Today has been a series of little frustrations.
It began with an automated text message saying that my phone service was going to be terminated if I didn’t pay it before Monday. Well, that’s nice, seeing I can’t really get into town. I thought I had paid it, but apparently I had only added extra time to it. Well, knowing I could do that online, I put it off until after devotions.
I checked my email and found a reply letting me know one project I was considering for some side revenue wasn’t going to work out. Okay, God knows what I need. But it still wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
Then, Estrella did not want to be milked this morning. I never have trouble with her, but today she decided she wasn’t going into her stall, even with grain waiting her in the trough. I cajoled and insisted, but each time I got her head where it belonged, by the time I made it back to her udder, she decided she was done. This went on long enough that I told her out loud that she was frustrating me. I smacked her on the side and demanded she stay, which she did until halfway through the milking.
Cows!
Anne was out early to do chores. That made me happy and helped to calm me down. I felt a measure of accomplishment seeing my child take on responsibility. But then all three of the older children went inside with chores only half done! This just doesn’t happen. It took a number of times of my going over their chores with them before it was all done.
Thankfully, this is completely out of the ordinary, but it was then that I suspected today was going to be one of those days. I took a moment for deep, calming breaths, looking out over the pastures bathed in sunlight–only to see the neighbor’s sow digging around in our front yard!
The lecheros moved back in yesterday. It took less than twenty-four hours, and we are back to chasing their pig every little bit. Oh, how we’ve missed them… One bright spot is that our dogs bark and nip at the pig to help keep it out. One dark spot is the giant pig completely ignores them, causing the dogs to go crazy with barking and the humans–at least this one–to go crazy with barking, too.
Breakfast and devotions over, I slipped into the office to begin my work for the day. While we’d been eating, our electric had gone out, but it was back on. Seeing a black screen on my computer signaled more trouble to come.
I finally got the thing fired up and noticed right away that the video I had been trying to upload for someone had crashed. Though it was not that large, it had been uploading for several hours and had made it to 42% complete, but now it would need to start over. Working remotely with abysmally slow internet has its challenges.
Oh, well. I could start that again. I opened Word to begin my editing work for the day. I am nearing the end of a large project and had plans to complete it today. However, there was a nasty error message. My computer apologized that it couldn’t connect to the server and further apologized that it had lost the last save of the document.
Hours and hours of editing gone! I did not cry. I didn’t.
I tried numerous things to retrieve the document, but nothing worked. I’ll have to redo a full day’s worth of work. The computer was still struggling to act right with the slow internet, so I decided to go ahead and pay the phone plan in hopes of getting increased speed.
Step 1, Step 2, no problem. Step 3… “Sorry, we cannot process your payment.” That’s odd. I’d just used this process last week, and it worked fine. Try again. “Please call the fraud department.” Great.
I had a sinking suspicion how this would go. The card had noticed recent activity in Peru, after the card hadn’t been used for awhile. Never mind that it had been used multiple times in Peru in the months prior. Cards don’t understand these things.
The lady was kind and said all she needed to do was send me a text message with a code to verify my identity. Except, oops! Too bad! “We can’t text people in Peru. Sorry, nothing we can do. I’ll have my supervisor call you within the next several days to see if we can find a way around the system.”
So, my phone was still not paid, my card was locked, and it was too late to try to go into town. I asked Rafael if he’d be willing to pay it for me until I could get into town on Monday. He is going to try. I have this feeling Monday may dawn with me minus a working phone or internet connection. That could be interesting.
I am behind on my goal for the editing project. It’s not going to happen until next week, but will it be able to happen at all if I can’t connect? No. Ah, well. That’s a problem for another day.
I wanted to tell someone how my day was going to gain some sympathy. I had to run down a list of possibilities because I knew if I told the wrong person, I’d end up with being reminded that these things make me stronger, that there are rainbows after the storm, that there is so much to be thankful for, and so on. I kinda just wanted to have someone tell me that my rotten day was rotten.
I tried one friend. He never did answer. I tried another friend, and he delivered. Sigh… I felt a lot better. Now I can go about looking for solutions.
I know. I’m a bit odd.
P.S. Oscar and his tÃo came with a carload of groceries. The day ended better than it started.
P.S.S. Oscar told me as we bagged groceries that he always loves being around our family because we are always so happy. He said it’s beautiful. I smiled, but did not try to explain my day. I want to work to be worthy of that impression.
Thank you, Lord. I hear you.
I have a Patreon page.
Juan David 