Intro and The Chevron Check

So, I fully realize that I will never be able to match the incredible wit and humor of my wife. No, I'm not even going to try. I only like to attempt something I know I can win. That being said, there's often additional information that I know you would be interested in. Feel free to check in here to get the behind-the-scenes information that Rachael does not post on her blog. Sometimes she's too scared, too embarrassed, or maybe just forgot. I don't know. But I think you should. :-)

Take today for instance.

Many of you posted comments on FaceBook asking her what happened with Chevron today. She's a little embarassed about the whole incident and told me that she's not going to talk about it.

But that doesn't stop me.

Rachael is in the room with me and I just told her that I'm telling the story. Her response was an exaggerated groan and a plea for mercy. But that's OK. I'm sure she'll get over it.

So...

I'm sitting at my desk today working diligently to accomplish my tasks. An email pops into Outlook. It's from a friend of ours. She says that she has a great idea for Rachael's next blog topic. She suggested that Rachael write an entry about how she posted a picture of the check she paid to Chevron on her blog.

This check has all of our contact information on it. No big deal. Most everyone knows where we live anyway. Plus, we love company.

Most of you now know where we live. Stop by and say hi sometime. We'd love to have you over. Maybe Rachael will fire up her world-famous chocolate fountain and make you some chocolate-covered strawberries or something.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. The check also has our Bank routing number on it. And our checking account number. And the check number. And her signature. Basically, pretty much everything needed to make a check forger's dream come true. I mean, usually a criminal has to work a LITTLE bit to get this kind of information. He may have to toss a few garbage cans, climb in the trash at the dump, you know- something like that.

Now that he's met Rachael, he'll never have to worry about that again. Life just got a whole lot easier.

So, I received the email from our friend (thanks Jenny!) and called Rachael immediately. I asked her if she had posted her Chevron pictures on her blog. She cautiously asserted that she had. At this point she knew something was up, but was not sure what. I asked if she had also placed a picture of the check she paid Chevron with. She said yes.

I had not actually seen the blog yet, as I don't make a habit of using paid company time to check on personal issues. So I had to ask:

"Did you leave the bank routing number, our checking account number, and the check number all there for the whole world to see?"

There was a bit of a pause.

And then a miserable response.

"yes."

To her credit, Rachael got off the phone and immediately took the steps necessary to correct the problem.

Within about 10 minutes, I received a follow-up phone call.

She told me that the problem was all taken care of. I was very happy to hear this. I asked her what she had done. She told me that she'd put a stop payment on the check.

I paused, thinking this over.

"So, if I were wanting to forge this check, I'm thinking that I would most likely not use the exact same check number as I know has already been used. Or, if I were going to pay for something check-by-phone, I'm pretty sure, I'd just add 10 to the check number and call it good."

Rachael did not sound happy.

In truth, I do not see how stopping payment on the check helped accomplish anything other than ensuring Rachael gets to visit her favorite gas station in the whole world tomorrow to give them another check. That, and I'm sure the Chevron employee is becoming more and more impressed with her.

But then Rachael went on, and I quickly realized that this whole escapade was going to work out just fine.

Apparently, the bank teller she talked to thought this whole thing was so funny that she told Rachael she would waive the stop-payment fee and get this....



She said, "Oh, I have to read this now." She wants to join the fun at Rachael's blog.

Rachael then gave her the name of her blog. She cracked up laughing. I'm not sure, but I think she was laughing at me. I know it wasn't laughing with me.


The only conclusion I can come to is that Rachael calculated the risk of putting our financial stability on the line in order to increase her blog readership. So now, we have a bank teller that is following the never-ending saga that is our life.

I actually asked Rachael if she did this just to give her more material to write about. She swears she didn't.

She's usually pretty honest.

But you just never know.