Temps not much higher than 10 degrees F. this afternoon, but not only that, wind gusts to drive home the point that it’s early January, with relief a long time coming. This is the back yard wind chime, moving and clattering.

Clattering because it’s a wooden wind chime, which I acquired as an omiyagi, a gift-souvenir from a trip for someone at home, in San Diego way back in 1999. It is intensely weathered, and the strings holding the chimes have broken and been replaced more than I can count. In fact, a fourth clime needs to be rehung even now, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

The new year isn’t very far along, but the bots are back to annoying me. I have in my possession a gift card — it was gift — from a major retailer. I went online to check the balance. I’m absolutely sure I put in the numbers correctly (but whited out in my screen grab), and I get this.

Scopes don’t match. What the hell does that mean? Was any human being involved at any point in determining that that would be a response to a customer? If so, was it a software engineer who didn’t give a moment’s thought to the fact that no one but software engineers know that term? Or is it random term never originated by the mind of a human?

In logic, I have read, a “scope” is “the range of a logical operator: a string in predicate calculus that is governed by a quantifier,” which really doesn’t clear up things.

That was all the time I needed to spend thinking about this nonsense. I called the 800 number and found out the balance without further ado.