gonzai | Not My Best Day

So yesterday pretty much sucked.

Trouble started Monday when the new door that was supposed to be installed on our side porch (the main entrance to the house) was never delivered. Despite numerous assurances, it didn’t show up on Tuesday either. And in the meantime, the workers stowed some of their things in our yard and didn’t think to mention it.

Meanwhile my mother has taken a serious shine to the Sopranos, so I figured I’d get her a DVD set for each holiday (Mother’s Day, birthday, Christmas). But they’re expensive of course, and they haven’t been on sale since Christmas, so the Mother’s Day thing didn’t happen. But they are on significant sale at Circuit City this week, so I went to the new Towson store Tuesday evening only to discover – they aren’t open yet. I thought they had been for a few weeks already.

Then there were the storms Tuesday night – I have a surge protector and battery backup on the computer, but because I knew the storms were coming I shut down the computer and unplugged everything from the wall outlet. These events set up yesterday.

First thing in the morning I reconnect the electronics – and the battery backup literally starts screaming. I can’t figure out why and the only way to make it stop is to turn it off – which also turns off the computer. After much early morning struggling, I finally get it quiet – and then Mom calls me at work. It’s started up again and it’s driving her and the dogs bananas. Mom knows nothing about the computer and frankly she’s scared of it, so it was a lengthy and frustrating walkthrough to get the computer shut down properly and the whole system unplugged again.

I go to leave for work and not only is there a car parked across our driveway, blocking my exit, there’s a tow truck there as well blocking the entire road. (The neighbor across the street sells crack and just got out of jail; apparently the cops are finally catching on and arrested her customer, but waited until morning to send the tow). I had to back out over the next door neighbor’s lawn.

I did some surfing on the web searching for a new battery backup, but otherwise nothing special on the web at work. Didn’t matter. Suddenly Adobe goes batty and then the computer starts flashing ‘Malware detected! Click here to fix computer!’ Something got on the computer, infected it nicely and refused to budge. Turns out the nice new computer the offices got Friday don’t have firewalls…but of course it’s MY fault because I was surfing and it’s my machine, therefore…now I am sans computer and scanner for two days (using an absent co-workers compie right now). The boss is really POed at me. I feel like the guy in the Southwest Airlines commercial who sent the office a virus – I wanna get away!

Then I head off to Circuit City to get Mom’s Sopranos DVDs…and the Lutherville store is closed. Seems they’re moving to the Towson location, which I hadn’t known, and their clearance sale is over. Crud. Not only do I still not have Mom’s DVDs, I don’t have a battery backup and I couldn’t get that, a DVR or a better camera on clearance. So I went to Borders, thinking I can at least get the new Torchwood magazine, and…they don’t have it. Not sure if they will get it. Priceless.

So I went home. Where Mom informs me that CJ bit the door guy. ! The guy finally showed up with the door, but rather than knock and let Mom know he’s there, or have her reel in the dogs, he just strolls on into our fenced backyard and starts fiddling with things on our back porch. CJ went ballistic about the stranger in her yard and chomped him. No skin broken, and the guy apparently admitted to Mom he was in the wrong, he invaded, he should have called her in, etc, but it’s still worrisome that he might yet file a complaint. On the other hand, it is good to know CJ’s on the job defending the property.

But sheesh, not a good day.