‘Tis the season to be jolly, or in the case of ol’ Nevah and me, ‘tis the season for attempted scamming — three times in three days.

A gaggle of cyberspace scallawags tried three different ways to convince us to send them some of our money.

First was a phone call, supposedly from law enforcement in Oklahoma City, claiming that our teenaged grandson, who happens to live 1,000 miles from OKC, had been in a minor car accident, while attending the funeral of a good friend, and hadn’t passed the DUI test, and was, thus, in jail and needed a cool $1,000 in cash for his bail money, and the cash was needed within a couple of hours. Those thoughtful police officers even suggested a couple of businesses in Emporia from which we could safely transfer the $$$.

Well, those folks got a not-so-tactful piece of my mind and we contacted the local sheriff for followup. But, of course, nothing happened.

The second scam happened to ol‘ Nevah on Facebook. The scammer this time posed (by name) as a friend from Parsons, Kan., and had a “great deal” on a “Facebook Lottery.” All it would take for a chance at the big bucks would be so send a little cash to this faux friend.

Now on high scam alert, Nevah trashed the whole scheme and “defriended” the would-be scammer.

And, the third scam try came to my e-mail box. The e-mail by the would-be scammer used the name of an old friend who lives at Grand Lake, Okla., who happen to travel a lot with his wife. This time my unfortunate friend and his wife had sadly lost their luggage and their visas and passports in the Philippines and were in dire need of $2,850 cash immediately, so they could make their way home.

Well, I responded to the e-mail by telling my would be scammer that he needed to contact a better friend than me for his urgent cash and I hoped that he learned an expensive lesson about taking better care of his luggage and travel documents.

So, just let our scamming experience put everyone on high alert. There are nefarious folks out there in cyberspace just dreaming up ways to mess up your life.

***

Thankfully, not all the season happenings are such downers. Nevah got her Christmas (not Holiday) tree up and trimmed, and a few outdoor lights strung. We quit all lighting that involves a ladder. We’ve started getting Christmas cards from friends all over and a much appreciated package of assorted pecan goodies arrived in the mail today.

As for me, I’m prepared for the upcoming holidays. I set the bathroom scales back 10 pounds so I won’t gain any weight.

And from my ol’ friend Canby Handy in Missouri comes this story. One of his married daughters has a family tradition of getting one new fancy decoration for their Christmas tree each year. This year the new ornament came in the shape a tiny slot machine and, when you pull the tiny lever, a message pops up — either “naughty” or “nice.”

Well, it seems Canby’s orneriest grandson pulled the lever five times and the “naughty” message came up every time. Canby sez he bets the “naughty” little rascal still get a full quota of presents from ol’ Santa.

***

Sometimes there are benefits to being lazy, and sometimes there are misfortunes. Last night I experienced the latter.

The deer season is open in Kansas now and I always make it a habit to keep my rifle with me when I go out to chore because the deer cross our place frequently.

Well, last evening I already had my chore boots on before I thought of my deer rifle still in the house. So, I decided to just go on and do the chores. Yep, you guessed it. While I wuz feeding the bird dogs, out popped a fat doe on the pond dam about 100 yards away and just gawked at me for at least 30 seconds.

I consoled myself by remembering that I hate working up a deer in the dark and that I’m not that much of a connoisseur of venison. I usually give most of the meat away to neighbors. Oh, well, there are still 9 days and two weekends left in the season.

***

I have nothing against protests per se because I’m a bit of a private protester myself. But all the public protests around the country lately makes me wonder who has the time and resources to travel around the country protesting. I guess there’s a professional “protesting class” among the ranks that I hadn’t become aware of.

All I’m gonna say on the matter is that every American’s life matters, regardless of skin color, as long as that American is law abiding and peaceful. Plus, public protests should be peaceful. Nothing says love, peace, and justice more than looting and burning down your neighbor’s home of business.

Oh, and I just learned there’s a new official, politically correct term for looting. From now or it’s to be referred to “undocumented shopping.”

I’ve already said too much, so I’ll hop off my soap box now.

***

Until next week, I’ll leave with a few words, I don’t know if they’re wise or not, about protest. Craig Bruce said, “It’s funny how social activists usually protest against the only things that have a credible chance of achieving the activists’ goals.” Have a good ‘un.