No ... That Isn't Creepy AT ALL ...

I am in the middle of an exhausting project, laying down to see if my meds will kick in and help with some really annoying back spasms ... so I thought I would post the entry I meant to post yesterday. TOTALLY LOVING the app that let's me blog in bed - horrible as that sounds ... I am in bed quite a bit and with my iPad and apps like the one that let's me post to my blog, I feel a wee bit more productive (YES I DID use the word "blog" and the word "productive" in the same sentence WHAT'S YOUR POINT?)

Ahem ...

Yesterday morning I woke up, rolled over, picked up my iPad and started with my morning 'can't-get-out-of-bed-until-my-meds-kick-in' routine. The news was ... news, the weather was going to be in triple digits AGAIN and still no rain in sight ...

Oh!

What's this?

In my e-mail inbox there was a notification that I had a new comment (I get an e-mail notification whenever a new comment is posted to my blog) from the company I had trashed talked in my last post! Um ... ah ... I never did send them an e-mail telling them off so WHAT IN THE HECK ARE THEY DOING COMMENTING ON MY BLOG?

It was a funny, icky déjà vu'ie feeling and my brain froze up for a bit. I was TOTALLY CREEPED OUT!

How did they find me?

How did they find my blog?

How did they know I was being less than complementary about them?

WHAT WAS IT EXACTLY that I had said about them? Frantically searching my brain for whatever scathing remarks I had posted ... but, as is generally the case ... I had spewed out that post typing fast - ranting and raving ... 'in the moment' if you will ... then hit "Publish" and mentally walked away from it, not looking back. Probably not the best method of blogging ... sometimes I actually do make more of an effort ... but not yesterday! Still, other than calling them 'idiots' I was thinking I was in the clear.


But ....



Seriously ...



What else do they magically know about me?

My spending habits?

My medical history?

My social security number?

My favorite color?

Did they have my address and at this very minute, have two men in suits and dark sunglasses sitting in a car parked out in front of my house?

This all flashed through my mind as I had clicked on the comment in my blog and saw it was addressing ME PERSONALLY. It has been a while since I had that 'looking-over-my-shoulder-and-checking-in-the-closets-and-under-the-bed' kind of feeling and really, really don't like it one bit!

Brings back memories of my work at JPL on a Top Secret project for the Air Force (this being during the Cold War - yes, I know, I AM ANCIENT ...). We would have monthly "Safety Meetings". The goal of these meetings, I am pretty sure, was to totally scare the shit out of you and leave you - on a scale of one to ten - an eight or nine on the "Severe Paranoia" chart.

This, of course, was their intent and it worked marvelously! I mean, being smart, calm and aware of your surroundings seemed reasonable enough for me ... did I really need to know

"What to do in the event a loved one is kidnapped in exchange for information"

or

"What to do if you, yourself, are kidnapped"

or

"How to recognize the signs that you are being followed

... on foot

... in your car ..."

or

"how to recognize the signs that an area has been searched

... at home

... at work ..."

or

memorize phone numbers in the

"Unlikely event you are intercepted, but then are able to get access to a phone"

(yeah, I DID wonder which of the events was supposed to be 'unlikely': that I had been intercepted, or that I was able to get to a phone ...)?


OK, maybe I did need to know this stuff - being prepared for any eventuality and stuff - but, man ... it took days for the "Deer in the Headlights" look on my face, the creepy, crawlies and the feeling that I was being followed to dissipate.

YEARS AND YEARS ago and there I was, lying in my bed with a severe case of off-the-charts-paranoia! Seemed ever so familiar ...

Read the lovely letter from them and calmed down a bit. They weren't threatening to kidnap anyone or firebomb my house - rather they were trying to assure me that the experience I had was in no way connected with their company and any help I could give them in identifying the person / scammer that called me would be greatly appreciated. Seemed nice enough and I calmed down a bit.

Still, I was rather startled that one evening in my silly, insipid, inconsequential blog I trash talk a company based on the other side of the planet and within 14 hours they were leaving a message on that silly, insipid, inconsequential little blog!

I thought about it throughout the day and decided that they must troll the world wide web for occurrences of a combination of words ... their company name being one of them and investigate whenever this occurs. I can not come up with any other scenario that fits ... unless one of you called the company and 'tattled'.




Um ....






did you?