CHANGING PASSWORDS, AND WHY I LOVE ROBOFORM

Finally, I did something else that should be done regularly - but I rarely do it. I changed passwords on my most important online accounts: Google, Yahoo, and our three bank accounts. Roboform, which I have raved about before, made this easy by generating and saving new, hard-to-hack, passwords.

I know there are free software packages to help manage logins/passwords, but I have never investigated them nor regretted the money we spent on Roboform. It saves, for one click retrieval (eliminating the possibility of keystroke logging by spyware), all of our logins/passwords, the secret security questions/answers I would never remember otherwise… even our address and credit card information for automatic, password protected, one-click completion of billing and shipping information when ordering online. How did we ever live without it?? I backup our Roboform files weekly, too.

It would be a huge hassle if we lost our laptop, or an online account was hacked, but I feel like I've done everything I can to lessen the likelihood and the impact. If this can give any of you a nudge in the same direction, go for it!

AN "ADMINISTRATIVE" DAY AND A JOB COMPLETED

We knew colder weather was on the way, so spent the past couple of days on the trails. On Wednesday, we headed back up to St. Elmo, a "ghost town" of privately owned historic buildings used as summer homes that marks the eastern end of a very popular 4-wheeling trail over a high pass. Unlike most visitors, we came to hike. The Poplar Gulch trail starts above 10,000 feet and climbs just over 1,200 feet in 2.2 miles.

Though it was pretty, I've been spoiled by spectacular. A rocky, steep switchback up an aspen-covered mountainside ended at a small meadow surrounded by high peaks and trees - no breathtaking alpine lakes, no 360 degree views of 14,000 ft. peaks... just lunch and a walk back down. Not a hike to revisit.

I took this photo the next day, on an easy, gently undulating hike along the Twin Lakes to Inter-Laken, the semi-restored remains of a lakeside resort popular during the late 1800's and early 1900's. The hike was scenic and relaxing, the buildings and history interesting... I loved it.

As we expected, we awoke to low clouds and cold this morning. We spent the first couple of hours on trip-planning, researching routes and campgrounds in northern New Mexico for our travels next month. Menu planning and a trip to the grocery store was next, and we had two packages of mail to sort through, deal with, and file. All pretty standard stuff, except for one task...

See this purposely blurred photo? It is an 8 1/2 x 11 inch page, a long list of websites, login names and their passwords, even social security numbers... the EXACT kind of information you are warned NEVER to write down, let alone write down in one place. Not only did I have a printed list, it also existed in a file on our laptop - and on our external backup disk. A total and complete NO-NO, but my memory is insufficient to store this crucial information - and I am sure I am not different from many of you.

A Boomer friend (thanks, Bob) recently recommended RoboForm, software that keeps track of all that stuff for you, protected by just one password. When he described what it can do, and told me about the 30 day free trial, I went to the RoboForm website and downloaded the software.

I played with it a little at a time and found it to be just what I needed to eliminate my written notes. After the 30 day trial period, you can choose to pay for the program, or to continue to use a mini-version (I think you can save up to 10 login/password combinations). I paid, and over the past couple weeks I have transfered all the logins/passwords, our credit cards information, social security numbers, answers to "security questions"... all that sensitive stuff you need for online banking, purchasing, prescription ordering - it is all there on my computer, protected by one (strong but memorable) password.

Today I got to delete the old file from our computer and from our backup disk, and tomorrow I'll shred the old list. YAY!

If any of you are in the same boat, I recommend Roboform. Once you work through the learning curve and complete the set up, it fills in logins/passwords automatically, can fill in your mailing address, credit card information... no more consulting the list of logins, no more getting your credit card out of you wallet to type the number or look up the security code. It can generate random passwords for you, save miscellaneous bits of sensitive information in "safe notes" and more. Great software.

HEAVY WEATHER: PREPARING FOR A TORNADO

We’ve had our share of bad weather this spring, but reading Outside Our Bubble’s post describing their recent brush with a tornado (on the same night we had severe weather in Ohio) reminded me of our first similar event, during our first year of travel.  Hearing the tornado siren gets your attention! 

On June 24, 2003, three months into our new lives as full time RV’ers, Odel and I camped at the fairgrounds in Sioux Falls, SD.  That day came to be known in South Dakota as “Tornado Tuesday”, when 67 tornadoes were reported in southeastern and central South Dakota, tying what was at that time the record for the most tornado touchdowns in a single day for one state (which has since been surpassed, in Kansas).  We heard tornado sirens 3 times, and went to the shelter 4 times that night.  For Californians, it was a shocking eye opener about the true meaning of “heavy weather”!

Over the years, we have developed a plan for dealing with heavy weather.  Here is what we do – and have – for those infrequent, scary times when weather threatens us.

First, when checking into our campground, we ask where we should shelter in the case of bad weather.  Once we set up, we check this building out and make sure we know how we would get there.

Next, we check a map to find out which county we’re in, and the names of surrounding counties.  Weather watches and warnings are given by county, so we need to know the name of ours – and we feel more comfortable if we know those around us, too.

We make sure our NOAA weather radio is receiving a signal and stocked with fresh batteries (ours runs on both 110 v and battery power).  I tune it to the local channel (ours tunes automatically when I push a button).  The blaring is an annoyance, but it will awaken us from a sound sleep, giving the warning we need if a tornado is on the way (it also alerts us while we are on the road).

I raise the TV antenna and find whatever local stations are available.  Satellite TV won’t help much with local weather conditions, especially once we lose the satellite signal as heavy storms develop! 

If a tornado watch is issued (meaning conditions are favorable for possible tornadoes), we prepare our “tornado bag”.  In this bag, we want the minimum amount of weight and bulk with the maximum ability to help us put our life back together if we step out of the shelter and find Scoopy demolished:

* Money, credit cards, and ID’s.

* Computer information, including all of our important logins/passwords.  These are saved on a password protected flash drive that we can plug into any computer, should ours be damaged or lost (another plug here for Roboform and Roboform2Go, the programs we use to manage our passwords and personal information).

*  A small, old-fashioned AM/FM, AA powered transistor radio – if a tornado comes though, this might be the easiest (or only way to get information.

* An AA powered flashlight.

* Cell phones chargers, both 110 v and 12 v., and cell phones - either in the bag or our pockets.

* Important prescription drugs.

* One laptop – the one with the longest battery life – and a power cord.  I also backup both computers to a small, lightweight external hard drive which goes into the bag.

* A couple of energy bars and a bottle of water.

* Extra AA batteries.

* UPDATE:  Oops, one thing I forgot to mention when I originally posted this – insurance cards, both for our health insurance (in our wallets) and for our rig (our Jeep is insured with the same company)!  Be sure you have the number for your insurer on the insurance card/information.

This fits in 2 bags, one for each of us, and they go on the seat by the door.

If the weather at night seems okay, we put the bags by the door, put sturdy shoes and another flashlight nearby, and go to sleep (if we can) in comfortable clothes.  If the NOAA radio awakens us with a tornado warning, we can flip on the TV to a local station while we put on our shoes. 

If the weather is too iffy, we don’t go to bed, but stay awake monitoring the local TV reports and radar on the computer.  If lightening is striking in the area, we sometimes unplug and roll up our power cord so a nearby strike won’t fry our appliances (we should do this all the time, but tend not to if rain is already pouring down).  We DON’T have the computers plugged in during lightening storms – we run off the computer batteries.  In heavy winds, we retract the large, more vulnerable, front slide, and have all the awnings stowed.

By watching local TV and the internet, we’ve been able to stay “home” while tornados passed within a couple of miles… but with clothes and shoes on and our emergency bags ready to go should we need to evacuate, which we HAVE done several times.  Grab the bags, grab the NOAA radio, and off to the shelter.

IF the worst happens, we want to come out alive and uninjured, with those things that will help us get back to "normal": our cell phones and the ability to charge them, a radio to hear the news, money, and access to the internet.

The more we travel in tornado country, the more we realize that our chances of being injured by a tornado are very slim – and we work to keep them that way.  Still, my adrenaline runs very high when the weather radio names “towns in the path” of a possible or suspected tornado and we hear a name we recognize!