Not The Best Start To The Week!

We are waking up on this Monday morning to a fast moving snowstorm through the area and unseasonably cold temperatures and GUSTY winds.  We are currently 15 degrees below the average and a whopping 50 degrees below last years unseasonably warm temperatures.  You just never know what to expect in Iowa this time of the year.  I can remember back in the 70's having a blizzard in mid-April that shut the city down for 3 days.  It appears my son is just like his mom and loves the snow.  He was delighted when he looked out the window and saw it snowing!

I always consider Saturday the end of one week and Sunday the start of the next week.  I'm not sure why I've come to think of those days as the end of one week and the beginning of the next but there it is I do.  

I started this week off by receiving a text message from a friend very early Sunday morning.  She received what she deemed a "suspicious email" from me with a link.  Her instincts were correct and my email had been hacked so if you are one of my contacts who received such an email you have my sincerest apologies.  I immediately took steps to secure this email account and to set up a new account for future use.  I did have one friend who did open the email and click on the link.  She did take her phone in and had a scan run and nothing appears to have been compromised so this is good.  Believe me if something looks fishy about an email (subject, time sent, etc.) I won't be opening it without checking with the sender.  It appears that the steps I took to secure the account have worked as I've not heard that anyone received repeat spam emails.

I learned a few things from my experience yesterday and would share a couple of them.  My particular email server has a way to not only have a password but to can create a visual seal to know that I am really in my server's site and not a dummy set up to look like it.  I also found out something I did not know and that is I can review the activity on my email account so I can see if anything looks "suspicious" to me.  When I pulled it up yesterday, yeah I would say my account having activity in CA and NJ when I was asleep was pretty suspicious.  In the future I do plan on changing my password much more frequently and I will be checking my account activity on a routine basis.  I won't lie to you that I spent most of my day yesterday updating my email address where it needed to be updated and changing every password for every site I use as well as deleting not necessary accounts.   It was a lot of work but in the end it will give me some peace of mind.

 After a day like that a girl needs some relaxation so I did get some much needed stitching time in last night.  Really am making good progress on Mirabilia #49 Gathering Eggs.  

I also spent 30 minutes reading In the Garden of the Beast.  I have reached the 20% completed mark on my Kindle and have to say I've already surpassed in one week where I left off after a month previously.  Hallelujah!

My poor hubby went to leave for work this morning (he leaves at 5:30 AM) and had a flat tire on his Expedition.  Really not a good way to start the work week.  Thankfully he purchased an air compressor about 20 years ago so had a quick way to put air in it and get on his way.  I'm just praying it stays inflated until he gets off work and get it repaired!