September 18, 2003
Dear Everyone:
These days it seems like the whole world is falling apart at the seams.
First there’s the
California Recall Election:
On again, off again, Finnegan, Fannegan.
One minute, there’s a message on my phone machine from
Arnold
Schwarzenegger, urging me to mail in my
absentee ballot
as soon as possible. (
The next minute, some guys in black robes are declaring the election is postponed until next year. Tomorrow they could change it back again. I don’t know whether to mail the ballot, hold onto it, or offer to sell it on eBay as a collectible.
And yes, it is making
“What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.
Run for governor of
“No, everybody’s doing that. Let’s do something different.”
On the home front, last night I got home and thought the toilet in the upstairs bathroom was broken. Once flushed, it wouldn’t refill with water. It took me a few minutes to realize that there was nothing (really) wrong with the toilet. The water had been shut off!
(Stop and make a mental list of all the things you can not do without water. Now shudder.)
Eventually I learned from a neighbor that someone was working on a “slow leak” and would have the water turned back on “in 30 to 45 minutes”. And, in fact, the water did come back on while I was on the phone with “Jeannie”. While it wasn’t the end of the world, it did disrupt my evening schedule.
On the plus side, it can make you grateful for what
you have. (“For you never
miss the water till the well runs dry.”)
I always remember Mother, when asked what is the best modern
convenience, replied: “When
you turn a tap and hot water comes out.”
Going without water for weeks and months, like in
But then came this morning. This morning, when I got to work and turned on my computer, the BlackBerry (wireless email transceiver) asked me if I knew my own profile. (As if anyone would.) Then, when I tried to get into Outlook, I got a message that the server might be down.
This, at least, explained the perplexed BlackBerry. The poor little thing couldn’t get a signal from the server so that’s why it didn’t recognize me.
But Outlook is more than just email (as Microsoft would hasten to point out). It’s also my calendar, not to mention access to other people’s calendars, an important scheduling tool. And my To Do List! How can I be expected to remember all of my To Do’s without my List?
(Actually, I’m luckier than most because I have my
Palm Pilot as a
backup.) And, they got the
email part working by around
Finally, I realized this morning why I’ve been oversleeping all week. The Snooze Bar on my clock radio hasn’t been working. Normally, the radio goes on, I hit the indispensable Snooze Bar and go back to sleep for another 9 minutes until the radio goes on again. This process continues as I gently, gradually (“Not a morning person doesn’t begin to cover it.”) ascend to a state of general consciousness. Lately, the secondary alarm, the one with the really loud, annoying beeping, too far away to reach easily, has been jarring me awake at the last minute. Horrors!
So, like I said, the world’s falling apart at the seams. But tomorrow is Friday. And “Jeannie” has arranged for the both of us to get free facials on Saturday before going to the salon and then lunch. So how bad can things be, really?
Love, as always,
Pete
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