Your SSN may have been stolen. What now?

by Tom Dunn

A few weeks ago, many, many Social Security numbers (SSNs) were stolen from a background check company called National Public Data. This has been reported in the national news for the past couple of weeks. My credit monitoring service let me know this week that mine was one of the stolen SSNs. Perhaps one of the 272 million or so stolen SSNs was yours. 

This means that people could potentially use your SSN and related personal information to apply for a loan in your name.

Let me boil this down for you: The most important thing you can do right now to protect yourself from identify theft or bad actors applying for credit in your name is to freeze your credit file at all the major credit reporting agencies:

This is a FREE service available from each of the agencies. Be warned that when you go to freeze your credit file they often try to upsell you into buying paid services. Those paid services may have additional features that interest you, but payment should not be required to freeze your credit files. 

Freeze your credit files

To freeze your credit file, do the following for each of the credit reporting agencies.

  1. Navigate the agency website to where you can freeze your credit file. Links are provided above in this article. 
  2. If you don’t already have a login account at the agency, create one. (Note: create a new, strong password for every new account you create.)
  3. Freeze your credit file. You may need to create a personal identification number (PIN) for the freeze. 
  4. Save the account user name, password and freeze PIN in a safe place, preferably a password manager app. 

Save all your passwords, PINs, credit card information and other personal data in a place that is reasonably safe and convenient to use. I could write a long article about this, but for now I recommend using a password manager app like NordPass or 1Password, or use Apple iCloud Keychain which is integrated into Apple operating systems. I don’t recommend using a web browser to save passwords or personal information. 

Un-freeze a credit file when you need it

When you apply for credit, ask the creditor (the bank, car dealership, and so on) which credit reporting agency they want to use to check your creditworthiness. Then log back into your account on that agency’s website and temporarily un-freeze your credit file. Be sure to re-freeze it if it does not re-freeze automatically after a certain amount of time. 

Take care of your own interests

While I would not agree that this hack was a good thing (like the title of this excellent article by Adam Clark Estes on Vox suggests), I do think that if people take this incident as a strong warning to protect themselves from identify theft, then those people will be safer for it. 

(Image generated by Microsoft Copilot.)

I Had a Dream for America

by Tom Dunn

I was born and raised a proud American by proud Americans. When I was young I knew this country was great and was on the road to be truly greater.

I had a dream that America would continue to lead the world with the American values of truth, justice, and freedom. I dreamed that America would lead the world forward into space and into the far reaches of science and technology.

I dreamed that America would be a shining beacon on a hill, an example of how democracy can work in the world where it often could not. I dreamed of America as holding a moral high ground, an example of how a country should treat its citizens and all people around the world.

The America I dreamed of was a country that I was proud to be a citizen of, a country that did not exploit, harm, or abuse the trust of its people. I dreamed of an America that was safe, and was a decent place to raise children, a place where people of goodwill could hold differing opinions and still live and work together side-by-side. I dreamed of an America striving for equality of all people. I dreamed of a place where the will of a few would not be imposed upon many, nor the will of many imposed on a few.

I dreamed of an America where personal freedoms of religion and speech were cherished and where diversity was our strength. A country where we did not disrespect nor belittle people who were not like us.

I dreamed of an America I could boast about, and pledge allegiance to, with my whole heart.

Recently I watched a news report where congressional legislators huddled in the nation’s capitol building to sing Happy Birthday. Many of those same people huddled in fear in the same building on January 6, 2021 when ex-president Donald Trump called on his minions to commit political violence. He encouraged them to attack, invade, and destroy the operations of the capitol, and for the first time in our history try to stop the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another through violence. He had even said his own vice president may deserve hanging. I saw those same legislators who had huddled in fear three years ago now sing Happy Birthday to their tormentor, the would-be dictator who instigated the invasion of the capital that endangered each of them and caused the death and injury of capitol police officers trying to hold back the horde.

The Capitol invasion was a chilling thing to see. So was the birthday serenade.

After the capitol building was invaded and people died in the process, some legislators from both major political parties gave speeches calling for punishment for the lawless capitol invaders and for Donald Trump. But now under the watchful eye of their desired leader, some legislators call the capital rioters political prisoners, patriots, or victims. The hypocrisy and gall of these legislators sickens me. It is their supplication to an evil man, in order to maintain their own political power, that is poisoning and killing my dreams of a great America.

Those legislators, with these actions, betray themselves, betray Congress, and betray the American people they represent. Shame, shame, shame on them and shame on the ogre that they created and now follow. They are not fit for office.

Officials who support a man who tried to forcefully retain power, a man who punished peaceful protesters, alienated our global partners, flirts with the world’s dictators, and would overthrow our government now expose their own unethical, power-blinded nature for all to see.

For the sake of the nation, to avoid authoritarianism, we must not elect Donald Trump back into the White House. And the legislators that support him need to be replaced with strong, ethical people with integrity and backbone.

I thought a very long time before publishing this post. I wondered what people would think. I have family and friends that support Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. Some of them will not like what I’m saying. But this issue may be one of the defining issues in this country’s history.

(Image created using Microsoft Copilot.)

Comforting Soup

by Tom Dunn

We got exposed to COVID-19 this week. You remember COVID-19, right? If not, just remember wearing your first N-95 mask. Smell that blown-in fiber? Ah, those smell memories can really take you back. 

We don’t know yet whether we will come down with symptoms. While we watch and wait, isolated in our home, we look for comfort in the kitchen. The recipe that follows is one I developed by crudely coalescing tidbits of other recipes (including my sister Patty’s Chicken Noodle Soup) and experimenting using my family’s tastebuds. I hope to put some of the soup away in the freezer for that time when neither Roslyn nor I feel capable of cooking. 

My granddaughter’s favorite part of this soup is the carrots. She eats all of them out of her bowl of soup and then bums more from others. So I use a lot of carrots.

Chicken Noodle Soup recipe

This recipe makes a pretty big pot. But it goes fast. 

  • About a pound of carrots, peeled or unpeeled, sliced into quarter-inch slices.
  • About a quarter pound of celery stalks, sliced into quarter-inch slices. Reserve celery leaves and chop them finely for seasoning if you like them like I do.) 
  • One small-to-medium brown or yellow onion, chopped.
  • 3 Tablespoons olive oil (or any oil or butter you like to sauté with). 

After slicing and chopping all those vegetables, put a big soup pot on the stove and heat the oil on medium-high a few moments until hot. 

Dump in the onions and celery, and sauté, until the onions look a bit translucent. No need to overcook here, as the soup will simmer a while. You just want to release the aromatics of the vegetables. 

Add the sliced carrots to the pot. Then grab:

  • 2 quarts of low sodium chicken broth. 
  • 1 quart of water. 

Add the broth and water to the pot. Maintain the heat at medium-high. Then add these seasonings:

  • 1 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves.
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary leaves. 
  • 1 teaspoon of dried parsley leaves. 
  • 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. You instead can use a few cloves of fresh chopped garlic, or a tablespoon of bottled chopped garlic if you like.
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper.
  • Chopped celery leaves if you made any earlier.

Bring pot to a low boil, stirring occasionally. Take a moment to appreciate the smell of your soup pot as those flavors merge together. When the pot reaches that low boil, add:

  • 1-1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken cut into chunks of 1/2 to 3/4-inch.  I usually use chicken breast because it’s easier to chop up. Dark meat’s flavor is good here, too.

Let the pot slowly boil for half an hour, stirring occasionally, making sure the chicken chunks are cooked through. During this cooking time, the other flavors continue to merge and mellow. 

  • Noodles

I usually use “Grandma’s Frozen Wide Egg Noodles” (11 ounce package) because they remind me of mom’s homemade noodles. She rolled out dough, cut the strips of noodles with a knife, and placed them directly into the boiling soup pot. They are substantial. I once tried using two 11-ounce packages in this recipe but that was too many noodles. Who knew that was possible? Well, too many noodles absorb too much broth, leaving you with a stew-like dish. 

Let the pot continue to boil for the necessary cook time of the noodles. With the frozen egg noodles, be sure to separate the block of frozen noodles as they cook to avoid getting one large clump of partly-cooked noodles.

Taste your soup. Add salt if you like, but I don’t find salt necessary. 

Please let me know if you try this recipe. Leave a comment about your ideas for variants. They are always fun to read about. 

Be well and be happy! God Bless You.

Ninety

by Tom Dunn

I am grateful today for my mom, whose birthday is today. Her name is Carolyn. (You may remember that I mentioned her before in this blog.) She would have been 90 today, but she passed away from a chronic blood disease ten years plus a few days ago. My mom was an intensely good person. I know that as her son I am not objective. But that’s how it should be. Everyone who knew her loved her, or at least liked her. Sure, maybe there were people out there that didn’t like her, but those people’s opinions don’t matter. 

She grew up in California with her mom and four brothers. She went to Colton High School, met and married my dad Bill in the mid-1950’s, and together they raised five good kids. Many of her brothers lived close by, so we had lots of cousins about our age to play and fight with. We grew up with a sense of family that didn’t feel forced, and certainly wasn’t lonely. 

My mom did so much for us. She never got a driver license, which in Southern California was an anomaly. That didn’t slow her down. Fortunately my dad had a union job at a rock plant in Rialto for years. We didn’t have a lot of money, but he had a regular work week and mostly free weekends when we would galavant around the countryside or make memories with our extended family. I didn’t realize then how much that regular schedule was a godsend, a backdrop for what seemed at the time a very normal rhythm of life. I did not know how blessed we were while all around us raged the adult world of neglect, poverty, animosity, broken relationships, avarice, and plain old thoughtlessness. But our parents, through their example and their words, taught us that the world is generally a good and decent place, and we needed to be the same because that was the only fair response to our advantageous situation. 

As I write this, I know that some of my friends and family didn’t have the advantages my siblings and I were blessed with. Not monetary wealth, but family security. For those people – and there are many – I say that I see you. I know from knowing you what cost is wrought from lacking that sense of security and the outlook of a largely benevolent world, or at least a benign one. I consider myself lucky. 

When I was about ten years old, I decided to make a birthday cake for my mom. What I remember most was going to my friend’s house with an empty coffee can to ask for some powdered sugar to make buttercream frosting. After making the frosting and presenting the cake to Mom, I realized that I should have washed the coffee can before going after the powdered sugar. The frosting was coffee flavored! It may have been a trendy flavor, but disappointing for this ten-year-old. Mom liked the cake anyway, or so she said. She also reminded me that her birthday would not be for a few more days. But she did it kindly. She did not embarrass me in front of my family.

Top of Mount Scott, Oklahoma, looking northeast toward Lake Lawtonka, June 2023.

This month, we visited the top of Mount Scott where the family gathered to scatter Mom’s ashes years ago. It was moving to spend time in this beautiful spot while a steady breeze blew across the endless sky. We said prayers of thanks for having her in our lives. Mom treated people with kindness all the time. The life she lived was an example to me that I will never forget. I hope that the kindness I express to others, when I am wise enough to do so, reflects well on her and her positive influence on my life.

Best wishes to you one and all. God bless you.

Grace and gratitude

by Tom Dunn
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Pexels.com

Each day is truly a blessing. It was five years ago that I began my first round of cancer treatment. Six rounds of treatment later I am cancer-free and doing very well. It is the result of prayers, grace and support from so many family members, family, and medical pros. I am forever grateful that God who in His grace put all of these wonderful people in my life.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 73:26

Autumn Moon

by Tom Dunn
Vine branch in autumn. Photo credit: Pixabay.com


Hello, friends. I’m taking this opportunity to reconnect with you after a long bout of writers block. I hope that things in your life are moving ahead well for the most part. This post covers a few items that have been on my mind. I hope you don’t get mental whiplash reading it. 

When I last wrote in April, I was finishing another round of CAR T-Cell treatment in Los Angeles. That has turned out great and my scans look clear. This type of treatment is likely to become the standard of care for the type of lymphoma I had, as well as other cancers where CAR T-cell research is underway, like leukemia and myeloma. This gives me hope that more people will suffer less and live longer thanks to the work being done at UCLA and at hospitals and universities across the country.

My favorite season, autumn, arrived with little fanfare as temperatures remained in the nineties for much of October. November cooled off nicely, perhaps a bit too nicely. The sunshine slanting low in the sky paints the autumn colors with golden light which makes me feel the world is a benevolent place. That feeling comes from yearly anticipation of the holidays I love so well.  

Roslyn and I caught RSV in November and both landed in the hospital for a few days. It was scary and uncomfortable, but we are definitely on the mend now. It will take some weeks before we are fully recovered. I suggest you pay attention if you get cold-like symptoms that don’t go away quickly and aren’t from COVID-19. RSV is spreading this season, so don’t let it sneak up on you or your loved ones. You can read more about RSV at https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html.

Thanksgiving is a favorite time we set aside to contemplate our blessings and the generosity of others, particularly our family and friends. Lord knows I’ve got much to be thankful for! Gratefulness is a core component of happiness, and we should practice and celebrate it whenever possible. Our Thanksgiving meal was outdoors at home this year. The weather was very cooperative. Our family members brought lots of love and good food to share. 

I’ve been watching the Artemis I mission with guarded optimism. Why did it take so long for humans to start going back to the moon? I was in elementary school when the US first landed people on the moon. There was so much excitement and national pride. Now I hear people wonder why we should bother. They say that there are more important things on Earth to spend our resources on. I respectfully disagree. Pure science and exploration is in our blood. It is the raw material that drives advancement in the sciences, in technology, and in social consciousness. 

To that end, I offer the following short poem.

May you and your loved ones be well and happy now and throughout the holiday season. God Bless You All. 

Tom

On Nov. 20, the fifth day of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission, a camera mounted on the tip of one of Orion’s solar array wings captured this footage of the spacecraft and the Moon as it continued to grow nearer to our lunar neighbor. Photo and caption credit: https://images.NASA.gov.

Journey to the Sun

by Thomas A. Dunn

Some are puzzled anyone
Would want to fly up to the sun
Or travel to the moon and Mars
To look back at this world of ours. 

What do they hope to see up there?
Find Ursa Major’s baby bear?
If past the asteroids they flew 
To see a comet’s tail or two?

What riches wait intrepid folk
On rockets flame and soot and smoke?
They ride at speeds that spin their heads
They’re lucky they don’t wind up dead!

When out on Jupiter they find 
No food to eat, no jewels to mine
There’s nothing there but frozen gas
They might as well just fly on past. 

And float celestially abroad
Are we mere dust? No, not to God.

God made the heavens overhead
So we, from humankind’s first bed
Look up, reach up, and learn to fly
With comet angels ‘cross the skies. 

We heed our greatest journey’s call
To find some meaning in it all
So we fly out, not stand and wait
As others snipe or ruminate. 

The dying Sun won’t care if we
All disappear eternally
We must strike out to find new homes
Lest time the human race consumes. 

Springtime in the Garden

by Tom Dunn

Dear friends, greetings from Tiverton House. The weather here has been mild the past couple of weeks since I received my T cell infusion. We’ve been able to get out on walks around the university campus and Westwood Village, wearing our face masks and avoiding close contact with people. This morning the weather was cool, and drizzle was threatening. We walked north across the campus to the sculpture garden where the trees were in full purple bloom, with blossoms strewn over the green grass as the sun peeked out. The scent of the trees filled the air, so strongly that we could smell them through our masks.

UCLA Scupture Garden in springtime

Years ago, I received a young jacaranda tree as a gift, and we planted it in our front yard. I love this tree. We can trim it severely each year, but it grows with exuberance each spring, blanketing our yard with purple and fragrance.

As you may know, Roslyn and I are residing here for the duration of the study’s mandatory 28 days of monitoring for side effects. My luck has been holding, and I’ve had very few side effects. I may be losing some hair, probably from the chemo, but mostly I’ve been blessed with lack of symptoms. I didn’t suffer from the CRS that I did last time around, so I didn’t have to return to the hospital. CRS occurs when cancer cells are killed in large numbers, so we worried that lack of CRS would indicate that the T cells didn’t work this time. My doctor assured me that some patients avoided CRS and still had complete remission of their lymphoma. We will find out or sure when I have my next PET/CT scan.

It’s difficult to be patient here. The hotel is nice, but it’s not home. COVID restrictions are still in place here, especially due to the guests and their various medical vulnerabilities. We miss our family and friends and long to get back to normal life. Our faithful friends often reach out to ask how we are, which is kind of them. I maintain an attitude of gratitude, which is not only appropriate but easy to do given the many blessings that I have received.

I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon. God Bless you all.

Tax Day 2022 Report

by Tom Dunn

Greetings from the hospital. I’m feeling well after receiving my T cells last week. I’ve been hanging out in the hospital waiting for side effects. So far, there haven’t been any.

Since I got here last week I met a lot of the same staff members that helped me 20 months ago. They’re all very kind, skilled, and hard-working. It was nice that many of them remember me, as well. That means a lot.

I’m still expecting to come down with cytokine release syndrome in a day or two, which will be caused by the T cells beginning to kill cancer cells in droves. It may not happen that way this time because my cancer load is less than it was the last time I went through this treatment. I expect to leave the hospital this week to stay nearby to be monitored for a while.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, support, love and kindness shown toward me and my family.

Restart

by Tom Dunn

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Mark Twain

There’s a lot of crazy in the world right now. Continuing pandemic. Ridiculous conspiracy theories. Pointless war. Threats to democracies everywhere, including our own. Avarice and demagoguery. Hypocrisy and ignorance.

Also, though, I see that there is also a lot of love in the world right now. People serving one another, holding each other up. People marrying or having kids. Families growing. People trying to listen better, to understand the world better, and to give voice to our desires for justice and freedom. Churches and other organizations focused on the needs of our community. Decent people doing the right thing most of the time.

Amid this turmoil, I’m starting to write again. Not surprisingly, things have changed with my illness. But before I get into that, let me just say that the last 18 months without having any signs of lymphoma have been a true gift from God. Sure, we had COVID in our lives, and not every day was perfect. However, to be able to live life without worrying about this illness has been something very precious to me and my family. We’ve spent many wonderful days together experiencing beautiful days and rainy days. I’ve enjoyed my friends, my church, and my community.

I had a PET/CT scan in early March that indicated activity in one of my inguinal lymph nodes. I had a biopsy that found Lymphoma cells there. The comprehensive results came in a bit later, showing that several of my lymph nodes are involved. It’s a good thing we caught it early. It hasn’t spread far. As part of the clinical trial protocol, I was getting PET/CT scans every three months. The next scan would have been scheduled for six months out. God knows how far disease might have spread in those six months.

As soon as the results were confirmed, my medical team at UCLA jumped right in planning for the next steps. There is a batch of my own T cells left over from 18 months ago, re-engineered to kill lymphoma. I only received a third of them last time around, and the rest were reserved. These leftovers were frozen and saved. The T cells were recently tested and appear to be viable. That means that if UCLA doctors follow the clinical trial rules (with some minor variations to be approved by the FDA) they can infuse me with these T cells. They’ll be giving me all the T cells left over from last time, about twice as many as before, twelve million of them. That coupled with the fact that I don’t have as many cancer cells in my body yet, this treatment could be more successful than the last one. We will see.

So that’s the nuts and bolts of it. Of course, life is made of more than nuts and bolts. What happens to me affects everyone around me. Fortunately, I have my wonderful wife Roslyn, great friends and a loving family that are ever supportive. I am, truly, the luckiest man on the planet. These people step up to help and keep right on helping.

More information is forthcoming. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. Please reach out if you have questions.

Be well and be happy. God bless you all.

Going to altitude

by Tom Dunn

After recovering from a recent minor illness, my son Ben and I took a drive into the San Bernardino National Forest, climbing east out of Redlands on California Highway 38. The sky was blue and very warm on our faces as we passed through areas familiar from my youth. By the time we reached Barton Flats I had developed a headache and slight nausea despite being behind the wheel, probably remnants of my illness. Deciding it was better not to get sick in my car I turned around, disappointed that we hadn’t reached Big Bear that a day.

San Bernardino Mountain Range viewed from near Angelus Oaks, CA, USA
Looking northwest from CA-38 near Angelus Oaks

A week later I drove with my wife and our good friend up to Wrightwood. Another very warm but beautiful day, we zipped up CA-138 past Mormon Rocks to CA-2 and marveled at the beauty of the forest. On the trip down, though, our friend got sick. She’d had recent issues with rapid altitude changes but thought herself to be over them. Ben was at the house when we returned home. After explaining what happened, he asked “why do you keep trying to go to altitude?” I thought about this question. Why, indeed?

I have spent most of my life in the San Bernardino valley, and it is right and truly home to me. I feel comfortable here in a way I don’t feel anywhere else. As I drive the mountain roads all too infrequently, I remember so many trips with my parents to the campgrounds and picnic areas in and around the national forest. I grew up in a family with not a lot of money. My parents spent their precious time and energy taking us kids out of the house on many pleasant weekend drives to Forest Falls to hike the falls, Pearblossom to buy crates of pears and peaches for canning, and to Big Bear City where my mom’s brother Bob built a small home for his family. The memories sit warmly in special places in my psyche and help shape my opinion of the world as a mostly benevolent place.

When I started driving as a teenager, it wasn’t long before I was driving these same roads. It was on the old Mill Creek road where my uncle Tom taught me to tow a small camping trailer through the tight curves. He trusted me with his car and his trailer, with him riding shotgun, which made me feel validated as a young adult. I received similar trust and support from my parents and my extended family as we went into the forest to cut firewood, or drive the family on vacation, or be trusted to watch over our Mountain Home Village home as a young teen when my family was away. It engendered in me a sense of responsibility that came with the freedom and opportunities that came along.

I and my high school friends, some of whom I’m still friends with five decades later, drove those mountain highways at all times of day and in all sorts of weather. We occasionally earned money putting tire chains on for travelers going up CA-38 in the snow. We trundled along dirt fire roads in our cars, getting out once in a while to check out a particularly deep rut before squeezing the car around it. We used to joke that one should never ride with John in his pickup if there was a shovel in the back or we’d end up needing it to dig the truck out of some precarious position. We never really talked about it at the time, but I know now that we all appreciated the mountains and the joy at these gifts of friendship and beauty we’d been given.

I still live within sight of these glorious mountains. I want to call them “my” mountains but I know better: they in no way belong to me. Long after our lives are done, long after our civilization changes or disappears from the valley, the mountains will stand, the trees will grow, and some things will live here. I am comforted by these thoughts as I drive the roads today. It’s where I can get away and think, sometimes with my wife, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. It was on a solitary trip to Big Bear Lake that I got the emotional call from my mom that my dad had cancer. It was on these roads that my wife and I had long conversations about how we should live our lives and raise our kids. It was on these roads that I as a school kid got carsick but was still excited because the family tent was packed on the roof and we’d be in the forest until late Sunday.

Why do I keep going up the mountain? I’m glad Ben asked me that question, and I took time to think about it. I look forward to showing these mountains to my grandkids. I wonder if they will have a relationship with this land like I do.