Mercury Retrograde -- Yeah, that's it!

I sit here on this sticky, hell-fire afternoon (couldn't think of any description that's hot enough!!) and have finally calmed down from weeks of technology melt-down. According to one of my yoga instructors, it's because Mercury is retrograde! Well -- THAT explains it!


"Three times a year for about three weeks, the planet Mercury goes retrograde so it looks like it's moving backwards-but it's just an illusion. This round of retrograding ends on July 2, so what's the deal? Astrologer Eileen McCabe explains:

1) Mercury is the planet of communication. Mercury (another name for Hermes the messenger god) linked people together by delivering messages. This period of time involves making connections.

2) But connections aren't happening as smoothly. You might miss a phone call, the bus or train. There are going to be some life glitches."
 
Miss a phone call? How about the entire house imploding on technology -- modem, land-line phone and cable box all decided to quit (spent last Saturday waiting for cable guy), cell phone went to black and now refuses to allow yahoo email anymore (even cell phone guy doesn't know why) and my brand new laptop was full of viruses right out of the box. Silly me, thought I could fix it, and it pretended to work for a day or two until today, when it decided to lock up and shut down the household internet again. Ugh!


Therefore, rather than risk any more high-blood pressure, hammer-smashing laptop daydreams, I will wait until July 3rd when Mercury decides to move forward, to attempt to buy a new computer (again). Me and my old, trusty Toshiba are limping along just fine -- today anyway.
 
Which leads me to one of the points of this blog -- after I pitched a childish fit when my new laptop locked up this morning and Allan decided he needed to vacate the house and go to work, it hit me how ridiculous it is to become an ugly, swearing fool over technology. I was ashamed; felt like an idiot. Me, the person who has grown to realize the true importance of our days, let a computer ruin what had been a really peaceful morning.


Shortly after my meltdown, I had to get to an appointment, which was probably the best thing that could've happened at that moment. As I was driving with the AC on 'hurricane' (thank you Willis Carrier for HVAC), and Coffee House on the radio, I calmed down and took in the scenery -- palms blowing in the breeze, osprey soaring overhead, primary-colored flowers in bloom along the roadside. Stress slinked away. I decided I would return the insolent laptop, hopefully without much ado (beyond the inconvenience and time already spent). Problem now solved.


We are so burdened by our "advanced" lifestyle that the millions of tiny miracles happening every moment are overlooked. I should be happy to have a day or two without the albatross that has become our way of life, yet without it, I can't do my job. I guess the lesson here is to continue to find BALANCE. By definition, "mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc." Yoga, wine, friends, reading, walks, church, faith...whatever it is that helps us take a deep breath in this crazy world we live in, just do it (think Nike minds?)!


While composing this blog, I've been getting a pop-up message from BlogSpot (I think it's Mercury's little joke right about now) "An error occurred while trying to save or publish your post. Please try again." Really? As Allan is so fond of saying, at the most inappropriate moments, "It could be worse!"