Good Luck, Bad Luck, No Luck at All

Last year about this time, things were not going very well.  But a month or so later, my luck had changed, and things were going extremely well.  Earlier this year I mentioned that Mercury was in retrograde, and that effect has continued, as we just got a shipment that was missing two of the items we ordered. They were not on back order. They were just missing.  Luckily, we were not billed for them, and the company has agreed to send the missing items without charging us the extra shipping charges. 

Other than all the frustrations with the mail, I've had three of the nasty bugs going around since the beginning of January.  And yes, I did have my flu shot, and a pneumonia shot for good measure.  I'm a big believer in the flu shot, but while I got off extremely lucky last year, with not so much as a sniffle, this year I had a stomach flu, a cold and then this latest flu with the nasty cough that just won't quit. I say it's a flu as I had a fever for a couple of days in the beginning.  I have no idea what the difference is between this year and last.

On other fronts I've been quite lucky so far this year.

As I told you,  I won a hundred dollar gift card from Subway, and since then, a book about Joint Health For Life (that likely will tell me not to eat such things) and a big box of tea from the Bigelow Tea Company.  I've never actually heard of them before, but I got very excited when this package came.  I was expecting 16 assorted teas, but what arrived was 6 boxes, each containing 16 teas each.  Two black, three green and three red tea flavours with two of each flavour in each box. 

I've already sampled the Vanilla Peach and the Strawberry teas, both of which were red varieties. They don't come in the normal tea bag, but rather in unique swizzle sticks that you put in the cup of hot water and stir around until you get the strength you like. There could not be a better prize for someone with a nasty cough.  Once I get over this bug, I plan on having a lovely tea party with my friends.

I got an e-mail from a friend out west who says I've always been fortunate, and lucky enough to win a lot of things.  I had just read an article that says you make your own luck by taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves. Well, I win a few things now and then, but that's because I enter a lot of contests. I'm not sure that makes me lucky. It's just the odds. If you enter enough times, you are bound to win something, sooner or later. I think that hundred dollar gift card is likely the most valuable prize I've ever won. 

Still, it's unusual for me to win three things in such a short period of time.  It does help balance out the other things that have been going on in my life since the beginning of the year though. Mercury is supposed to move on and leave me in peace later this week, and really, I can't wait!

It's All in the Stars

Apparently, according to astrological charts,  Mercury is in retrograde and this week we are all told to "expect cheques in the mail to be late. Postal and courier services will suffer from delays. Everyone will be dogged by silly errors and confused communications."

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm certainly experiencing something along those lines.

I won a $100 from Subway early in January, and while others who won this contest seem to have received their gift card, mine has not yet arrived.  I put in a query a few weeks ago, and they sent me a form that needed to be filled out and sent back. I did that, and they promised to mail the card out on January 20th. If I had not sent in the query, I likely never would have received the form.

It's now two weeks later, and my prize is still not here. I know Canadian mail is slow, but it doesn't take two weeks for an envelope to go from anywhere in this country, to someplace else in the same country.  I told them that and they are now looking into it, though that was several days ago, and I haven't heard anything since.

I even told them how much I'd love to tell my blog readers about experimenting with different combinations of Subway sandwiches that I haven't tried yet.  Let's hope I get that chance.

Meanwhile the Linen Chest was having a 75% off sale and I found something on their website that I've been wanting for months.  Hunting for, in fact. I even put it on my Christmas list, but I didn't get it.  I don't often buy stuff on line, and after my experience before Christmas, one would think I'd know better.  But I wanted new pasta bowls and this set was perfect, so I put in the order. 

The original e-mail advertising the 75% off sale also came with an offer of 10% off if I signed up for their newsletter, so I did that.  I expected an e-mail giving me that additional code to plug into my order, but it didn't come, so I put the order through.  Several days later I got another e-mail saying there was still something in my shopping cart, and if I completed the order, they would give me 5% off.  I went to look at my account, and it appeared that my order was "processing", but it did indeed show the pasta bowls sitting in the shopping cart.  To me, "processing" meant the order had gone though just fine.  I wanted the bowls but didn't want to duplicate the order, so I decided to e-mail them and ask.  I also asked why I would be satisfied with a 5% discount when they originally promised me a 10% one that never came through. 

I got a response that said, "normally one receives this notice if they did not complete their purchase or completed the transaction from a different computer or browser."  That wasn't the case here though.  They then offered to take the extra 5 % off this order if I transferred the offer I received back to them by e-mail.  I eventually figured out they meant I should forward that message to them, so I did, and got that extra 5% after all.  I also got a another e-mail from them giving me that original 10% discount off my next order.

Checking my account once again, I see the order is still "processing"  but at least now there is nothing in my shopping cart.  I have no idea when the package will arrive, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if something was broken.  That wouldn't be the fault of the Linen Chest, or the Post Office, of course.  It would just be my luck.....or perhaps I could blame it on the stars.

Did I mention I've been getting lovely e-mails in my g-mail account, complete with photos of a lovely little girl, that were all meant for someone else?  I alerted the person who was sending them, and he seems to have it all straightened out now. The e-mails were meant for someone with my last name and my first initial, so I can see how this could happen.  It's just the timing that seems to fit into the predictions at the moment.

According to astrologer Georgia Nichols, the kind of mix up and confusion I have been experiencing will continue until March 20.  Oh Joy.  Can you just imagine how bad the Ides of March will be?

But on March 21st, I get to celebrate my 40th Wedding Anniversary, and it should be good as I will be in the clear by then.  Hopefully......

 

Sorting Out Electronic Clutter

This week I got a new computer, but other than give it a test run, I'm not really on it yet.  I have year end for the business to do first. The records for that are still on the old machine and since I'm not sure yet that the program will even run on the new one, I figured I better not try to move things at this point.   I also had to do a lot of weeding and juggling of files in preparation for the move to the new machine. Yes, electronic files can get cluttered too.  I know that I still have a lot of files saved on my external hard drive that should likely be pitched, but I'll just have to add that to the growing list of things that need to be de-cluttered around here. I'm glad this is meant to be a year long project, as I have found that clutter grows in new places when you are busy cleaning it out of somewhere else.

My new computer is a Windows 7 machine, and sits flat on my desktop, instead of standing tall and proud like all my previous towers. That means, since the monitor can sit on top of it, I will have a lot more space on my desk ... at least until the usual piles start to grow.  No, no, no .... I need another new resolution!  Not only am I not going to print off any more recipes (that's a habit I've been working hard to break this week), I also vow not to let my desk accumulate piles of paper. It must all be filed in it's proper place on a regular basis.

Now, that may mean I will have to create some proper places.  Until recently I had an old monitor that I could fit a shelving unit over.  It had little cubby holes down the sides where I stored certain types of things, and there was a slotted unit on top where I could file various papers that either had to be dealt with or needed to be held for one reason or another.  Then my monitor died and my hubby gave me the flat screen he had purchased for me earlier in the year. I had turned it down at the time as I knew it would interfere with the filing and storage system I'd had for years.  Perhaps with all this extra room I will be able to have some sort of file box with in and out baskets, or something.  I hope I get that sorted out soon.  With all the shoving around and rearranging that's been going on in here lately, I managed to mail off some paperwork this week, without some of the needed forms included.  Nothing is where it usually is, so it was really easy to not immediately see what needed to be included.

Meanwhile, my printer has also died, and I'm totally lost without that. I tried networking to my hubby's, but didn't succeed.  He then moved his over to my desk, as I need one much more often than he does. My old computer and his printer don't seem to play well together so I still don't have the year end report printed off.  I never had a compatibility problem with a printer before. Hubby seems to think it's my firewall that's preventing it from printing.

Then I won a $100 gift card in a contest from Subway.  In order to claim my prize, I had to print some forms and sign them, and then scan them and send them back.  But as I said, the printers wouldn't cooperate. Then I discovered that the old computer didn't have anything on it that would even open the file I was supposed to print. Neither did my hubby's computer but the new one had the needed software. So we hooked up the working printer to the new computer, and found that it wouldn't work on it either.  After a bit of messing around, and a computer search for assistance, it was discovered that hubby's printer would work on the Win7 machine if he downloaded Windows Vista drivers for it. I never would have thought of that! The contest rules state that they are not responsible for computer problems for equipment failures that may cause the required forms to not be filed with them on time.  I have to wonder if that is meant to eliminate some of the winners, as it certainly hasn't been easy.  If you wave money or food in front to me though, I'm usually motivated.

While I still don't have the year end reports printed, and am starting to wonder if a new printer would even solve that, I did at least get my desk cleaned off. The old computer tower is still on the desk until I get that task done though.  The photo pointed out to me that apparently there is a clutter of envelopes hiding back in the corner under the desk.  Cleaning those out will likely be the easiest thing I've done all week.