They say folks with natal retrograde Mercury fare better during Mercury rx than those without. I was born when Mercury was retro, and I think maybe that is true on some level, but we are still subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping. Just a few things from the Food Lion. Food Lion has marginal produce, and I wouldn’t touch their meat. But they do carry free-range eggs. Yay Food Lion! And it’s the closest store to our house, so we go there for supplies.

So I come out of Food Lion with my eggs and new mop, and ACK! Is that my car? It looks just like mine, except it has a huge dent in it, and mine doesn’t. I get a look at the license plate, see my dog inside; reality sets in. Oh, (bleep)! Someone hit my car!

I watch Judge Judy often enough to know that I need to get the police to come out and take down a report. Maybe the insurance company will need it. Or maybe someone who saw something will come tell me what happened, or who hit my car, so I can sue them. So I call 911 and they send someone out.

As I’m waiting by my car for the po-pos, I look around. The wind is whipping around, typical for Mercury rx. But this is unusually strong wind— the weather site said 45 mile an hour gusts!

I’m at the edge of the parking lot. The curb gives way to a steep downhill drop-off, then the woods. And I see a couple of shopping carts at the bottom of the hill. I reassess the damage, and I have an a-ha moment. The wind must have blown a shopping cart into my car. It’s a big dent for just one shopping cart! If I were the wagering kind, I would wager it was a big heavy “carterpillar” made up of several carts. I remember I saw the shopping cart guy pass by with about 10 carts when I came out of the store. He didn’t look at me. Was he averting his gaze in shame? Hmmm…

A handsome young officer came out and took down a report, my insurance is going to pay, and I’ll spare you the rest of the boring details. What matters is, I’m here to tell you, natal Mercury rx people are not immune to Mercury rx mishaps.

But maybe the difference is, we can still do big things and have it work out? I bought the car during Mercury retrograde last July. I couldn’t believe what I was doing. But I checked the charts, double-checked with my astrologer Lance, had the car thoroughly checked out, and moved forward with it. My superstitious side wonders if the Mercury retrograde purchase deemed it a “mishap magnet”. I never had anything like this happen with my ’88 Honda that I had for 9 years. (Rest her rusty metal soul.) Otherwise, my new (to me) ’98 Toyota retro-car has been wonderful, no mechanical problems at all.

We also closed on our house during Mercury retrograde in April 2004. It’s an old house, and needed a lot of work when we bought it. That was not unexpected.

(If you were thinking of taking this info as a green light to purchase a house, car or computer during Mercury rx, I’ll tell you, I picked these times very carefully, taking everything into consideration. All Mercury rx’s are not the same. If you don’t know what you’re doing, call an astrologer before you move forward with it.)