National Haywire Day?

Above, Historic Route 66 is bare of cars at a time when there are many of them normally. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Today is proceeding on a strange note.

I had to go into Gallup this morning to the UPS Store to print a couple of tax documents. Things went fine there. Afterwards, I went a gas station and filled the Mustang's gas tank. That went fine also (gas was $1.929/gallon).

I first noticed something when I went to a convenience store and the cashier's chip reader wouldn't read the chip on my debit card. So, they had to press a few buttons and swipe the strip on my card and that worked.

Then, I had to scan and send 2 documents to my tax man in California. The scanner worked fine a week ago. Suddenly, it stopped working. I tried all kinds of different things per the program's instructions, but none of them worked. I will bring in the computer to the computer repairer when I pick up my other computer from his shop to see what's going on.

Above, Interstate 40 in the distance with few cars in Gallup. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I photographed the documents and emailed them to my tax guy and mailed a hard copy of each. So that matter was taken care of.

Then, I went to the Flying J to mail the hard copies and to get a book of stamps. They are $11.00 a book of stamps and I only had $8.00 on me (they don't take debit cards). So, I went to one of the two ATMs there and it started to act up and the card reader wouldn't release my card. I called the phone number on the machine and they instructed me to get an employee to unplug and plug in the machine to get my card released. An employee came, did what the ATM company said and my card was released.

I tried the second ATM at the Flying J and the same thing happened. I unplugged it myself and got my card.

The post office clerk and I had a chat and she said people are really getting edgy and today seemed weird. I told her what happened to me with the 2 ATMs. We wondered if a nuclear detonation took place causing a nuclear pulse that affected electronics.

I then decided to get the hell out of there and head on home before something else goes haywire.