My neighbors are very elderly and some years ago had purchased a solar system for their house. It's a full panel affair mounted on poles in the ground and is supposed to power their entire house. If you have had any interaction with solar energy you probably already know that what is promised and what is actually produced is as far apart as the Sun is from the  Earth. So the neighbors have been stuck with $400 solar panel payments and energy bills over $600 a month to boot. I know, right? 

I had heard them complain about it every time I saw them so I was quite shocked to hear that they had purchased “another” complete system including controllers and panels. The side of their house had so many fuse boxes on it I thought that they were an electrical substation for NASA. Long story short, Ol’ Dutch got on the phone and by the time I was finished with that solar company I got them a $64,000 refund on the second system plus they got to keep the panels. Now, some three years later, some smart friend came along and configured the panels to work, so they are actually paying off one monthly bill at a time. Thank the good Lord. 

Most of you are probably aware that there is a tremendous amount of fraud taking place especially among older folks who are preyed upon by conniving thieves. They use all kinds of tactics to get people to surrender bank information, credit card numbers and medical insurance identifications and many other financial records. They then are able to use this data to rob and steal from unsuspecting persons. 

Now Ol’ Dutch wasn't born yesterday – Miss Trixie likes to remind me of that all the time – so I am probably a bit more cautious about where I do share information. Plus I saw my father fall for all the free “computer upgrades” that came on his screen that took Miss Trixie countless hours to get rid of later. So I don't want to fall victim to any of that and have to hear her complain about helping me, too. 

I get about 15 emails a day that sound like they are from my very best friend and texts from Georgia, Florida and NYC, enough to be bothersome, all wanting to contact me for some nefarious reason. They all sound so innocent but are scammers for sure. To combat this massive online abuse, banks and other companies have begun to have codes, passwords and check in systems several layers deep. That way, for instance, if Ol’ Dutch tries to log into his bank online, they ask for more verification by sending a code to the phone on record.  

This seems to work pretty good so far but last week a new layer was added to my bank access. I was trying to use Zelle to send money to my daughter Cricket for Christmas and when I tried to send it, I was instructed to call the number on the screen. Now most of you know that talking to me on the phone is akin to talking to a fence post in the pasture. I just cannot hear. So the nice woman and I were really struggling to get this transfer okayed.  

Enter Miss Trixie. That girl is like most women and can hear a pin drop in a crowded room so she was trying to help Ol’ Dutch by yelling across the room what the bank lady on the phone was saying. This quickly escalated into the poor woman thinking I was suffering from elder abuse (which I may be) and being forced to send this money and it almost took an act of God before I finally got the transaction done. 

After I got off the phone I realized how it must have sounded with Miss Trixie yelling instructions to me from the background and I have had more than a few chuckles about that ever since.  

All that poor woman at the bank could hear was what sounded like an angry and maybe violent person scamming poor Ol’ Dutch. And I am surprised the Sheriff didn't show up at my door to rescue me from Miss Trixie. Lord, knows I need it.  

Kevin Kirkpatrick spends his days fishing, hunting, ATVing, hiking or making people laugh. His email is Kevin@TroutRepublic.com. Additional news can be found at www.troutrepublic.com or on Twitter at TroutRepublic.