As I left the house on the first Monday of the new year, schools weren’t back in session yet, so I figured it would be an easier commute since there should be less traffic than usual. I exited our neighborhood and drove up to the intersection as the lefthand turn light – in the lane I was headed to – turned red.
I merged over and sat in that left lane for the entire cycle until it would be my turn.
North-south straights.
East-west turns.
East-west straights.
Then the entire cycle skipped me. No north-south turns. It started all over on north-south straights, as if I were on a bicycle, or standing in the road, or if I weren’t even there at all.
I moved forward slightly toward the crosswalk and then waited through the entire cycle. Again.
North-south straights.
East-west turns.
East-west straights.
No north-south turns.
The signal skipped over me.
Again.
The light going straight stayed green long enough that I was able to signal, change lanes, go straight through the intersection, and make a U-turn back to the same light to then turn right.
Eventually, I made it to work.
The day did not improve.
Multiple apps I attempted to use refused to cooperate. They crashed or chose not to save anything I was working on, without displaying an error or reason or solution, just like the traffic light.
I found no known error for why the apps wouldn’t work correctly and identified no clear error on my part.
Sign out.
Sign back in.
Turn off.
Turn back on.
When the printer wouldn’t connect for a coworker, I turned it off and back on again and got one small victory for the day when it suddenly decided to cooperate!
I wish I could say the day got better for me or I had some insightful revelation or my attitude changed toward life despite all the crap, but none of that happened.
Instead, I limped through the day, trying and fighting as much as I could to make any of the things work that all seemed to be working against me.
I did not finish my to-do list. It just got longer from things that were added.
When I finally left work, frustrated and defeated, I hit every red light home.
But none of the cycles skipped me. So maybe that was a win?