Distraction

Today I was going to write about a touch of fall in the air. On my early morning walk with Teddy, it was sweater-weather cool. I noticed some of the neighborhood trees were turning from green to gold and red. A light wind swept over us, and a tree dropped several leaves across our path. Lovely and exciting! I am eager for fall: for pumpkins, jackets and long pants, and trees covered with turning leaves. I want to surround myself with the fall palette of every shade of orange and gold, dark red and fading olive green. Fall gatherings are beckoning, the first rain of the season will fall, and well, you get the picture . . .

So what happened to this tribute to the changing seasons? I sat down to rhapsodize about autumn. When I opened my laptop, the first thing that greeted me was a message that the planned computer update was not going to happen because Word was open. Did I want to close Word and complete the update? While I was contemplating, I must have inadvertently hit the “affirmative” button. As we all know, once this process starts, there is no turning back. 

Fortunately, this update went quickly but was followed by a message that 4 passwords had been compromised. Did I want to fix this, or did I want to let someone roam around in my accounts, steal all my hoarded air miles, buy themselves lovely things, and/or figure out my identity and take my very being? Of course I decided to fix the passwords. 

I had deleted two unwanted accounts and was tackling changing a password when the landline rang. I got up—likely spam. 

Back to the two important accounts. It only took me 20 minutes to change one. The other said it couldn’t possibly help at this time. “Try later.”

I heaved a great sigh, and the landline rang again, which I ignored. By then a fly had come in through the door left open for the dogs. I learned in a college class that nearly every time a housefly lands, it defecates, so seeing one spurs me into frenzied action. I no longer kill them, because I don’t want to clean up the carnage. Instead, I take a large paper bag and, with loud roars, usher the flies out the door. This even works sometimes. 

The fly disappeared. It could have gone out the door.

I then noticed there was a message on the landline. I don’t know why, but I have a compulsion to listen to these messages. Some friends and family still use this number. I listened to the message. It was the gas company letting me know that routine maintenance was going to happen on our meter, and we don’t have to do anything . . . but (and here is the clincher), “If you have dogs and locked gates, you have to make an appointment.” Well, crap! We have a short vacation coming up, and the sooner the better for this appointment. I could have asked John to do it, but he was on a hike. I called the gas company and was quickly connected to a personable human who made the appointment before our trip. Things were looking up until she added the time frame for the service, which is 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.  I could say something pithy right now about service people and time frames, but whatever!

Back to my Mac. I entered the title for this blog post—”A Touch of Fall”—and my phone chimed. A text had arrived. I had collected my friend Marian’s mail while she was in England. She had returned home late yesterday. Another friend had watched her adorable black poodle, Sheba. It was this friend who texted. I had something she was going to exchange for me, and she wanted to meet at Marian’s. By the way, she was just leaving her house . . . Now, this is one of the reasons I love John—he offered to run the errand for me.

Finally, I sat back down at the computer and stared at the title of the blog post. Well, that little muse had left the building. But maybe . . .

The air remained crisp, the sky was cloudy, and—I’m sorry, I have to leave. The landline is ringing, the fly has returned, and the dryer just went off.