Mercury Retrograde Up To Here, Alice

There's this astrological business that happens when the orbit of Mercury goes to the other side of the sun, and so from Earth, appears to be going backward when it's just getting ready to loop back.  During this event, named the Mercury retrograde, computers frizzle, transportation frazzles, arguments break out, communication is worse than yesterday's spaghetti, and money disappears.  I love October, it's my favorite month, but this year I can't wait for the 25th, when little Mercury falls back into an approved orbit.

This month my eldest cat Min passed away; she was twenty-one and frail.  The fuel lines were replaced in a half-baked manner so they leaked gasoline all the way to Michigan.  When in Michigan, the brake pedal went all the way down to the floor on a Saturday; Triple A towed it, the garage looked at the car Monday, sent to Grand Rapids for parts, they arrived and were the wrong size.  More days in the hotel, which is not a bad place to be unless you are downtown and a drugstore is not within walking distance.  So the hotel bill was going up, money was dwindling, and another fish died at home, my five-inch clown loach.

I received a written reprimand at work due to the number of days missed, and some of the kids had taken my board magnets, broken them apart for ammunition, gone into my desk and stole crackers, divvied them up between backpacks, took over one hundred colored pencils for friends and family, threw green beans all around the cafeteria; I tell you, the teachers were really really really glad to have me back.  It took two days to get those nutjob children back in hand.  A few phone calls (What?  My child did what?  No he did not.  Wait till he gets home.).

At the drugstore, the engine would not turn over, an hour later, Triple A said it was not the battery.  No fuel pressure. The gas was still leaking, WHICH IT WAS BEFORE THE BRAKES WERE FIXED, and since it had been freshly installed to a very big number of monies, perhaps it was just a loose clamp?  No no no, lady.  The people who installed your brakes punctured the lines, that's why you're getting that drip.  You need a fuel pump and we'll switch the lines to nylon.

I have never had a fuel pump, just the part, cost $355 dollars.  This must be the pump of pumps, the king of the fuel lines, the fuel pump of the Kennedys.  Cab fare to get to work, and getting yelled at by Alphonso the cab driver (WHY DID YOU CANCEL?  Well, I was waiting forty minutes in a freaky neighborhood when you said ten?) were minor roles in the overall scheme.  I learned the bus route.  Even bigger monies for this car repair, but I will not go back to these people again.  I need to find a Carm or a Wilson.  Carm fixes cars, hey, no problem.  Wilson bends auto frames back into shape with his bare hands.  I still have a broken coil up front; it sounds like the front end is being banged on by pneumatic drill when I turn left.  Safe, they said, and slapped on an inspection sticker.

Mercury retrograde is similar to the full moon thing that makes schoolchildren crazier and more emotional; of course, the moon is always there in whole, whether it is lit up or not; so, is it the illumination that releases floods of dopamine throughout usually calm circuitry?  Many, many medical institutions and fisheries swear by the effect; I'm still up in the air about this astrology business, I believe in alarm clocks and chemistry, even though Sagittarian traits seem to fit.  Even though I just took a step backwards in the kitchen, and my bare foot went into the cat's Supreme Supper.  Try getting cat food out of a braided rug.  What next.  One week left of this Mercury hoo-ha.

But many good things happened, numero uno being that my brother's brain tumor was successfully treated by gamma knife radiation.  The doctors put titanium screws into his skull and locked them down to make sure not a wiggle would happen during the procedure, and the result was apparently total disappearance.  He's still able to walk around the house under his own steam.  While I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Muskegon, they kept the bill at the convention rate several days over, a substantial savings.  My ingenious friend Pauline found a key to get into my apartment to take care of the cats for the extra days, bless her.  I discovered a Geastrum saccatum under a pine in Michigan, an earthstar mushroom, a species I had not seen before.  Old and new friends taught me things, helped me through; a night drive by lake waves was extraordinary.

Seasons are changing, the colors as I drove back home were dwindling to bare tree branches reaching upward, revealing what was hidden by the green leaves during the summer.  It opens your eyes, to see what was hidden come forward.  Sleep well, listen to the wind as it roughs around corners, and know that it was partially formed by pressure gradient force trying to even out differences, smooth the blankets, create balance.  Peaceful night.