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Monday, July 31, 2023

Petty Annoyances


Irritations of a minor nature keep appearing.  I want to go to Hershey Park for a Me Outing.  Actually a day's vacation, or at least Me Time.  Breakfast at a massive buffet en route, amusement park, water park, zoo, major regional brewery.  All in one day.  Just me.  Went to buy tickets.  Senior discount.  Parking discount.  All lost by "convenience fee" of $6 for buying online to save over gate prices.  It is more convenient though.  Went to Giant Food store near me, as the park indicated a partnership.  No go.  Went to AAA.  Real discount on seniors entry price, no discount on parking, all reset to neutral by service fee.  There is a rational me that should override the annoyance.  The "convenience fee" really is a convenience, though $6 seems much.  It will not affect my larger financial position which loses and gains more than that in some minutes by market fluctuations.  If I really want to have my fun day, and I don't have too many fun days, just spend the $6.  Save more than that by going to a beach that accepts my state pass instead of one that meters parking.

Bought a new camera.  Chinese.  Made mistake formatting.  Hit wrong button before I could enter date, time, and language.  Fortunately it defaulted to English.  It would be nice to have my work stamped by its time of creation, though.  And I will be traveling to different time zones with the camera.  So knowing how to reset this would be helpful.  Steeply discounted device, inexpensive for a reason.  Sent the company two email requests to try to get back on track.  No response.  Instructions not helpful.  Online FAQ did not appear on Google search.  There are some YouTubes.  Maybe explore those later.

Got a k-cup machine.  Made coffee, ordinary pod.  Usually a light reminding me to fill the reservoir comes on every day or so.  Refills are a priority, as the surest way to ruin the machine is to run it without water.  This time two lights came on.  I need to descale it.  I've done this before.  Tedious but not difficult.  Just was not expecting to have to do this again as I had done it not that many months ago.

Most of my outdoor garden plants did not grow to harvest.  My herb pots planted from seed underperformed.  

Have to get to Newark Airport for my trip to Europe in a few weeks.  Could drive and park, an easy but somewhat expensive default.  Tried to arrange one way auto rental.  Prices three times what they would be renting to drive around my home area.  Checked with Amtrak.  Cheap excursions at certain times, prohibitive fares for two when we really need to travel.  Drive and park still seems best option, but one more annoyance.

Fortunately none of these irritations really change what I want to do.  I can still have a good day to myself at Hershey Park next week, take photos of France with my camera even if the assigned date is wrong, drink coffee every morning, buy vegetables and herbs when I need them, and get from home to Paris at the scheduled times.  The impediments just detract from what I really aspired to be able to achieve.


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