Mercury in Retrograde

[Greg]

That tree would only reach out to me more. It's out to get me.

To be fair, I'm on the tree's side.

[King Bob]

Usually for me it's open cabinet doors or the shelves in my closet. I did get a bad forehead cut from a tree around the corner once. I was walking Hazel and she fell behind me a bit. I looked down and see if she was getting into anything and when I came up I went right into the low tree branch. She used to walk at a rapid pace (in her prime), so it's not like I just strolled into a tree branch.

[Drunk Monk]

That prick Gref is probably on the cabinets' side too.

Both of my YMAA telemeetings got cancelled today. The boss' basement got flooded and the onther guy is on vacation. Fortunately TPLA is calling for a telemeet today because what what would a Monday even be without telemeets?

I know, I know, Gref is on the telemeet's side. That Gref. Such a prick.

[Greg]

I'd like to go with the Onther Guy to vacation.

[Drunk Monk]

Onther Guy & Gref are both pricks. Especially during MercNRet.

I missed one of yesterday's mercnret kerfuffles - beyond all this http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...5#pid71605 - my mom's caretakers forgot to let her know I moved my visit from our usual Tues to today in the morning. My mom is a creatue of habit and she brings up the schedule of my visits at least three times per visit. I told her that this week might shift. As soon as I parked in SF, I found the text 'mama is worried about you'. This is right beneeath my previous text about shifting my schedule (we communicate by texts when not in person). I know my mom was just worried sick, because she thrives on worry. At least we'll have something to talk about. 

Meanwhile, my boss at YMAA continues with his tribulations. After a nearly disastrous flooding of his basement, a major shipment to the office got delayed which might toss tomorrow's meeting schedule into chaos.

[Drunk Monk]

Tara’s car bill was $1800. Beyond the battery, a nub was frozen during the tire rotation which led to the discovery of a bushing failure and worn brakes. I advised her to get a second opinion (Stacy once had a brake replacement claim and she took it to another and they said the brakes were fine - they lasted 3 more years). But Tara trusts these mechanics as she’s been with them since she moved to SF and she had the money because she cashed in some stocks gifted to her from Stacy’s dad for college graduation.

Meanwhile here at the bungalow, Stacy was taking her post sauna shower and the shower head snapped sending water all over the mirror, sink and outlet. The outlet was crackling for a bit but that stopped. I just ran to Ace, picked up a new one and replaced it. I replaced the prior one when we moved in over a decade ago, so it did it’s time and gave up the ghost for merc.

[Drunk Monk]

Stacy picked up a window crack on the Beast. It’s grown to about 4 in. Needs attention quickly.

Then George died http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=8060

---

Woe! Woe and Ashes!

The buds on the ash tree are finally starting to open. It's always last. 

Well, it looks like my first YMAA meeting is cancelled. I'm in our gotomeeting (like Zoom but we pay for it for some unknown reason) and it's been a half hour now so I'm bailing. One of the meeting people is on vacation. The other, the boss, is likely unloading a truckload of boxes by himself. I'm not sure they have Mexicans to hire for jobs like this in NH. Too far north. Besides, they're snowbound, so who wants to stand outside of Home Despot hoping for work in that weather?

The other office worker is this overweight gal, and I'm not sure she's up for heavy lifting. She's probably monitoring phones. I must say that I admire our boss' work ethic. He never stops. Not like me. I stop all the time. Unfortunately I often stop to move to one of my other side hustles. No rest for the wicked, ya know?

Now roofers are here to fix my neighbors roof (long overdue but just in time for the end of the storms). My work niche is in back of our bungalow, so all I hear is the sound of tarp removal, banging and yelling in Spanish. I'm sure it will soon be replaced by hammering. I'm dialing in my KZSC reggae radio show Joy in the Morning as soon as it starts.

[Drunk Monk]

Stacy picked up a window crack on the Beast. It’s grown to about 4 in. Needs attention quickly.

The coach has grown to 7 in overnight. The whole front windshield needs to be replaced now. It's a brand new car. Just last week, we cut back on our new car insurance, which would've covered more of this. But now, our first quote is $600.

[Drunk Monk]

Stacy called AAA and our insurance may still cover the window because the accident happened prior to us downgrading our coverage. We’ll believe that when it happens.

Meanwhile she decided to take on BMO. We used to bank with Bank of the West which we loved but it got usurped by BMO. During thr transfer, our Mastercard changed, which was right in the middle of our Disney trip. We charged a shuttle ride to it that got declined and they’re chasing after us now. 

My Mac just crashed so I’m rebooting right now, which is why I’m posting here, waiting for it to come up again. 

One more week of Merc…

[thatguy]

Thumb drives...I've got 1 that I use regularly to keep my personal stuff on, to keep it off the work computer. I've got a second 1 that I use mostly to shuttle really big files between machines. I don't use it quite so much, but this past week, I'd been using it a lot for work stuff. 

One of them came with a short, shoelace-like lanyard with a tiny loop of string in the end to attach it. I've had both on the one lanyard for some time, but I took it off this week because I'd been setting up a test machine and needed one thumb drive plugged into one Mac and the other plugged into a different mac

Thurs, I'm packing up to commute and I put them back on the lanyard and put it in my front pocket. Usually I put it in the pocket in my backpack wheee I keep my sunglasses. Sometimes, when I'm in a rush, I put them in the very front pocket with all the cables and adaptors I carry. 

I did a bunch of errands on the way home. When I got home last night, I just crashed, but today, first thing I needed for work was some of the data on one of the thumb drives. Looking...looking...can't find it anywhere. Not in the provost of any pants. Not in any pocket in the backpack. Not in my suitcase. Not in any clothes. Not in the floor. Not under the bed. Not in the car. 

I have no idea where they are. I must have dropped them on one of my errands. 

I'm worried about the work one because it's work stuff including usernames and password to a bunch of online test accounts I set up years ago, but started testing with again this past few weeks. I'm equally worried about the personal one because it's like losing a wallet. I have to remember what all was on there. Figure out the risk for each thing and then deal with it. 

I spent a good part of the day changing passwords on accounts. 

What a pain...

--tg

[thatguy]

After 2 days of freezing my credit and changing passwords on multitudes of accounts, retracing my steps and calling shops, I got a call back today from a pastry shop in Capitola where I had bought a gift certificate for my son for his birthday. Someone found it in the parking lot and happened to drop it off in his shop, not one of the many other shops that surround the parking lot...whew!!

Funny side note: when I went there on Thurs, I was on a concall for work. I sat in the parking lot to listen to the rest of the call, while coordinating meeting up with my son. Traffic in the Cruz is abysmal, so I wasn't going to move unless I had to. 

We got coordinated and the call ended, so I pulled out into stop and go traffic. I moved up about a car length and heard an awful pop/crunch. I looked in my rear view mirror and caught a huge pickup coming back to the ground after t-boning the minivan that was behind me. 

Everybody that was in their cars around me just got out and left their cars in the road. I had no place to pull over, but from the swarm of people, I presumed there were already too many cooks in the kitchen. 

I did see the driver of the minivan get the door open, climb out from under the airbag and walk to the front of the car to assess the damage (really bad, the front left tire was horizontal). She seemed OK (shock probably setting in). I saw a woman come up and hold her hands (kind of a "I don't know you hug gesture". She went back to her car and got her cell phone, most of the bystanders were also on their phones. I didn't see what happened to the truck. It passed out of my field of view. 

Super close call. I feel guilty for not stopping.

I'm told there's someone asking for witnesses on Nextdoor. I'm going to try to find that post and offer help. 

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Glad you recovered that drive. That seems risky to keep your data there. YMAA sets each of us up with OnePassword, a password keeper. Of course, you need a password to retrieve that and I forgot that once in the beginning.

[thatguy]

Glad you recovered that drive. That seems risky to keep your data there. YMAA sets each of us up with OnePassword, a password keeper. Of course, you need a password to retrieve that and I forgot that once in the beginning.

Yeah, it was a big wake up call to not enjoy the convenience, but instead, always be vigilant. Presume everyone is out to get you (as you would when riding a motorcycle). Safen up!



--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Everyone IS out to get you. 

Everyone.

Specially Merc.

[Greg]

This could be a M-i-R story or it could be that my computer has issues. I was ingesting video last night from the Raymond Parade which I filmed all day yesterday. (Don't talk about the drone crash!) I got an error message from video editing software that my library was corrupted and I would have to use a back-up. At that point, the computer started crashing about every five minutes when I tried to continue getting the footage in shape. I couldn't stop it from crashing. This is kind of a problem since I have another photo shoot coming up in ten days where I kind of need my little computer to do its thing. Plus to add to the fun, my sugar crashed so I was putting out full streams of sweat.

I used my laptop computer to get all the footage onto a hard rive. But the laptop footage is not compatible with my desktop because of operating systems. I'm currently make a duplicate of the footage so when I transfer the files to the newer OS and the system crashes or corrupts, I don't have to do the ingest again.

Computers are great!