Thursday, December 1, 2022

Aggravation

 I have a strange mind. Very often, things just pop into my head. For instance, I saw a feed for Eagleton Notes, and Graham used the term 'anti clockwise' to describe his walk. 'Widdershins!' popped into my head. I mean, really, It is not a word I use. Furthermore, it is not a word anyone I know uses. As a matter of fact, I had to look it up to see if it meant 'counter clockwise'. (It did.) I can't remember where I came across it,. but I must have. 

It's happened to me before. Once, when I worked at a Tractor Supply, a customer was trying to describe a tool he needed. It popped into my head immediately. "Oh! I know. You're looking for a mattock." I headed off to see if we sold such a thing. We did. It was what he wanted. Understand this tool was part of  tool display. The name of the maker and the barcode was on it, but the name of the tool was not provided. 

The customer was pleased as punch because it was exactly what he was looking for. I spent the rest of my shift puzzling over it. 'Mattock'? Where had THAT come from? Was it even right? As soon as I got home, I headed straight for the computer. I typed in mattock and the picture was exactly the tool I had sold. I couldn't tell you where that word came from, but obviously I had heard it somewhere. 

Funny how things pop into my head sometimes. Today, it was a phrase. "This could make a preacher cuss." No mystery about where the phrase came from though. My father said it all the time, and usually he was applying it to me. I was the one who could make a preacher cuss. I sure made him cuss. He cussed all the time though. Probably I made him cuss more than usual. Dunno. 

Funny the things that pop into my head sometimes. 

This morning, I got up and had my coffee reading blogs. I have been staying off my feet, which frustrates Tim a little. He can't abide laziness, yet here I am, stretched out on the couch. For two days even. 

Staying off my knee has helped. It still hurts if I spend any time on it, but today I was going out for the first time in probably 4 days. I wanted to get my covid booster and my flu shot. I went to retrieve my covid card from my passport wallet. That was the last time I'd actually carried it, when I went to England to visit Cara and Colin. 

Except it wasn't there. Everything else was. I checked inside the passport. Nope. I checked the eight pockets and the zippered compartment, pulling out every piece of paper in that wallet.I emptied out the wallet. The debit and credit cards I used while I traveled. The itinerary. The boarding passes, Wet wipes. My insurance cards (which are now undated and useless.) Receipts. All manner of ephemera. I sorted through the papers carefully. No covid card. I threw away the stuff I didn't need. It wasn't there. 

That was a bit of a surprise, because really, I haven't carried it anywhere. I cannot think of anywhere that I would have needed proof of vaccination except boarding that plane back in February. 

Isn't this frustrating? Why it is enough to make a preacher cuss. It was not the last time that thought ran through my mind this long morning. 

I came out to the computer desk. Maybe I needed it for something I was completing online. I went through the omputer desk and found a whole mess of stuff that I could get rid of there as well. More outdated insurance cards, gift cards, envelopes, phone books, notes to myself, out dated bills and reminders and receipts. 

I searched three dresser tops and dumped out a drawer. I went through the stack of souvenir books from my trip that I keep on my bedside table. I went upstairs to check two lockboxes of important papers. I even checked an old purse that I'd meant to get rid of, but hadn't. Today was the day for that, too. No covid card was found, but I wound up with a full garbage bag of things to take to the trash, embarrassingly enough. 

It really was enough to make a preacher cuss. 

I came out to call the doctor's office. I mean, really, I couln't be the first person in the world to lose a covid card. Maybe they could issue me a new one. It just made me so frustrated though, because quite honestly, I was almost certain that I had no need to take that card out of my passport wallet. It should have been there. 

The office was closed for lunch and so I headed back to the bedroom. I picked up my travel credit cards and my passport, and the much smaller pile of papers and began to tuck them back into the various pockets of the passport wallet. I went to push the passport into the biggest, deepest pocket and it caught on something. 

You guessed it. It was my covid vax card! I know that I checked the pockets of the thing multiple times. I was so sure that my covid card was in there. I never found it. It was the strangest thing. Really. It was enough to make a preacher cuss, although for all this frustrating morning, I don't believe I swore at all looking for that card. 

There was a frustrated oath when I found it though. 


40 comments:

  1. I don't misplace or lose things often, mostly when I know I've put something somewhere safe but I can't find it. I have to think of what I might do with the object now if I was putting it somewhere safe. That works, sometimes. But yours was a bit more random.

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    1. We have two lock boxes. I have my passport wallet. We tend to put the stuff in the same place, but we collect a lot of useless scraps of paper that we never quite can keep up with. Tim esp. is always writing notes to himself. Piles of index cards with numbers on that he cannot remember what they are for. (Until I throw something away. That guarantees it was something important.) I skip the annoying middle step. I don't write anything down, telling myself I will remember. I don't.

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  2. My Mom used to use that phrase when I got her really upset.

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  3. I am glad you found it! I took a picture of mine so I have it on my phone if I need it but can't find it.

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    1. Ellen, your comment was just the motivation that I needed to take a picture of it before putting it safely back in ,my passport wallet.

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  4. I can lose things without leaving the room. It's a new talent I'm developing, helps with the exercise.

    Glad you found it and glad you're giving your leg a rest. Tim needs to understand that what you're doing is the correct treatment.

    I've had another lovely day being abused by Jack's mother. I finally blocked her. I'm so done with this. It's enough to make a preacher cuss.

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    1. Sometimes you just need to take a breather. I'm sorry things are in such a muddle, Pixie. Mental illness complicates a relationship, makes every interaction feel like a minefield. I don't think people can even grasp how impossible things can become.

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  5. I'm glad you finally found the preacher-cussin' card. So annoying that it was there all along. But you did get a lot of decluttering done in the process, so there's that.

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    1. There IS that. I can tell people I did it to get ready for Christmas. (That way, I don't have to tell them that I'm an idiot.)

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  6. I know that frustration. Mine is usually of my own making as I put important things "in a safe place" and they are never seen again. Until I am cleaning something out years down the track.

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    1. Have you ever lost something you couldn't find only to have it turn up hours later in the exact same place you could have sworn it was to begin with. ARGH! The aggravation.

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    2. I will bet you're right!!!! I never thought about it, but that is the only logical answer.

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  7. I think anti-clockwise is mostly used in Europe, at least that is where I've heard it used.

    Your Covid booster shots are all entered into databases and any place that gives the shot, including corner pharmacies, can pull up your record and recreate the card. I had to do that for my youngest when her card disappeared. The only caution is that it can take awhile between the shot and when it gets updated in the database so depending on timing, of getting the duplicate card, it might not have them all listed.

    Good to hear your knee is doing better.

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    1. I kept telling myself that it had to be like that. Thanks for that tidbit. Although I have it in my phone now. I didn't take Tim's because after hunting season, he's going to get his booster too.

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  8. I missed the knee injury, Debby. Sounds like you are feeling better and hope that continues to be the case. Also glad you found your card. Take care of yourself.

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    1. It's been a miserable 5 weeks, that's for sure. I guess the key thing was simply keeping off of it. I imagine that the repeated bumping it around just kept it inflamed. I can touch it now, which is a vast improvement. Major.

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  9. Ya, I hate it when I can't find something that should be in it's place. I think most people have a similar story.

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    1. That it WAS in its place the whole time is the aggravating thing.

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  10. Ok, you got lots of spots cleaned out in the process. Take a photo of it on your cell phone, and each time you add another booster, take a pic of it again. My bank gave away little plastic sleeves for them, and I used a passport protection sleeve to put it in. I've made copies of the card, so if someone wants a copy I can just hand it to them and not pull out my original. I keep mine inside and inside a zipper pocket of my purse, with my miniature Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, and my nurse license cards and info, and CPR cards. All zipped up to protect them from ME! Good luck, Linda in Kansas

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    1. I love that. I've never considered making my important papers Debby-proof.

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  11. Ah, someone else who has the best of intentions over sorting "stuff" out but like so many of us, they get put in the drawer or recesses of a handbag and left. Sounds like you had a useful morning anyway, and were finally rewarded with your Vax card. I hope you didn't get given the Moderna jab. We wouldn't have that again - it really knocked Keith for six.

    Hope your knee keeps responding to rest.

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    1. I thought I responded here. Yes, actually, I did get the moderna vaccine. I went to bed early last night and was shocked to bits that I slept until 9:22. I can't even tell you the last time I slept that long. I can also tell you that I felt like I wanted to roll over and sleep another hour. I made myself get up. Feel fine though.

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  12. BTW you may have gotten Mattock from me, as I use one regularly in the garden and mention it, and Widdershins possibly from an older post of mine too, as it's a word I would use, perhaps in a post about witches.

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    1. The mattock even happened probably 12 years ago now, but obviously the widdershins bit got picked up and tucked away in the many little pockets of my brain. I guess my brain is not much different than my passport wallet, save one thing...stuff pops out of those pockets when I need it.

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  13. Yes. Things get found when they want to be found.
    Two positives...you eventually discovered it...and you cleared out a lot of Stuff!!!!

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    1. Now that attitude explains why you are so 'zen', and why I am so...NOT zen.

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  14. I am surprised that you don’t have an electronic version on your phone. Our provincial system is probably more centralized though.

    Before yurts became popular in campgrounds as an alternative accommodation, we were once playing trivial pursuit. I was asked to name a moveable accommodation in Mongolia. After humming and hawing, I simply asked,”What is a yet” because I really didn’t know. I think that ended the game as the other players gave up in dismay and frustration.

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  15. Well, at least you found it. I've had that happen too -- as Gwynneth said, things have to want to be found!

    We have our Covid records on our phones through an app from the NHS. I'm not sure anyone will even look at them now, though. The last time I went to the states (in October) no one asked.

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    1. It's actually something I've often thought to do. Now I have actually done the thing.

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  16. Sometimes I believe there are parallel universes which our things slip into and out of. What else can explain such events as you losing/finding your covid card? I had a purse once that I swore was a portal. A woman made it for me. It was a plain leather bag. I lost things in it and found them again with irregular regularity.

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    1. "Irregular regularity"....that's great. There are a great many things I can apply that phrase to in my life. But did you ever lose something only to find it right where it was to begin with?

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  17. I got my updated Omicron booster yesterday and they had to make me a new card. My old one was filled up! (two original shots and two boosters) Between five shots, a case of Covid, and the monoclonal infusion, I've done it all!

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    1. BUT...did you get the t-shirt? It doesn't count until you've been there, done that AND got the t-shirt! :D

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    2. I did not. And now that you mention it, I feel cheated!! 😂

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  18. We never got any physical proof here (unless you went online and printed it) as it is all stored electronically. There is a way to show it on your phones and was required for some time - this was a problem for many who (a) didn't have the technical ability or (b) phone to do so (hence the option of getting it printed and sent)

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    1. To be honest, Jeanie, I am not sure that we need it now. For a time, proof of vaccination was required, and because everyone is not tech savvy, or have a phone, the covid card was given out. However, now that the initial frenzy has died down, no one asks. We don't carry it in our wallets any more. I have not physically needed it except last February, when I traveled.

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