“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 806 (Tuesday) – mercury retrograde roses

The year's first roses.

This work week, like last week, is having more than its fair share of heart palpitating excitement with technology mysteries, program quirks, misplaced files, vendor delays and confusion, flaming balls in the air, and a couple routines of tap dancing and diplomacy. It's almost scary. It's definitely stressful.

Tonight, I finally invested the whole 60 seconds it took to check online, and sure enough, we are deep in the “second mercury retrograde of 2022 – from May 10 to June 3.” I knew it without knowing it. All the signs were there. There were  several emails I thought I sent, and after being in a huff over the absence of responses, I discovered they were sitting in “drafts.” Not once. Not twice. Three times. In a week.

Then there were the websites I suddenly couldn’t access, which required help from the tech team. And the programs that suddenly take forever to open, then the file freezes in the middle of working in them. It goes on and on, but dredging it all up now could be too traumatic for a Tuesday.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac website information on Mercury retrograde states, “To those who practice astrology, these times in particular were traditionally associated with confusion, delay, and frustration. Think undelivered love letters, email blunders, and frazzled travel plans! This is an excellent time to reflect on the past, however, and it’s said that intuition is high during these periods. Coincidences can be extraordinary.”

Oy. 

An article by Kyle Thomas published on New York Post listed the effect of this Mercury retrograde on each zodiac sign. According to that piece, for Leo, “If you want to reconnect with an old acquaintance, bestie – or gasp! – even an ex, you're in luck to do so.” Um, nope. There are usually really, really good reasons why we are exes. 

I don’t know about the love letters and intuition, but some of the rest of it has been ringing true. At least I can take comfort in a documented planetary cause and knowing it’s not all me, while simultaneously living on high-alert and dreading the next week and a half until it’s over. Let me go look through some photo albums and “reflect on the past” for a while, but definitely not with an idea of reconnecting with any exes thank you very much. 

At least the yard flowers are still doing their thing, seemingly without confusion and chaos. Today, two rose blooms were spotted, more irises opened, the rhododendrons are starting to pop, and the peonies have lots of buds. The columbine miraculously survived and there are actual opened blossoms on lanky stems. Perhaps the flora are spared the technology snafus of Mercury retrograde.