Mercury in Retrograde

[Drunk Monk]

My mom's dental appt was shifted from 1:30 to 11 today. They called me right after my interview with the Writer's Block (some podcast that I'll be on soon) wondering what happened. I know I didn't book this time because of the interview. They did send a confirmation text and the time was updated, but I didn't notice because it was just a confirmation text and I didn't read it carefully. There was no notification of a time change, not even an ask. They were apologetic and now we're rescheduled for tomorrow. Man, I can't wait until these dental tribulations are done. I was hoping this would be the last one. 

I also saw my drunken surfer neighbor. His gf moved out - she was my source of fresh organic eggs because they kept 30 chickens. Talk about local. I said 'hi' to him but was in a rush so we didn't chat. He's actually a really nice dude, it's just that he has a serious drinking problem.

[Greg]

Are we still dealing with Mercury in Retrograde? Because if we aren't we should be.

This story could also be cross referenced in Doom Dogs.

So, Maeve. The problem girl. Who sleeps like the dead all day. Come night time and the lights go off, she starts crying. You know the story. But last night she seemed to settle. She was in an unusual spot on the bed, tucked up against my legs. It made me so warm I had to get out from under the covers. But the key was she was going to sleep silently.

Until the fading smoking alarm decided it needed to send out an extended chirp. Maeve went mental. She jumped off the bed. She cried and whimpered as she went from one side of the bed to the other, trying to get either the Queen or I to soothe her. But she wouldn't be soothed. The Queen brought her back on the bed to hug and pet her which worked all the way up until the point the smoke alarm chirped again. To be clear, it wasn't just the usual chirp. It lasted a good half second. Maeve lost it again. She arose and circled the bed. I knew at the point, I would have to fix the alarm.

The usual culprit was the CO2 monitor in the hallway. I got the small stepladder from tQ's office and pulled the monitor off the wall. I hit the test button which sent out a chirp which caused news levels of anxiety in Maeve. But it wasn't the problem. The chirp was wrong and the screen said the batteries were good.

To be clear, my smoke detectors are hard wired to the house current. Batteries are only in there for backup. However, Smoke Detectors in CA are limited to a ten year life span and must be replaced at that time. My hypotheses is that the manufacturers make the alarms sound after ten years so you know to replace them. The Lair is older than ten years so all the smoke alarms are giving up. I know because I have removed most of them (Dangerous, I know. I need to replace them but they have a weird connector that I have yet to find and I don't want to have to rewire all the connectors) Since most of them are gone, it should be easy to find the offending one.

Except, Maeve circles my legs crying just loud enough to drown out the chirp. I need her to quiet so I can hear it. But she can hear the chirp and when it sounds Maeve's anxiety gets reenergized. It's vicious circle. I extremely glad that the I eliminate the living room alarm from the list of suspects. I don't think I have a ladder that reaches that high. But I realize that the offended isn't in the house but it is in the attic. The ladder I have in the attached garage can get me to the spot where I can raise the lid in the ceiling but still too low for me to access the attic. I have to go outside to the studio where the big ladders live. I have to get dressed and get my shoes on for that trip. I also have to keep the cats from leaving the studio where they are locked in for the night to avoid become part of the coyote diet. I accomplish all this amidst much grumbling.

I get up into the attic for the third time since I moved to the Lair. It's nice up there. There are lights. The blown insulation always falls on me whenever I open the hatch. And yes, it's the middle of the night, I'm in the attic and I'm removing a smoke detector.

Maeve has had enough of these shenanigans and is hiding in the back yard.

[Drunk Monk]

Merc comes out of retro tomorrow…

[Greg]

Not soon enough.

[Drunk Monk]

Right? 

Our landlord installed these 10 year fire alarms. They started going off randomly. And the off switch didn’t work. We disarmed them all, as did our fellow neighbors (we could hear them going off in the other units because they went off in the middle of the night when it was quiet).

[King Bob]

We had to install three of the 10 year alarms (two smoke, one carbon monoxide) in order to pass an electrical inspection when we did the solar, despite the fact that the were all within a ten foot radius. They kept randomly going off, so we got rid of them one by one and now have none. I should put one up but haven't. I thought they were a bit expensive unless you get the wired in ones.

[Drunk Monk]

I think we have only one fire and one c02 now. The fire one tells me when my food is done. 

Had a burnt out lightbulb in my mom's master bedroom. That's no big but typical. 

My mom's dental appointment was another matter. She got all confused about what was happened and had a small fit. It was only a follow up check up. Her biopsy came back negative (thank goodness) and the sore on her tongue is just a small infection because she takes terrible care of her mouth. She got confused between her regular dentist and this dental surgeon, and is convinced that the ibuprofen is giving her diarrhea (both her doc and I think that's unlikely but who knows?) so she's refusing to take any pain relief meds. I should've briefed her better about what was going to happen but I was stressing the big C...

[Drunk Monk]

The high winds triggered an allergy attack. Ouch.

Retro - don’t let the door smack your ass when you leave…

[thatguy]

East Garrison is a new-ish development in between Marina and Ft Ord. 1400 units, the oldest are probably 7 years old now. The developer still hasn't started on some of the last units, but did just break ground on the required affordable housing units. Our place is in the first phase, probably 6 years old tho we've only been here around 3. There are 2 CO/smoke detectors and 4 plain smoke detectors, all wired to the house. When one goes, they all go. My solution is to take them down and put them in the freezer. Some of the newer houses have alarms that talk to you: "your house is on fire...your house is on fire". Once when riding around the neighborhood, I went past a car parked in front of a house and an alarm's incessant voice could be heard from inside the car. 

I've replaced all the batteries at least once, but we were still having the periodic random night chirps, so I finally replaced all of them and it's been peaceful ever since. 

--tv

[Greg]

Are you sure it's over. It doesn't seem like it's over.

Last night as The Queen pushed the button on our microwave, all the lights went off. The Micro didn't wave. I was hoping I could just pull the microwave out and replace it but it's part of a unit with the oven. A combo as the saying goes. The cheapest replacement I could find was $3599. That's not in the budget at the moment. Or probably any moment. I went to Lowes and purchased a counter model for considerably less.

[Drunk Monk]

Next merc retro isn’t until May 10. Your micro merc ain’t no retro. It falls under ‘shit happens’ which might be worthy of its own thread.

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, & Saturn all go into retrograde this year but no one cares except Uber astrology nerds. Looks like Venus already happened and Mars in next in June.

[King Bob]

I read somewhere that none of the planets will be in retrograde until May.

[Greg]

Okay. It turns out you can't run the toaster oven and the new microwave at the same time. It blows the circuit. WTF? It's a twenty amp fuse?

[Drunk Monk]

May 10 – June 2 starts in air sign Gemini, ends in earth-sign Taurus

damn it…

[Drunk Monk]

Today’s mercnret scorecard:
 
Stacy’s brand new Mac crashed and wouldn’t let her on any websites for a while. It eventually self corrected as Macs do, so not so bad but there was a moment of stress.

The funkmobile’s splash guard was dragging. Stacy took it out for a small errand and heard a terrible noise on the ride home which she later realized was the guard dragging. I noticed it was loose when I came home from a different errand and snapped it back into place somewhat but it’ll need some gorilla taping to secure it: I suspect someone hit it in the parking lot. It’s had a dent there previously but now it looks deeper somehow.

My hand sanitizer spray bottle refused to spray. I took it apart, cleaned the intake tube, and it seemed to be working fine.

But the worst is that my backyard neighbor’s dog might have had a stroke. He’s a bachelor with two dogs - one is an older retriever mix with a large tumor on his hip - Joey. Joey is a sweet old dog but my neighbor said he was leaning oddly all day. He’s taking him to the vet tomorrow. He was pretty broken up about it. Maybe it’s selfish of me but I’m tired of seeing my neighbors in tears…

---

I also saw my drunken surfer neighbor. His gf moved out - she was my source of fresh organic eggs because they kept 30 chickens. Talk about local. I said 'hi' to him but was in a rush so we didn't chat. He's actually a really nice dude, it's just that he has a serious drinking problem.

awww man … Buck.