Mercury in Retrograde

I've never really bought into the whole "Mercury in Retrograde" thing: I'm not generally into weird cosmic phenomena. But life's been so frazzled and bizarre lately that it seems as good an explanation as any.

Granted, I've taken on a huge new volunteer task, and that's brought its own complications. But how do we explain mysterious stories like this one?

Part of my job is editing and publishing podcasts, and we had recorded an interview on Tuesday with a blueberry farmer who needed the word to get out that for the first time ever she'd be selling blueberries at the Farmers Market on Saturday. Translation: she needed a quick turnaround.

So I sat down Wednesday morning to edit her interview, feeling a little grumpy about the time pressure and frustrated that I haven't had time to paint in days. And my audio editing software says "can't open file."

Wait! I think. Maybe it's a sign! If it doesn't work, I can stop sitting at my computer and go into my studio? But it's software, and there are always glitches, so I do a restart, move the file off my thumb drive and onto my desktop to try again, when a knock comes at my front door -- which is a rarity, believe me; our house is pretty deep in the woods.

And it's two ladies, Jehovah's witnesses, just wanting to hand me a little pamphlet ("no bible talk, just help" she says in her very strong Asian accent). So I smile, and take the flyer from her, and the cover reads, "Are you doing too much?"

I had to laugh, and she says, "I, know, right -- computer, washer, dryer, microwave -- we are all doing too much, right?" and then she says goodbye and walks away.

So I close the door behind her, absently flip over the pamphlet, looking for the inevitable "bible talk," and on the back cover there's a photo of blueberries.

Coincidence?

I just had to laugh. Again. Because I AM doing too much. And right now it's all about those blueberries.

Sadly, the restart and the file move worked and I could open the file to edit it, so I never did make it into my studio. But my computer was pulling glitches that whole day, and even ate whole sections of the podcast when I tried to publish it. I managed to figure it out and fix it without having to edit all over again.

But still. Mercury in Retrograde. Maybe it's a thing? If so, I'm told "Things will be normal again on September 5th."

I can't wait.