In spite of promises of cooler temperatures and intermittent rain showers, this isn't really shaping up to be a better week.

It started on the weekend, when some slack-jawed, teen-aged restaurant cashier asked me, with a straight face, if I was qualified for the 60+ "senior" discount on their menu. Even when I stared at her in shock, her face registered no awareness of the fact that she had actually mortally offended not only me, but the R.C., who happened to be with me and who was included in the question. 60!

60!!!! I am so offended. And never patronizing that restaurant again.

Also? Never again leaving the house without full make-up.

Yesterday evening was punctuated with sirens. I don't know why. It just seemed like there were a lot of them screaming up and down the major thoroughfare close by.

The noise continued until the wee hours of the morning. I know this, because I was laying in bed, watching the clock tick, and wondering if I was ever going to get some sleep. (By the time I realized I hadn't taken a sleeping pill--the only help I've found for those too-hot-to-breathe nights, it was so late that I couldn't take one, for fear I wouldn't wake up on time in the morning.)

To add to the joy, my insomnia was punctuated, at one point, with silence. The kind of silence you get when the power goes out and the fan stops churning the hot air around. Granted, it only lasted for about 20 seconds, but I'm assuming that somewhere in our building, a critical breaker was tripped. How else to explain the icy flood pouring from the "hot" water tap when I got up (on time!) this morning and wanted to brush my teeth?

And then, there was some kind of massive back-up on my preferred route to work. I sat in traffic for a while, watching the ever-thickening gridlock two blocks away, then turned off and headed for a back route I know of. It got me to work--10 minutes late, but here.

And then my wireless mouse stopped working and I had to reboot my computer to get it to recognize the old mouse I plugged in and now the stupid computer keeps telling me the "virtual" memory is running out. Apparently this requires that it dink around with the real memory, so everything's on slowdown.

Basically? I am just so cranky today!

P.S. Sigh.

Later that same extraordinarily difficult day:

Okay, so, I left the office early because I had a hair appointment today. When I got to the salon, they told me to call HairMan. I did, and he explained that he was three hours away and would need to reschedule. (To do him credit, he had tried to call me earlier. I wasn't at my desk and didn't think to check my cell phone.) So, ten minutes (round-trip) wasted.

I came back to the office and informed my slightly tizzying (she's getting married on Friday) ChaosManager that I had sensed that she wanted me in the office this afternoon. She said I was a weirdo and a loser and then she left for the day.