01:23 - 19.11.06
Thursday
Mercury retrograde took one last shot at me on Thursday, dear diary. Arrived home and tried to log in to my computer. All sorts of error and "failure to connect" messages. I wasn't feeling very well and hadn't the brain power to fight with the beast at that point. My youngest called tech support after spending a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot from our end. No success. The tech on the other end of the line stated that all the routers the same as mine had been found to be defective and they - every single router - had all crashed on the very same day. Yeah, uh huh. My son, being tech support himself, wasn't buying nor was I. Even if those routers were defective, the likelihood of them all failing on the very same day is probably much less than being struck by lightning or winning the lottery. We wondered what tinkering on the company's end had made a disconnect with that particular router model. The router commonly used for things like debit cards and bank machines. My son said that the fear in the tech's voice, as he contemplated the calls from businesses next morning, was palpable.
The reason I wasn't feeling well was that fierce storm that blew in from the left coast. One woman interviewed in front of the tree that had crashed through her house said that she was from the city of Lethbridge. That city is known for it's gale force winds blowing through on a regular basis. She and her family had been hiding out in their basement. They said that it sounded as though a freight train was about to pass through their living room. She said that she was really frightened by the wind storm, even before it blew down the tree. The upshot was that I had a weather migraine supreme. My granddaughter was teething, so fortunately that meant we both needed more rest than usual. When I heard her wake in the nursery after her first nap, I stood up and found my face covered with blood. The air pressure was so intense that it had triggered a nosebleed as soon as I tried to sit up.
To make things worse my granddaughter had a very, umm full, diaper. It was so uncomfortable that it woke her up before her normal time. She wanted it changed immediately, thank you very much. I didn't blame her for that, but I couldn't look down for the amount of blood that was pouring out of my nose. I think I used as many steriwipes to mop up my mess as I did to mop up her sore little bottom. I finally managed to get a clean diaper fixed in place, as well as give her a clean change of clothes. Just as that process was done, it felt as though all the blood in my head started to stream out my nose. At one point there was that soapy taste that happened when I had been stung by a bee a couple of months earlier. I wondered if a pocket of venom had been left after and was dislodged by the force of the flow. I was afraid that I was going to pass out, so I used the reclining chair in the den to hold her while I gave her her bottle then laid her one the floor with her toys and the childrens' tv shows for company, while I crawled on the couch trying to regain control. It took about an hour before I felt safe enough to stand again. It wasn't just the nosebleed that was an issue by then, but also the loss of blood. It's been decades since I had one that fierce. There was breakthrough bleeding throughout the day, so it was a good thing that both of us were not feeling like doing more than cuddling I guess. Coming home to the computer breakdown just made me want to crawl into a hole somewhere until the headaches and all was over. What frustrated me even more was that the one staff memeber had finally sent his spreadsheet back to me and I wanted to send it off to Ottawa so that all the work was complete on my assignments. Just not in the cards I guess.
Three of my sons had called, so I talked with them instead while my youngest laboured away on the computer. Number one son was just talking about arrangements for this weekend. If he has the energy, he wants to come and do some work on the repairs my home needs. Quite honestly with the Grey Cup being played tomorrow - the Canadian Superbowl - I think maybe it isn't likely, but one never knows.
Number Three son called just to check in. He's being working straight through weekends on his new tech job so hasn't had time to do much but eat and sleep in between. His buddy has joined the army so he was a bit concerned about that. He thought he might take some time in January to go visit him in Vancouver before he is sent off for training. He also explained that number five son - whom he lives with - hasn't been in touch because he has a new girlfriend in addition to his six day a week job at the restaurant. No time for anything other than those two obsessions, I guess.
Number four son called as well with stories of their Mexican cruise. The fierce storm off the west coast meant their return flight had to turn back to Los Angeles midway home, because one of the engines was failing. Their pilot stated that under normal circumstances it wouldn't be a real concern, but the strength of those winds was too great to risk. My son had wondered why the airplane hadn't been rerouted to one of the airports in the northwest part of the US or to Vancouver. I explained what had been reported for those areas and that calmed him down a bit. They hadn't arrive home until 3 in the am instead of the scheduled early evening of the night before. He missed part of the day's work as a result, but I pointed out that losing part of a wage was better than being in a crash. They had also lost their camera with all their photos while switching to a viable airplane for the return trip home, so that added to his angst I think. He said they had enjoyed most of their trip - especially the food. There was a gym on board, so he didn't miss out on his daily workouts either. He liked three of the four ports the ship visited and allowed that the reason he hadn't enjoyed Acapulco was that the family had insisted on visiting the old market where he and his wife felt that their son was at risk because of the filth and the rough characters that they perceived populated the area. Hard to say how bad it was since I wasn't present. He did enjoy the cliff divers although, even for my very macho son, he felt that the divers were overboard with their show of machismo. He allowed that maybe that attitude was necessary for their profession, though. He also didn't like the airport security measures, but again there was little that could be done about that. At least they arrived home safely.
I wnet to bed and had very odd dreams about an interview/audition that I was called to attend. There seemed to be one male there who was determined to ambush me with a verbally abusive barrage of rant and cant. It seemed to be along the lines of "who do you think you are" and "how dare you try out for this production". The other panelists/interviewers sat mute and cowed through the entire event. I found myself responding quietly, but rahter firmly with a series of one liners that were quite funny, actually. I was actually quite impertinent and seemed to be enjoying the verbal sparring. The loud mouth finally blew a gasket and tromped off when he found he couldn't intimidate me nor out-debate me. I seemed to have gone to the interview with the attitude of not really caring about the outcome. My goal had been - as far as I could make it out - to learn how to get through an audition. I'm not certain if I actually got that chance because the cats woke me up before I could address the rest of that panel. Strange. Time for dreams again though. Good night dear diary.
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