“Remoted” – Workday 148 / Day 217 (Monday)

Today was an annoying day. There are more genteel ways to describe it, but “shit show” seems to fit. It was a long span of stress, annoyance, and frustration. The week’s to-do list had been drafted on Friday afternoon, like always, so it was easy to see what needed doing, and at least when things started skidding sideways (and they did) the original mission was there for reference.

There were technology issues and the work system started slow, got slower, and felt like moving under water. There was lag with mouse clicks. There was lag with typing. Logging off the server and restarting the computer provided minimal improvement. Everything took significantly longer than normal.

Much of the morning was spent fighting with Constant Contact and trying to set up three messages with videos. The goal was to have them all entered in the review system today, but late in the day, only one was set up, one had format and spacing issues, and the third needs a few graphic elements. There was a morning call with a consultant about my part of a project that delivered surprises. There were more issues and frustrations, but why dwell on it? It just means reliving the pain. 

While the technology and other issues were happening inside the house, the guy next door was having car trouble in the driveway between our houses that involved the loud muffler and a lot of banging. A backyard neighbor's dog somehow got into the yard, peed on everything he could, and tore up the yard, including some plants, with his feet. When his human came to collect him, she trampled a bunch more of the plants.

All day long I was cold, compounding the foul mood from the tech stuff. There is only so much hot tea that can be had. The bright spot was lunch of stuffed roasted squash, which was awesome, and reinforced the whole “make food on Sunday and plan for the week” thing.

He's touching me!

After the day of frustration, there was supper, and then it was time to unwind on the couch. The dogs joined, and nearly got into a brawl when Moose jumped up where Winston was already situated, and parked himself with his butt touching Winston. There was growling. Winston clearly expressed his doggy displeasure at being sat upon. This was a hiccup in my search for calmness with another cup of tea and a brand new package of Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies. "Package,” means 90% of the just opened bag is now gone. So far. In a day or two when the cookie weight hits and no pants can be zipped, there will be much, much regret and despair. But for now, fleeting solace has been found in the bag of cookies.