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Never get involved in a land war in Asia

pink1Only slightly less well known is this: Don’t buy a computer when Mercury is retrograde. Not even when it’s irresistibly pink, and on sale. And having been sick for so many days that you completely lost track of the current transits is no excuse. When we got home this afternoon and I realized what I’d done, I should by rights have tendered my astrologer’s badge; instead I laughed. What are you gonna do, right?

And it is beautiful – it’s half the weight of my beleaguered and decaying Compaq, and unlike the Compaq it has a lid that opens without a crowbar and doesn’t have dozens of vertical lines scattered across the display. And come on, folks – it’s pink! There was, of course, a catch: The dreaded Vista operating system that it came with cannot be replaced with XP, though it can on the models with slightly smaller screens. Why ask why? Fortunately it appears all my weird specialized software will run with hideous Vista, and when you change the interface to Classic view it’s not quite as disorienting. So I’m sticking with it. Kinda glad I got the extended warranty, though.

Looks like I’m gonna keep on thumbing my nose at the conventional wisdom about retrograde Mercury this week: the brakes on the car have started to squeak a bit, so I’m off to see our mechanic, Mark. Maybe he’s got some flashy, pink brakes for me.

If someone out there has a contract for me to sign, I can go for the Mercury Retrograde Taboo Trifecta.

What about you? Breaking any Retrograde Rules?

13 comments to " Never get involved in a land war in Asia "

  • That’s a Princess Bride quote, is it not?

    Yesterday I went on a tour of my local park with a wilderness expert. His car broke down on the way to meet us, AND his website went down!

    I’m not breaking any rules, per se, but a job interview I had hoped to have last week is scheduled for today — hopefully the lines of communication stay clear!

  • Heh – I knew you’d recognize it, Jeff!

    I reckon you’ll be in for more than one interview with these people, eh? Good luck!

  • Hey, if you’re RE-placing something, Merc has to give you a break. No questions asked. Even if it’s pink! (Especially if it’s pink!)

    I’m trying to not sign any apartment leases. Wish me luck…

  • Eme

    I signed a lease on a new apartment during a Merc Rx. I had no choice! I had to move fast and in NYC, affordable apts are hard to come by. Anyway, nearly three years later, I’m still there. It was a godsend, the easiest NYC apt I’ve ever found!

  • Eme, that’s good to hear. I signed a lease during the June Rx last year, and the place was a nightmare from the word go. That’s the place I’m leaving now (not really by choice, hence the timing). I’m hoping I’ll have your same luck!

  • That’s one of Mercury’s little “jokes”… he likes to push you into a corner where you have no choice but to sign a lease, fix a car, buy a computer, [insert random Mercury Rx taboo activity here]. What a wacky prankster! (Eyeroll)

    Good luck, Maria. Maybe you’ll have Eme‘s luck if you hunt for a place that’s … pink?

    How’d the interview go, Jeff?

  • Chris

    I received a watch from my husband years ago…bought during Mercury Rx. It was gold colored (I picked it out with trepidation due to Merc) and lasted a few years.. occasionally, for no reason, it would stop working. then, as mysteriously, it would start again. Finally it was lost…the result of a bad catch mechanism.

  • L.

    I created both myspace and facebook profiles this week! Ha…(it’s rather unlike me). I thought about Mercury retro, but wondered if reconsidering my position on them constituted enough re- to make it acceptable. I felt I had to do it now because it was in order to keep in touch with a whole bunch of people I just met at UAC. I am also thinking of ordering a ‘free deal’ digital camera, but again, it’s another “reconsider”, so we’ll see what happens…

  • funny you should mention pink….
    I too had that nasty cold last week, and with a mind similarly befuddled, ordered a new update, metallic pink phone (I couldn’t resist!). Though technically ordered a couple of days before the retrograde, it came during, and I nervously got it set up, expecting something BAD, to happen any moment.

    Au contraire, all the bad stuff was saved for yesterday, when my car broke down in the middle of a wilderness area, no cell phone or any phone access, and a two to three hour uphill hike back to town…

    Then a nightmarish interaction with my insurance company and their towing service, that went on for hours and hours, a carsick boyfriend, who had to drive back to the site of my car along unfriendly mountain roads, so we could count the mileage before the tow company would agree to pick us up, and the end result?

    My car still sits on the side of the road, and I’m hoping that this poor Virgo gets a break tomorrow….

    Hope somehow the sheer “pinkness” of our other technology saves them from this mayhem…

  • Well, April, I was actually considering to “return” to my old apartment complex. Although, I don’t think I could afford them now, but what a safe Rx idea, eh?

  • Maria – that sounds perfect! I once left a job on Mercury Rx; I’d been there through most of my 20s and it was quite wrenching to leave. I wondered what the Mercury Rx would bring. As it happened, I ended up returning a couple of years later – a brief stint as a temp for my old boss’ assistant, just to save money to pay off a tax bill before I got married!

    Fern, what a prototypical Mercury Rx tale of automotive woe, you poor soul. Sometimes not even the pinkest of technology can save the day!

    Chris, that’s a good one for the Mercury Rx archives too, isn’t it?

    L, don’t be shy, post your facebook/myspace profiles so we can get a look at ya! 🙂 (And friend me!)

  • Jeffrey Kishner

    Update: several of my follow-up emails after the interview were never received by the HR guy. I may just have to hand-deliver my writing samples!

  • I have a mother of an update on the apartment thing. I saw four apartments in the same building yesterday, and couldn’t imagine why all four were open in the same place. The landlord said it was just coincidence. I looked up the apartment complex on Rent.com, and discovered a warning from a past resident that the electric bills in that building were anywhere from $200-500 PER MONTH for 1-bedroom apartments, probably due to old wiring. Holy crap! I almost gave this guy an application. Typical Rx stuff, eh?

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