An Ode to The Gray Hair I Found Today

This is The Inspector.

He is an Engineer...and Electrical Engineer. He knows about electricity and magnets and all geeky stuff like that. He plays with computers and other electronic stuff every day. He even gets paid to do it.  I hear he is very good at his job. ( I also hear his desk is always a mess. This, I Believe!)

This is Jack.

He does not know about electricity...and stuff. However, if he had a desk, it would be very clean because Jack is neat and tidy like that.  In this way he is very different from his father. Jack does knows lots about playing with computers. If I have a question about how to make something happen on my computer, Jack is my go-to guy. This is because Jack likes to try things. Things that a normal, thinking person would probably not try. Sometimes he gets lucky. In this way he is not at all different from his father.

These are Buckey Balls.

Buckey Balls are a collection of 216 tiny, spherical neodymium magnets. You can do really fun things with Buckey Balls. You can form them into interesting sculptures. You make make long strings and wind them into Chinese finger traps. You can even attach them to both sides of your ears to make clever earrings. In case you are not a science geek, I will point out that even though they are small, neodymium magnets have quite a lot of pull. They are strong little suckers.

This is my credit card.

(Okay, it is not actually MY credit card because, let's face it, showing you MY credit card would just be silly!) But, it is almost exactly like mine - except mine has different numbers and comes from a different bank and mine is green and it doesn't say Visa.  But, otherwise, it is exactly the same.

So, you ask, "What is the connection?" And, "Why are you furrowing your brow and shaking your head?"

I will tell you:

Backstory: Target opened its first store on the Island a few months ago. For some reason, my debit card would not work in all of their scanners. It was an occasional problem – some days/some registers. Never any other stores – just Target. Inconvenient but not a major issue.

So, last Friday was The Inspector's birthday. The kids and I went out early to pick up some balloons and decorations at Pricebusters. Then we headed to Target to grab a few things. When I tried to pay, I got a Card Read Error. No problem...it happens at these registers some times. Key it in manually and it works just fine. Off to the Fountain area for Icees. (I was racking up some “Good Mom” brownie points!) Dang! Card Read Error again. Well, that happens at Target sometimes.....Just pay cash for the Icees and off we go.

We spent the day cleaning and preparing for a little celebration that evening. Later I took B-Bot to gymnastics and stopped at Party City on the way home to pick up some candles. Darn if that silly debit card didn't work there, either!

So, after using a different account, I paid and made my way home. By the time I got home, The Inspector was home from work. 

I said, “Hello” and was greeted with a sheepish, “Uhhhh, Hi.”

“Uhhhhh, what's up?”, I asked. (now, let me tell you, when you have been married for 25 plus years, you KNOW when something is up!)

“Well, a funny thing just happened”, he replied. “I was looking at the Buckey Balls and commenting to Jack that it's hard to separate them without crushing the cube. He said he figured out that it's easy to do using a credit card. Since it's plastic and wouldn't attach to the magnets, I thought that sounded like a really good idea so I took out my card to try it. He's right. It worked great.......”

He was really getting rolling here when I interjected, “Wait... You used a CREDIT CARD to separate MAGNETS?”

“Ummmm, yeah well, just as the card slid through the balls, I caught sight of the back of my card and saw the magnetic strip and suddenly thought....Magnetic strip and magnets.....maybe not such a good idea.”

“Ya think!” (I am nothing if not gently supportive!) “What made you think of such a clever idea, darling?" I asked (Except when I said it, I suspect it sounded more like "What  the heck made you think of such a stupid idea?" )

“Well, Jack said it worked really well when he tried it. So, I thought I would give it a shot. I mean, a credit card is good for opening locks, scrapping ice,... lots of things. So, I thought it might work really well. Anyway, he was right. It worked great.”

Now, some of you are seeing where this is going, right? I turned to Jack and said, “Just how did you KNOW a credit card works well to separate the magnets?”

He said, “It worked really well when I tried it.”

Okay, wait for it. You won't be disappointed...“Ummmmm, just what credit card did you use to try it?”

“Yours”, he said.

“Which one?” (Did I really need to ask?)

“The one you tried to use at Target today.”

Yeah, so yesterday I called the bank. My new card is on its way.

There is probably a good reason why the package of Buckey Balls says :

Keep Away From Children.

But, honestly, I do not suspect THIS is what they imagined.