Going in Circles
Jun. 14th, 2021 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogWell, that was one of the clusterfuckier of mornings you're going to see.
I didn't make it to Rochester all of last week, and there's no fixed-time-and-place commitment for me to be there this week. Still, if you want to get anything done with clients, you have to bear down on them until you're blue in the mouth, and at least one I was planning to see today fit that particular bill. So today it was. I'd precleared that as the date with Mr. Blue, switched cars with Eleanor for the day, got onto the 90 at a relatively early hour, and only then noticed that one of us had put her handicapped permit back in her car. I was past the only local exit east of the 90/290 split when I got a reply from her: I wish you'd switched that because I have a bunch of errands to run.
And how did that make you feel, Ray?
It's almost 20 miles to the next exit, and I decided to be logical about the whole thing. I called Mr. Blue to be sure he was around. I parked at the exit and texted. Neither got a response. I also turned my work email back on, which I make an effort to turn off for the weekends so I don't get driven crazy 168 hours a week. Nothing about him, but a client from Friday was suddenly in crisis mode. All that together was enough to get me to turn around and head back the same 20-plus miles I'd just driven. Still, though, better than if I'd gone all that way, missed the Blue and driven 160 miles for nuthin'. I finally reached the guy and rescheduled for tomorrow, pulled back into our driveway, permit in hand, and announced my return to an empty-of-humans house.
Car was there. So was her bike (unlikely, the way she was feeling, but Sherlock always says to remove all alternatives until only one remains). Then, some texts solved the mystery: she was at a neighbor's house helping out their elderly mother who'd fallen and couldn't get up.
----
I'd forgotten that the couple had been away for the weekend, and that Eleanor had left her number with the 80-something mom "in case of emergency." How many times have we done that with no expectation whateosever we'd ever get a call? Well, this time, she did- from mom's (slightly) younger sister, who got Eleanor's number from a very dizzy sibling. She didn't know the younguns had left Mom alone in the house for the weekend. Actually, not alone- with a very high-maintenance year-old puppy who was freaking out over the whole thing.
The ambulance arrived just as I was walking away from their house. For the next two hours, everything was up in the air over who, if anyone, would be going to the horsepital with Mom. I tended to doubt it would be Eleanor, since she is nobody anybody over there knows except the dog and HE ain't talking, and the hospital in question is the one I almost had to light on fire in early March to be allowed to notarize a power of attorney for a dying client. Ultimately, it was settled: the younger sister would handle everything off from work, Eleanor would go to work as scheduled, her errands will get run tomorrow, and I would just stay and work here for the day.
----
Which, oddly, worked out better than expected. I finally solved the etherial mysteries of the non-ethernet connections between laptop and printer and can now scan through the air and monitor everything from my computer, using a new IP address the printer apparently acquired. The LOWWWW TONER! problem is solved by a new cartridge arriving ahead of schedule. And tomorrow will likely be a better day for travel, work and possibly after-work things than today would have been.
I didn't make it to Rochester all of last week, and there's no fixed-time-and-place commitment for me to be there this week. Still, if you want to get anything done with clients, you have to bear down on them until you're blue in the mouth, and at least one I was planning to see today fit that particular bill. So today it was. I'd precleared that as the date with Mr. Blue, switched cars with Eleanor for the day, got onto the 90 at a relatively early hour, and only then noticed that one of us had put her handicapped permit back in her car. I was past the only local exit east of the 90/290 split when I got a reply from her: I wish you'd switched that because I have a bunch of errands to run.
And how did that make you feel, Ray?
It's almost 20 miles to the next exit, and I decided to be logical about the whole thing. I called Mr. Blue to be sure he was around. I parked at the exit and texted. Neither got a response. I also turned my work email back on, which I make an effort to turn off for the weekends so I don't get driven crazy 168 hours a week. Nothing about him, but a client from Friday was suddenly in crisis mode. All that together was enough to get me to turn around and head back the same 20-plus miles I'd just driven. Still, though, better than if I'd gone all that way, missed the Blue and driven 160 miles for nuthin'. I finally reached the guy and rescheduled for tomorrow, pulled back into our driveway, permit in hand, and announced my return to an empty-of-humans house.
Car was there. So was her bike (unlikely, the way she was feeling, but Sherlock always says to remove all alternatives until only one remains). Then, some texts solved the mystery: she was at a neighbor's house helping out their elderly mother who'd fallen and couldn't get up.
----
I'd forgotten that the couple had been away for the weekend, and that Eleanor had left her number with the 80-something mom "in case of emergency." How many times have we done that with no expectation whateosever we'd ever get a call? Well, this time, she did- from mom's (slightly) younger sister, who got Eleanor's number from a very dizzy sibling. She didn't know the younguns had left Mom alone in the house for the weekend. Actually, not alone- with a very high-maintenance year-old puppy who was freaking out over the whole thing.
The ambulance arrived just as I was walking away from their house. For the next two hours, everything was up in the air over who, if anyone, would be going to the horsepital with Mom. I tended to doubt it would be Eleanor, since she is nobody anybody over there knows except the dog and HE ain't talking, and the hospital in question is the one I almost had to light on fire in early March to be allowed to notarize a power of attorney for a dying client. Ultimately, it was settled: the younger sister would handle everything off from work, Eleanor would go to work as scheduled, her errands will get run tomorrow, and I would just stay and work here for the day.
----
Which, oddly, worked out better than expected. I finally solved the etherial mysteries of the non-ethernet connections between laptop and printer and can now scan through the air and monitor everything from my computer, using a new IP address the printer apparently acquired. The LOWWWW TONER! problem is solved by a new cartridge arriving ahead of schedule. And tomorrow will likely be a better day for travel, work and possibly after-work things than today would have been.
Oh, man!
Date: 2021-06-15 10:26 am (UTC)