One of Those

You all know the old saying, “I’m having One of Those Days”. We’ve all experienced them which puts a lie to the assertion of their singular nature. My latest was this past Wednesday. That was the day my Favorite Panamanian was supposed to fly from David down to Panama City to catch her Thursday flight back home. You’ll note my use of the word “supposed”. I had checked her in online and she was already at the airport when we both learned that her flight had been canceled. No explanation, just canceled. That would have been enough to ruin the day but almost simultaneously my computer stopped working, just when I needed it the most (there might be a song in there somewhere).

I was filling out a spreadsheet when it stopped allowing me to enter any text. I though I had fat fingered (as I am wont to do) a series of keys that had somehow “protected” the sheet. When that wasn’t the case I saw that while the mouse worked I couldn’t enter text in any other application. This is a serious problem since this computer is my link to the world, including paying bills and trying to help my wife sort out a completely new itinerary. We talked on the phone and she said she could handle the flights since she was at the airport and I gave her the number of the hotel she was booked into near the Panama City Airport.

Wife Took Advantage of Delay for Lunch with her Uncle and Cousin

Meanwhile I dove into trying to fix the recalcitrant computer. In the past I usually call in my IT Team (my kids and their spouses) to solve computer related issues, but I’ve been watching how they do it. I used my phone to google what my problem was and after a few stops and go’s I was able to restore the computer (immense relief suffusing every pore – crazy how symbiotic we’ve become). My wife had re-booked her flights, scheduled to fly out of David on Thursday and to Boston today. She was back at her mom’s house at this point and said the hotel refused to change her reservation since I had made it online, I had to contact the website to make the change.

I know everybody that has ever tried to contact a website and talk to a person cringed along with me at that last statement. The website had a phone number and after three tries I made it past the AI menu and talked to a human. She seemed sympathetic up to the point she hung up on me. Three more forays through the AI menu and I connected with another human, who, after fifteen minutes with me, informed there was nothing he could do since this was booked through a partner service. He looked up a phone number and gave that to me. I thanked him for nothing and tried the number only to find it had been disconnected. I immersed myself back in google and found another number for the company he claimed was the partner service. I talked to a very nice lady there who tried several different ways to find the reservation only to say there was nothing she could do because the reservation was not made through them. People who know me realize whatever semblance of sanity I may possess had long since fled at this point.

I called down to Panama to say we’d just have to pay for another night based on my lack of success. I asked her to call the hotel again because I’d had my fill of the online reservation system. Five minutes later she called back and said the hotel, after hearing of my adventures, agreed to shift the reservation. My head exploded at this point. At any rate, she’s onboard a plane that should be taking off shortly for Boston. Yet another price to pay for Wednesday, since I’ll be driving to the airport, First Friday festivities are impacted. Hump day, indeed. Oh, and today i received an email from the reservation company thanking me for taking advantage of their customer service call center. Luckily it was one of those do not reply emails or I might have broken the keyboard. Again.

Four movies fell in my A-Z watch, all keepers: Hoosiers, one of best sports movies ever, forgotten how compelling the musical score was; Horrible Bosses, Bateman and pre-Lasso Sudeikis, way too funny, and then there’s Anniston; Horrible Bosses 2, not as funny but still a lot of laughs, and, again, Anniston; and The Horse Soldiers, Ford, the Duke, and Holden, great Civil war flick, may have steered me towards military career, fell in love with it when I was young.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                     

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course