My doctor says there’s a five percent recurrence rate for each hernia surgery. Since I’ve now re-done three of them, totaling four altogether, I wonder what the percentage for my lucky odds are?

Last Friday was my date with surgery in Bountiful. I’m still swollen, purple and not very mobile. But things are slowly getting better.

We’re having quite the run with health challenges this year. In February Dominic had to be put to sleep to undergo more than a handful of dental cavity repairs. And Monday Eliana was at the hospital having her tonsils removed. Yes, it’s spring break and we’re having a great time!

Good thing Vickey has good health insurance for us through her employer, and that she’s such a caring spouse and mother.

It’s amazing how many things we take for granted. When we’re healthy it’s hard to remember what it’s like to not have all your faculties.

At this Easter season, as I struggled to recuperate from surgery, I was even more grateful for the gift of resurrection after this mortal life. I truly stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, and everyone.

Here’s to a beautiful spring, my upcoming birthday and healthier days ahead!

In the interview Mone explained in straightforward scientific detail how Santa Claus accomplishes the task of traversing the world delivering just the right stuff to all the planet’s girls and boys in one night.

The Truth About Santa: Wormholes, Robots and What Really Happens on Christmas Eve. Photo: Bloomsbury USA

When I courted my wife we discussed the fictional characters endorsed by our culture: the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. We were very much in favor of not perpetuating half-truths or encouraging unrealistic expectations.

Interestingly, Vickey has taken to writing fancy notes from the Tooth Fairy and sprinkling glitter around my daughter’s room with a few quarters or dollar left in place of the tooth.

Of course, when we were packing our Bountiful rental home this fall Eliana discovered a bunch of teeth in Vickey’s jewelry box and asked sheepishly whose teeth they were. Vickey asked her whose she thought they were and Eliana responded, “mine.”

So, the Tooth Fairy illusion is pretty much gone now.

But the allure of Santa remains. We haven’t really been Santa evangelists, but we haven’t been Scrooges either.

It has been fun this year to watch Dominic talk about Christmas and the gifts he wants. He’s even been to the mall to visit Santa Claus, tell him what he wants and have his picture taken.

Listening to author Gregory Mone today was fun. It was cool hearing him matter-of-factly explain all that Santa does and accomplishes due to more-advanced-than-we-are technology.

I’m not saying I don’t believe in the spirit of Christmas and the idea of Santa Claus. In fact, I thought Mone’s approach was refreshing.

I am curious to know what approaches other parents have taken, and what experiences they’ve had at Christmastime.

One of my vivid Christmas memories is from when my family lived in Houston, I was 10 or so, and before Christmas I managed to find and identify every single Christmas present for every member of the family. I was so incredibly disappointed on Dec. 25 when there wasn’t one surprise under the tree for me or anyone else in the family. I was sad.

If you’d like a fun explanation of Santa Claus, I highly recommend listening to today’s podcast on NPR.

]]> http://p2.codella.info/the-truth-about-santa-a-book-for-our-time-1000969.htm/feed 4 http://p2.codella.info/shame-on-peery-hotel-in-salt-lake-city-for-very-poor-customer-service-1000733.htm http://p2.codella.info/shame-on-peery-hotel-in-salt-lake-city-for-very-poor-customer-service-1000733.htm#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:10:46 +0000 Pete Codella II http://codella.info/?p=733 We give the Peery Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City an F for customer service!

Our good friends had planned a nice four-day, relaxing stay together at the historic Peery Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City to celebrate the end of another college semester.

They parked their car with the Peery Hotel valet on Wednesday night. On Thursday night they got a call asking if they had moved their car because the valet operators couldn’t find it.

Turns out, their car was stolen!

What awful news to receive while enjoying some rest and relaxation with your spouse.

What makes the news even harder to swallow is the hotel’s response.

No one would apologize for what happened so as not to assume liability for it.

They were initially told they’d still have to PAY FOR VALET when they checked out.

They were told it wasn’t the hotel’s fault, and that the hotel could not do anything to compensate them.

No complimentary hotel room.

No offer to pay for, or even arrange for, a rental car.

No sympathy whatsoever!

The hotel staff eventually gave-in on charging for valet and returned the keys to our friends, but only after a fight.

What happened to hospitality at Peery Hotel?

If you were running a hotel, would you treat your guests like this in a time of crisis and personal loss?

If you were a guest at a hotel where your valet parked car was stolen, would you feel the hotel and/or the valet operators had some responsibility for what happened?

In this instance, it’s most likely the valet didn’t lock the doors (the car had manual locks) and a car thief helped himself to the unlocked car, jump started it and took off.

Unfortunately the car contained hundreds of dollars of college text books and some valuable personal belongings. Not to mention the car insurance and registration documentation that could lead to identity theft.

Explanations given to our friends were very weak and only passed the buck. Our friends were basically told it was their own fault their car was stolen from the hotel’s valet lot — which, by the way, is the SAME LOT as the self-park lot; it just costs $5 more a day to have someone else park there for you. Lame!

No one at Peery Hotel would accept responsibility for what happened or offer to make our friends’ stay more pleasant.

This, my friends, is no way to treat hotel guests!

Instead of enjoying a few days in downtown Salt Lake, our friends got to make phone calls to family members, police, insurance representatives, lawyers and credit bureaus. And they got to walk everywhere they went, part of the time in a rainstorm, and figure out how in the world they’re going to get back home to Springville later today.

What You Can Do

Help us spread the word and express our distaste for how the Peery Hotel handled this most unfortunate situation.

The only email contact information we could find on the hotel’s website is for a jhinks at the hotel’s corporate office (Jolie Quest).

Let’s email the hotel’s point person and let them know what we think!

Email address: jhinks@joliequest.com

Perhaps some bad publicity will help them wake up and smell the burned coffee, so-to-speak.

After reading what is outlined below, I have to say I wholeheartedly agree.

I think every person should have a fraud alert on his or her credit report, regardless. And I’m contemplating asking the three credit bureaus to put a freeze on my credit altogether. I heard about that recently on NPR: that it’s now possible to close your credit report from all inquiries and new accounts. The only drawback to this approach is if you needed credit for something, you’d have to time the inquiry and new account set-up in conjunction with removing the freeze. It’s a bit more of a hassle, but I think it’s worth it.

Not having an alert or freeze on your credit report is like having no password on your Internet banking account.

I think the day will come when our government will require some type of password, either biometric or otherwise, for anyone to access a credit report. And I’ll support that.

So, if you’re interested, here’s what I was emailed recently by my father-in-law: advice from an attorney on how to prevent identity theft . . .

One

Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “Photo ID Required.”

Two

When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, do not put the complete account number on the for line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.

Three

Put your work phone number on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your social security number printed on your checks. You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

Four

Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.

Here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

Five

We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

Six

File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

Seven

But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.) Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289

Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

If you are willing to pass this information along, it may really help someone that you care about.

Almost every day we receive either new credit cards or letters denying credit due to numerous credit inquiries under my name and social security number.

Newsflash: I’m not asking for credit!

What an annoying experience. Too bad I can’t just ignore it. I’m told that some people do just that for a time, until the debt collectors come calling.

If my credit report were a Christmas tree, it would have a couple new strands of lights on it now that weren’t on it before. It’s just amazing all the inquiries and calls and letters I keep receiving about it.

And my guess is I’m about 20% into this whole situation.

My task this week is to complete ID Theft Affidavits for the credit reporting agencies, have them notarized and reply back to the three agencies and the numerous new credit account providers. So I’ll be visiting the police department and the notary.

I’ve already got about two inches of paperwork on the matter.

If any of you think you won’t ever be a victim of identity theft, just go on whispering sweet thoughts to yourself.

I am more convinced than ever that services that lock down your identity — your social security number, driver’s license number, address, etc. — are the way to go.

I just spoke with LifeLock.com. They charge $10 a month or $110 a year to protect you. I’d say that’s money well spent.

I’ve already lost the equivalent of about three work days to resolving this situation, which, as I said, is nowhere near resolved.

The trip took almost 90 minutes because the freeway was a mess and there was plenty of traffic.

As we drove east up the mountains on 500 South in Bountiful Vickey voiced her concern that the Honda Odyssey van wouldn’t make it up the hill. After all, she had experienced that several times while picking Eliana up from school in afternoon snow storms. I hadn’t experienced it and thought she needed a lesson in winter driving.

Until Christmas night.

We only made it three-quarters of the way up 500 South before the van would no longer go forward. It decided to just go sideways into the gutter and a foot of snow. I was annoyed, to say the least. I could not for the life of me, or all my winter driving experience, get the van to go forward.

Our family was in the van, the kids asleep, the dog in the back and we had our share of freshly unwrapped Christmas presents. And we couldn’t drive up the hill to get home!

After many efforts to just get up to the next street, I ended up turning around and parking in a dentist’s parking lot near the base of the hill on 500 South.

Luckily for us we have kind neighbors who sent a friend in a four-wheel drive Honda Pilot to pick me up. And we weren’t the only ones who were stuck. My friend’s friend ended up picking up two others from the same parking lot and driving them up the hill with me.

I got in our Toyota Tundra — a great four-wheel drive vehicle — and drove down the hill, picked up the family, put the dog in the back (yes it was still snowing; but there was no room in the cab with us and all our stuff), and headed up the hill.

We did fine until after passing Eliana’s elementary school we got behind a car that was having difficulty making it up the un-plowed road. We had to stop, which ended our momentum. I had to turn around again, do a u-turn in the school parking lot, then head up the hill.

Finally, we were home.

So why do I share this story?

Well, after this experience and then talking with my sister in Vermont on New Year’s Day, I decided we had to get snow tires on our van.

Angie, my sister, told me that most of her friends drove mini-vans and they did fine as long as they had snow tires on them.

The next day I was at Big O Tires in Bountiful getting Arctic Claw tires installed on the van. They recommended those tires for my vehicle and took care of me within an hour or so. They did a great job!

That very night we were out to dinner with my parents and brother and his family and came out of the restaurant to a snow storm just like the one we drove home in on Christmas night.

After testing the new snow tires in very similar circumstances to what we experienced on Christmas night, I have to say I’m very impressed. The Odyssey made it all the way to our home without the tires ever slipping on the road.

Thanks to Big O and Arctic Claw tires. And thanks to Angie who provided the personal witness to the value of snow tires.

Late last week, through the Experian credit monitoring service, I noticed several new credit inquiries—none of which were initiated by me. Yesterday I saw from my credit monitoring account alerts that three new accounts were opened in my name, at JC Penney, Kay Jewelers and Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry.

It just so happened that today I received credit cards from Kay and Jared which were mailed to our old address in Henderson and forwarded by the USPS to our new home in Bountiful.

As much as I’d like to say I purchased jewelry for Vickey for Christmas, such is not the case.

I called the number for Kay Jewelers and told them I had not requested the credit card. Turns out, someone with a Las Vegas delivery address on Friday charged the card to its limit of $5,100 with an online purchase.

Someone who said his name was Jack also called Kay on Friday to ask for an increase in the credit limit, which was declined because they couldn’t ‘verify some information,’ according to the company’s fraud representative I spoke with tonight. (Good thinking!) They told me that on the online credit card application, whoever applied reported:

• my name
• my social security number
• my Nevada driver’s license number
• an email address that includes my company’s website address (but was an incorrect address)
• that I was employed through the International Association of Business Communicators in Las Vegas as its treasurer (I was the organization’s volunteer treasurer three years ago and its president this year)
• that my monthly income was $60,000
• and that my monthly mortgage payment was also $60,000

Humm . . . that last piece of information I got from the jeweler’s fraud department sure raises a red flag for me! How about you?

Regardless, apparently the information provided on the online credit application was good enough—and my credit good enough—for the three new accounts to be opened.

So, these are the steps I’ve taken thus far:

1. I notified Experian that fraud had occurred and was assigned a fraud resolution case number by them. Again, I have Countrywide to thank for this situation and for providing the Experian credit monitoring service.
2. I called the issuing credit card company, Sterling Incorporated (the umbrella company for Jared and Kay Jewelers), to inform them of the fraud and recounted the Countrywide breach and recent activity on my credit report. They closed the two accounts and assigned a fraud investigator to the case.
3. I called JC Penney and closed that account. Luckily, there was still a zero balance.
4. I called Transunion’s fraud alert number (800.680.7289) and followed the automated prompts to put a 90-day fraud alert on my name/social security number. I did the same for Vickey’s name and social security number. I understand that with the police case number this can be extended for 7 years.
5. I called the Bountiful Police Department and filed my identity theft report and was assigned a case number by the police officer.
6. At the request of the police officer, I went to ic3.gov and filed a complaint about the fraud. This site apparently is used by three different types of government entities focused on Internet crime.
7. I have also notified my bank of what’s going on and had them place an alert on all our deposit accounts.

I have to admit, it’s a strange feeling being victimized like this. I feel like my integrity has been breached. I know these companies realize this is a case of fraud, but I feel like my personal brand has been trashed. I guess that’s why they call it identify theft.

I’m not sure what I, or we, could have done to prevent this. Our situation seems to completely stem from the foul-up by Countrywide we were informed of in Sept. 2008. I have no other way to explain how a random individual, purportedly living in Las Vegas, could have access to so much information about me.

It’ll be interesting to see where this investigation leads and what comes of all this. Rest assured, I’ll be letting you know right here on our family blog.

Here’s hoping we can reclaim control of our own identity and credit in 2009. We’re also hoping that whoever is responsible for the $5,100 jewelry purchase last week in my name is apprehended and justice served.

We are writing to inform you that we recently became aware that a Countrywide employee (now former) may have sold unauthorized personal information about you to a third party….it was determined that the customer information involved in this incident included your name, address, Social Security number, mortgage loan number, and various other loan and application information.

We deeply regret this incident and apologize for any inconvenience or concern it may cause you.

The letter goes on to say that Countrywide has paid for two years of credit monitoring services by ConsumerInfo.com for us.

Attached with the letter are seven precautionary measures the company advises us to take and four steps to follow if we do become victims of identity theft.

Whew, I feel so much better knowing I can have two years of credit monitoring services, and knowing what I should do if all of the sudden our debt quadruples.

Here’s something we could do to prevent identity theft: not be a Countrywide customer.

I think the Olympics provide us with the perfect opportunity to remember that we’re all human, children of a loving Heavenly Father.

They set the stage for bringing out the best in human triumph against tremendous odds.

They help promote a sort of world unity along with national pride.

I would love to one day attend an Olympics opening or closing ceremony.

And by the way, I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the Olympics were held in Salt Lake City in 2002, bringing the LDS Church into the world spotlight, and in China just six years later, reintroducing the most populous nation to the world. I predict these Olympics will mark the beginning of a new era for China and will set the wheels in motion for religious freedom in that country.

The next couple of weeks will be interesting to see who wins what and whether China or the U.S. takes home the most medals.

First of all, I have to say publicly how much I admire and LOVE reading anything authored by Elder Hafen (see A Disciple’s Journey, pg. 26). As a member of the BYU Young Ambassadors I traveled with him and his wife in Russia in 1992. I was so impressed with the two of them. What a great couple!

At any rate, the editors at the conclusion of the magazine call for people to submit funny BYU memories. It sparked an experience I had as a freshman that I thought I’d share (it’s not like there was a lot to do on the airplane). I’m also submitting my story to the magazine and if they like it they’ll pay me $50. Regardless of getting paid for sharing, I thought some of you might find this humorous. Perhaps you can ‘pay’ me back by commenting and sharing your own funny experiences, at college or elsewhere. 

Some days it was difficult getting from Deseret Towers to my 8 a.m. class just because I could think of 100 things I’d rather do first thing in the morning than have icecycles forming from my nostrils (I’m not exaggerating).

Once spring had arrived I was a happy camper. Provo’s seasons are all beautiful but the car-less part of me was particularly inclined to welcome the warmer weather.

However, with winter’s leftover snow piled on the sides of roads, the thaw made for some sloppy, soggy-sock weather.

One particularly beautiful and warm spring day I was making my way up Campus Drive from the now demolished KMB to the HFAC, oblivious to the water running alongside the sidewalk and half-way into the street.

Suddenly, I caught glimpse of a white minivan barreling down the road—at speeds that certainly exceeded the speed limit—and headed straight for the murky puddles of water just inches away from me.

There I was, minding my own business on the sidewalk when at once I was drenched from head to toe with dirty, cold street water; the result of runoff and warmer temperatures, and I do believe, a giddy college-age driver who knew darn well what their trajectory was going to do to my day’s outlook, or at least to my body temperature and clothing.

Needless to say, from that day on, as a pedestrian I paid close attention to puddles of water near the sidewalk and traffic, especially in the spring.