A Found Day

No. I hadn't lost one. I seemed to have gained one.

Amidst the chaos of the season….and I don’t mean the holidays but I’ll get back to that in a moment, something comes up or happens to give you a bonus day. Do I mean an 8th day of the week? No. But in a way it almost is.

First of all when I say season I mean the time productiveness within organizations seems to peak. It’s late fall, new projects are underway, strategy is being tweaked and readied to implement in the new year, most staff are in place as vacations haven’t started yet and things seem to be going at the usual chaotic pace. That usually translates to basic insanity for me as everyone wants to ‘do things’ before Xmas.

When I was a kid a found day meant a snow storm where the ploughs couldn’t make it up the streets, so classes were cancelled. We played in huge snowbanks, built snowmen on the front lawn and if we were really daring, we’d walk the few miles to the nearest store for some milk and bread and whatever we absolutely needed. And it meant lighting a fire and working on jigsaw puzzles or crafts while we listened to the radio or music on the stereo. Priceless times.

This found day for me was thanks to President Bush. The city streets were pretty much closed off from last night and will stay that way until late tonight or tomorrow morning when he will fly on to the next leg of his journey in Canada. Then everything will get back to normal. Cars will reappear on the streets, barricades removed and people back manning their desks and boardrooms.

And even though I’ll have to cram all the meetings that had been scheduled for today into the tomorrows, it was kind of nice to spend the day with my son, readying the house for winter, debating political issues, and just sharing the what ifs and what will be-s. So even though President Bush’s visit angered many, disrupted the entire downtown core and centre of the city, most government areas and overall lives of residents, store owners and workers alike, it was kind of a treat….a found gift of a day, filled with sunshine, decent temperatures, no hustle and bustle of a typical day and time to write.

Mmmm nice.

Best to you!
Donna Karlin