Scene from the Coffee Shop

My favorite hometown coffee shop hosts a number of interesting people with their stories. This January had some of my regulars hanging out at their regular times.

The minister with his community leadership connections was deep in production with his calender and his ears plugged into his music.

My first boss in Merced was there too. We often talk fly fishing and sometimes watercolor painting. He comes to read his book and drink a cup of coffee.  He displays half of the paintings on the wall at this Starbucks on display. My watercolor mentor, although I do not ever see her there, hangs out with her representative and massive "pour" collection paintings with other half of the wall space. Both allow their paintings to be purchased. They are not prints, they are the originals.

My handyman contractor stopped by and we talked about his current project. He is working on rebuilding a fence nearby. He left his able assistant to dig the holes while he went to get coffee and stay out his way. Its good chit chat and we all bemoan the forty niner's loss in the championship game on Sunday.

The coffee shop fills up early with students and students with their parents headed for school. The junior high/middle school is nearby. Nurses off shift from the hospital stop by and nurse and medical students assistant students stop by on their way to class or to study in groups for and up coming exam. Students from the UC are their to drink some coffee and use the internet wifi connection establish themselves at tables close to AC power plugs on the perimeter. They usually spread out and stay longer then most other customers.

Today I was sitting in the upholstered chair by the window. I grabbed a section or three of a discarded New York Times and Wall Street Journal sections. There was a pretty interesting article on the Target credit card fraud. The article lined up the scenario timeline of the events and the reaction of Target to the knowledge that became available. Apparently the cards owners pin numbers and names and addresses were captured on Point of Sale (cash registers) and stored with infected servers at each site. When requested the servers would yield their info and the result could be sold to nefarious wholesalers that would make new cards or use the info for data transfer money exchanges. It came to light as a couple from the US who shopped at Target were suddenly buying 1200+ dollar airfare tickets for people in Africa to travel within their continent. This occurred with massive numbers of people during the holiday season that started on Black Friday after Thanksgiving and continued with Target customers into the Christmas season. What really drew the red flag was the bragging on some of the outside channels that deal with stolen credit card number of the numbers and the sales that they had accomplished. Investigation proved that the issue was pretty widespread.

There is always a good chance to have a conversation and a good read at my local Starbucks.

: ) Pat