Bad Day

August 18, 2020

I decided to try something new for this week’s meeting.  We went into lock down just as I started work.  I believe it was several weeks later I started our weekly Zoom call.  This worked very well with several out of state and others logging on over the noon hour.  I was initially wary when we reopened but had been asked to also hold the meeting in person.  I checked around and while some said the hybrid meetings were difficult, Melissa assured me they did them all the time at her last job, and that was before the pandemic.  I checked the equipment last week and let people know were holding Monday’s meeting in both formats.

On the way home yesterday, we saw a trail of furniture strewn along the Interstate.  First, we came across a chair cushion lying in the median.  About a mile later we came across the chair itself, again in the median.  Then about another mile and we came across an end table laying along the side of the road.  It had not faired as well as the other items and was smashed to pieces.  I noticed all three items were still there today, so the owner had not returned to see if they were salvageable.  I am sure when they arrived at their destination they realized “somewhere” along the route it had fallen off.  That is what I call having a bad day.

Even though all the equipment was working for our meeting, the sound was not.  We tried several different scenarios, and nothing worked.  That meant I ended up repeating what was said to allow both formats to follow the conversation.  When I left today, I got to thinking about why the sound was off.  Then I realized I was using an HDMI cable to connect to a flat screen TV.  This was not a monitor like I used at home.  TV’s have their own sound system and the HDMI cable sent my laptop sound to the TV.  I went back and reset the system, turned it on, and turned up the volume on the TV.  Sure enough, it worked.  I hope it still does next week.

THOUGHTS:  Having a bad day can be relative.  I remember working for a furniture store in college as a delivery boy.  We were taking a King Size mattress a short distance and did not tie it down.  We got about two blocks and the wind hit it.  I watched my rear-view mirror with horror as a $700 mattress swirled into the air and slid down Main Street.  I learned from that bad day, just as I did from today’s meeting mishap.  The “day” we are now living is considerably longer and is having more devastating effect.   We can choose to learn from our bad day, or we can pretend it is not happening.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.