Mysterious Disappearance

You know how you don't realize how much you need something until it's gone?  At this point as an adult this has happened to me many times, just like it likely has to most adults.   It's always the same though: that strange sense that something is gone and you don't know what to do to get it back.   Maybe it's not possible to get it back, such as when someone or a pet dies.   Then, other times, it could be something as simple as a favorite ring that got lost.

This morning I lost something.   I've been working on getting it back—and I will get it back—but in the meantime, things just don't seem right.   Many people have increased their online shopping with COVID-19 keeping us all at home more than we typically would be.  I've always been an avid online shopper.   I've been training for years for the Online Shopping Olympics and I would have been a clear shoo-in for Team America if COVID-19 hadn't come along, giving so many other shoppers time to train up.

I need to buy some pajamas for my daughter.  She is always cold it seems, so they need to be long pants.   She has a broken arm, so they also need to be short-sleeved.   Her current pajamas are getting messy because she sneaks outside in them and then invariably meets with dirt, rocks, wood splinters, and grass, not to mention the holes she introduces during the dirtying process.

I went to Amazon, found a few options, put them in my cart, and then went to check out.  Instead of letting me complete my order, Amazon wanted to know what address to ship to.   Then, and this is when I got suspicious, Amazon asked me what method of payment I'd like to use.  

My credit card was gone.   It just wasn't there.   I could go back to purchase history, including two orders I'd placed yesterday, and they were paid for by my card.   I checked my credit card transaction history and sure enough, charges had been made yesterday.   I closed the browser.   I checked the website on my phone and then on my iPad, hoping my Mac or Safari was to blame, but I was doubtful it was that. 

Nothing worked, the card was just gone.   Two other strange things were that I couldn't pull up the invoice details for my prior transactions, throwing an error message from Amazon.   I knew I hadn't deleted the card but just in case, I tried to add it again.   I got a message saying an error had occurred and maybe I should try again or perhaps use a different method of payment. 

I wasn't entering the card information wrong because it was being auto-filled.   It was like the card was still there and I couldn't add it again, only Amazon wasn't sure what to say about that.  I started the text help option for problems that couldn't be solved by their FAQ.   The first person realized pretty quickly he had no idea what to do with this anomaly, so he passed me to the next person. 

That person wasn't sure so they were going to call me.   I got my earbuds on and then had the nicest conversation with a gentleman that looked into what was going on.   The card was in fact still in my account.   He could see it so what was happening that made it invisible to me.  My one-click payments were disabled without an active card as was my default mailing address.   Chriouser and curiouser. 

He put me on hold and came back, saying he was escalating the issue and transferring me to someone who had seen this before.  I bid him thanks and then talked to another delightful lady for a good twenty minutes.   She hadn't seen this exact thing before, but she agreed with me that it seemed like a software "glitch" as she called it.  

She escalated the problem again and after waiting for a bit, she said that it should be resolved and it would just start working again (the solution both she and I were hoping for) or Amazon would call me with an update.   But for now, I can't shop on Amazon.   Which feels very strange.   I have several things (including pajamas) that I need to order for next week.   I may have to actually be patient and wait.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son and daughter are going to go to Nana and Papa's separately because the last time my son and daughter got into some bad fights.   We asked them if they could keep from fighting and my son said he'd rather stay home.  His sister annoys him (while she thinks he annoys her) and he said he just couldn't trust himself not to get into a fight with her.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn't see that she bothers her brother as much as she really does.   She asks for it a lot of the time and then plays the victim.   She doesn't want to go with her brother because he's mean to her.    The children's visit is still up in the air for the weekend, hopefully, they can go together and actually get along for the entire time.