* On the problem with being (way, way, too) early

In much, though not all, of this US society I now live in, being early is oh so much better than being on late (and in some cases “on time” is viewed as late). However, even this can be over done. For example, this afternoon, without looking at my calendar, I hurried over to Augsburg College, where I at times teach, for a 1pm meeting. However, while I did find a meeting, in the right room even, it was not the one I was looking for, as this is actually happening 1 week from today. So I hung around for a half an hour, then headed off to my next appointment of the afternoon, this one on my calendar for today (the importance of planning ahead using your nifty electronic caldendar, right?). While I was trying to figure out when this event is actually happening, the person whose garage door I was parked in front who is also the one having the event, yeah, he came home, not leaving me time to sneak away. When I told him why I was there, he told me I was 4 weeks early for this event. Oofta!

Now in my defense, Halloween is soon upon us. Being a qualitative sort of person, I was aware of urgent work my wife was doing for my granddaughter on her Halloween costume, thus making me assume it is Halloween today. Being someone who takes pride in my qualitative skills, I saw no need to check my calendar to verify that today was actually Halloween which is the day of the meeting at Augsburg. So off I went. Only to find out the urgency of my wife’s work on my granddaughter’s costume was for a Halloween hay ride today, 1 week before the actual Halloween day.

As for being 4 weeks early for the other event, no comment.

Did I mention I’m more of a qualitative kind of a person?!