Mercury in Retrograde

[Drunk Monk]

Too busy
In denial

But don’t get me started on the merc medical issues I’m having (not physical, bureaucratic).

[Drunk Monk]

Now that I'm back in the default world, Mercury comes crashing in.

Our main communication system at YMAA, got-meeting (think zoom but you pay for it for security) is updating its system, which means it doesn't work - not via the old app, not through the web portal, and I can't download the new app. Got it sorted today through an old workaround. 

Several of YMAA's top shelf (most profitable) programs have lost their buy button. I had a $3K goal beat for July but I'm flailing in August now. 

My mom has been getting up 20+ times a night. That's like every half hour. It drives her caretakers nuts. They asked me to ask her doctor to up her melatonin (the facility cannot move without doctor's orders on anything, even OTCs). My mom's doctor changed twice recently and I had not established a dialog with the new doc. That's on me. Her care center texted me about this on Friday whilst I was at OSL (talk about the default world buzzkill) and I realized my oversight. It was such a hassle to get a new doc for my mom that I neglected that last step of getting the info into my iPhone. I've reached out to her new doc, spending over an hour dealing with the ridiculous healthcare website. Now I wait...

I messed up on booking Billy Strings for Saturday and was confirmed for Sunday. I got that fixed, but good thing I double checked yestereve.

[Drunk Monk]

I got another email from WeChat - same one I got before requesting a bunch of confirmation data to unlock my account. I’ve filled it out before. I opened my WeChat to get the intel and now it’s working. That’s merc-n-ref working the other way… I think.

[Drunk Monk]

I thought I had a lunch appt with my accomplice psych supe from RotR, but I was mistaken. That’s tomorrow. Went downtown and was waiting when I double checked our texts and realized my error.

Now my printer is having issues. 

Yesterday I messed up trimming my toenails and cut too close to the quick. Bloody stupid, literally. 

Come on feckin printer. WTH?!?

---

Ugg. 

It’s one of those days when all my resources are focused upon just getting my Mac to function properly.

[thatguy]

You are now leaving Merc in Ret. Please Be Careful Retrieving Your Bags As Items May Have Shifted During Flight...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

My toenail is healed!

All hail toenail!

[thatguy]

Merc in Ret goes "Steve Jobs" with a "one more thing send off"

...so I stay at my mom's mid-week every week and help her with things around the house when I'm not in the office. Last Wed, I'm rushing to get to work for mtgs and about to go out the door and she says "if I get ready, will you drop me at the grocery store?" I hesitate dropping her off anywhere since her last stroke as I don't think she has the ability to navigate getting back home. Her getting ready take 30-60min, so I say no and that I'll take her after work. There's a class I want to get to at 6:30p, but she is unaware and trying to get her to understand is a waste of time, so I get there at 4:30p. I pick her up and we get to Safeway by 5p. Shopping with my mom brings to mind the Looney Tunes cartoon with the old lady trying to make a deposit with pennies. I do my best to try to help get items on the list, but she is distracted by the cut flowers...the Halloween decorations...fruit. It takes excruciatingly long, but we fill the cart, except for the items from the meat dept when she tells me she urgently needs the rest room. She's gone for quite some time, so I try to finish shopping. I'm stressed because the checkout lines are completely backed up. She finally comes out and I find her and she says that I need to take her home immediately. So I try to find a free clerk to ask them to hold our now full cart of groceries while I take her home. This takes much longer than it should. Then I bring the car around, collect my mom, bring her home, then go back to the store, try to get them to collect the cart they are holding. This takes much longer than it should. The checkout lines are still backed up. Checking out takes much longer than it should. I bag up the groceries and head back to my mom's. She fine, just embarassed and tired. I put the groceries away. As I do, I'm finding that much of what we purchased is already stocked and unneeded. Sigh. The class I wanted to go to in Mtn View has started long ago, so I write that off and pack up my stuff and head back to Marina. I see there's a VM from my daughter. I listen, it's a very brief call me back, but she's obviously upset. I call her back. She's doing a house sit in Oakland. Has been for a few weeks. She's been sick for the past few days and hasn't left the house except to move her car for the weekly street sweeping. She finally felt well enough to go out and noticed her car wasn't where she parked it. It was stolen some time in the last three days. She just spent $2000 on a major service (timing belt), so doesn't have much in the way of funds to replace it. 

FU MiR (I thought "mir" was Russian for peace)

--tg

[Greg]

Peak 'No Bueno'

[thatguy]

Per your other post, if we're going to go there, in addition to the above, my mother informed me for the first time that she's had diarrhea for the last month. She's lost a bunch of weight since her last stay in the hospital and hasn't had any appetite, so we've been trying hard to get calories into her. Sigh

My friend who is helping out with caregiving tasks on some of the days when I'm not there says that it's quite possibly a side affect of her blood pressure meds. So I need to message her doctor (who is currently on vacation) about that via the stellar pre-Y2K era messaging system that Kaiser offers. 

Remember in Swimming to Cambodia when Spaulding Grey talks about the quaintness of the Russian Navy submariners talking thru tubes...well Kaiser's messaging system could benefit from an upgrade like that.

--tg

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I second the “No Bueno”

[Drunk Monk]

Sounds like you didn't heed your own bag shifting advice. 

Sorry to hear of your tribulations. Hope things turn around for you soon. I have put some feelers out for a cheap car for Terra.

[thatguy]

To be fair, these things aren't affecting me directly...I'm getting more of the wake of it. In the words of the optimist: Always remember it could be worse...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Seems pretty direct to me.

You & I are the D00Mers in the sandwich gen, caught between our kids and our parents. It’s fucking exhausting. My boss at YMAA got this idea in his head that we should market qigong vids to parents which got support rom the other senior employee there (the 2 davids). But neither of them are parents so it was like listening to white guys trying to market to black customers. If you’re not a parent, you have no fucking idea. 

And having been a caretaker for my dad for over a decade, now with my mom, it’s been a long road. But at least we can all relate to parent care on some level here.

[thatguy]

I can equally appreciate my kids being annoyed by me and my mother being annoyed by me.

--tg

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I can equally appreciate my kids being annoyed by me and my mother being annoyed by me.

--tg

If you get a dog, then at least one family member will always be happy to see you.