random thoughts – Day 1,546 – (Wednesday) – headaches and roses

Today felt a harder than it needed to. As I prepared to leave to for work, I couldn’t find the jacket I planned to wear to stave off the office frostbite and ended up wearing one that didn’t work as well with the pants and shirt I had on. Then I couldn’t find the sunglass clip for my glasses and drove downtown squinting. The battery in my "good" watch was dead. 

For my next act, I managed to lock myself out of online banking. This meant I was unable to verify that I set up the online bill payments I think (hope) I did. If not, there will be fresh issues to stress me out.

The sink at the office is still broken. I forgot to have my morning office coffee, and remembered when the dull headache from insufficient caffeination kicked in.

There was a webinar offered at work about planning for age 65 which I had signed up for. If the horror of my age isn’t quite enough to put me into a grave, the shit show that is government health care for old people will certainly do it.  

It was a delightful hour filled with information about Medicare and its alphabet soup of Parts and Gaps and Plans and prescription coverage and timelines with potential lifelong penalties, all delivered by two overly cheerful presenters. It did nothing to minimize my growing hatred of the American healthcare system. It succeeded in making my brain hurt. I wanted to cry. For real. To make it extra enjoyable, my seldom used headset kept slipping on my head.

The rest of the day followed a similarly annoying and frustrating trajectory. It was a near never-ending series of small to medium-sized aggravations. The cumulative effects of several weeks of aggravation may or may not have resulted in a quick eruption in the vicinity of my desk. Ok, there definitely was one. It was mine. Some days I'm as non-stick as Teflon. Other days I absorb all the crap like a sponge. Today was a spongey day.

With everyone in the office for the day there were meetings and conversations and printer noise swirling around. I used to like the activity and noise and buzz of the office, but that was before the pandemic that broke the world and the long stretch of quiet solitude that came with it (and in my case, never really left). I resorted to earbuds and music, which was a bright comfort for the day.

BungaLowell roses.

On the way to the garage, yellow roses were blooming in the little garden nestled between two concrete buildings. It was another bright spot. At The BungaLowell, the rosebush in the front yard still looks great, full of bright blooms. 

After supper (salad), I attacked the rhododendron in front of the house. It was cathartic. Straggling shoots were trimmed to reshape it. The trickiest part was trying to reach the branches that have grown against the house without falling off the front steps I was perched on. 

At least I didn’t screw it up (that I know of). One year, I waited too long to trim the hugely overgrown thing and trimmed off all the buds that had set for the following year. Oops.