I Don't Need The Frustration

If yesterday had a theme, it would have been "frustration."

The day started out well.  I read the paper, posted on the blog, got lunches made for this week, got myself dressed and off to work on time.  There was a little blip when I got there and there was a guy rattling the front door, asking if we were open.  I did not say, "well, obviously not since the door's locked, the lights are off, and the Open sign isn't turned on."  I didn't say it.  I smiled brightly and said, "we open at 10." like a good little store clerk.  And then he didn't buy anything--but that's neither here nor there.

Shortly after the non-buyer left, the very tall UPS guy brought a not-too-big carton of stuff needing to be sorted, entered, priced, and put away.  I didn't really mind, after all, that's what they pay me for, right?  Doing that sort of thing is kind of the epitome of "playing store" like we used to do when we were kids, only on a slightly grander scale.  Things started well, I got it all unpacked and sorted, dug out the order so I could check off things as I entered them into the POS, and began.  Thirty-six of the things in the box were neoprene mask strap covers (to keep your hair from being pulled out) with pictures on them.  Each different picture has its own letter after the general part number that IS NOT indicated anywhere on the packaging, only the general number is there, which means I either have to make a guess or consult the catalog.  I gathered up the ones I was confident I knew and began, only to have the price sticker printer run out of stickers.  Not to worry, we have more rolls in back.  I got one, put it in, and for the next two hours could not for the life of me make the @$#%& thing print.  I reinstalled the roll of stickers, turned the printer off and back on, cancelled the print, rebooted the whole system, nothing worked.  I ate my lunch (to give it time to contemplate its misbehavior) and tried again.  Still no luck.  So I called Mrs. Boss, she suggested that I do all that I'd already done twice, then said to call her later if I needed Mr. Boss to come and see if he could figure it out.  After we hung up, I completely unplugged the printer to set it up on the counter so I could reinstall the sticker roll.  While I was doing that she called back, asking if I had put in the right roll and I had, then she said to try printing one more time, so I got it plugged back in, called up one of the items, told it to print.  It did.  Which one of the many things I did made it work, I have no idea.  Then again, maybe it was the hammer I threatened to "fix" it with that did the trick.  Whatever it proceeded to merrily print stickers for the rest of the day.  Of course I ended up guessing wrong a few times as to which picture was which letter but fortunately the wraps are in plastic so it's easy to peel off the sticker to put it on the correct one.

That was really enough frustration for one day but the day wasn't done with me.  After supper (yummy leftover WW Balsamic Chicken and rice) I sat down to knit on the Hempathy Brambling Shawl because I was at the place where the next color came in and that's an exciting milestone.  I knitted the twenty or so rows, turned over the instructions to find that the pattern designer assumes a whole lot more competence than I have to offer.  Seems she felt like she'd established a pattern of increases over the last 90-some rows so she could say "the body increases continue every 4 rows" and I'd know which increase she meant and when to do it.  Understand that once you add in a color or two the original color (purple) has decreased and the other two colors (yellow and blue) are increasing.  I turned the instructions over and back to see if I could divine which of the increases might qualify as a "body" increase and finally decided to just post on a forum and ask for help.  Happily I discovered two responses in my email inbox this morning.  I will be gratefully printing them out and making margin notes--tonight.  I'm done with it for now.  It gets a time-out for the day.  Besides my sock needs more rounds, it got neglected during the price sticker debacle at work.

And the grackles have discovered the suet.  Grackles and squirrels are the reasons I bought the two-sided suet feeder in the first place, but it's a gray, chilly, rainy day today and I'm just not in the mood to be gracious.  Besides the Balsamic Chicken I made in the slow cooker last Monday has given me a stomach ache.  We had the chicken fresh from the cooker on Monday, on Tuesday morning I felt queasy.  We had the chicken stored safely in the fridge for two nights, I'm queasy this morning.  I don't think we'll be having the third meal's worth that's still in the fridge anytime soon.  Omelets (or something) for supper tonight.  Or I'll call it a frittata which sounds more supper-y.

April 14--Hippolyte Bayard, South Flank of Notre-Dame, Paris, 1850.

Buttressed and scaffolded
surrounded by blocks destined to become
part of her facade,
Notre-Dame rises along the Seine,
watches her reflection,
primps in the sunshine,
awaits the completion of her towers,
the bells that will be her voice.
~~~~~

All right, I'm done complaining and whining, for the morning anyway.  I need to shower and drag myself across town to work.  Fingers crossed the very tall UPS guy doesn't stop again.

--Barbara