Benj - I would advise you to continue with plans that you have already made for travel. All you need to do is double check all travel plans (reservations etc), if you are going by car, have your vehicle checked, and check the roads that you will be traveling on, to make sure they are not closed. Also, make sure that you and anyone traveling with you are all on the same page!
As far as upsides to a Mercury retrograde, yes, there is one. Life is slowed down, so we have the time to deal with whatever issues come up. Mariposa, you asked about unresolved issues. Yes, this is something that a Mercury retrograde addresses. They tend to occur in the area of life addressed by the sign that the retrograde is in. For Taurus, t hat would be relationship.
E-mail servers are such a joy during a retrograde, aren't they! ;-) They drop e-mail, deliver it twice, send it out before we want it to - little gremlins get into the software and have such a great time! Then we have to undo the mess! We need to not place blame here (even on the errant server), and be willing to spend the time to correct whatever has gone wrong. Please don't feel as if you as an individual have somehow done something wrong - that is not so. It is just the energy of the time we are in. Peanut, it sounds as if you have experienced this too. Know that you did nothing wrong.
Benj - Staying away from signing contracts is a great idea! If signing is unavoidable, then go through the darn thing line by line. A pain staking procedure, but necessary.
Phyll, phones, falling under comunications and mechanical devices, are also prone to fits of frenzy during retrogrades. We make thigns worse when we try too hard to fix them. We can try one time, then call in the big guns - and allow them to take all the time they need to make a fix that will last. More than likely they will not know what went wrong either - but they will have fixed it. :)
Great input, Ladies & Gentlemen!