Ok. I’m usually relatively paranoid about my financial stuff, because if I don’t watch it like a hawk, checks start to bounce. Having DH and me using the same account to pay everything (like the mortgage and food) means that if one of us isn’t paying attention, the other one draws the account down to zero.

So, I’ve been religious about using the download feature I get with USAA. Until about Tuesday, that is, when I started getting an error that the software couldn’t verify the financial institution. WTF?!?

I just got off the phone with their tech support, and I’ve got this nasty, paranoid feeling that everyone is in cahoots with everyone else, and they’re all conspiring against us.

“As of April 25, we no longer support anything older than Quicken 2004. That means we don’t support downloaded data or any of the other automated features of the site.”

How nice for Intuit.

So, when I’m done venting, I’m off to the nearest store to purchase the most recent version. Yeah, I know I could download it off the site. I just don’t feel like dealing with the problem if I need to reinstall the software later. I’d rather have the disk. Call me old fashioned.

Oh, and while I’m out I can go buy some more gas for the car. Which leads to the second rant of the day.

See this article on CNN: Bush takes aim at rising gasoline prices and then tell me that this isn’t the Oil Companies (en masse) holding out for complete deregulation of the oil fields throughout our continent. Fun stuff. Just blackmail the American public until we’re forced to turn over the Alaskan territories, and forget all about those nasty EPA regulations that are supposed to reduce greenhouse gasses, because, like, we all know that Global Warming is just a myth, and besides, we’re just treading water here until the Rapture anyway, so why keep the earth nice?

Feh.