La Grève générale touche moi

Today is the day that the workers of France have declared Black Thursday. For 36 hours, workers in government, postal offices, schools, transit, banks, to even supermarket cashiers, helicopter pilots and ski liftees are protesting the economic crisis and in general, causing merde. I was out for an hour this morning and the only thing I really noticed was that I wasn't almost run over by a tram when crossing the road. I was secretly hoping for mass chaos so that the strike makes sense and these people who have the day off will make their point, but instead, I was able to buy a baguette with no hassle. Sigh. My parents have instilled the thrill of a good protest in me, so this really was disappointing.

Axel and I have always managed to travel during some kind of strike. One visit to France, we managed to hit every rolling strike there was both in Paris and Marseille. Coincidentally, our last night when the strikes were supposed to be over, we saw this sign:




So when I got home from my excursion of buying bread (+/- gluten) and looking for a GPS attachment for JM who is arriving tomorrow, I figured I could just buckle down and get some real work done. And then, my computer decided to grow some socialist roots. It's on strike. Specifically, microsoft office (which has been over a week) has been joined by adobe AND my outgoing email. Nothing works without crashing my computer. And no, it's not windows. It's (shudder) a mac.

Because I currently cannot do much more than go on the internet and make screen shots, here is a little treat of what I experience on a minute basis:













So from frustration to the realization that my computer has become french and decided that things are impossible and do not exist, I am going for my afternoon tea.

An update: it's not over yet: