The Trend…
Excluding oral surgeries, I’ve had four surgeries in the past half dozen years.
A urologist did the first for a blocked bladder. Next came a broken arm and orthopedic surgery, followed by an orthopedic surgeon repairing a ruptured tendon. Then, last fall, a different surgeon removed my gallbladder.
What’s interesting about this is that these four surgeons left the system within a few months of doing my surgery.
My suspicions are inflamed. Were they just put there to operate on me or did operating on me give cause to have them removed?
Either way, it’s a troubling trend.
I’m keeping an eye on my oral surgeon. At least he’s still here.
For now.
Expectations Met
I tried logging into Gmail this morning.
This page came up:
“We’re sorry, but your account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes. You can view the Google Workspace Status Dashboard for the current status of the service.
If the issue persists, please visit the Help Center »“
Well, hell.
The “Google Workspace Status Dashboard” shows a green checkmark for the current status. Everything is working fine.
Just as I expected.
It’s just me.
Three Beeps
I nuked something this morning in the microwave. When it announced, “Done”, with five beeps, I responded by pressing the cancel button three times.
Thinking back with a smile, I remembered how I developed that habit. Those ‘three beeps’ are supposed to be for good luck. I first did it in the 1980s when we lived on Okinawa when we bought our first microwave. I started to nuke something but canceled it, inadvertently pressing the button three times.
Later, I had a good day. When I remembered that the next morning, I thought, I’m going to keep doing this, because maybe those three beeps brought me luck.
It’s all fiction. I did hit the cancel button three times today and smiled, wondering if it would bring me good luck, and then I made up the rest.
It’s Tuesday
Coffee smells landed. I breathed it in.
The barista greeted me from the counter, “Hey, Michael.”
“Hi, Natalie.” I slid my payment over as she wrote up my order.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
An espresso machine hissed. I shrugged. “It’s Tuesday, isn’t it.”
She nodded. Natalie loves shouting with a big, lovely grin, “It’s Tuesday, innit?”
Today, she said, “Just two days in and it’s already a burden.”
I smiled. “Too true.”
Natalie began entering the order into the register.
“You have my Co-op number?” I asked.
Her emerald eyes widened. “Five nine nine six?”
Classic rock spilled out of the speakers.
“Bingo,” I shouted.
Natalie and I laughed like maniacs.
“It’s Tuesday, innit?” I asked.
Natalie bent over in laughter. “It’s Tuesday, innit?”
Michael Seidel, writer 