Mercury in Retrograde

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I hired an experienced ex-soldier to attack my business competition. He was killed when he dropped a live grenade in blacked-out SUV he was driving.

Effin merc!

[Drunk Monk]

Today has been a slice.

Took my mom to the dentist. She needs a ton of work (I don't really trust her dentist but there's not much I can do about that). I've got a tight schedule for November so I'm not sure when I can take her in for all this. 

There was also a situation that needed handling with YMAA. I'm debating if I'll make it out to Tiger Claw today. Kinda got swamped by the morning.

[Drunk Monk]

The last day of this retrograde but sometimes it takes a bit to fully escape it - tomorrow may be the onset of Civil War. I stocked up on some food and liquor and TP. Maybe I'll binge some vids. 

Had some weird scheduling conflict issues this morning - that's been happening all week. Par for the course, as they say. 

This is the last MerNRet for 2020. Below are the ones for 2021.

• January 30 to February 21
  
  
• May 29 to June 22
  
  
• September 27 to October 23
  

[Greg]

Haha! You think there is going to be a 2021! Oh, sweet summer child.

[Drunk Monk]

Fair

We’ll be lucky to get a December at this rate.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Mercury in Tardigrade. Mercury in Centigrade.

[Drunk Monk]

Things have been weirdly squirrelly lately so I checked. Sure enough, we're right in the middle of merc-n-ret - the first one of 2021. Started on 1/30 and goes until 2/21.

There's not much I can point to outright, just lots of niggling bits going wrong. For example, my wifi connection has been been so sketchy lately. I had been blaming the rain but it's clear today. And KFM was working to get its Year of the Ox horoscopes up. Every year, we miss something. Usually, TC drops the ball with the new T-shirt designs. We get them prepped long ahead of time so we can get them available for our print ads (not a problem anymore). This year, it was all set to launch yesterday. They even got the shirts ready. And then the day before launch, our KFM admin locks us out with the landing page half rebuilt. We finagled a work around this morning but there you have it.

[Drunk Monk]

My Surface Pro does these updates where it drops me out of all my socials and I have to re-log in as well as re-establish my programs. It's like it doesn't rouse from sleeping sometimes. Of course, that would happen today for my monthly review for YMAA. And don't even get me started on all of the issues I've been having trying to set up Stacy's birthday celebration this month. 

I'm really curious to see how my mom's covid shot goes in the next hour.

[Greg]

Good luck! We're all counting on you.

[Drunk Monk]

Having lots of puter probs. Lots of reboots lately. The wifi is super slow, so much so that I was going to post on the 4:20 thread but couldn't get it to load in time and now it's too late. Sometimes that's due to the rain, as it just started raining while Yuki & I were at the dog park. And sometimes...it's feckin merc-in-ret.

[Drunk Monk]

Beyond the suicide of my friend's bf (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...9#pid45039), Tara just texted me that the younger sister of one of her High School classmates just ODed. 

That is a remarkable family. They own one of the local farms and are affluent (the father collects cars and they live in a luxurious mansion on prime property. The mom lost both legs years ago in a DUI accident (she was sober and hit by a drunk). She gets along well on prosthetics. They have 4 daughters, and the one that died had been having psych problems for some time. They had put her in programs and treatment, surely expensive ones (the private school families were mostly far more blue blooded than us - we got in with financial aid). The dad sings in choir and we've seen him perform several times with our local symphony. They are a great family - very grounded and open despite being upper class - and always opened their home to us. We have nothing but fondness for them and are heartbroken to hear this tragedy has struck.

Tara is very close to their daughter (not the one who died). She had aspired to study marine biology and got into a good school in FL, but they were evacuated due to flooding and then she ran into issues with school and a bf, so she dropped out and returned home. She's been living in an RV on her parents property (possibly nicer than our bungalow) and took a job at Glow - a candlemaking store on the mall that went belly-up due to covid. She was planning to accompany Stacy and Tara on a trip to Orr hot springs in a few weeks during Tara's spring break. 

We don't know any details about her sister's death. She was in her late teens and had recently fallen in with a bad crowd from Watsonville after several fail rehab programs. She was grappling with depression and alcoholism.

[Drunk Monk]

T's friend's sister was found at their home by her youngest sister. Their father attempted CPR but she was already gone. T's friend has been posting to a closed group of her former classmates. Tara has reached out but it's still too early. Tara and Stacy were planning a getaway to Orr Hot Springs and T's friend was invited. We sincerely hope she can come. (I'll be at home with Yuki). 

On another less tragic, just annoying note, my feckin car key's remote function stopped working just now. This happened about a week ago and I replaced the battery and it was fine. No idea why it went out again.

[Greg]

Blech.

[Drunk Monk]

After 3 deaths, the two aforementioned and one other - http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=6119 (Dm's week of death) plus tQ's loss, we're out of this round. 

We'll meet back here in late May.

On another less tragic, just annoying note, my feckin car key's remote function stopped working just now. This happened about a week ago and I replaced the battery and it was fine. No idea why it went out again.

FYI, my remote car key is working again. It has been since last weekend. 

Also sometimes it takes an extra day or two to recover from merc-in-ret. My blood draw on the Monday following neglected to get my A1C, the main thing I wanted to know (everything else looks good - cholesterol lowered, only my albumin is a tad high). So I need to go back this week for another draw.

[King Bob]

Saw a really funny sketch about Mercury in Retrograde on The Baroness Von Sketch Show.