Sometimes this column-writing stuff is a pain. You’re sitting around in front of a computer Wednesday night with a brain cramp that’s so tight that it prevents any creative ideas.
You may have noticed.
It gets worse Thursday morning as the final deadline approaches.
This week I decided to do something about it. I wrote a column, days early, about the clock on the front of our building and how it never shows the correct time. Simple and to the point.
The clock we’re referring to is the red digital, an hour off, on the Port Plaza building in the heart of Corona del Mar. You know the one.
However, as soon as I wrote the column, it began to unravel.
Without warning last week, after some seven months of running an hour behind, the clock was reset to show the correct time.
Problem solved. Case closed. Office jokes stopped.
The fix, however, was short-lived. You see, less than a week later Daylight Savings Time ended, and when I arrived at the office Monday morning the clock was – you got it – wrong again. Only now it was an hour fast.
The jokes returned, louder and crisper than ever.
Our editor, Roger Bloom, called the building’s management office and they were astonished to hear that the clock was wrong, again!
“We didn’t do anything and the clock should have corrected itself with the time change,” they said. They thought maybe some workers doing improvements for a new first-floor tenant had made the change last week.
So much for giving them credit for correcting it in the first place.
Then, when they found out that “a columnist” was thinking about writing something on the stupid clock, panic set in at the management office.
“We’ll make a call right now and get it fixed, so they’ll be no story,” was the response as they began jumping through hoops.
My editor let me know my column idea was dead. I needed “something new,” according to him.
So now I was in the same old dumper. Wednesday night, brain cramp, and not an idea in mind. Then I wake up yesterday morning and jump into a hot shower, a place where many of my greatest ideas ever have come from, and nothing.
The panic began setting in.
I dressed and headed to Laguna for an early morning Firebrand Media corporate meeting. After stopping at my favorite Starbucks and grabbing a cup of coffee, still racking my brain for an idea, I continued on the drive southward.
Then, halfway through CdM, I found salvation. You see, despite the pleas of “no story” and “we’re going to fix the clock today,” we’ll jump thru hoops, yada, yada, yada, nothing had happened.
At 8 a.m., the clock said 9 a.m. Still!
Now don’t get me wrong, Marilyn, who works in our property management office, is always responsive and great to work with. But this clock thing has seemed to take on a life of its own.
As of deadline, it was still wrong. That being said, I have confidence that once and for all, this issue is going to be solved.
All I can say, it’s about time.
Get it?
