03:15 - 27.06.07
Rx
Maybe what the cats foresaw when they headed for the center of the house the other day was the tornado that touched down just east of here. It took out a barn and a prized mare was electrocuted. I first read about the phenomenon of animals being able to tell when natural disasters were imminent when I read "Last Days of Pompeii" when I was in junior high school. I think I was reading it right around the time of that one earthquake in Alaska on Easter Sunday, where the television showed pictures of the fissure where a car had disappeared with people still inside it. Kind of sticks in one's memory. At that time special effects in movies were pretty tame and nothing compared to contemplating the spot where human life had ended through the violence that can also be Mother Nature. Hmm.
Mr Mercury retrograde seemed to follow me around the whole of the day. It didn't matter what I set out to do, things just fell apart in my hands or did very odd and unusual tricks instead. For starters I hadn't gone to bed until about 5 in the am - and yes, I know better. Got up at 7:30 to roust my youngest out of bed to prepare for his workday. Oops. He was on a different shift and told me he could sleep in for an hour longer. Got him up again after an hour and was told his shift was pushed back another hour. Oi. Got him up the third time and realized a patching up job was needed for his work pants. The cats obviously thought that I was playing with them. They knocked over the spool, chased it off the table, then down the length of the living room. Quite insulted they were when I took it away from them. How could I be so mean. Then as I was stitching they decided to bat at the thread with their paws. Cute, but time was running out for me to get the sewing done. Being distracted, I found that I had an extra loop of thread that needed to be drawn out and resewn - unless of course one wanted the zipper to get jammed. Mel kept trying to climb on my lap so he could watch the procedure close up. He snorted and sulked when I tipped him off my lap. I couldn't see what I was doing with his head in between my eyes and the needle, and I was afraid I was going to stitch him to the pants as well. Got it done just as my youngest emerged from his preparations.
I thought I could sneak in a quick catnap at that point, but the phone started ringing. since I was hoping for some call backs on the resumes I had sent out, I answered rather than letting the voicemail kick in. A call from sales people and then the first weird call. A very nice fellow from a farm machinery shop calling for Fred. No one here by that name. Turned out he was calling long distance from one of the small towns due south of our city. He rapped off the number he had dialed that wasn't even close to mine. He hung up then, but called back a few minutes later. He insisted he had dialed the number very carefully, but there was no correlation between that number and mine. His co-worker in the background was howling with laughter at that point.
Another call from a different salesman, then my youngest called. He has been having difficulty with his pc. Could I go find the serial number from a particular part that has been a constant problem. Ventured down into his room. The beast was in pieces all over his bed. He couldn't recall exactly where the correct sticker was. I don't know about you dear diary, but I think that computer assemblers have sticker fetishes. They were all over the place. As I was talking with my son trying to figure out which one was the correct one, the sound on the phone went all abuzz and then went dead. I finished hunting for that elusive sticker and then tried to call my son back.
First no dial tone at all. What's up with that? Then a very odd sound that was hard to describe on the next few attempts at dialing out. Now what? Finally got through to him about fifteen minutes after being cut off. In the interim, he had called our line first and got a recorded message saying the phone had been disconnected. Then he called the phone company's service department trying to get them to fix it. No can do - they couldn't talk with him because of confidentiality issues. So who are they supposed to talk with if my phone isn't working?? When I finally could get through to my son, the sound was still very odd and it would sometimes fade out completely as we talked. I passed on the serial number I had found for his pc and then asked for the number he had called so I could try and get an answer out of the company. At that point I admit a slight amount of hysteria. I had wondered if something was wrong with my phone already, because there had been no call backs on my resume although I had at least one e-mail confirming I would be receiving a call. I hate those lines where everything is automated. The automated voice kept saying that it couldn't hear my responses to their queries. Well yes, I was calling because of that you see. Finally found a human - Donna - who was willing to help me out. Another fifteen minutes gone. She took down all the details and told me the next available appointment for a technician to visit was two days from now. One of those sit there waiting from 8 in the am until 5 in the pm deals. Sigh. She next checked to see if the disconnect was because of an unpaid bill. It sounded as though someone was prompting that question from her end of the line. I had made that payment nearly a week ago and had the confirmation code sitting in front of me as we spoke. I was starting to get paranoid at that point. Does Mr Mercury not understand that I need to get a job so I can pay my bills? The upside was that the phone started to work properly while I was speaking with her. It was also apparent that there was a tech working on the line as we spoke. There went another half hour, but things seem to work fine after that.
Next up went downstairs to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer. Should have known eh? The hose had come loose from the barrel. At that point I was afraid to even try to fix it. At least the dryer still worked though. Went upstairs and started rewriting my resume. Two different jobs that both required a total revamp of that document, each different from the other. Another couple of hours gone before I could send those off. Whew. At least the computer didn't crash as I was working. And so the day went. It could just be that with no sleep in the last 24 hours that I was too disoriented to function, but I need to see some progress somewhere. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Guess I should try to get some sleep now so I can start all over again tomorrow. Good night dear diary.
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