Foggy is as Foggy Does on Friday

My horoscope for today is a surprisingly accurate fit… for yesterday:

“…Your path is very similar to driving through a fog: all you need to count on is that the road is there, and that your headlights will illuminate the path directly in front of you…”

At one point in the afternoon, I looked up and saw the backside of a man standing on a ladder, fumbling with something on the ceiling. As usual, my mind’s focus was only on the task at hand – getting as much done as accurately and as quickly as I could.

At first, it didn’t even hit me that someone was standing on a ladder in the middle of a big office. A few seconds later, it hit me as odd and curiosity took over. I looked closer and realized that what the man was doing was replacing batteries in the smoke detectors.

“What in the world?” I thought to myself. “Why would the state hire someone specifically to go around replacing smoke detector batteries? How stupid and wasteful is that?”

Now, I’m not one for heights or ladders. I can make it up to the second rung on a ladder, and that’s as far as I go. The second rung on the ladder was as far as that man went, so I figured I was safe in my next move.

I walked up to the Big Boss Lady standing there ready with the next new battery in her hand and I said, “Why did you hire someone to come in to replace those batteries? I would’ve done it.”

At that, the Big Boss Lady and the man on the ladder turned to look at me, and the man smiled. I didn’t recognize him from the back, and it turned out that he worked in the next office over.

“I have to do this all the time, it’s what a Big Boss Lady has to be responsible for. Only he’s helping me do it,” Big Boss Lady said to me with a questioning smile on her face.

“Oops,” I’m thinking to myself now, too much in a fog yesterday to realize just how stupid my assumptions were. Boy, did I ever miss the mark.

So, I return to my desk and my pile of work. I was enjoying the investigative process of my task at hand and intensely focused. Still, I managed to get in a quick smoke break at around 3:00, so I was content to hammer away at things for the next 45 minutes to finish the week.

Working away, I looked at the clock and it said 2:50! How could the clock say it’s now before the time that I had that cigarette break?

So, I said to the Slightly Littler Big Boss Lady, “Hey, look at the clock! There’s something wrong with it!”

My wise pronouncement turned everyone’s head to look at me while Slightly Littler Big Boss Lady said to me, “Big Boss Lady just went around and changed the clocks back. We go back to normal time this weekend.”

That brought my mind out of the Twilight Zone and back to Reality with a clunk. Slighly Littler Big Boss Lady always seems to have to work hard at humoring me. While I haven’t blushed in years and years, I felt the old feeling of heat rushing up my neck and into my cheeks.

“OOPS!” I thought to myself, closed my eyes hard and returned to my work. Thankfully, there was only 10 minutes left to the day, and I made as quick an exit as I could. Jeesh!

Yep, the ground was under my feet as my mind plowed through its fog, and the door couldn’t catch me as I breezed my way past it. Those bumps in my path have a nasty way of helping me along as I make an ass out of myself… Oh well.