It was a truism in the navy that while watchstanding when something demands your undivided attention, a compelling distraction will arrive.
Went to the movies yesterday with my son and his family and I used my Apple card to pay for something at the concession stand. The Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes wasn't bad. There were dangling plot lines, buy my son said it's the first installment of another trilogy. I'd give it a C+, what is that? 2.5 stars?
Anyway, I get home and I'm fooling around in the house, not doing anything I'd intended to do, when I get a notification from Apple Wallet that a charge has been made on my Apple Card from Amazon for an amount that didn't seem unreasonable.
I order a lot of stuff from Amazon, which is perhaps also inconsistent with my intention to "do my best," and "don't make things worse." But I knew I didn't order anything yesterday.
I checked my email for an order confirmation in that amount and couldn't find one. I went to Amazon and looked at my orders page and didn't find one for that amount. It seemed pretty clear my card had been compromised. I'm not sure how, I can't be certain it was at the movies. I had my wallet out because I gave my daughter in law some cash for their popcorn and sodas. I got my treat and for some reason, perhaps because I had my wallet out, I pulled my Apple Card out to pay for it. (Gotta get that 1% cash back.) The transaction seemed to be taking a long time, so I ended up using my phone. That's why I suspect that's where it got skimmed.
So about 1930 yesterday evening, I'm chatting with Goldman Sachs reporting the card as compromised. About the same time, my ex-neighbor called. He's headed out to see if he can get a photo of the aurora. Apparently it was visible as far south as Florida, people had gotten shots from a little town west of here, Hastings. He figured he'd go to the beach and set up a tripod and try his luck.
I'm trying to wrap up the thing with Goldman Sachs and figure out whether or not I want to try my luck with the mosquitos and maybe catch a shot of the northern lights from Florida.
Obviously, I ended up going. Put on some bug spray but still got eaten alive. I'd sprayed a bandana to tie around my neck, I ended up just putting it over my head, secured by my hat, to protect my ears.
We never saw the aurora (I think. There's a greenish glow to the northwest in many of the shots, but I suspect that's just skyglow from Jacksonville.)
We got to the site just after sunset and started getting set up. Not only did the mosquitos come out, but also many people who seemed to have the same idea, and all the headlights driving into the area kept ruining shots.
A fellow member of The Jacksonville Astronomy Club showed up and he and Pete struck up a conversation. I'd moved my tripod over to the north edge of the parking lot so most of the light from arriving or departing cars would be behind me. At some point they yelled over to me to look up at the moon and I saw something I'd never seen before, a train of Starlink satellites. I'd already started a live composite shot (I figured I'd just get some star trails as long as I was there.), and so I was able to capture the light trail they left behind. But it doesn't really capture what it looked like to the naked eye.
I thought there must have been a launch and we were witnessing a deployment. But no, apparently this is a familiar phenomenon. I could see a number of satellites, perhaps as many as a dozen, all in train, tracking to the south beginning from below the moon and passing directly in front of it. Looking closely at the light trail, I think I can make out around nine, but I have the impression there were more than that in trail. I tried grabbing a shot with my phone, because why not? It actually caught something, but it was essentially a long exposure, so it's no help in figuring out the number. I'll put it on Flickr in a bit.
Anyway, that wasn't the first unexpected celestial subject that evening.
Not long after I'd moved to the north edge of the parking lot, I'd started taking live composite shots for star trails. Pete yelled over to me (his gear was still set up on the south side of the parking lot) that the ISS was overhead. I didn't recall getting a notification that it would be visible last night, but sure enough, there it was. I'd already started the live composite shot, so I got pretty much the whole time it was visible overhead. I think I ended it one frame too soon. That'll be up on Flickr later too.
Anyway, this morning I've been going through and changing credit card numbers for all the subscriptions I use my Apple Card for (and logging all those changes in Captain's Log). The non-profits I make recurring donations to don't have an "accounts page." I'll have to work with each of them on the phone to get this billing squared away.
This happened last September when I went home for Mom's 90th birthday. It's a pain in the ass. That time, whoever used the card number was making purchases out in the Pacific northwest, which tripped an alarm for Goldman Sachs and they made an active effort to reach out to me to point out potentially fraudulent transactions. This time I think an Amazon purchase in the range of normal purchase amounts for me slipped under their radar. But fortunately, I have notifications turned on for Apple Wallet and it got my attention.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:52 Sunday, 12 May 2024