 9 p.m. now. And what do I find?? Yes! A Safeway employee found them on the floor and they were saved for me in a locked drawer in the office, waiting for me to retrieve them.

I still have to find out who this employee was who saved my life in this way. It's an extraordinary gift, and I can't help but think that if I keep putting positive vibes out into the universe that I am going to get good things in return. GRATITUDE, which I have written about before:

see my "gratitude" category here and on the T-shirts blog.

Whew!!

Of course, I was hoping I had not been so careless as to drop them on the floor in Safeway. I was HOPING that the universe would be kind and they had remained in my possession.

Once I figured out what must have happened, I was very concerned that I would recover them. I do not even know how to cancel the Fibre Credit Union one at almost 10 p.m.

Humans can be amazing.

So I found out that the cards were just left on the service desk. No one knows by whom. Amazing!!

Two things. I am even more determined to do nice, compassionate, and loving things for people, even strangers because of the gift I just received. AND, two, OBVIOUSLY, I REALLY need to be more careful. Surely, I will check, and check, and re-check that I have possession of all my cards all the time. In fact, I might go so far as to order a second debit card from Michigan just in case the magnetic strip on this one stops working, which has happened to me before. Then again, since I plane to be in Michigan in August, I may wait and get the card then. Maybe for two months I can keep possession of two working cards.

So, the New Tech PDX "adventure."

Networking events are somewhat stressful. They are anxiety causing.

So, I had some trouble finding parking and then finding this We Work at Pioneer Place location, which was really not that hard.

The networking came easily because everyone else was there to meet folks, so I blended in and chatted with some guys who later tried to entice me to go to the after party, but I wanted to get home. Returning home turned out to be more important since I did not know I had lost my debit cards but also because when I tried to return the way I had come from the parking ramp, the door was locked, so it took me a while to navigate a different route to my car.

The event itself was great with fun presentations on tech start ups and new tech work, such as Home Depots chat bot helper.

Other presentations included an RX home remote lab test service; a fantasy sports site for car racing; Dripio, a computer controlled watering system; and the Home Depot Quote Center (a place I want to work) and the new chat bot (not yet implemented) to help with orders and purchases.

I plan to go to the next New Tech PDX event and maybe later on I will volunteer.

VIDEO URL of the entire New Tech PDX for June 2018



Some pictures of the Totem in Kalama at the McMenamin's Lodge.

Columbia River in Kalama at the McMenamin's Lodge

Two photos from New Tech PDX

august leader "Thubten" (yes, that's a name)

Andy Rosic from Home Depot Quote Center

BOOKS FROM POWELL'S TO GET...

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 1081 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1806.19 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.