What's This New Payment Technology All About?

The rain began before Christmas in Los Angeles and it seemed as if it would never end. On the east coast, my mother has had to deal with snow and freezing temperatures. It's a tale of two coasts and one that brings back many memories for me with her. There was a time when I enjoyed snow - during the Blizzard of '78, our street was impossible to navigate. We spent hours, or was it days, digging out a path to get to the grocery store. Our crazy dog loved it, disappearing in a snowbank and then reappearing seconds later to only do it again. Once the path was clear, she and I walked to the grocery store, my hand gripped firmly in hers, her head ensconced by one of her many kerchiefs and me bundled in my snow attire and walking like the Michelin tire man. As we walked around the streets of Paris last year, I thought how nice it was to still be able to walk with your mom's arm in yours, only better attired. Once at that blizzard ravaged Foodmaster, the pickings were few - not even a loaf of Wonder Bread on the shelves. There was no mail delivery for days. I never did get my last issue of Marvel Comics' Tarzan.

But today, though the cold remains, the sky in California has, at least temporarily, stopped spitting while the storms in Boston, however, seem never ending. And, today, a bright reminder of summer - I got charged the deposit for our Florence B&B. Rosemarie and I have started a travel fund so I called her this afternoon to let her know I would need to access some of it to pay my credit card. She was going to write a check, but I dismissed that right away. Snow or no snow, there was no need for the postal service now.

"We'll just pay it online," I announced having her give me her banking information. "The money will come out of the account next week."

"What do I with this check, then?" she asked.

"You can write one to anyone you like, the money will come out automatically now. Don't you pay your bills online?"

"No, no, I write them all checks. I can still use this one?" she asked, looking at her checkbook as I knew she was doing.

"Of course, I didn't use that check number, silly, just the banking information." There was a silence as she processed this new fangled payment technology. "But if you feel the need to still write a check, then any amount to me will do."