Within the span of a week, we had a flat tire, a door fell off a cabinet, our microwave bit the dust, the office scanner/printer died, and the downstairs TV box had to be replaced. And during this, we had a snow dump that trapped us in our home in the hills, a property that has a steep driveway requiring a sharp turn to ascend it. We don’t have a serious shovel, of course, because that would be a waste of money given how rarely we need it. In fact, several years ago I cleared the drive with a metal dustpan. Aghast, our neighbor gag-gifted us with a small plastic shovel with an extendable handle, which we then proceeded to use like it was the real deal. We used it so
much that the handle will no longer lengthen, which means that I’m back to shoveling snow with something very much like a dustpan. Why do we resist buying a serious big-boy shovel? Beats me, but please trust us when we say that we are far better about managing our clients’ journeys than we are about escaping our home when we’re trapped.
Life’s like that, one thing after another, which means work is like that as well: You mindlessly tromp along and everything seems fine, but then there’s an explosion of things that aren’t. I’d love to tell you that I’ve handled it all beautifully, being mindful of my beliefs and blogs about how, when negative things occur, one should behave like a high-functioning adult, but I’ll admit I ignore my own advice. Fred, known as The Sainted One when I had a humor column, has the patience of a saint, thus the moniker. I have the patience of a Chihuahua on speed. And you’d think a heart attack would have taught me something.
But I digress. What’s the lesson here? Well, the flat tire was replaced with the spare and driven until a new set of tires arrived, we screwed and glued the cabinet door back in place, the Xfinity guy got through the snow and hooked us up with a new box, our new microwave finally arrived after the obligatory supply chain issue wait, and after a whole afternoon of attempting to get my computer and our new fax/scanner/printer to talk to each other or at least acknowledge the other’s existence, I finally produced a scan last night around 7 p.m.
So I guess the lesson, if there is one, is that this, too, shall pass. There will be placid seas, but something else will come along and get your attention sooner or later. And not just one thing, but maybe three to five things. It seems to happen that way. As I used to tell my sales reps when they complained about things going wrong: “This is the **it of life! Get used to it. It’ll always be there. Think of how boring it would be if everything worked perfectly all the time. What else would we have to do with our time?”
Watch Netflix, I guess. Or do jigsaw puzzles. Kind of boring, really.
Cheers!
Pat Detmer
January 19, 2022