Phones and The Martian

A mundane morning: ran dishwasher, cleaned a bit, conducted supermarket visit.
In the afternoon, Ellen came and hooked up my new phone. However, after listening, she deemed it cheap crap and said she'd see if she still had her Panasonic line (she uses her cell exclusively).
We then went to Oxnard to see The Martian, starring one of my favorites, Matt Damon. Geez, I thought it had a kind of supernatural theme--little green men and so on--but no. Actually, it was future-factual, you might say, and we thought it was very good--a tad long, maybe. The acting was excellent, the story line interesting (although large junks of science and math whizzed by without stopping at my brain), and the special effects spectacular. It may have been just the novelty, as I seldom go to the movies, but I was with Ellen and the popcorn was loaded with butter, so what could be better?
After, we stopped in to see Greg at Whole Foods and had a nice chat. I was pleased when he suggested we go to dinner again.
El and I then went to her place to get her phone equipment. We sat and talked a bit about the differences in education from the time I was in school and when she was, and today. She's a teacher and enlightened me about present-day third grade. What a pleasure to discuss something other than what was on last night with somebody with a brain! I always enjoy hearing about her experiences.
El found the phone (with three handsets) in the garage and came back to my place to hook it up. The sound is better then before and I'll even get my money back for the one I bought. I just have to figure out how to change the message, which still has Ellen's recording on it.
Didn't say goodbye to El until well after 9:00. I then went on line and looked up "Rent4LA," which theoretically includes rent listings all over southern Cal, and put in my credit card info for $39.00, thinking it was worth it if they found some good leads.
Nope. After signing up, I specified "Ventura only" and "no dogs" and in the first six possibles, I got Rodondo Beach and "pets welcome." In the chat section, I said I wanted to withdraw and was told I had to send an e-mail to an address. Did so, and hoped that sufficed. I then sat down to my wine with Dateline (mid-western school superintendent murdered by husband of one-night stand lady) when the phone rang. It was a recording from Rent4LA, saying my credit card wouldn't be charged. Okay, I won that one, anyway.
Homesomever (my mother used to say that in a droll way), this morning I had a e-mail from that outfit, saying "no further charges" would be added to my card. I don't like that word "further" and will call them right now to be sure the initial charge is rescinded.