Mercury in retrograde did me in

You may have heard the astrological term "Mercury in retrograde." It's the perceived sensation of Mercury going backwards when it isn't really, or the expectations of planets going a little wobbly, or just maybe my own klutzyness. As to what that does to us wee humans scurrying around on a dirty, crowded planet trying to make it, M in R manifests in every machine you use breaking down.

The hopeful bit is that this cataclysmic zig-zag is brief, to the Universe, at least, because it only lasts about two weeks before we convince ourselves that the ol' Winged Messenger has made a U-turn and headed back toward the hometown goalpost.

Two weeks is an incredibly long time to turn your electronics and tools of the trade into lumps of dead plastic and obscenely expensive rare metals. This particular interim it took down my blog comments, HD converter, VCR, DVD player, hot water heater, and I turned my TV off in frustration because all my favorite programs (I don't have cable/satellite) are on the ONE freakin' channel in town that flipped the switch and went totally to digital.

These little challenges don't normally get me down when they behave and present themselves in an orderly fashion, one after the other, fixing one glitch and moving on to the next. But this dime-gracing, zippy god of communications didn't give me a chance this time. They all happened at once and pretty much shut me down.

Still haven't solved the issues, but it's a gorgeous evening in Austin, and I'm taking some tuna steaks down to my neighbors grill for a little Armadillo Arms potluck dinner.

Good thing Merc's playing nice for the moment. I'd think twice about eating tuna if he weren't...