Kismet

I missed Bruce Springsteen. He came along after I was out of college when my music absorbtion had wained. I always felt like he should speak to me. He's only a couple of years older and is a romantic in some many ways. But I just never caught the hook other than the "Born to Run" type tracks that were everywhere.

But there was a guy on the Voice in Germany who did a version of "Dancing in the Dark" that sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it. He slows it down and sings the meaning so much better than Springsteen ever did. Springsteen sang the song, this guy sings the experience. So now I'm looking for Springsteen interpretations.

With that background I was at the Ranch today listening to a book "The Pain Scale" by Tyler Dilts. It is an OK book but the character has a serious injury to his hand and someone gave him a banjo to play to build up his strength. This lead to his noticing that the next song on his Apple play list that was playing in the background was a Springsteen song "Atlantic City" from a concert in Dublin that began with a banjo. This is what I love about the Internet. I stopped the book and brought up YouTubeMusic and found the song from the concert in Dublin and played it. The song "Atlantic City" had always been one of those that Springsteen sang the music to, sang the song. But when he sang it live here he sang the experience, the story. It is an amazing differrence and I got the song for the first time.

And the morning's humidity had just blown away by a north wind and it had suddenly become a beautiful, cool sunny morning at the Ranch and Valentine and I were having a wonderful time:



She didn't need the music.

Just one of those weird convergences of experience and chance.

Banks.. .

I've had an account with USAA ever since they had a bank, something like 45 years.  They were originally an organization for military officers that expanded to the way it is today, anyone connected to anything military. They went from a nice smallish mutual to a huge conglomerate.  Their support and dependability reflect that change.

A few days ago I tried to transfer money from my checking to to Schwab.  In doing so I hit the wrong field and transferred $500 to a USAA account that hasn't existed for 10 years.  I immediately reached out to USAA and found someone who disputes transactions who said, yes, it was a USAA acocunt that no longer exists and she would fix it so that could not happen again and begin the dispute process.

That was eight days ago and I still don't have my $500 back.  That would not bother me had USAA Banking not recently developed the rep for losing money.  

My experience with 1 - there being an account that no longer exists but that I was able to transfer money into, 2 - not getting an update since this happened, 3 - not getting my money back yet and 4 - not having a way to contact anyone who can help

has led me to leave USAA Banking.  

I looked around for someone who would give me free checking and who is easy to use online.  I don't ever need to go into a bank.  I've got a local credit union I can use to launder cash so as long as they can connect I'm good.

I wanted to use Frost but their cost of entry is too high.  Keep a huge balance, etc.

SoFi bank does not have that issue.  As long as I have my pension going into the bank automatically they are happy to give me a free checking and free savings account.  They even have a bit of interest on the savings which USAA does not have.

I'm in the process of moving things around now which is not too much fun but so far has gone well.  I had a minor glitch and was able to get chat support from a real person very quickly.  So far, so good.

Of course, I still need to get my money back from USAA.