A Long Day

Generally speaking, I look forward to today - June 21st, that is.  It's the Summer Solstice here in the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year!  For my latitude, that means the sun doesn't set today until 9:10 pm and soft, dusky twilight will linger for an hour or so after that.

But today ended up being a long day in a completely different sense.  And I'm really glad it's finally drawing to a close.

So what's my list of gripes?  Well, nothing too earth-shatteringly terrible, but today I feel like a salmon that's swimming its way upstream, fighting against the current.  In other words, it has to be gotten through & done, but it's a frustrating and tiring and seemingly endless endeavor.

The neighbor installed a new mailbox, simultaneously knocking ours askew & smashing the door shut.  And mailboxes with doors that won't open/close just don't work very well.  So we had to talk about getting that rectified.

The screen on my brand new computer (which I still love) has a troubling tendency to randomly blink off.  Fortunately tech support was able to direct me to a download that patches this.  But shouldn't a brand new computer already have all the latest patches?

The wireless printer that is allegedly compatible with Windows 7 died when I used the installation wizard to connect it to my new network.  This is actually the 2nd one.  The first one died, too, but tech support had promised me it was a fluke and sent a brand new replacement.  Well, this time when I called in my 'fluke' had graduated to a 'known issue'.  So....they're sending me a brand new replacement.  I'm rather doubtful that this THIRD printer will react any differently than the first or second ones.  But tech support claims they've fixed the issue.  So we'll see.

Although all of the above are resolving themselves, it simply makes for a lonnnnng day when you have to contact people (neighbors, tech support and more tech support) with problems.  Even when everyone involved is mutually interested in working things out, it's exhausting to be the complainant.  I don't enjoy it one little bit.

So, as a reward to myself for slogging through all these issues, raising them and setting resolutions in motion, I let myself escape from the office for the afternoon.  I thought, what a perfect time to run a few errands - return books to the library, pick up some things at the store...basically, get some fresh air and hopefully a refreshed state of mind.

Do you really think that was going to happen?  Was I being hopelessly naive?  Or is Murphy's Law taking action? 

I hadn't gotten very far before I become a front row witness to some major road rage.  I was sitting at a red light waiting for it to change when the SUV in front of me suddenly rammed the truck in front of it.  This was followed by lots of yelling and screaming on the part of the instigating driver who then proceeded to throw a shovel at the truck, which by then was intent on escaping and had tried pulling around via the shoulder.  Long story short, Crazy Guy ran back to his SUV and chased after the truck off down the road.   But I - as a front row witness - got to hang around and file a report with the police.  I hope they catch Crazy Guy!

I'm back home now.  Finally.  And enjoying a cup of tea D made me.  Do you think this day is getting close to ending?  Because I'm definitely done with it.  Can't wait for tomorrow.  Which hopefully won't be quite as long.