It all began this morning, which really should come as no surprise. When else would the day's adventures begin? Unless of course it's a nightshift day. That would, of course, indicate that the day would begin at night. No need to confuse things, though.
I got out of bed and slid my chilled toes into my warm, snuggly slippers, then donned my soft and fuzzy bathrobe. It has snowflakes on it and I love it. I headed downstairs and straight for the coffee pot. Morning routine out of the way and two lovely young ladies ready for adventure, Baby Ruth, KitKat #1 and I began some fun with Photo Booth. We had a grand time "riding the roller coaster" and playing with the special effects. Not long after this, it was time to head off to Kindergarten registration, handled by my lovely wife.
Fast forward a few hours to the afternoon "appointment". I scheduled my first "One to One" session today at the semi-local Apple store. By "semi-local" I mean that the store is located about 30 miles away, but I am partial to this one because of the kind sales person that I encountered during a visit with a friend. I should note also that I have had this computer for about 9 months. I purchased a full year of One to One lessons since I am switching from PC to Mac. I am just now beginning those lessons, so I want to pack as much in as possible!
I met my Tutor for the day, a lovely gentleman by the name of Jon. He was nice, funny, personable and quite knowledgable. I am certain that I dazzled him with my Mac-literacy. He gave me tips and taught me new tricks. I now know how to use keyboard shortcuts, swipe my fingers in various configurations across the track pad and balance a ball on my nose.
The most significant part of the visit (significant in regard to this post, that is) came when Jon and I began the quest of determining the source of an iWeb blog comment issue. (For some reason, when attempting to post a comment to the blog, the user gets a very distorted comment screen. This is a known issue on message boards, but has yet to be fixed from what I have seen.) At the time, we were viewing my web page (here come's a plug....), http://www.soul-musings.com and reviewing some special features of iWeb. Jon was unsure of the solution to the comment posting issue, so he did what any humble tutor would do. He asked a co-worker.
Mr. Brilliant-pants Co-worker puffed his chest out and strutted over to us. He said, "Oh, well, you need to
Slightly concerned, I said, "Uh, wait, what are you doing?"
Continuing to tap, he said, "Well, the configuration just needs to be reset in order to....." (I tuned him out at the words "Configuration and reset". (I should also note that I know enough about computers to be quite dangerous, and my reasoning for the Mac Class is to continue my seamless transition from PC to Mac, as well as learn the subtleties of a new system. I know full well what a "configuration" is and I did NOT want mine "reset"!)
Quite in-dignified by my questioning of his performance, Mr. Brilliant-pants proceeded to puff up and tell me something about resetting the browser settings after publishing the website in order to get everything to appear as it should.
Now, had he been patient and finished listening to the explanation of the issue, he would have heard that the problem exists not ONLY on my system, but also on that of anyone who has attempted to access my comment section. He would also have heard that there are, in fact, discussion threads about this same issue on various web sites.
It was at this moment that I observed all of my carefully CONFIGURED Top Sites (akin to "bookmarks", but quicker to view/access and clearly easier to erase) disappear and RESET back to the default setting. I then saw myself grabbing Mr. Brilliant-pants Co-worker by the wrist and twisting his arm into the shape of a "Z", followed by a swift knee to the inguinal crease and then a kick right in the head. Thankfully, part two of this visualization was just a fantasy. (Thankfully for Mr. Brilliant-pants, that is.)
Jon sat with his head on his hand, mumbling apologies as I declared, "YOU JUST ERASED ALL OF MY TOP SITES! WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?"
I dared not turn around, as I feared that part two of above fantasy would come to fruition. Mr. Brilliant-pants mumbled something about being sorry and just trying to help, but that's what had to be done, so he was sorry, sort of. (Yeah, and your fish swam sideways through his castle, so I just "had" to flush him down the toilet.) Thanks, Man.
As I inhaled a deep, cleansing breath, I realized that iWeb and my entire business was still visible on the screen. I quickly closed the program before any more RESETTING could be done. As I did this, the irony and overall significance of the situation came to me.
My business, SouL Musings, is about Raising the Positive Vibration of the Soul. At this moment I was vibrating, alright, but not so positively. I looked at Jon, who was mortified, and said, "You know, my day job is very different from this business here (pointing at screen). This business is all about a calming, Zen-like attitude and focus. I am going to return to that focus now, as all things in life happen for a reason and for us to learn from them." (Yes, I said all of this. I think I was scaring him.)
The truth of that matter is, however, all things do happen for a reason. Even the most seemingly frustrating situation can have a positive outcome if we allow it. The reconfiguration and resetting of my top sites lead to my learning of a way to set my preferences to avoid this issue in the future. (I knew that the resetting was possible because I had accidentally done this previously and had FINALLY gotten them back to my desired settings.)
I also learned something about EGO. Mr. Brilliant-pants was quite pleased with his knowledge of Macs, Safari, and iWeb. He was eager to demonstrate this knowledge. So eager, in fact, that he didn't listen to the full explanation, nor did he take the time to consider that the "student" may have had a tiny bit of a clue about the situation at hand. While he was coming from a place of helpful desire, his ego took over when I questioned his actions. None of this was intentional on his part, but it was highly frustrating from my point of view.
The moral of the story? Listen. Listen to the totality of the question being asked or statement given.
Allow. Allow the question or statement to merge with your own knowledge of the given subject. Respond. Respond to the inquiry from a place of humility and common ground.
I am certain that this lesson was mine, not that of Mr. Brilliant-pants Co-worker. I hope that he gleaned a bit of newfound knowledge as well, but I am absolutely CERTAIN that I did!
In the final moments prior to our guests arrival, I was reminded that the cars needed to be pulled forward in the driveway. This is a task that I am made for! Out the door I went in my slippers with their handy dandy rubber soles and warm fuzzy insides, tiptoeing gently over the ice that had reformed from the melting snow earlier in the day. I made my way gingerly around the mini-van and attempted to press the "unlock" button on the keyless entry device. Unfortunately, I hit the "lock" button instead. More unfortunately, before I could grab the door handle, I slipped on the ice causing an acute loss of balance. Fortunately, there is a large pile of snow next to the van to soften the fall and shorten the distance of same. More fortunately, as my hand slid into the snowy glove, I applied adequate pressure to the "unlock" button, thereby unlocking the doors of the van. You see, all seeming misfortunes have their way of becoming fortunate!
Love and Blessings everyone!
2 comments:
You are absloutely brilliant. I love that you took what could have been a very bad experience and created a whole new feeling to it. I would have continued on with part 2 of your kick fantasy (if I could get my leg up that high) and then I would have eaten more tums as I walked out the door crying my eyes out, all while being lead in handcuffs by the nice police person (because I could, hypothetically, get my leg that high and made contact).
Thank you for helping the rest of us to see reason where there was none before.
Blessings.
Since you told me about this before you wrote it, I kind of knew what to expect; however, you, as usual, made it a great story with a moral. But I didn't know about your fall. Thank goodness you have always had a great sense of balance and the ability to multi-task.
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