Back home. Pooped!

We arrived home Monday night and all’s well. Almost. Graduation, which I’ll elaborate on another time, was an overwhelming 2 day experience. I’m just too tired to move…could it be that Mercury is in retrograde?

Here’s a bit more on this phenomenon:

“All of the planets move in the same direction around the Sun, each with a different rate of speed. Mercury’s orbit is 88 days long; therefore approximately 4 orbits of Mercury around the Sun equals 1 Earth year. —

Periodically, Mercury appears to slow down, then stop, (stationary retrograde) and then move slowly backwards for several weeks (retrograde). Eventually, it appears to stop again and reverse direction (stationary direct) moving slowly forward once again (direct). Eventually Mercury appears to return to its normal orbital speed.

This occurs because Mercury travels faster than the Earth, and it periodically catches up with Earth, passing us by. When Mercury “goes retrograde” it does not actually slow down, stop and move backwards. It only appears to do so. This phenomenon occurs near Mercury’s inferior conjunction to the Sun—as Mercury passes closest to the Earth, between the Earth and the Sun. This phenomenon has to do with the relative speed of the Earth and Mercury as well as their relationship to each other at a particular point in their orbits. There are three Mercury Retrograde periods each year, each lasting approximately 3 weeks.

What does Mercury Retrograde mean?
In mythology, Mercury is the messenger of the gods. Astrologically, the planet Mercury is said to be associated with or to rule all activities that relate to communications, travel, learning such as:

• signing agreements
• classes and schools
• sending correspondence
• communications equipment such as computers, radios, and phones
• traveling and travel equipment such as cars, bicycles, trains, and planes

Classically, Mercury retrograde periods are not considered ideal
for engaging in Mercury related activities such as:

• placing ads
• making important decisions
• travel
• purchasing communications equipment
• signing contracts
• initiating business deals
• sending important correspondence or any type of message
• starting school or any important project
• beginning any new enterprise (as plans may be reversed later)

A Mercury retrograde period is thought to be excellent for:

• reviewing and revising plans
• catching up on old business
• cleaning out the metaphorical closet
• deeply considering issues

However…
like everything else in life, these rules are not steadfast and your experiences may differ from these generalities. Never let the planets rule your life! If you simply must sign a contract or begin a new job when Mercury is retrograde, go for it!

While some of us are very sensitive to Mercury cycles and find that certain activities become difficult during retrograde periods, while others experience no such problems. How you experience Mercury has a lot to do with planetary placements at your birth, as well as with current planetary positions. The best way to understand how Mercury retrograde periods impact you is to track your own experience. Check the dates that Mercury is retrograde to track how sensitive you are to this cycle.”

While I ponder the 25 cartons in my living room, filled with our son’s
dorm contents–I already did the 35 loads of laundry– I’ll fill you in on some of the mercury-esque stuff that’s been going on:

 

1. My husband sent an email to his school with notification that he wouldn’t be coming in Tuesday. The communication was never received, the server strangely went down;
2. We were about to trade my car with a friend’s van for the trip when the release switch broke to the gas cap cover. Luckily we had another car;
3. We returned home to an ant colony that had migrated to the kitchen counter;
4. The sitter left a note that one of the cats got sick on the rug and left a “present” on the carpet. THAT never happened before.
5. There was no internet signal coming from the router; I did some troubleshooting and deduced the router had burned out. It’s only 10 months old;
6. Mr. Sans and I decided to pick up a back up a backup router as we can’t live without our 4 computers. (rolling eyes upward). He backed the van out of the driveway and smacked into the neighbor’s car across the street. Just a light smack. Just a small dent. (rolling eyes upward again). Luckilythe neighbor is a nice guy and not making a big deal.
   
7. I bought a new router. OOOps, not the same model as the current one;
8. Called Netgear, the router manufacturer and got caught in a 3 hour disaster phone call filled with misconnections, wrong departments, dead ends, cut offs. It was verified that the router was defective and would be exchanged. This is after a rep insisted that I had to buy a service contract in order to first speak to a tech to get the verification. Sounded fishy to me. I ended up reporting her. I gave up the the phone maze when I go a migraine after trying to hear 4 people on the other line and not being able to.
9. I tried to call Verizon, my internet service provider to ask why one of the computers wouldn’t respond when directly plugged into the wall without the router. One hour down the drain;
10. Woke up and found one of my clocks was exactly an hour behind-nothing wrong with the batteries;
    
11. This morning I spent another hour on the phone with Verizon; the tech guy insisted there had to be wrong with the computer;
12. My son took the cable and plugged in directly to his laptop. His computer now can’t get on the internet. Mine can, hence I am here. So why can I and why can’t they, when they could yesterday?
13. Spent 3 more hours in and endless technological maze with Netgear, today. The same insanity as yesterday. Even screaming for a supervisor didn’t help, I kept getting disconnected, or assumed I had been after holding for half an hour.
14. Called corporate headquarters in California, demanded to speak to “the top level” person in customer service, got a voicemail and left a 3 minute message including, “one of your reps coerced me into buying an unnecessary service contract.”
15. Nice guy. Said he wanted to make me “happy.” I told him he’d make a good husband. I saw him blushing from 3,000 miles away. He promised a call back from a top technician who would probably know how to “fix” the router.
16. Technician calls and admits that my router was probably in the batch that had a “bad chipset” causing it to burn out in less than a year.

The bottom line is, I have an arrangement to get a new router, then can send back the old one. It will be “brand new.” I have guaranteed happiness. Six hours work to get some satisfaction. We’ll see how long it takes with Mercury seemingly sliding backwards.

In the meantime, there are three Soucis and only one ole laptop that is able to get on line. Directly wired, one at a time.

If all this makes absolutely no sense to you, that’s ok, I’m in the same boat. It’s Mercury in retrograde.

Never fails, the computer rebels everytime.

I gotta go. My son needs the computer.

Love you guys. I’ll be by when the ‘puter is free.

 

52 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

reply starfishred wrote on May 28, ’08, edited on May 28, ’08 oh my glad you are back my friendyes it has deffinatly been affecting hope it is over soon

reply wrenomatic wrote on May 28, ’08 Yup, Mercury in retrograde……. 🙂

reply lunarechoes wrote on May 29, ’08 I don’t know about Mercury, but it sounds as if you are under the same curse as my family. My mother bought a car last June, and it is still isn’t registered, due to the combined incompetence of the dealer and the CA DMV. At one point, the dealer got confused and reported the car stolen, and my 70-year-old mother was pulled over by THREE Kern County sheriff dept. officers.Your adventures with tech support sound like mine with Symantec a couple years ago. They eventually agreed to refund the money for the Norton anti-virus suite, because it didn’t work with my particular motherboard/chip configuration, but it took hours and hours and hours on the phone over several days, and I had to endure an almost intolerable amount of condescension from a man in Bangalore. I hope they refunded your money for the service contract. (I would say what I think of them, but I don’t know you feel about swearing on your blog.)

reply sweetpotatoqueen wrote on May 29, ’08 Welcome home Darlin….I’m leaving a pitcher of mojitos for you, a voodoo doll to use for that terrible service representative and a big hug to let you know that you were missed.(I was the one who was howling at the moon during the last lunar eclipse in your poll up there…nuff said)

reply danceinsilence wrote on May 29, ’08 Welcome back!!! Good to see ya running around the halls again 8=)I’ll be back later to read thi … Huggers 8=)

reply suggar202 wrote on May 29, ’08 Welcome back Sue and congratulations on your son’s graduation!

reply luluone wrote on May 29, ’08 Welcome back Sue

reply skeezicks1957 wrote on May 29, ’08 Hmmm, sounds like you are having it rough. I do not remember if there is a chapter on planet alignment in my Feng Shui book but certainly our surroundings have an impact on us.

reply mindsnomad wrote on May 29, ’08 aha. so thats what it is. Glad to have you back. Today I am in a mood to agree with this aspect..talk to me when mercury moves direct(giggling). I believe that the surroundings do effect the way we think or do things, but I like to blame the Moon for all things skewed in my general direction. Well, at least I dont have to hunt for it in the sky, its there where I can see it and its such a good listener.

reply ppiccola wrote on May 29, ’08 i will bring you a nice tequila while you wait for the problems to get fixed…i’m sure it won’t affect the planets around you…although they do affect you or me or others. (((hugs)))

reply aladybug wrote on May 29, ’08, edited on May 29, ’08 I’m glad that you’re back, and I hope you are taking some “cat naps” (ha) after those 3954857 loads! Mercury retrograde… a long ago I kept track of those influences and could see them, so yes, I believe they have an impact. The problem I see in following it as much as I did in that time is that some influences appear only slightly while others have a huge impact. I love synastry reports, though… After I have ended relationships I have read them and thought: see? It was HERE!Welcome back! 🙂

reply lynnpolarity wrote on May 29, ’08 lol murphys law! welcome back…

reply welshdoug wrote on May 29, ’08 I voted for the “howling thing”, because I hate shaving………When you say “Home. Pooped” in your title……that’s almost the first thing I do when I get home too! lolI don’t know about planetary influence from above – Earth is my biggest worry, usually. btw. I decided to to a last minute “step-in” for Poetry Wednesday this week, seeing as you were away – hope you don’t mind. I referred to it as “PW” to attract a younger audience. lol

reply vickieann wrote on May 29, ’08 Glad to hear you are all home safe and sound, well safe anyway! I am so lucky that I have two computers techs who live next door to me. I can really turn my head to the side and holler out the window: “Tiff, this machine is being a two year old again!” She pops right in, takes 30 seconds out of her busy life, and has me up and running again.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on May 29, ’08 There’s always the phone.

reply hurricanekate wrote on May 29, ’08 I’m with you on the retrograde!Welcome home, hope you are able to relax a bit before jumping back into your immediate life! But most just welcome home … xo

reply belita747 wrote on May 29, ’08 Welcome back on here! Thanks for the informative post. I enjoyed reading it. May you have a great day with some time to relax. You might need it! Hugs.

reply arcamun wrote on May 29, ’08 Sooz, you sent it may way when we talked, I was sceptical until it happened to me too. Darned Mercury!

reply dianeoart wrote on May 29, ’08, edited on May 29, ’08 Damn Mercury… I received this from a good friend and I though to share it with you.Don’t Let This Pass Make Your Voice Heard http://youtube.com/watch?v=CqBZd0cP5YcOn April 24, Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), John Conyers (D-MI) and Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced legislation (S.2913, HR 5889), which is now being referred to as the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008. It is virtually the same bill that was presented in 2006, and subsequently rejected by Congress. But now, they are trying again. If passed, the Act would radically alter copyright laws, taking away the automatic copyright now guaranteed to artists of all types who create any type of work. Right now, under U.S. law, you are automatically guaranteed copyright on everything you create, from the sketches in your sketchpad to your best paintings and sculptures. Under the Orphan Works Act, every creator will be required to register everything he or she creates in a private registry system, requiring a fee of course, and supposedly to make it easier for the “public” to search for works and contact the creators if they want to use the works for some purpose. Everything created in the last 30 years will need to be registered through this as-yet nonexistent system, including those works already registered via additional fees with the copyright office. If they aren’t, and some member of the public makes “due diligence” to find the creator of a work and can’t find him or her, that member of the public is entitled to use the work without any limitations, and artists will have no legal recourse. That means every piece of work you have out there, especially online, would be open season for use by major publishing houses and businesses (Microsoft < who owns one of the largest online image databases < and Google have already voiced support for the bill and indicated they will use thousands of images) and everyone in between. Proponents of the bill say it will assist the public in identifying and contacting creators of works and going through the proper channels to contact them to ask for permission. While we understand the need for an organized system of search, there are MAJOR FLAWS in the proposed bill that need to be addressed before any such proposal should take place. Here are a few points: Under this law, you would need to register every piece of work you create, including those works that you have already registered with the Copyright Office officially, in some system that does not exist and would likely require you to pay to do so. The time and cost to do this is going to be prohibitive for visual artists. While this is meant to apply to all types of creative works, including music and literary, visual artists will be impacted the most because of the sheer volume of work we create, making it very expensive to register everything you have ever created or will create. For the visual arts, there would still be little protection for you and your work, even if it is registered, because search tools would rely on names of artists or titles of work, and not image recognition tools, which are still in their infancy of development. Under this law, if you register your work, you would have to respond to EVERY inquiry sent to you for use of the work. So in other words, if you have a work out there in a registry system, and some person contacts you and says he wants to use your work for free on his Web site or in his new catalog, you would need to take the time to officially respond to every inquiry within a specified time limit, letting him know if you do not want to have him publish your work for free. This will take a lot of time and effort that we, as professional artists, do not have. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the bill, and yesterday, May 15, the Senate Judiciary Committee did as well. This means the bill will be presented to Congress, likely before the end of May. We need you to write to your representatives ASAP and let them know that you do NOT want this bill to be expedited, as it is now. Tell them we need a better solution, or tell them you don’t want it at all: Just be sure to tell them something soon. Click the links below to get more information on the bill, including a video that gives you a great overview of the artists’ concerns: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CqBZd0cP5Yc http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00261 http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185 http://www.capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=11346091&type=CU http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/orphan_update.php http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/Perlman080313.pdf Click below for several options of pre-written and editable letters that you can fill out, and that will automatically identify and send it to your representatives when you enter your address. http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ Don’t wait. Do it now. And pass this on to everyone you know. Thanks for your help

reply brian51 wrote on May 29, ’08 Welcome back, I’m sure you had a wonderful time at the graduation. you must be so proud. I can’t wait to see my youngest graduate, a special day. And do you ever live an exciting life! More stuff happens to you in a week than to me in a year!

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Me, too, missed you, Heidi! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Missed you, Wren! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 It’s always something! Hey, you should have heard me screaming at agent after agent, was I a tiger. (I can be so empowered when on the phone miles away)

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Pass the pitcher, sweetie, and let’s say “to hjell with it all!” Tried a great drink over the weekend–a Blue Ocean martini, made with ginger. Wowie! We gotta do this!

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Running down the hall with scissors. Woohoo, wild woman here!

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hey good to see you, too, Sugar and thanks! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Thanks so much, Lu! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hey, Skeez! Missed ya! I guess the feng shui of the planets can affect us–if we believe it can.

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Rashmi, you’ve been missed, fees like I haven’t sen you in ages. It’s a three week cycle! OOOps, my son needs the computer, I’ll be back…

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hey, Pic, I missed you Come by for a Blue Martini!

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Oh, Gawd! You can’t imagine the chaos! I can’t think when there is so much dissaray, so much STUFF! But that should be the worst of my problems ever, right? I’ll be back later, hopefully, when I can grab some computer time. I think me and my grown young man will get some tomatoes and flowers and do some planting. xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hiya, Lynn! Yes Murphy’s Law indeed, and maybe it’s Murphy’s Law of the Universe. Sheesh! Anyway, good to see you. Hugs x2

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 When you say “Home. Pooped” in your title……that’s almost the first thing I do when I get home too! lol How did I just KNOW that YOU would respond as you did? Well, in this case, the cat pooped, who the hell knows why? Earth is a BIIIG worry, but I can swear that all this electronic craziness happens during these “retrogrades.” Who knows? Glad you “stepped in,” and hope you didn’t step in POOP. You can help me out anytime, I really had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to make it and without my main computer, I am just, sniff, not myself… Welcome soon to NY!!!!!

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hiya, Vicky!, well, I’m the tech, I do all the maintenance and problem solving. It’s all beyond me! Good to see ya and be careful on that bike! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hey, sis! Good to “see you”, are you Grace Slick today? Well, there is always the phone IF it works, and IF you don’t have to send an urgent email–we had nothing but glitches with that too! Talk soon, l’l sis. Had a dream about you last night! xoxox

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Kate! Good to see you! Missed you, sis! I couldn’t jump into my immediate life if I wanted to–too many boxes, disorder and distraction. But, hey, my immediate life has been blogging and without all the computers set up, I feel stymied. I’ll be doing a post when I can on the graduation. You have to see the cool clips my son did with his Canon. Love you. Still waiting with baited breath for that revelation you were going to tell me. xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Belita bunny! So good to see you. Hope I can do a creARTive post this weekend. We’ll see what happends; I love to see your collections. xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 ROOZ! what happened? Right! Mercury! PS, please move next door! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Diane, I am soooo glad you gave me this information. It’s overwhelming.I am wrestling with copyright issues now as I am putting a book together and I use a lot of song lyrics embedded in my poems. Go try to find the owner of the copyrights, you can lose your mind. This issue looks like a “retrograde.” How reactionary. I had done a line of greeting cards in ’86 and the thought of going through all the rigamarole is too much.OK going to click on the links and explore and react!Artists, unite! xo

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hi, Brian! I’m happy to see you. I’ll post about the graduation when I get a chance.

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 I am embedding this important video that Diane linked to. Oh my, this is something! I will also upload it into my videos so people are alerted. To arms, picture!

reply philsgal7759 wrote on May 29, ’08 Well son’s computer did its summer blowup yesterday so who knows. Got to love it I pay a 900/year technology fee to his college for the thing and every summer it goes down. Oh well he gets a new one next year

reply danceinsilence wrote on May 29, ’08 Mercury just6 either isn’t your planet, or you need a new vitamin efficiency in yer system as mercury is too leaded (heavy handed) for everyone there.

reply spoiledkitty29 wrote on May 29, ’08 Mercury is certainly in retrograde for me just as you suggested…not only do I have “issues” with my internet connection I went to dinner tonight and the waitress quietly told me that my debit card had been declined. I had checked my account late this afternoon and had plenty of money in it so it was of no concern.I got home and logged in to see why it’d been declined…it’s overdrawn by 450 bucks! The school had post dated checks for tuition – they decided to be a wise ass and cash this week’s one and the one for 2 weeks away at the same time, now I’m stuck to the wall with an overdrawn account. Yeah, it’s seriously in retrograde!

reply hadenough1 wrote on May 29, ’08 Sounds like something is happening. I’ll call Al Gore

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Amazing, right!!? Sheesh! That’s that miscommunication. Anyway, good to see you. Sending $450 cyber bucks.

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Hi, Haddie! Get right on the phone! xo

reply spoiledkitty29 wrote on May 29, ’08 Gracias for those cyber bucks…my kids love to use ’em – plus I don’t care how recklessly they spend :-)I finally got ahold of the director and reamed some serious ass…she’s going to the bank tomorrow to fix it on her end, I’m gonna force her to make it right because she’s the one who screwed up on this one.Ok, so how long is this retrograde thing gonna last? I’ve already lost a job, had an overdrawn account, not gotten unemployment insurance confirmation call, got turned down for a job where I had 2 interviews at….WTF? I applied for a job today but couldn’t get the formatting right on a file to apply for the other. It gave me hell all day *shakes my head and wanders off*

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on May 29, ’08 Sigh! Three weeks!

reply morgaineofthefairies wrote on May 30, ’08 thank you sister for giving this more sense and understanding. i was told or i read somewhere that 10 days prior and 10 days after the feeling and the stuff start and ends would like to heaqr some imput. blessings

reply darmarnix wrote on May 31, ’08 Build a Labyrinth during a Mercury Retrograde, use the energy for Magical Transformation

reply fluffyj wrote on Jun 1, ’08 I’ve had quite a collection of Mercury flurry also with thunderstorms, internet and electricity blips, work, family, my sanity and energy waning. I’m quite nervous about the Accreditation team coming this week, but did find a dress for my daughter’s wedding (in 2 weeks) at last! There appears to be a truce between me and my husband, which I feel will instantly desolve after his family returns to Wisconsin after the wedding. There have been some serious discussions… but little has been resolved, just some items aired. I’m enjoying the calmer air, but can’t seem to buy into a permanent change of atmosphere quite yet…seasons change quickly in New England! Keep your fingers crossed, I am! Hope you emerge from all this just fine very soon! -janeen