Needed: A Debit Card Hood

I hate the openness of the debit card swipers at the store. It seems like it wouldn't take a very creative swindle artist to figure out what your number is just by standing there and observing you. Or observing you from an angle.

They need some kind of hood you can put over yourself and the machine. Or a booth that you step in or that descends from the ceiling to encase you, so you can type your number in private. I think they could get creative. Some kind of heat shield that wiggles up the air right next to you, like you see near campfires, so that no one can get a clear shot of what's going on on the touchpad.

But my paranoia is such that I already know they could just have a thing hooked up to it to yield the numbers all day and then they'd pick it up at night. Or have it beaming the numbers from there to the parking lot.

I like using debit cards instead of checks for many obvious reasons. But I wish I understood a little more about the situation surrounding the security of doing so.

Animals Don't Care For Money

That's so true. If we see a quarter laying on the floor, we scoop it up.

I went through the kitchen a while ago and there was a quarter on the floor. It must've fallen through the hole in my pocket. I have a pretty good hole in my pants pocket. I was at a store today and I felt the embarrassing escape of about a dollar and a half in chance going down my leg. I tried to pull the pants leg in a little to keep them from clanging against the floor and rolling off in a dozen directions. Fortunately I was successful.

After that I kept my change in my coat pocket. But somehow, at some point, I must've had a quarter in my pocket later. Because I went through the kitchen and there it was on a throw rug.

The dog was sitting there in the area, of course not paying any attention to the money. She'd probably sniffed it -- I don't know -- to see if it was edible. But that would be about it.

It made me think. They simply don't know, they simply don't care for money!

Batman A Local Guy?

For years I've been driving by a house in a middle class neighborhood that has a car out in the driveway with a complete covering, ties and everything. I don't know what kind of car is under there because you can't see anything.

It just suddenly occurred to me that it might be the Batmobile. And that Batman might be living there, possibly having fallen on hard times, or wanting to be closer to the scene of the action, in a town. Maybe he read one of those 'Simplify your life' books and gave up on Wayne Manor.

Whatever it is, it'd be the perfect disguise, because, like I say, I've been driving by there all these years and never suspected ... till today. (A little more on my thoughts coming true in a minute.)

But simplifying his life would mean giving up the Batcave and maybe using the root cellar at this house, or just fixing up the basement, putting some black plastic on the windows. He's all set.

We have a community college, and maybe Robin goes there, having never grown up.

[OK, now the thing about my thoughts coming true.]:

We went to a local fast food restaurant. We're standing there. Our total comes up to a tiny bit over $9.00. I put down a $20 and a dime. So I'm supposed to get back $11.00 and a few pennies. I suddenly start thinking, what if I don't get back the $10? What if the guy has a scam where he occasionally keeps $10 and figures a certain percentage of people won't notice?

On my word -- believe me -- whether it was a scam or not or just a mistake, he literally gives me back $1 and a few pennies. Since I'm thinking of it already, I just said, "Wrong." He looks down, then looks at the cash register, covering his eyes because the sun's streaming in on him from the west window. He recognizes instantly the mistake and comes across with the extra $10.

So that's freaky. I'm normally fairly paranoid. But I'm not normally thinking of this kind of thing.

Here's the tie-in: That really could be Batman's house and car. Why else would I be thinking of it?