2327 Why does nothing get done?

Friday, March 27, 2009

I almost didn't want to post today. I am reluctant to bury yesterday's post. I want to chew on his lower lip a little longer.

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Yesterday I decided to be very good to myself. My to-do list had only five items, things I ought to be able to accomplish easily. Not the kind of overwhelming list that stuns me into inaction. I need to feel successful.

Only two got done.

One item was to replace all the burned-out lightbulbs, a slew of them. Many of the ceiling fixtures use those little round bulbs in clusters of four or six, and the bathroom light is a bar over the mirror that needs ten. I was down to like one bulb per fixture (some were zero), and I felt like I was living in a cave.

I looked in the pantry, in the bulb box. I found a few dozen 100 watt regular bulbs (a legacy of Jay - there's not one fixture or lamp in the entire house that will take a 100 watt bulb, but he always bought them every time he passed them in a store), but no little round bulbs.

So when I went to the grocery store, I looked, but they didn't have any little round ones. One quarter of the to-dos not done.

Then The Man asked me to research flights for our trip to Florida next month. Easy, right? We need non-stop flights, on certain days, morning going and evening returning, out of JFK or LaGuardia (he hates Newark, and Newark and Newburgh tend to be more expensive anyway). There are only two airlines with non-stops: Jet Blue and Delta. Should be simple, right?

(Non-stop because he'll be in a tournament, and wants to make absolutely certain that his equipment arrives the same time we do.)

Not simple. I went to the sites for the airlines, and did the search. I'd find perfect times, and jump through all the hoops, and then find that there were only five seats left, and they weren't together. Or that the only return flight available to that airport was first class.

I finally found two possible combinations, both Delta, and they had only one or two seat pairs left on each flight. I fired off a note to The Man, saying that I'd like to book it NOW! He chose one, and I made the reservation (non-refundable!).

Delta offered PayPal as a payment option. I like PayPal because I don't have to give my credit card number. PayPal has it. Now, I was buying two tickets at $299 each. Total $598, right? I clicked on PayPal, and jumped through more hoops, and at the end, PayPal informed me I had made a payment to Delta for $299.

Uh, that's just one ticket. And PayPal did not return me to the Delta website.

I called Delta. Wasn't on hold very long, but the agent informed me they had no record of any payment.

I clicked "back" to get back to the Delta website, who informed me my session had expired.

Do I have reservations or not?

I called Delta. Wasn't on hold very long, but the agent informed me they had no record of any reservation.

Jumped through the flight search hoops again, hoping that the same seats were still available (they were exit row on both flights, needed because The Man has unbelievably long legs), and they were, so this time I selected payment via credit card. After a pause the email confirmation and itinerary arrived --- and they had the wrong seat numbers. We were not only no longer exit row, we were in a set of three seats across.

I freaked.

I called Delta. Wasn't on hold very long, but the agent informed me that she had no idea why we were no longer in the exit row. Those seats were still available on the first flight, so she moved us, but the exit row had already been reassigned on the return flight. But at least she could move us to a two-across row on that one.

Now I had to call PayPal and cancel that first payment. Wasn't on hold very long, when the rep informed me that it could not be canceled, but neither would it ever be paid, because Delta had not invoiced me. (If Delta didn't invoice, then where did the 299 number come from?) So there's an approval for a $299 payment to Delta that will sit there forever - unless Delta notices it and decides to send PayPal an invoice, at which point I'll have to convince Delta (if I notice it) that they should refund the money.

By this time, four hours had passed. It was now dark, so I couldn't clean the litter boxes (I dump them in the woods), or clean out the car, and the village hardware store was closed so I couldn't buy lightbulbs.

I had one item on my to-do list accomplished - the trip to the grocery store. I rushed and washed the dishes. Two of five down.

Man, I remember when I was in my twenties, thirties, forties, and I accomplished so very much in a day, AND read five to ten books a month. That just doesn't happen any more, and I don't know why.

Today I had lunch with Piper, bought lightbulbs, changed bulbs, and shall now go dump litter boxes, clean out the car, and load it for a trip to the recycle center tomorrow.

And maybe read a book.
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