Mercury Retro Checkup

map of Sea World, Orlando
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I’m kind of curious about this. Midway through the Mercury retro, what sorts of experiences have you had?

Ours have been varied – some that were expected, some not. Since this retro falls on the financial axis in our individual charts, its not surprising that checks for our joint projects are delayed. Not only did they never reach the agent – but the  checks have to be reissued. OK, figure on January with those checks. Good, we pay taxes on them next year. Silver linings and all that.

OK, on to the other stuff. We had plumbing issues with two sinks. In the kitchen, we had a major leak under the sink that turned out to be the result of a misaligned faucet. Rob corrected it, the leak went away. With the clothes dryer, the sucker took multiple cycles to dry a single load of clothes. Solution? We checked the silver tubing that connects to the wall. It had broken away from the wall…Once Rob got the tube in the wall again, the dryer worked like new.  The key idea in both instances was connection.

So far, so good. The “problems” definitely aren’t related to what I expected for a Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius.  And there are some unexpected silver linings.  Our neighbor calls us. Can we use four chairs? Her sister has four leather/suede chairs that she thinks will fit perfectly into our family room and that don't fit in her new house. Are we interested? Well, sure. How much? They’re free.

So the next day we drive ten miles south and pick up a four chairs that are probably the nicest we’ve ever owned. Then I got fed up the old furniture we’ve owned for decades, pull a couch and a table out to the curb to be picked up, and buy a new thing for the kitchen at 50% off;  there’s an imperfection in a right corner.

Our daughter, Megan, and I drove to Orlando the other day for her interview at Sea World as an assistant animal trainer.  There were plenty of Merc retro incidents.  For instance, we neglected to move the Sun Pass from one car to the other. This handy gizmo allows you to zip through toll booths because the toll is deducted electronically from the gizmo. Inconvenience. Then we got lost as soon as we got off the turnpike in Orlando, wandered around for awhile, kept trying to bring up the right maps on our cell phones. Fortunately, we finally made it to where we were supposed to be and she wasn’t late for her 10 AM interview.

I waited for her in the employee parking lot, going through the copyedits for Ghost Key, the sequel to Esperanza, a positive Merc retro thing to do.  But by 11:30, I started wondering where she was. I knew there was a show at 10:45 and had expected her interview to be over by then. I walked up to the security gate to ask if there was a restroom I could use. I chatted with the guards, who hadn’t seen any blonde named Megan.

My imagination instantly slammed into overdrive  and coughed up an entire plot about what had happened, where she was, and how, if she hadn't shown up by 2 PM, I was going to call the cops. The entire novel unfolded in my head.

At noon, she drove up with one of the Sea World trainers.  She got to see the 10:45 show. I'm beginning to think that fiction writers probably shouldn't have children!

We had decided before the trip that we would go to Sea World after her interview. So off we drove to the SW parking lot. The fee was $14, just to park. Then we got to the ticket booth and learned that a single ticket is about $80, way too much for the few hours we were going to spend there.  So we left and went in search of lunch. No Sea World amusement park, but Megan and I got to spend the day together and perhaps one day I’ll be able to use the plot I imagined.

As Vonnegut used to say, So it goes.  This retro, which ends December 13, seems to be about small things going wrong, plans being rearranged. But there have been unexpected bonuses, as well.