TRIAD, scams, Italian, DNA, plumbing

My doctors ganged up on me recently and mandated my dropping 11 of my 12 activities.  I decided that they were probably right.. I was trying to do too much with this old body of mine... so I opted to only stay as coordinator of the Carroll County TRIAD Chapter.  This is a National organization, developed by AARP to get senior citizens involved in the prevention of crime.. and the organization includes ties with all of the Police entities around the Country.. and is designed to bring interested elderly persons into meaningful discussion with Police.  We meet on the third Thursday of each and every month at the Westminster, Maryland Senior Activity Center.

I live in a Continuing Care Community of 700 persons, whose average age is probably 80.  I've mentioned to many of the residents that I want to help them avoid losing their money to scammers and have heard from some of those who say they have just barely avoided being caught.. .. however, I am suspicious that some of them and  some of the quiet folks have already been caught.

One lady receives email messages every day from deposed Nigerian and Ghanan officials who have millions of dollars just waiting to be released to her as soon as they receive an advance payment.  I hope she has never sent them anything... but I am suspicious.

A month ago, while waiting in line at a local supermarket, an elderly lady in front of me was putting $100 bills into a clerk's hand as she counted.. 400, 500, 600... She was purchasing International Money Orders to send to Lagos, Nigeria.   I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she knew who she was sending this money to.   She said: "Yes, a very nice lady that I know."   Sure.

Anyway.. today is New Year's day.. the second day that I am posting to my new Prepop Sez blog.  If you haven't read the one for yesterday, I wish you would.. because it is there that I talk about my first-born granddaughter, Heather.

Who's Your Daddy?

In my on-going quest to find out just who the hell was my father before I die... I took the Ancestry.Com  DNA test.  In the results were potential 1st and 2nd cousins shown for me.  The results point (not conclusively) to people named Gifford, Peckham or Holland.  A person with one of those names may be the person I'm looking for.  I've been told that some of the suspects may have been "hell-raisers".. one might have been a physician.. and one some kind of merchant.   All of them were born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The DNA results do indicate that I could possibly be English, Italian, Jewish, or perhaps even Portuguese.  I have already pursued my possible Italian roots.. which turned out badly, in my opinion, becaused I had been told for 60 years that the person involved was indeed my father.  Well, since I have always tried to learn something from every experience,  I have a knowledge of Italian... at least enough to do Italian crossword puzzles.

Speaking of learning from everything and everyone.... I had a programmer working for me at the Social Security Administration who had to be let go.  I tried really hard to find something to be learned from him.   I finally did... His name was Harvey L...  His initials were HL.. which solved a minor problem for me... I could never remember which faucet was hot or cold...  HL=Hot Left.  Thank you, Harvey!

Bye for now.