“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 711 (Tuesday) – please wait

On Monday, I noticed the moon was nearly full and I was feeling testy. That may be why I wasn’t even surprised by the whackadoodle nature of the day today. It was a remote work day, and the work system was, as X2 used to say, “moving as slow as pond scum.” It was maddening, especially as this has been the story my last few remote days. In the office-office, it's also frustrating, just a different flavor. 

There was swearing. Waiting. Pacing. Heavy sighing. The personal side of the system was checked, and everything was normal. As testy as I felt on Monday, it paled compared to the testiness felt in dealing with a slow system today. 

Please wait.

In desperation, programs were shut down and the computer restarted. Everything on the work system still took forever. After a couple hours of aggravation, there was a thought. Maybe it’s a diabolical corporate plot to make the home office so annoying that we would all want to come into the office every day. The very same computer that is as slow as a glacier has the same usual fast speed when it’s toggled over to the personal side, so what else could it be?

After work there was supper and Facebook and back-to-back episodes of Castle on Lifetime. While checking the usual nine billion email messages, I saw the reminder about the zills class I signed up for that was happening on Zoom at 7:00. It was 6:50, and I leapt into action. There was a half-jaunty half-jog upstairs to grab the zills from the dance bag. There was a quick trip to the potty, and  then I was back at the computer logging into the Zoom meeting, exhausted from all the recent exertion. It was feeling more like nap time than Zoom class time.

Ready to zill!

And there I sat, waiting, zills ready, while a small circle spun near a message telling me to wait for the host to start the meeting. And I waited. After the system annoyances of the morning, it wasn’t even surprising. I tested the audio. After seven minutes the email was rechecked to verify the event. That’s when I saw it. The class is at 7:00 Central Time, and I’m in Eastern Time. Duh. Better too early than late.

Zoom wanted an update, so I let it roll. There was plenty of time for it. At 8:00 ET/7:00 CT it was time to try it again. It felt like a miracle that I hadn't forgotten and wandered off to do something else like wash the bathroom floor or the dishes or the laundry or something. A lot can happen in an hour and I'm easily distracted, so that was a victory.