Beautiful Morning

I was preparing to leave my gym Friday morning when this middle-aged gentleman walked into the locker room.

“Good morning, sir,” he said with refreshing sincerity.

“Good morning,” I responded.

I got a good vibe coming from this man so I decided to keep the conversation going.

"Are you all done?” I asked.

“Oh, no,” he said. “I just got here.”

“I just finished.”

“C’mon,” he said, “that’s not fair!”

I laughed and wished him a good workout.

“Have a beautiful day,” he said.

That was it. The entire encounter lasted less than a minute, yet I got such a boost out of talking with this man that I briefly forgot how tired I was.

It’s amazing how one good person can undo the damage of a dozen nitwits.

I decided that would indeed have a beautiful day and I promised myself that I would pass this gentleman’s kindness on to other people.

And then I went home and switched on the computer.

I had forgotten that the night before I had downloaded one of Apple’s seemingly endless system updates that render the computer useless for hours and apparently do very little else.

The downloads also have this unfortunate habit of wiping out the passwords of your most imported accounts, including email, social media, and, in my case, all the various work-related sites.

I struggled to recall my assorted passwords, while trying to do my job without going psycho.

But that didn’t work out so well, since the download apparently also clogged my system, so everything took forever to come up.

Locker Room Talk

I had similar situation in April when Bernie Madoff croaked and I had the same unhinged reaction, cursing and fuming and taking the whole situation very personally.

I couldn’t believe that I had started the day with such optimism and positive energy.

What the hell had happened to my beautiful day?

I was determined to get out of this rut. There was too much work to restart my computer during the morning, so as soon lunchtime rolled around, I shot the damn thing down and rebooted my day.

And it worked.

Okay, with that out of the way, it was on to the next bit of drama. I handle the market close every afternoon where I update the numbers and revise the headline of our main story.

On Fridays one of the copy editors does the weekly calculations of how the major exchanges performed and adds them to the story.

However, he’s on vacation now, which meant I had to figure this stuff out.

Fortunately, I planned ahead by asking my buddy to leave me instructions on how the hell to figure out the weekly results for the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

He wrote it all up and very kindly took me through a dry run on Thursday.

Still, I was worried.

It’s going to be too complicated, I fretted, I’m going to get it wrong, I thought. All the other news sites will have it out except ours.

But I didn’t want to give up. So, I printed out the editor’s directions and went through them step-by-step, adding this, subtracting that, dividing the whole mess and then moving the decimal point two places to the right.

And, son-of-a-bitch, I nailed it.

I checked my calculations against other business sites and they all matched up.

Okay, so I didn’t exactly split the atom or build a better mousetrap. But I did overcome one of my many limiting beliefs and now I’m anxious to take on some more.

After work I had dinner with my sister at a local restaurant and, after a brief shower, the clouds took off and we were treated to a lovely sunset.

It was a beautiful day after all.

Comments

Bijoux said…
Fabulous! It’s always worrisome to do something new, esp. work related. And a friendly, optimistic person is sure a booster to the day. But boy, are they hard to find!
Ron said…
"And, son-of-a-bitch, I nailed it."

That's AWESOME, Rob! Isn't that the best feeling in the world, when you overcome something you're apprehensive about and do it anyway? AND you're successful at it? Way to go!!!!!

I felt the same about the new job I got last year because they sell products I knew nothing about, so I was a bit scared. But I overcame the fear. Also, they use all Apple computers, which I knew nothing about, so I had to learn to use an Apple laptop that they gave me (which, btw, you are so right about the updates), they take forever!!

And speaking of Bernie Madoff, I just watched the movie, "The Wizard of Lies", and I have to say that De Niro and Pfeiffer as Bernie and Ruth Madoff were freaking A-MAZING! Such a sad story, though. All the lives that man ruined.

So glad to hear that you had a beautiful day, buddy! Have an awesome week!
Rob K said…

Hey, Ron!

That's so cool that you overcame your fears about selling new products as well as your Apple-phobia. Now you'll learn to hate Apple just like the rest of us!

Forgot all about "Wizard of Lies" so thank's for the reminder. I'm sure it's pretty grim to watch, but I want to check it out.

Take care, buddy!
This was an uplifting post in many ways, Rob. While I know that comment may seem confusing in view of what it contained, I'll explain. The encounter with the gentleman at the gym was a great start to the day. Unfortunately, the Apple update, which I went through as well on both my older desktop and notebook, do seem more frequent and endlessly long I concur. Thankfully, I have never had to reset any passwords so not sure what happens that it happens to you.

Then to have followed your friend's instructions and "nailed it" after your earlier apprehension was wonderful to read and affirming for yourself! Capping off the day having dinner with your sister and witnessing a rainbow. That seemed a beautiful end to a not-so-awful day as you imagined.
Rob K said…
@Bijoux:

Oh, gosh, you're so right about those friendly people!

I feel like they're a vanishing breed as people become more and more plugged into their various devices.

And taking on new things at work ain't bad either!

Take care.
Rob K said…
@Beatrice:

Dorothy, thank you so much!

We had a good start, a rough middle, and a happy ending! We all should have more days like that.

All the best!
CrystalChick said…
Don’t even get me started about computers and updates and passwords and reboots. All of it can be maddening at times. My Mac book needs replacing, I keep putting it off. Also, I play a game on my iPad and when it updates I just have to walk away. It takes sooo long and I can’t do anything else online while it’s in progress. The price we pay to stay connected.
Learning a new thing at work, awesome!
So the day did turn out pretty well, glad to hear it.
Rajani Rehana said…
Awesome post
Rob Lenihan said…
Hey, Mary!

How's it going?

"Maddening" is indeed the word for all this misery we go through in the name of being connected!

I'm trying to stay connected without losing my mind!

Thanks for your kind thoughts and thanks so much for stopping by.

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