Mercury was in retrograde?

Hmmm...I didn't even notice. According to an astro piece I had stumbled on the Internet, the little planet had gone retrograde from Jan. 28 to Feb. 19. Those who believe in the power that the planet holds over us when it moves backward (actually it doesn't, but I'll save that story later) say that everything just goes funky during such a period. Meetings don't push through, commitments fall apart, even your electrical connections and electronics somehow just become messy.

I somehow came to believe in the Mercury retrograde effect about two years ago when I just couldn't connect to the Internet. My Ibook just went crazy and for no apparent reason, even my Wi-fi router just went stupid. A call to my DSL provider yielded no results because as far as they were concerned, my connections were working properly. A friend I told this to explained it away nonchalantly by saying that the little planet was misbehaving again. Then suddenly, everything was fine.

So whenever I knew that a similar period was coming up, I would hunker down, save and double save my stories on my computer, backed up all my work, and used the Internet rather sparingly. I also would double-confirm any appointments I had.

So I was quite surprised to learn just now that Mercury had gone into retrograde just a couple of months ago and nothing out of the ordinary happened to me. Well except for some idiot who cancelled on our appointment when only the day before, I had reconfirmed it with him. Other than that, everything was rather peachy all throughout that period...my friends and I celebrated our birthdays one after the other, and aside from the rather balmy weather in Boracay where I spent relishing my natal day, it was an enjoyable period. Hmmm...maybe I'm immune to Mercury's effects already?

(On hindsight, one effect of the retrograde Mercury I had observed on some people was at the airport on Feb. 15, and some editor-friends of mine on a Seair flight to Boracay, said they had been at the airport since 6 am that day for their 8 am flight. Because of some malfunctioning plane, they were scheduled to fly at 3 pm instead. Egads! Sis and I, booked on Asian Spirit, only experienced a 30-minute delay in our departure.)

As promised, the story: Mercury actually doesn't move in reverse, it just appears to be so when observed from Earth, because of how the Earth and Mercury move around the sun. But astrologers swear this is a significant astrological event. Anyway, for believers out there, the next period for retrograde Mercury is May 27 to June 19, 2008; and then from Sept. 24 to Oct. 15, 2008.