Crirtter#2, thank you for your response. This wasn't because I forgot my username or password - I logged in like normal.
I don't find the other option palatable either - where they then take my social security and birthdate and then scrap information "from publicly available sources to verify your identity"? I'm not comfortable with that either. And then forget to properly link help pages? I take my security and privacy much more seriously than they do.
