Time Marches On

My promptness has been written about before and some of the reasoning behind it is documented in this book review: When Pride Still Mattered.

So imagine my angst when, during a recent trip to an international PR conference, the numbers fell off my watch and it stopped working!  I had just gone through the full body scan at the TSA checkpoint at Sky Harbor International Airport.  As I sat down at my gate – plenty early for my flight – I glanced at my watch to see how much time I had to kill.  There on my wrist was a watch with most of the numbers gone.  I can only surmise that the numbers slid off at the moment the scan began.  Fortunately, I made it through the rest of my trip without any tardiness issues, but it did stress me out.

Then, after getting a new replacement watch, it stopped working after the first few days I had it.  Come to find out, it has a battery that relies on movement to keep it ticking.  I had taken it off on a Friday night and not moved it until I was leaving the gym for work on Monday morning.   During that two-day period, the watch stopped.  So there I was, on my way to work, with my watch not working.  It was another time-related issue for me until I figured out how sophisticated my new watch was.  I now make a point to move it when I’m not wearing it.

As if that wasn’t enough time-travel for me.  I was also recently driving to an out-of-town client meeting.  On my way, I had a 20-minute phone call in my car, utilizing the hands-free option, of course.  Once my call ended, I resumed listening to the talk radio station that was on before my call started.  The hosts stated the time quite often, but they were exactly 20 minutes behind the clock in my dashboard.  I was so concerned for their listeners that I actually called the station to let them know that their studio clock was off by 20 minutes.  Then, after I called the station a second time, I realized that my smart car resumed the radio station’s programming at the point I got on the phone, rather than coming back to real time programming.   I swear my intentions were good.

Father Time is undefeated – but I have three recent first-hand experiences where he was given a run for his money.  Even so, there are very few good excuses for being late.