Suddenly, my day isn’t such a big deal
Well, I feel like a shit. Singular.
Yesterday, I had my day planned around an appointment with a long-time acquaintance, whom I also happen to be doing some work for. It was one of those days that events were planned down to the minute, and everything had to fall into place exactly or it would fall apart.
Of course that’s the day I left my lights on when I got to the office, subsequently draining my car battery. It took me a half an hour in the afternoon sun trying to find someone who could give me a jump start. When I finally did, just to make sure I could start it again later, I shut it off, and tried to restart it. Nothing. I knew the battery was on it’s way out, and today was the day it decided to go. Of course.
After getting it jumped again, I drove immediately to AutoZone, bought a new battery, and put it in, using the limited tools I had in the car. It was easily 110 degrees outside, and I’m in my meeting clothes working under the hood of a hot car…sweating like nobody’s business. I get the new battery in, no time now to get anything to eat, so I race over to a print shop to pick up some printed samples, and then race over to where I’ll be meeting my client.
Once I got there, frustrated and still sweating profusely, and he’s nowhere to be seen. After 10 minutes of waiting in the coffee shop, he calls me up and tells me he’s going to have to cancel on me. Something has come up, and can we do it later? My day was already circling the bowl, so sure, why not. I wasn’t rude to him, but made no effort to hide my irritation.
At home that evening, going through my seemingly frequent ranting session about the day, my wife asks me how so-and-so was doing.
“He stood me up, after I raced all over town, had to buy and replace the car battery, got grease on my shirt, skipped lunch….” I was aggravated all over again.
“You didn’t say anything to him, did you?” she asks, looking horrified.
“I was pretty torked and having one of those days, but I wasn’t a jerk to him. I still have to work with him, but he can’t be leaving me hanging like that. I have things to do. Why?”
“I ran into his son this evening. He told me the “something’s that come up” is pancreatic cancer, and they’ve given his dad six months max.”
Shit.
So, take a lesson from a “Grade A” Ass: there is always someone having a worse day than you. Take it easy on people - you never know what they’re going through.
Cheers.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
If you had driven the car for a while, instead of immediately turning it off after getting boosted the first time, you’d probably have been okay. Your battery recharges as you drive, but you didn’t give it the chance to do so. That’s probably why you needed to get jumped a second time.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Well, I actually did let it run for about 10 minutes in an effort to build up a charge while I still had the guys and their jumper cables there…when I tried to restart it was another one of those “nothing” attempts. No lights, no clock, nothing. I knew it was on the way out - it was just a mater of time.
When I had them hook it up to the tester at the shop the battery came back with no cranking amps. Two years in the Phoenix heat kills them.
Thanks for coming by!
September 14th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Ah, ok, that makes sense, then. It just sounded, from the way you had written the post, that you turned it off immediately and then tried to start it again.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Don’t be so hard on yourself, at least you didn’t BLOW on the guy or you’d really feel bad. You are human, after all but I totally understand the moral of your story! “My day was already circling the bowl” you made me lol, I like your writing style, it’s funny!
September 15th, 2007 at 11:53 am
You didn’t know so you had the right to express how you felt. Did you talk to him after?
September 15th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Good story. Life is great, as is. Everything we get as an extra is nothing but luxury, even if it’s sweating over broken cars. Thanks for reminding us of that again.
September 15th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
You know, it just seems that every once in a while, we need to have things put back into perspective for us. Because we can’t seem to do it ourselves.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:11 am
Having just posted a huge whingy rant about how my day is also “circling the bowl”! I feel suitably humbled!
Blimey.
That said the bit with the brick, that’s not a great experience but on the other hand, it IS an adventure!
Cheers
BC
September 18th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Sorry about all the bad luck you seem to running into lately! Sometimes it’s hard to keep in mind that no matter how bad things get, it could be much, much worse. This was a good post for me to read since I’ve been sitting here stressing out about things in my own life and doing the whole ‘why me?’ thing when instead I should be focusing my thoughts and energy on some positive things. Emon’s right, you of course had every reason to be pissed off and there’s no reason to feel like an ass since you weren’t actually rude to him, but I really like what you said at the end about taking it easy on people. It’s easy to forget that other people have problems too.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Good advice, Joe. I will try to be easier on people.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Yeah, Kristen. I’ve heard about you.
Nicole - you know how it is…you may not be overtly aggressive or rude, but then you know what you were thinking. That’s the part that I need to watch out for, since I’m rarely outright mean, but I don’t want to have those conversations going on in my head.
October 1st, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Well, as an update, I just heard that our friend died on Saturday. So much for the three to six months. I just got of the phone with his son, who asked me to design the program and order of service.
I never had a chance to speak to him after our missed appointment.