(1) Even the good news started with a major frustration, and ended with a minor frustration. A day or two before we drove to St. Louis earlier this week, I received a mail notice from the District that I had been issued a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign. The fine was, because this is the District perhaps, $100, and if I didn’t pay it within a period of time, it would become a fine of $200. It was a photo ticket, and there were no point on my license to be lost, so I decided to pay it. Long experience told me that challenging a ticket, whatever the merits, was usually a waste of time and energy. So I sent in a check the day before we left town.

Yesterday, I received another piece of mail from the DMV. Knowing the news from the DMV was never good, I opened the envelope with a combination of trepidation and resignation. But lo and behold, the DMV was telling me that they had reviewed my citation (even without my having appealed it) and decided that the ticket was issued in error, and that it would be wiped from my record, and the $100 would be returned to me under separate cover. Wow!, I said (to myself), and then I read the fine print where it told me that I could expect the funds to be returned in about …… ten weeks.

(2) We have both a plastic trash bin (green) and a plastic recycling bin (blue) issued by the District and we have taxpayer paid pick up on each once a week. Both of our bins are quite old, and have various tears and rips, and need to be replaced. Even though it is the District that causes the damage to the bins when they throw them on the back of the trucks, it is the homeowner who must pay for the replacement. If you are over 60, the replacement cost (depending a bit on the size) is about $25 for each. I ordered both, but found on the website that only the recycle website said that I had to pay $25 for the bin before they would deliver it, and that I had to prove that I was 60 or older. I put a check, and a picture of my driver license in the mail. I received an email from the DMV that my new blue bin would be delivered on May 26, about 5 weeks from now. I also received a separate note saying that the green bin would be delivered the same day. But I hadn’t yet paid for that one – and the web page had not told me I had to in advance. So I am confused as to whether they will actually deliver the green one. Perhaps they will.

(3) Doctor’s appointment this morning. Set for 11:30. Arrived at 11:15. Sat in the waiting room until 12:50! Staff said several times: “She knows you are here. Nothing we can do.” At 12:50, doctor apologized nicely, and blamed it on an elderly Chinese patient with dementia who spoke only Cantonese, no English, and who had a translator who was trying to help by telephone. Is this a forgivable excuse?

(4) CVS. I should have been suspicious when I went to pick up a prescription and the two people in front of me each had problems with the semi-self serve computer system, slowing them up and resulting in my waiting for much longer than I had ever waited before. I then entered my prescription info and then gave the clerk two packages of probiotics. The probiotics were marked, as they always are, buy one, get the second one free.

The pharmacy is at the back of the store; the other clerks are in the front. The clerk at the pharmacy told me that, to get the 2 for 1 price, I had to buy it in front, rather than in the rear. It surprised me as I had bought the 2 for 1 probiotics at the pharmacy time after time, but I said okay.

I then went to the first. I gave the two boxes to the clerk and he rang them up with a separate payment for both. I explained they were 2 for 1, and he didn’t seem to believe me. So he made me walk back with him across the store so he could read the tag on the shelf. Then we walked back to the front, and asked me my phone number, so he could access the account. I gave him the phone number, he told me there was no such account, and that without an account I could not get the 2 for 1 arrangement. He was very testy, but there was a young woman who was also a clerk, and she was very, very nice (kudos to her parents) and suggested that I call CVS customer service. I told her that was a good idea and thanked her.

After I got home, I actually did call CVS customer service and was perturbed even further when the recorded answer said, on April 28, that service was slower than usual “because of the holiday season”. I guess it’s a pre-May Day rush.

In fact, a live person came on the phone almost immediately and was very, very helpful (kudos to his parents). He told me that the phone number on the account was changed to my cell phone number two months ago. Okay, I said, I will use that number from now on. But the only thing I could think of is that I changed, at the pharmacy, the phone number they should use to inform me about waiting prescriptions. I guess that changed the phone number everywhere in the wonderful world of CVS. Problem solved.

(5) Haberman. We were all set for a program towards the end of May at a large, exclusive residential condominium community filled with potential donors and interesting program participants, only to learn that our speaker had developed a conflict and would be out of the country on the day of the program. This in spite of several emails going back and forth confirming the date, the topic and the compensation. Nothing we can do about that. And it’s too late to arrange and publicize a substitute program. I am not happy about this one.

(6) And then there’s the weather.

(7) And the president

By the way, King Charles gave a very good speech. Did we make a mistake in 1776?