I took myself to the store this afternoon and got the foodstuffs needed.

BUT--I didn't find any children's books I thought Anna would like.

Found a couple of token gifts, but that was it.

Maybe tomorrow I'll drive up to Mandeville and real bookstores.

Before that, however, I stopped at the bank to show them the spam I'd received last night. It wanted me to give them my password etc. for my Chase card--to "protect" it.

Yeah right.

Even though my kids know a whole lot more about computers than I do, I can still recognize a potential scam.

The Chase lady (I've talked with her before) agreed that it was an attempted scam.

It wasn't even a very good one, asking outright for passwords. Anybody who sent them passwords should not be allowed computer access.

But I was pleased with the double-checking and all.

And then it was on to WalMart. One little problem--the traffic was not moving at all. Just because a very long freight train (at least 70 cars) was going through town - - - -

This stretch of railroad is a very busy one, and I hate to even think what would have happened if Katrina had done it significant damage.

The train finally finished passing through, and the line of cars began creeping ahead. There are five traffic lights between the bank exit I used and the turn to the mall. Nobody appeared annoyed at the wait--nothing can be done about it, and the railroad is important.

WalMart wasn't totally impossible--in fact the customer load was only slightly larger than usual.

I don't think the same will be true tomorrow. Or Sunday, when it will be swamped with folks wanting to return or exchange gifts.

So today was not an IUD. Not quite.