Tues. Sept. 15, 2020: Die For Tourist Dollars Day 118 — Getting Busy

image by pepperminting courtesy of pixabay.com

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Day Before Dark Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Friday’s performance of Table of Silence was wonderful. Not only is it a breathtaking piece of art in its own right, but it shows that performance can be done masked and socially distant and still work.

So those Covidiots who say they “can’t” wear a mask to go into a store for 10 minutes to pick up milk can go fuck themselves.

There was a chat going on in the sidebar while the stream ran. There was a Covidiot with a meaningless handle that indicates it was probably a bot who kept screaming about how the dancers should take off their masks and it was a lie and so on and so forth. Not one person engaged with this moron. Everyone (over 600 people) ignored the idiot. It was great.

I found it difficult to concentrate the rest of the day. I finished up something for a client, and then was kind to myself. I read, I rested. I did my special ceremony for the dead.

I feel like I need one of those Victorian rest cures, only instead of not reading, lying in bed or on the sofa and reading is all I do.

Did a quick run to the library to drop off/pick up. Roselle Lim’s newest, VANESSA YU’S PARIS TEA SHOP was part of the pile, so I dropped everything tor read it, and it’s lovely.

The noise from the neighbor two doors down, the neighbor across the street, and the neighbor whose property backs this one is just out of control. It interfered with everything, and the dirt is unacceptable.

Fed Ex was supposed to deliver a package on Friday by the end of the day; of course, they didn’t, and there was “no information” on it all weekend, and now it’s in Mississippi and won’t get here until the end of this week. I’m so sick of them. The only time they’re reliable is when they deliver for Chewy.  I had to pay extra for shipping, so they can damn well get it to me within the original time frame.

It’s not even the delay that bothers me. Things get delayed, or there are mistakes.  It’s the LYING. Saying it was never out for delivery last Friday. Then why did the tracking show that it was, and would be here by the end of the day? I didn’t hallucinate that. Then, they go in and change the tracking information. One has to screen shot everything. Because they lie and lie and lie. All they had to say was, “you know what? We screwed up. Instead of the package leaving Tennessee and going north to Massachusetts, it went south to Mississippi. We’re fixing it as fast as we can.” That would have been fine. It’s the LYING that infuriates me. I told the store from whom I bought the stuff that this is unacceptable. It’s not like it was free shipping or anything, even though I spent an amount where most companies would have given me free shipping.

Another store crossed off my list.

And retailers wonder why they’re going out of business. Try not treating your customers like crap. Don’t partner with shippers who don’t give a damn.

Saturday was about housework and laundry. Cleaning out stuff, I found my Betty Crocker Recipe cards from the 1970s, which, when I was a kid, I thought were the coolest things ever. Now, most of the recipes make me shudder and how sexist is it to have a section called “Men’s Favorites”? As history, though, and for writing, they matter. I’m missing a few of them, too, I noticed. I wonder if they are packed with some other stuff.

I also took my first walk since March – down to the plaza at the bottom of the road to pick up something. Yes, I was masked. The only one out and about masked, except for those in the store.  It wasn’t a long walk, only about a mile and a half round trip. The fumes from the passing traffic were pretty bad. Traffic has fallen off somewhat during the week, but it’s “shoulder season” and it’s still packed on the weekends, pandemic or not, which is frustrating.

There are a lot of empty storefronts in the plaza. Not particularly surprising, but most of them were in trouble before the pandemic.

Decontamination protocols when I came home.

I’ve started using my mom’s exercise bicycle, too, because I’ve stalled in the whole “getting fitter” thing. I’m  sticking to yoga twice a day, but I need to do more, to counteract all the sitting. On Monday, I also started with weights again.

Read some more, in a series I’ve been enjoying. But the author’s contempt for anyone who works in theatre or film is starting to bother me. I’m also tired of the genre celebrating its protagonists not paying characters more than minimum wage. Many of these protagonists are entrepreneurs. When they actually do the work along with solving the mystery, I respect them. Too many can just take off and do whatever, and I’m like, how do you think you can sustain a business when you never do any work?. Then, they don’t pay their employees a living wage and it’s celebrated. How about writing a better reality? How about, when the business starts doing better, the protagonists share the success with the employees?

Have had a headache since Thursday and feel like I’m coming down with a cold. Just what I need, on top of everything else.

My instructions arrived for December’s surgery. I have to put them in a Safe Place where I can actually find them again when I need them.

Yesterday, I did a lot of client work, got out 10 LOIs, and did a library drop off/pick up. Heard back from an LOI I sent last week – we have a phone appointment this morning, to see if we’re a good fit. This afternoon, I have an online Women in Business conference. And then the Knowledge Unicorns.

Tomorrow, things are stacked up – on site with a client, then Remote chat, then an online meditation session with NYU-LA, then my friend’s sister’s poetry book launch online. But I’m looking forward to these events.

Gearing up for a busy week. I’m trying to stay on top of everything, but it’s a struggle.