Happiness is a Direction Not a Destination

This is how my week is going. In trouble for posting something on Facebook that suggested people should commit suicide or hurt themselves in some way, or so I'm told by the powers that be on the social media platform. 

The issue is that I can't even see what I posted to understand what the horrible suggestion I have given people is. And why is it they believe people would listen to me? Who am I? A God or higher power? 

So, for all of you who may follow me on Facebook and believe my word is law, sorry for the suggestion from hell. I guess, anyway. I've slapped my hands for posting it and promise to never post the empty posting again, just to keep you safe from harming yourself. Yeah. Because that makes sense. 

I'm guessing the suggestion I made is floating around out there somewhere. Whatever it was that was said, I'm sure it held a humorous punchline as that is the type of post I typically send off with my blessing. Maybe my humor was in the gutter that morning? Who knows?

Where do we draw the line for taking blame for our own actions? Not only am I finding this in Facebook and other social media platforms, but finding it in the groups I joined for delivering goods and food to customers in the area. 

Many drivers are in there bitching and moaning about how work does this and they do that, but in my mind anyway, I find that we are the ones accepting to do the job. We also choose to accept or deny any offer for jobs that come down the line. If you accept it, then you are responsible for that order and the outcome. They show you how much you make per order. If you've worked for them for a bit of time, you realize what the order will entail. Pick and choose carefully if offended so deeply by the job. Or quit. 

***

Yes, this is all leading up to something ...

***

I also had a strange thing happen on Tuesday. I was working, delivered an order, then the app rang with another order. I accepted it and began to drive down the hill to get the order. My app went back to the main screen. I thought maybe the order had been cancelled at first, but no. Making an attempt to go back to the order, it told me that I was still on an order so I could not hit the "work now" button. Confusing!

I pulled over, worked with the app for several minutes, including uninstalling and reinstalling and doing the usual steps to see if I could get it to work again. I logged out, logged in, and tried again. Still an error coming up when I got in and made an attempt to work. Contacting support was the only way to go. 

Of course, as in many customer support stations or support of any type nowadays, the person answering had a strong East Indian accent. I almost cried. I explained the situation. He had me (once again) delete or uninstall the app and then install it again. This cut me off from him as well. All of this happened after we spent a good 30 minutes with trying various settings, logging out, logging in, and other supposed magical options, all of them showing me they had lost their fairy dust to fix things automatically. I guess my Fairy Godmother was off duty this week. Either that or she just looked at my life and said, "Hey. I got nothing."  

Through the thick accent, I could make out enough to do as asked to get the app working properly. After another 40 minutes, I was still receiving the same "Error. You are already on an order. You cannot take another until this one is finished."

 Calling support again, I had to explain it all over once more as a new person had received the call. He stammered and then disappeared. No voice. Nothing. I asked if he was still there but no reply. I hung up on my end as well and called back. All of this meant I had now missed over an hour of work, plus was moved down on my percentage of orders that I had completed. That one I had a problem with.  

I felt it was not my fault their app was not working correctly. Why should my work performance be nicked a couple of points for this? Didn't matter. It was anyway. After informing him I felt this was completely unfair, I pouted for a while, kicked the floorboard of the car, and stomped my feet. I even screamed a bit and used swear words that I had never used before. Well, at least that I'm going to admit here. Hey, what I do at home, stays at home. I worked hard for each and every point I had under my performance merits. This pissed me off. Finally getting over it, I moved on and called them again. 

This time a woman answered. Like the other two men, she had an East Indian accent as well. I have no issue with anyone who has a job who does talk with an accent, as I had a southern accent when I first came to Oregon. But when you have a difficult time understanding what they are trying to tell you, it's time to ask for someone else, especially when working with anything technical.

 Before I asked her to speak to someone without an accent, she came up with a new idea that may be a solution. She thought there might be a failure in the Wi-Fi connection. I told her I was in my car, but I could try whatever to see. I was giving up at that point. She asked me to uninstall and install the app again. I informed her that's something I had already tried six times before. She asked that I try it one last time, feeling it may be the connection.  

That struck me as a possible solution actually, as the car GPS had acted up earlier, but what in the world was happening? Everything seemed to be shit this week. I turned off the car engine and restarted her. The Kia lights lit up once more. A quiet chime went off, giving me the only indication it provides to let me know the engine is on amidst the true silence. All of the lights on the dash came on as well, to let me know we have ignition, Houston.

 Suddenly the GPS restarted. I turned on the phone, pressed the "work now" button and hallelujah. The heavens opened up and a beam of light shone down on me. I was bowing to the Wi-Fi Gods at this point. Now I was beyond exhausted and still had a bit of anxiety over the entire thing. But it was time to work again and for that, I was grateful. Class dismissed. 

***

Today, Wednesday, August 28, 2024, I began work again. After three or four deliveries today, I began to see spaces where nothing was coming through. Now was my chance to get some things done I've been wanting to complete. 

I grabbed the garden soil I purchased yesterday and pulled the planters out of the car I bought today. It was time to plant the zinnias, marigold, spider plants, and the Swedish ivy I picked out from the giveaway plants from the VA. I planted them all today, misted them well, and decided that was one task completed that I had been putting off. 

A hose we bought when we moved in sprang a leak a couple of weeks ago. I purchased another hose, hooked it up, soaked the newly planted foliage and turned it on full force. Now was the time to hose down the patio. There is a tree that drops ornamental cherries on our patio, but the tree is actually on the other side of the fence. It grows in the apartment soil, but a few branches hang over to our side, crapping nasty little ornamental "cherries" onto the concrete where we step on them and track them into the house. I sprayed the entire patio down, getting rid of tree leaves and other debris. It all looked much better. 

I walked into the house again to get ready for more work. Changing clothes, I sat on the couch to put my shoes on again. That's when I noticed the dog was acting a bit anxious. I wasn't sure what his problem was, but something wasn't right about him. Togo is a bit squirrely at times, but this was odd behavior, even for him. 

Then I noticed what was laying beside me on the couch cushion ... our remote for the sound bar connected to the television had been chewed up. Since Togo was the only dog in the room with ample access to the remotes, it was a simple deduction that pinned him as the culprit. 

Immediately I sent Terry a text and informed him of the antics of our Siberian free loader. After telling the hubby, I went onto Amazon to find a replacement. Ordered it and was notified it should be here Friday. 

Back inside the house, I saw the screen was red again on my phone, meaning that the area was busy with orders. I pressed the work now button and waited. Finally one came through. I was to go to Taco Bell and then deliver. Off I went. 

Arriving at the store, I noticed the app was sending me all sorts of warnings that I was not in the right location. Very odd. I looked the screen of my phone up and down to see what the issue may be. Then it hit me. I was not supposed to pick up from Taco Bell. It is Taco Time on another street entirely! I rushed off as quickly as I could, but by the time it was all figured out and the order was actually delivered, I was 12 minutes late on that delivery. For this screw up, I was issued a contract violation. 

The contract violation for being late does not get you fired, but you are in some trouble. If you continually get the violations, you will loose your job. I realized that my brain wasn't obviously into this today. I headed home to my hubby and my fur babies. That's where I belong. When the world is picking on me, it's where I can cuddle up and not worry about anything. 

My adorable fur babies make all the bad in the world go away.

***

All of my other stats are real high in marks. I am doing well in all points, but that contract violation will bug me until it falls off again after 100 more deliveries without one. I won't be fired, but it sure deflates the confidence of having a great delivery record. All because I was 12 minutes late delivering a burger. In the larger scheme of things, this seems rather ridiculous.

***

Terry suggested we go out for dinner tonight. I was happy to hear those words. I felt drained and depressed from the violation and all of this week's happenings. All of it was just too much! 

As he finished his cigar, I went online and found out that Mercury was retrograde until August 28, when the planet goes direct. Although today was the end of the period when everything in my life always goes to shit, there is the retro-shade that lasts a bit longer. During retro-shade, the planet may still be retracing its backward motion and this can cause more crap to happen in my life. Let's keep it going universe. Welcome to my world. Retrograde energies come and find me when it's time to do their thing. Retrograde again? Oh, yeah. So let's go find Vicki ... what can we screw up in her life now?

This might sound like complete crap to most, but I swear every time Mercury heads into retrograde movement, I'm done for. My world completely falls apart, mostly around technological things, but it can happen with most any other things in general that pertain to my life. No wonder the happenings of this week. It's all making sense to me now. I have been targeted once more. It never fails. Well played, universe. Well played. 

***

Terry came in and announced he was finished. We headed out to eat. He asked me where I wanted to go and I suggested Chi's, a Chinese restaurant we had never been to. Terry thought it was a good idea and off we went. Our other favorite Chinese restaurant closed a while ago and we had been on the search for another one since. I do believe we found it tonight. 

I had picked up an order from this restaurant a few weeks ago. The food smelled so good and the place seemed clean and well cared for. Informing Terry of the delivery that day, we talked about trying it out as some point. Tonight was a perfect time to see if it would live up to the hype of our other favorite Chinese eatery.

Chi's is actually a Szechuan, Peking Cantonese place. With coverage like that, how could you go wrong?

Terry even located his favorite sugar alternative for the tea. 

We both started out with some egg flower soup. Terry ordered a plate of curry beef with rice to follow the soup. 

I ordered the mar far chicken, chicken subgum, and pork fried rice or pork "flied lice," as Terry says. Absolutely fantastic! I knew we found our missing Chinese cuisine restaurant. 

The chicken was breaded with a light coating and white meat inside. A delightful taste and cooked to perfection. 

Of course the beautiful, tasty meal was followed up with an American made fortune cookie. Mine gave me this message. How true. 

Terry's cookie gave him a message that made him very happy, since his book is soon to be published. Before we were married, we went to eat Chinese food at another restaurant and the fortune claimed someone in the family would soon be giving wedding vows. This was as Terry and I were preparing to get married. It's all in fun, but the messages can really hit home at times, giving one a feeling of mystery and intrigue. I loved that he got this one. It's perfect. 

We finished our meal and paid the check. I wanted to go to the store so I could pick up some hooks to hang the hanging planters I got today. Our spider plants (2) and our Swedish ivy plants (2) were ready to be hung. We will hang them from the beams across our front deck and wooden overhang. 

We noticed the little Italian chef on the bicycle. Cute, but odd place to be. 

An intricate arrangement of lotus sat on the shelf behind the cashier, all made from jade. 

Two jade elephant statues also rested on the shelving. Absolutely beautiful! I love jade!

Traveling to the store and then home again. We did pick up the hooks to hang the plants. Before hanging anything, we chose to watch a couple of episodes of Leverage. I was growing tired afterward but wrote out some of this post. Now I'm sleepy and heading off to bed. 

***

Until our next post, take care of yourselves. Don't let life (or Mercury retrograde) get you down! Kick some dirt over those stars and move on.