My Day Off At Mount Lemmon...And You Never Have A Day Off if Your Bank is Wells Fargo

Good morning...

I took most of the day off yesterday and headed to Tucson with my friend Jacob to climb Mount Lemmon. Note to self...30 miles up and 6,000 feet of climbing is not a day off.

We started at a popular local spot 5 miles from the base of the mountain called Le Buzz Cafe which is an excellent local hot spot for coffee/breakfast/fresh pastries.

My friend Anne Van Dam, LPGA golfer and in great shape after just completing an Ironman and her partner Nick (past University of Arizona Swim team) were visiting us in Phoenix last week (we did a regular local ride) and mentioned they would be headed to Tucson to see family and said to come join them for the tough Mount Lemmon. I love last minute adventures like this.

Quick product pitch...the 'core hooded base layer' from Pedal Mafia  is my fave new product for cold weather cycling. I plan to use it for hiking and running and skiing as well this winter.

I do a lot of hard rides each year but this was a new stretch for me as the climb took me 3.5 hours ...a very long time in the saddle. I was excited to do the ride with my gravel bike so I could enjoy the descent, but I was beat at the top and hitched a ride down with a mother and son who had a bike rack. The descent took the rest about 75 minutes.

We left for Tuscon at 7:30 am and were home by 6:30 PM. I plan to do this a few times a year with an extra day of riding around Tuscon and a night at a local resort.

In my day job, which I am lucky to have, there are no days off. With Jacob driving I did some calls on the way to Tuscon and when I made the mistake of turning my phone back on to see what I had missed.

Lately, Wells Fargo is just following my debit spending around the State and the internet questioning everything I do (Elon Musk would call it Doxxing). At the top of Mount Lemmon (my phone was off) and I guess I was lucky my charge for $100 was approved for pizza and hot chocolate, because they were worried about fraud...you know because people that steal debit cards like to climb 30 miles to steal pizza and hot chocolate!

As we left Tucson, my text messages were lit up with me being asked to approve charges of the last few days.

I have long been lazy and kept a few small accounts at Wells Fargo to pay some bills, use Venmo and have a debit card. I always regret it. I figure it must cost them so much money to have my small account, that I am winning in some small way...but it has to be the most unprofitable and miserable two sided relationship in the history of mankind and business!

There is a new scam going around that I almost fell into next on the ride home because I am the idiot that answers the occasional call from an unrecognized number. I am an optimist so think it could be Reader's Digest telling me I won $64,000. Anyhoo, I got another text earlier from 'Wells Fargo' asking if I had done a 'Zelle' payment for $1,500. I answered NO and my phone rang immediately. The man said he was with the 'fraud department' with Wells Fargo. I joked, 'I did not know there was any department at Wells Fargo other than fraud.'

I spent 20 minutes on a speaker call in some grift that was quite creative. After about two minutes Jacob spotted it and said to just hang up, but I was so aggravated at this point after never having even used Zelle that I texted Ellen and just said there must be fraud happening across all our accounts and to cancel all our debit cards.

Why just wreck my evening when I can wreck Ellen's...

Turns out Wells Fargo actually has a message in the app with a warning about this Zelle fraud happening.

No wonder so many people rushed into crypto the last 10 years.

Also, no wonder that banks continue to be the most lucrative business...

I do need to close Wells Fargo once and for all. I just can't spare two months right now :) ... and in the meantime I am ordering a Social Leverage cycling jersey that just says F*CK WELLS FARGO.

Also, I need a day off from my day off.