The great thing about technology is that it saves so much time. I mean, seriously, how did I used to get anything done?
For example, this morning I admit my dogs woke me up – they do this whole sun is shining, birds are singing thing. So we wandered outside into the cool, fresh morning for them to do their business and for me to wake up a little more slowly. It would have been a completely Zen experience except my alarm went off and I had to race in and mute it before the music I need to blast myself awake, does the same for the whole neighborhood.
A bit later, I got my coffee (I had to redo the pot because there was a brown-out and the automatic timer blinked back to midnight – incredibly irritating), and set out for work. Technology and fuel-efficient cars let me live a long way out. My smartphone’s traffic report showed that my usual route was black, so I went the alternate way they suggested.
Very pretty drive. No traffic – the other suckers were crawling along the highway. But the GPS didn’t mention that some farmer was hauling a load of hay with his tractor at 7 miles an hour. So I was a bit late (okay really late). I slipped in, no problem, but my computer time-stamped when I started on my project. My boss had a bit to say…or email about it. Wish she hadn’t cc’d the whole team.
Got through the day. Facebook and Instagram were going crazy with everyone’s getting-their-kids-ready-for-school posts (pictures were really cute – and they found some great sales). The people in Florida were on my case from the first minute (don’t any of them have kids?). I can’t help it that their workday starts three hours before mine, and they were waiting for me to forward my part of the project.
We did a video conference call using the company’s new program (still beta testing). There was no sound. Hilarious watching everyone mouthing their reports, holding notes up to their screens, or hearing the sound flicker in and out like an old time horror show. Made my day.
I needed to go to the pharmacy but I couldn’t slip out early to beat the commute because of the security camera and computer time stamp. I’d finished my part of the project (waiting for the Hong Kong office to review it…but they’re 8 hours behind). Nick was supposed to give me some figures but his computer crashed and he had to rebuild the spreadsheet, so I played a game on my phone until the battery started flashing.
Finally I got out of there. I waved at the security camera – gives Tony (who is stuck behind a bank of monitors all day) at least a little human contact.
At the pharmacy, the woman ahead of me had had her prescription rejected by the insurance computers. The pharmacist was pretty sure it was a glitch and promised to fax the doctor’s office for a new authorization but it took awhile to sort out. They were great to her and gave her enough medicine to get her through a couple of days. The pharmacist is one of the good guys – he was willing to take on an insurance computer to keep the woman from ending up in the hospital.
Finally, I got home. I zapped something in the microwave and sat down to watch TV. Yeah, I know, 500 channels and nothing worth watching. I was going to read, but I dropped my Kindle yesterday and it will be another day before the replacement gets here. So I ended up throwing a ball for my dogs (they have no interest in Netflix). The sunset was gorgeous. I tried to snap a photo, but my phone had died.
So I just sat with my dogs, breathing the cooling air, and watching the pink and orange of the setting sun shimmer across the whole sky.
I thought of going in to plug in my phone so I could text my friends about it, but for some reason I didn’t really want to move. Not even to save some time.