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PERSONAL RAMBLINGS ABOUT BANKS

PERSONAL RAMBLINGS ABOUT BANKS

I had two bank accounts up until 10:00 Am. this morning. Off and on I have made mistakes in my calculations on debits and credits to these accounts and accordingly I was charged the high fees the bank deems appropriate as a penalty; $28.00 there, $5:00 here, $1.00 at the ATM. My brain has questioned these fees periodically and has come to the conclusion to play the game for financial convenience.

When my income was higher those pesky fees would just remind me I had made a stupid mistake and maybe I couldn’t afford to go to the movies that week. Until four days ago when all financial hell had broken loose; now these fees made me choose between doing my laundry and buying groceries for two weeks.

This is how it happened; I deposited $100.00 two weeks ago, to cover a post-dated $100.00 dollar check, and another $45.00 in cash at the ATM machine one week later. I thought everything was fine until I noticed on my online banking that my check had bounced and with it was added two insufficient fund fees of $28.00 each. I realized then I had deposited the money into the wrong account. I thought for sure the bank would understand in my favor and to the banks credit they did reverse one fee leaving me to pay the other fee. I was still screwed though; the money I had posted to the ATM was not available for over 24 hours, so the ATM debit I made that morning for coffee was not covered under the $45.00 dollars in cash I had deposited the night before. Again the bank penalized my account with another $28.00 fee. I was back to owing the bank $56.00 in fees.

I wanted to close my account, but the bank opened a big window and said as long as I have a negative balance the bank would keep my account open charging me a fee of $28.00 a week indefinitely; raping me repeatedly week after week. I felt panic; like I was in a bog of green-back quicksand that had many hands piling fee after fee on top of me.

The next 24 hours were crucial I thought long and hard about what I could do. Part of me wanted to yell loud obscenities at the tellers. Then I would climb atop the Customers Service Desk jumping up and down demanding the fees to be reversed. My feet would kick all desk paraphernalia onto the floor as more profanities spewed out my mouth. Finally, bashing in the computer screens I would release my pants to wiz all over the paperwork. The Dover police would then come to take me away as I yelled more about the financial rape I was experiencing.

The other part of me wanted to see how long they would debit my account. Then I could hire a great lawyer team that would take my case on for free. They would file a suit against my bank and win. I would get all my fees back plus psychological damages. My name would go down in history as the man who broke the bank. I would also be a hero for all other Americans in the same situation.

These two scenarios were a problem, one was unrealistic and the other would get me into a-lot of trouble. To my credit I paid the bank the $100.00 I owed them and the $4.06 I owed them for the coffee and donut that morning, though I still did not know how to handle the bank fees. I had no more money and I felt like I was being financially raped. I then did some research on the internet on whether or not these bank fees were justified by banks recovering legitimate costs. Article after article I read admitted that a good portion of the bank fees were profit makers for the banks. Banks were averaging 10 million dollars a year from insufficient fund fees. At this point I had a huge headache as I came to the conclusion on what I must do. For me my actual solution was worse then the other two scenarios. The actual thing I did first was to calm my active imagination down, then I became docile, called my ex-husband and groveled as I asked to borrow money to fix this expensive quandary.

He was gracious and helped me out. I then went to the bank and closed my accounts. Then to make my impression of banks incredibly terrible this happened. In the process of closing my accounts I realized my work check was actually drawn off of Bank of America. I proceeded to that bank, to cash my work check, to pay my rent. The teller told me I could not cash the check there with out two forms of ID. I only had my driver’s license. A man came up to me after being motioned over by the bank teller to examine my driver’s license. He said to me that the ID was fine except he needed two forms of ID or I could open up an account at their bank. I said I did not want to open an account with them. He then replied “well, it’s because of the “Patriot Act that we need two forms of ID now”. In the long run, after I gave them a long winded speech about banks not serving the poor and that would have to change; they cashed my check this time as a “courtesy” but next time I would have to go to Wal-Mart.

Now on a serious note; What if more and more banks require these policies and then once the national ID goes into effect we won’t be able to cash checks anywhere unless we succumb to this national database that knows everything about us. We won’t be able to travel, receive social security, access basic services at the post office, etc with out this national ID. This is scary. Think about it. It’s not worth giving up your freedom to be safe and sound. We will never be completely safe.

That’s all for now

Jasper.

Posted by Over Rainbows at 06:54 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Health and Life

My entire Life I have been living the American diet. Periodically my body has told me I need to change my lifestyle in diet and exercise. Last year I was diagnosed with a fatty liver. Nothing to be of great concern, but it could cause me problems as I get older if I don't try to change my diet. Many alcoholics have fatty livers that turn into a chronic diseased liver. You can also have the genetic liver that is more prone to storing fat such as mine is. It concerns me, that is why I am now going to make a dramatic shift in my eating habits and I will be reporting on my Blog the ups and downs of my health plight. As you already know I want to live a long productive life and this endevour can only help me achieve this goal.

That’s all for now …

Posted by Over Rainbows at 12:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

TRIBUTE TO TRACY YORK Continued

Oh, by the way Tacyy's Blog on BLOG THE COAST is: Confessions of an Internet Geek.

Enjoy! She writes well. Thanks again Tracy! :>)

Posted by Over Rainbows at 11:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

TRIBUTE TO TRACY YORK

To a dear friend, a wonderful mother of three great kids, to a great community theater actor, and we can not forget my Tupperware lady from way back; I would like to thank You for creating the lovely logo on my blog. Tracy is also responsible for getting me to inquire about bloging on the BLOGTHECOAST website.

About 4 or 5 years ago, or maybe longer my sister wanted me to have a Tupperware party, so I did. I had a gay Tupperware party. I was also nervous about weather or not the Tupperware representative would be gay positive or not. Tracy was a doll from the moment she got there until the very end. Later on as we began a stunning friendship Tracy and I were getting together for her to drop off Tupperware products and her husband had called to tell me she could not make it. I had never met her husband and thought it was bizarre that he would call me; so, I start panicking inside thinking the worst of things. He could have found out that I was gay and forbid Tracy to see me and instead of Tracy coming over he was coming in her place to gay bash me. I then knew I had to protect myself, I left the Apartment not to return until several hours later, LOL Jim did come over, but I was not home.

Later on that week I called to talk with Tracy to tell her what I had perceived to be a threat to my safety. She thought it was funny how I imagined Jim to be this gay basher when Jim is one of the most caring men she has ever known; yet she understood my concern. Tracy then wanted me to meet Jim and looked for the next opportunity for us to get acquainted; that happened to be at the Fox Run Mall’s parking lot.

Since then we have been best friends and Jim is one of two straight men in my life that I have bonded with. To you Tracy York for everything you do to make this world a better place, Also, to you Jim for putting up with my straight phobia.

Peace

Jasper

Posted by Over Rainbows at 11:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH

A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH

At work I was wheeling a cart full of dog steps towered the front entrance of the store and to my surprise a bird was startled by my cart. I heard the fluttering of its wings and up it flew to the gadget wall. Along the way my feathered friend bumped its tiny head into several poles and other objects. It was scared and it didn’t look good for this special creature.

Two months earlier we had a pair of finches get trapped in the store; no matter what we did we could not catch them. I think they ended up starved-to-death somewhere in the rafters. I did not want this to be the fate of our current captive.

I saw the bird attach it’s self to the gadget wall about 9 feet up. He was huffing and puffing. His beak was staying open to catch its breath. I walked up to him/her and talked calmly to it. I said, “its going to alright, I will make it all better”. I then proceeded to get a three step latter and ran to get a cloth to scoop the bird up in.

I found an apron in the brake room. I then ran back out to where my friend was hanging and I was glad to see him/her still there; almost like it had listened to me.
This is the amazing thing; I then let the bird know that I would be catching him to take him outside. Thinking he would fly away as I drew the apron near to him/her the bird did not flinch. I was able to gently cup my hand around the bird. As soon as I had the bird in my hand it calmed down and was not breathing heavy anymore. Wow, I really think it trusted me to help.

The bird had a beak like a humming bird and its wings were an iridescent blue, green, and yellow. I had to show the store office my find so my co-workers could experience the joy of helping out this trapped guy. Everyone was amazed that the bird allowed me to help him; except one manager remarked, “Whose apron is that” in a harsh tone. I ignored her comment and we released the bird outside on the peat moss in front of the store. In one quick moment the bird flew up and over the store roof never to be seen again. I was so happy to see the bird fly free after that long ordeal.

I share this story for several reasons. Respecting all life is so important to the act of preserving our own future on this planet. We need to be the caretakers of the earth in order to insure that we take care of ourselves too. Life is too precious not too. I happened upon this trapped bird. It was scared shitless. One person made a comment so selfish, that it embarrassed her and all of us who heard her. She made it sound like the apron was more important then the bird’s life. You will have to decide for yourself what was more important. I think its obvious what is more important.

Last the more big business swallows up all of our land the more we are at stake of becoming an endangered species. We need all of our animal and wildlife friends and the echo systems they live on to ensure that the planet is healthy. We are not the only ones here yet we surly act as we are. We need to hold our lawmakers accountable for working in balance with nature.

That’s all for now.

Peace

Jasper

Posted by Over Rainbows at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Imagine New Hampshire

I am developing a new website called Imagine New Hampshire, check it out:

imaginenh.tripod.com

I will write more about my goals for this site later

Peace

Jasper

Posted by Over Rainbows at 11:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Missed opportunities

This is my 41st year of life on planet earth and it dawned on me that I have sheltered myself from many human experiences because of choices I have made. The choices I am talking about are the people I have chosen to surround my life with because of bad experiences in high school and wanting to feel safe and supported in my adult life. High School was a place of much targeted homophobia toward me and my few friends. I also would watch other teens my own age who where targeted for bullying just because they didn’t fit in to the macho sports image of what a male should be. These experiences topped with the national gay news that I subscribed to about the latest victims of hate crimes in our nation contributed to my fears of not feeling safe in a “straight mans world”; This choice of safety over socializing cut me off most of my adult life from not hanging out with a straight crowd.

In my 40's now I am realizing I have missed out on many opportunities, the most important one of those opportunities is that I don't have a great mix of friends. I have missed out on bonding with straight men and possibly having great friendships, same with straight women. Please don't take this the wrong way. I do have straight friends just far and few of them. Because of this thought process one of my new goals is to open doors that will enable me to socialize in a broader context of cultures and people. The act of socializing more with a diverse crowd is also providing me another challenge; that is to do things I normally would not do, like go to a UNH hockey game or going out with friends for drinks.

I am proud to report I have attended a UNH Hokey Game and "LOVED IT". I have also gone out on two occasions for drinks with some straight acquaintances. Challenging me to develop a more diverse group of friendships in my life is adding to my sense of completeness.

In the past I never went out for drinks because I don't like the taste of alcohol. I don't even know what a drink is! Now, I have only one drink per outing and the drink of choice must mask the taste of the alcohol. The outcome is what I am achieving. I am finding that I can find enjoyment even in things I previously thought I would not like to do. It’s the experience of doing something new. My senses become alive. I notice everything around me, all the sights and sounds and the interaction of others.

Introducing me to new experiences awakens my mind and body. The experience is exhilarating and I haven’t felt like that since I was a kid. I look forward to these new goals of mine and in the end I will have a greater sense of community and accomplishment.

Posted by Over Rainbows at 11:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

About My Blog

Welcome to a blog about Life, Love, Respect, Freedom and Equality. Equality for all Americans, Respect for all people, Love of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Love of family, friends and the uniqueness of others. Life as a challenge to see the possibilities around us and to find peace and balance as we grow old.

Posted by Over Rainbows at 11:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A Little About Me

I am a Gay Man in my 40's. I have worked in Social Service settings my entire life. I believe in making the world a better place one person at a time. I want to be treated equal as my straight counterparts are and I will continue to work toward that day. I love life and I intend to die old and grey.

Posted by Over Rainbows at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)