Is Mercury in Retrograde today?

There was something different about today right off the bat although I wasn't sure what when I woke up. This week is Johnnie's last week before Spring Break so it should be a chill week school wise. And I also got word today that they finally have a date for return to school. For Mar Vista Elementary, Johnnie gets to go back to school on April 13! At least I will now get 3 hours more to myself every day and that works out just great for me. As I also got word that the FRB won't be letting anyone back for the rest of the year 2021. And so really it should have been a pretty routine Tuesday. Except that it wasn't. rright off the bat when I tried to get Johnnie logged in to his class at 9 AM, I could NOT get his HP chromebook to turn on! What the -eff? I was so concerned with making sure Johnnie didn't get on late that I just powered up my own chromebook and let him work from that for his first 2 classes. How do I get in the middle of a hardware break/fix situation... in my own household??? I'm supposed to be the professional here right? These hardware issues aren't supposed to dog me, or at least bother me. But bothered me it did, especially when I couldn't get it to work for the next hour that I was fiddling with it. I have a feeling the battery simply ran out. So I just plugged it in and left it charging for the rest of the morning. In the middle of all this, I did remember that it is my Mom's birthday today, not the she acknowledged Johnnie's video that we sent last night or my voice mail message. I made sure she got something again TODAY. And as if the Universe was simply making sure, Tita Alice called me all the way from Australia to remind me of my mom's birthday. We actually ended up chatting for a good 20 minutes and as I suspected, the narrative that I am the wayward son who no longer cares about the rest of the family was at play. Still, Tita Alice was glad we talked and that she says I'm still the happy, smiling nephew she knew when I was Johnnie's age. She got to talk to Johnnie too and so that's all good. Still I posted a pic of me outside my apartment trying to get some peace and calm in the middle of the day. And a nice, sunny day it turned out to be too.  

And so later on, my electronic gadget woes would continue. This time the garage door  wouldn't open. Nor would any of the doors in the complex. Mercury in retrograde I tell ya. It's the only possible explanation. I had to go to the Apartment leasing office to confirm it. And now since nothing would open, effectively we couldn't leave the house because that would mean I wouldn't be able to get back in. I explored having a Panda Express food delivery but that ended up almost doubling the price if I were to order just one thing. And I had PLENTY of food. I still had that delicious beef stew for at least a couple of more meals. Fortunately when we checked around 6 PM, the manager had opened the garage door so people could at least get in and out of the complex. And so off we went to Panda Express for Johnnie's dinner. I also had it in my mind that I was going to be working on my CCALAC symposium presentation material today, being that it's due on Friday. But with everything going on today with the planet Mercury, it was all I could do to simply keep myself in as positive a state as possible. I kept trying to tell myself that it was simply the Universe trying to test my patience yet again. And actually, by mid-afternoon, I had gotten Johnnie's chromebook working again. It WAS the battery and I needed to charge it fully again and when it did, it powered back on simple as that. At least I didn't completely lose my mind today and so that's a good thing right? I didn't flunk the test. And by dinner time, it was back to Tuesday routine. Johnnie eating his dinner and then doing his kazillion drawings to pick out a present for his mom, me taking the dog out periodically to get her pooped and pee'd and so far so good, not a drop of pee inside the house. She is starting to smell some though so I can't wait until tomorrow when she gets her bath. And today, I also got Johnnie's new pajamas via Amazon delivery. He had outgrown every single one of his pajamas he's growing so fast. He knocked off early today. We all did. That's a very good thing.