Tuesday
Photo by hugooz2001
I was meeting an associate at a restaurant in Vallejo. I had checked two times to make sure that he was not inside and the second time I left my Planner on the roof of my car. Later when I received a call changing the meeting place, the location of my planner was no longer a concern as I quickly drove to the new location leaving it on the roof. It was only upon arriving that I became aware of what I had done. There wasn’t time to return and look for it so I grabbed some scratch paper and hurried inside.
Near the end of the meeting, I noticed frantic noises from my cellphone and find a text message from my Southern Cal son (on a business trip to Colorado).
“Call xxxxx about your planner and tell her to stop bugging me.”
As it turns out, a very nice lady had seen me drive off and watched my planner fly away from the car. She was unable to catch me but very quickly sent out communications to my home, my son – in short to everybody but me.
I called her and got directions to her home where she returned my planner and I proceeded on about my business.
What is interesting is that I have been experimenting with the Hipster PDA since my new smartphone has all my contacts and my calendar. It has turned out to be convenient and easy to carry and gives me much more flexibility in capturing and storing information and ideas than the bulky calendar.
As I sat in the meeting with my associate, I was thinking that losing the planner must be fate – a message that it is time to retire the planner and step up to a less bulky system. I was completely resigned to never seeing my planner again. But my guardian angel in the form of the lady from Vallejo thought otherwise. So the planner is still part of my tool kit even though most of the time it is stashed in my briefcase. I sill use it at work. But away from the office you will find me carrying a pocket PDA and my cellphone both of which fit conveniently in a pocket.
I think I was hoping to lose the planner so I would not have to make the decision. If the planner were missing in action, I would be forced either to replace it or move on. Since I am using it less, I would have a hard time justifying the expense of a new case.
Now the decision is back in my hands. Fate has intervened and I still have the planner. If I stop using the planner, it will have to be my decision.
The darn thing keeps coming back on me.
