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Jennifer Esposito's avatar

I was ASTOUNDED when my local water company finally put a url on my bill to pay it online. This was after 20 years of mailing checks, a scene in my house that usually played out as, "Where is the checkbook?" "Do we still have a checkbook?" "No, you had it last." "Fine. I'll just start a new batch of checks." "Where's the box with the checks?" (Ours come in a box from Harland Clark. Fancy stuff.) "No, that's the box with the checks that are all used up." "I don't know why we're holding on to checks from 2003. Aren't we supposed to shred them or something?" "Where are the envelopes?" "Do we have any envelopes?" "Do we have any stamps?"

I'm convinced they made online payment an option solely because of me. I'd completely forget to pay the thing, like, for months. They only bill twice a year.

The other thing I find interesting is all of this probably means that kids there know how to write a check, which I think is awesome. My kids couldn't write a check if you told them it was the only way they could pay for a Magic The Gathering card they'd been staking out for over a year.

I bet kids there also know how to read and write in script.

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Kristi Keller 🇨🇦's avatar

I am LMAOOOOO at all of this! A lot of it simply does not compute for me and I'm Canadian...a place where we've always been significantly behind American in payment technology. We didn't have Visa logos on our debit cards for YEARS after you guys did and I know this because my ex-husband is American. I've had the same check book for like 18 years. Even our landlords here take e-transfers.

One thing we are significantly ahead of you on is salt and concrete. We must have specialty concrete because we salt it for 8 months a year and none of it has disappeared into a decaying sinkhole yet.

Loved reading this Ash. And your house is friggin beautiful. Everything about it, including the snow.

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