A Major/Minor Mix-Up

A major/minor mix-up sent me into something of a tailspin this morning, making me wonder whether I'm descending into something of a downward spiral. So my friend Lisa encouraged me to write again (thank, friend).

This was the mix-up:

Michael, quite innocently, said, circa 7.15am; 'remember to print off the label to get the dehumidifer collected today'. 'Today?', I said, just staring back at him blankly, thinking of all the reasons why this was not going to go well. 'I thought it was next Thursday?'. Apparently not. And thus followed a series of farcical and tear-rendering events, which made me wonder if I'm losing the plot a little.

Firstly, I had to message my friend (mentioned above), who I was due to meet at 9.30am. Secondly, I had to sort out a refund for the creche. Or see whether I could still make it to the creche for 10.30 and not have to cancel (preferred option). But thirdly - and here is the Nemesis - I had to 'print off the label.' I knew this was going to spell problems. Nay, disaster. And I'm happy to say I was right, because it always feels good to be a little right, surely.

First problem? I couldn't find the email with the PDF attachment of said label. Oh no, sorry. First problem? 'Gmail is temporarily unavailable. Apologies for any inconvenience.' Nope, that has never happened before. Second problem: couldn't find email. Third problem: couldn't get hold of Michael to ask about the e-mail. 

Meanwhile, Grace is downstairs and has had a small meltdown about a misplaced teal-coloured pot of play-doh. She has all the other colours, but it's the teal one she wants. But I digress. 

I finally get hold of the PDF, but the printer won't work. It says it 'isn't connected'. So I move the cable a bit and change USB ports. It connects. It prints the second, irrelevant and useless, page of the PDF. It then tells me I have a 'paper jam'. It's OK though... it's going to give me instructions on how to fix it. It gives me instructions and I follow them. But I can't see any paper in the machine. Then the printer flashes up with a 'QR code' which I can scan. I've never scanned a QR code in my life and have no intention of doing so now, as the clock heads towards 8.46am and I am due out in about FOURTEEN minutes.

But apparently, if I use my iphone to scan this QR code then I can get onto the online manual and figure this out. At this point, needless to say, I'm nearly in tears.

So...

as we approach October and Winter looms on the snowy horizon, I'm thinking that the usual high I get from the summer sun has disappeared for a while - hibernated, as it were. And I'm wondering how I'm going to get on this year. 

After I wrote out manually all the information from the hostile PDF label with a permanent marker on the box of the dehumidifier, and then saw that an 'internal label' was also required inside the now-fully-wrapped-with-brown-tape box, I felt an ominous sense of what the next few months might bring. Let's watch this space. I think I need to introduce hygge. Is that what it's called? I think that's what they call it in Denmark.

Anyway, the Dollection Date of the Doomed Dehumidifier is now tomorrow and so the fun will start all over again tonight, with my label-printing. But at least I got my coffee with my very good friend and it catapulted me back into writing. It's the big things in life, hey?