Mercury Retrograde...A Rant

During the last Mercury retrograde, so many of my acquaintances were complaining that everything was going wrong....and, I would smugly smile and say, "It hasn't touched me."   Well, remind me to be a little more sympathetic to those poor souls the next time around because this weekend, Mercury Retrograde hit me...and hit me hard.  Why, it got so bad on Sunday afternoon that I just about broke down and cried. 

The madness all started on Friday evening when I picked up the phone to order our food (we order out on Friday) and discovered there was no dial tone.  Now, the phone had been acting up for awhile, so I just assumed that after 8 years, it had finally died out.  I wasn't so upset because hubby finally got himself a cell phone so when he got home, I'd be able to call and place the order.  Wrong!!!!  Hubby forgot his cell phone at work. Okay, so now son comes home and saves the day.  He, too, has a cell phone. (I'm the only one who doesn't).

But he was going out later...and he was taking his phone with him.  Funny how it is...You never use the phone, but when it's not there, suddenly it's like you lost your best friend. Right away my old pessimistic mind went to work overtime with the what if's.  Suppose one of us gets sick in the night, or my son has some sort of emergency. Enough what-if's to keep me tossing and turning all night.Here we are cut off from the world.  You can imagine my relief when hubby left early Saturday morning to go get us a new phone.

Guess what???  It didn't work. No line the message said.  Oh no, now what?  I'm not on vacation until next week.  I can't take off this week to wait for Verizon and can't go a week without a phone. All right, so next week on vacation I had planned to do some sorting and getting rid of, so I will just start a little early.  See, the phone jack is behind the boxes and boxes of storage in my son's room  Before he moved back home that had become my storage room, and to be honest, I don't have any other place to put it so it remains there...but I have planned to sort and toss...After all, there is no way I will get back in a size 10 so why keep hanging on when there is someone out there who can use it?

Okay, so I move everything out and find the problem.  It's the jack.  My cat has been hanging out there lately and somehow pulled it out....so I have a phone.  Yippee!!!  But then, I go to the living room and turn the cable on to prop my feet up and watch some television...and the darned thing started rebooting itself....over and over again. Wouldn't stop. I began having nightmarish flashbacks of that foul-natured cable guy I had the last time.  I tried unplugging it for a few minutes as they always tell you to do...no good, still rebooting.  Now, I am almost ready to cry.  Most of you know I am a full-fledged couch potato...and visions of missing the last show of the season of my favorite shows were flashing through my head. So now, because it won't stop rebooting, I unplug it and leave it unplugged...heading into the computer room to see if there is anyway I can see my shows on it.

Just then my son calls me.  Be careful when you set your coffee.  Now, I am one of those people who have to have my morning coffee waiting for me when I wake up....if not, the entire house hears my tirade...so I can imagine my son was trying to avoid being woken several hours too early.  It seems the clock had somehow been been set back an hour.  Did we have a power outage that I didn't know about?  Now, as I go to press the little buttons to reset the timer, they won't budge...but have no fear...a little dash of this miracle oil does the trick.  Then, I figure one last try with the cable, so I plug it in....an lo and behold...it's working. Whew!!!! All I can say is, miracles happen.

If you have any interest in astrology, know and astrologer, or simply read the astrology sites on the web, you know what a Mercury Retrograde is...the most commonly known astrological signature for Murphy's Law--"If something can go wrong, it will". Computers crash, software develops unexpected glitches, communications go awry, traffic jams ensue, things are lost, found, then lost again, letters get lost on the mail, machinery breaks down, delays interrupt the normal flow of things. Ah, yes, the trickster Mercury is up to his old pranks again. In fact, at least three times a year for about three weeks each time Mercury has his way with us.

The key issue here is one of focus. Catch up on things you've been putting off, finish up old projects, and take some time for closure with the things in your life that have recently ended. Do what anyone does when they take a breather ― relax, regroup, recharge and reconsider your plan of action.

Mercury's retrograde phase tends to bring unforeseen changes and blockages our way, but the aggravation and frustration that many of us experience during these periods is often due to our own inability to roll with the punches.  It is also important not to assume that the other person is "on the same page" with you. Remember that mis-communications are very common at this time, and what you say may not be exactly what the other person hears.  Double check everything, and I mean everything...and be sure to double check it twice.  My cable box episode is a great example of stepping back and taking a few deep breaths...although that wasn't exactly what I did. Just be prepared for surprises and delays and stay flexible as much as possible.  It will all soon be over...September 12th to be exact.