The Absent Minded Professor...

Well. from my previous posting about my middle son, nicknamed by someone "The Mad Scientist", to his progenitor (me), that some have said I should become a professor, so that I better fit the cliche of "The Absent Minded Professor".

I have a very odd memory. Some things stick very well, especially complex concepts and ideas and how many pieces fit together (especially "big picture" and long term "vision"). As well as the 20-30 changing passwords I use for different levels of security (and which I completely replace most over time), or certain tcp/ip addresses and such. But I'm the kind of person who forgets my glasses all the time (even hanging in my shirt or once in my own hand), or my keys, or left the car running in the driveway all morning, or any number of "spacey" things. I get quite perturbed with myself, while most others are rather amused.

Prior to usable PDA's I was frequently completely forgetting appointments. I had a dayplanner, but kept forgetting it, or forgetting to look inside it to check my schedule periodically, since it would not beep at me to remind me. I don't think I would have ever made it to the executive levels in my career building days if it had not been for effective PDA technologies.. but I digress...

Well. today I "did it again". In a new form.

I wanted to take time to prep my motorcycle for the upcoming season, but I decided to be more "responsible" and take a load of odds and ends that accumulated during the winter, and piled up on my hauling trailer, to the dump. So I fired up the ol' '86 Bronco, hooked up the trailer and battened down the load.

I confirmed online that the North side solid waste transfer station on Elk-Chattaroy was open until 4:30 pm. I was ready to go around 3:30 pm, figuring I had plenty of time.

I made it there just a few minutes before 4:00 pm, and what to my wondering eyes should I see?

The gate was closed! And even a sign on it saying they close at 4:30 pm.
I was quite befuddled. I was about to turn around and leave, and thought to myself, "Now wait a minute, if they closed early, maybe they'll open up if I'm honking my horn." I didn't do that right away, First I grabbed my Treo and hopped online, and verified on their website the time. And so then I called the number only to get voicemail. So I left a message saying who I was, my phone number, and the time of day.

So then I started honking (albeit timidly at first, feeling rather rude to be doing so, but really not wanting to waste such a long trip in the 4 barrel V8 Bronco, not exactly the mileage of my Prius or my motorcyle, or even my minivan).

Well, I was about to leave when a small fleet of large black SUVs came speeding up from the closed side of the gate (I kid you not on the vehicles). I spoke to a person opening the gate to leave, and inquired as to why they closed early. He stated "Sir, it's 5:30 pm".

It then hit me. Oh crud! daylight savings time! DOH!!!!!

I felt like a total schmuck.

As they passed on, I called back the answering system on my phone, and left a short, but clearly apologetic message (I wasn't especially rude or anything, but just felt very foolish, and didn't want someone wasting their time calling me to reaffirm my error).

I then drove back with the full load to park it in front of my house until the next time I can find time to do another run.

DOH! (slaps forehead).

Worse yet, I looked then at the little time indicator in the upper right corner of my phone, and of course IT was correct due to the auto updating of the network.

Anyhow, I am fervently changing the times on my various devices that did not auto adjust (especially with the congressional change implemented last year).

Anyhow, I thought I would just share a little flawed human experience there. ;-)

Cheers!