So it's all good to upvote you, your articles or comments. I wasn't quite sure but it didn't matter originally...it was that grumpy old man thing...lol.
That's really cool you get to spend the first day with your daughter at school. That's pretty unusual.
I can't help you on the buying process. I bought some steem with SBD once and that went rather quickly, never did it with fiat. I would't be to angry with the bank, there are still quite a few ways people have been scamming with bitcoin, now that they are aware it's something you plan on doing and not a transaction out of the ordinary they shouldn't give you such a hard time.
I hear ya, and yes I had rewards turned off for a while, I was trying to find out who my real friends were on here, who would stick by me no matter what I say, and I found out. I used to own my own business and it is a similar concept to what I did here, I would pretend my company was in trouble, to find out who were the real people I could trust, not just the "yes men" :-)
I had my own business once, I think my biggest mistake was being to soft heart-ed. I should have charged twice the amount.
Eh my friend, take it as a lesson learnt, and you know - there is nothing stopping you from doing it again, and with hindsight added, there is no better thing than hindsight, to enrich ones future.