Friday, November 9, 2012

Clocks, Rain, Machines

It all got done today.  And on time.  I'm still not quite sure how.  It's not that there was a lot to do, but just a bit of a time squeeze.  But it all worked out all right.

The day started with my monthly lunch with my friend Kathy.   She's the one I meet at Olive Garden each month. In addition to sharing our lives over the past month, we talk a lot of politics.  When we got together last month, things were very tense.  Our concerns about the outcome of the election colored everything and when we parted it was with the knowledge that our next lunch would either be a great celebration or a bitch-and-moan session.

I got there first, as I always do, and took time to text Susan to warn her that I might be a little late getting to the book store, so my bases were covered.

Needless to say it was a celebration.  Of course she had to go back to work and I had to drive back to Davis, so we couldn't celebrate with anything "harder" than water (me) and iced tea (her), but oh it was a glorious lunch.   The election went better than we had dared to hope and we were very happy.

At the start of lunch, I mentioned that I had to get back to Davis in time to get Walt to a car rental place to pick up the car he was renting in time for us to get back home and drop off one car so Walt could drive me to Logos for my book store afternoon.

After the Olive Garden bill came and we had paid it, I made motions to leave.  She looked at her watch and commented on how "it was still early" and she started talking about her job.  She really had some major stuff to get off her chest and I didn't want to rush her, but I was very twitchy, realizing that I needed to be on the road now if I was going to be able to do everything else.

Finally, at an appropriate break in the conversation, I made movement toward my purse, on the floor, and she, fortunately, followed suit and we headed for the front door.  We usually visit the ladies' room together so we're ready to get in our cars and drive again after all that liquid, but I told her goodbye then and there and hurried out to the car and sent Walt a text: "on my way," since I was already later than I expected to be.

It's about a 30 minute ride home, sometimes 45.  In my dotage and with my specific freeway fears, there are places where I just hate thinking of having to merge as I get on the freeway (or as I get off the freeway).  It's not a big problem and I have several work arounds for various routes.  My work-around from Olive Garden is to get off the freeway and drive through Sacramento, across the bridge, then through West Sacramento and meet up with the freeway again at the causeway, which goes directly to Davis.  It's only a little bit longer (depending on how many stop lights I hit), I have come to enjoy the trip through town, and I don't have to merge at any of my scary places.

But of course today I hit every. single. stoplight.  And it started to rain.

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And when I got on the causeway, it started to pour.  Not a serious problem, just one that caused me to lose some time.

I roared into the drive way as Walt happened to be standing there.   He got into the car, and we went to Avis (or is it Hertz?).  I left Walt there and drove home.  He actually got there at about 1:53, which, miraculously is about the time we leave for the book store every week.

It was 2:02 when I walked in the door.  Remember the other day when I talked about how I have this uncanny ability to arrive within a minute or two of the time I plan to, even when all sorts of impediments come up?  Today was the perfect example.

It was a fairly quiet day at the store until I "broke" the charge machine.  Well, I didn't exactly break it, but I noticed that it was almost out of paper to print charges and since it was quiet, I decided to check and see if I could figure out how to put in a new roll of paper, in case I had to.  Only when I opened the cover to the roll of paper, it popped out, so I had to figure it out right away.

I checked for a manual to the machine, but there didn't seem to be any.  I found the new roll of paper, but could not for the life of me figure out which slot to put it in, and there didn't seem to be anyway I could manually advance the paper to see if I was doing it right.  I even bought a book so I could use my own credit card and see if I had the paper in right, but apparently I did not.

I sent a text to Susan asking where the manual was.  She called and said there wasn't one and explained to me how to do it, but other than figuring out that I had been trying to put the roll in upside down, I still couldn't figure out how to do it.

I decided I'd just have to find some creative way to cope but as the afternoon went on and there were few customers, I decided that I'm an intelligent person.   I should be able to figure this out.  I tried all what I thought were likely slots into which to insert the edge of the paper again and nothing.  I wasn't going to buy yet another book.  But then I remembered something.  The old roll had slid out effortlessly when I opened the cover, which meant it must not have been in any slot at all.  I tried pulling a bit of paper out and just closing the cover on it.   I found a button that said "review" and found the charge I had made on my card and then hit "reprint" and...voila!...it printed.  I had figured it out.  I feel pretty dumb since probably Brianna could have figured it out quicker, but I did figure it out and texted "fixed it!" to Susan.

The day ended when Walt picked me up.  The rain had stopped, the rental car stood in our driveway, I had planned leftovers for dinner, and overall felt good about the day.

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