Not a good day

We all have bad days. I know that; I expect them.
But yesterday was a really bad one. I hobbled from disaster to disaster all day long.
The hard drive on the old computer was fried, so nothing could be moved over to the new computer. It's not a huge disaster because a lot of it was backed up on CD, and my photos are all on zip drives, and my iPod had all the music -- some 3,000 songs.
So, I left for my orthopedist appointment. I sat in that office for three hours. All but 15 minutes of it was to wait for the doctor to find time to tell me my ankle is, indeed, broken and I need to keep using the boot. Three hours. If I kept anyone waiting for three hours, I wouldn't have the gall to charge them.
But it was a first appointment. He gets another chance. When a doctor keeps me waiting a half hour, I ask the receptionist whether the doctor is running late. After an hour, I go to the office staff and say, "The doctor has missed his/her appointment with me. Please have someone call me to reschedule." Then I leave.
One doctor tried to bill me for not giving 24 hours' notice after making me wait for three hours. I sent her back a bill for three hours of my time, and a letter explaining I expect someone who makes an appointment with me to keep it, or at least see me within the hour.
It's arrogant and rude to think you have the right to take up half a person's day for a 15-minute appointment. If more patients begin to insist that an appointment is a two-way deal, doctors will be less likely to assume they can keep us waiting.
I had one doctor in New York who whose office staff would call patients and let them know when she was running late. If your appointment was at 2 and she was running an hour behind, you could come in at 3 or reschedule.
Anyway, back to my day.
I had to renew my license, so I went over to the DMV, where I found out the state of New York has put a block on my license. I moved out of that state six years ago with a clean record. But they have to remove the block or I can't renew my license here. So, after an hour of dialing and getting a busy signal, I finally got through and was told I've been driving without insurance for six years. Of course, I haven't. I cancelled my policy in New York when I moved here and transferred my license and registration. They have all the records of that, but they still insist I have to pay a $25 fee to get my license released. In other words, they're holding it hostage. I've talked to other people this has happened to since the national registry took effect. States wait years and then put a block on a license and demand years-old paperwork as proof, and the only way to clear it up is to pay them a fee. They told me I could send them copies of all the paperwork, which I haven't kept for six years because I never dreamed there would be a need for it, or pay the $25. That's it. It doesn't matter that I did nothing wrong and they have no right to hold my license.
So, I got to work five hours late and still had to finish everything -- they don't hold the presses here if somebody has a bad day, and when I listened to my voice mail, I had a message that my mother had a mini-stroke. She's OK, but that's still unsettling news.
When I finally got home, I figured I could transfer my music files from my iPod to the new computer. I installed the software and hooked up my iPod, and it immediately wiped everything. 3,000 songs gone.
Today seems to be going a little better. It would have to.