At the office, we use Windows Messenger. At times, it’s a good alternative to Email or the phone for communicating with colleagues.
It’s also handy when I’m feeling mischievous.
Our administrative assistant sits outside of my office. It’s common for people to stop to chat with her. With my office door open, it’s hard not to hear these drive-by conversations. When something that is said strikes me as odd, I fire off an instant message to the admin.
The goal: make her laugh at an inappropriate time and hopefully cause an awkward moment.
Yesterday, her computer was infected with a fake security alert malware. One employee mentioned that, at home, he had a three year old Mac that he used for the web, and a twenty-five day old laptop.
Employing my superior math skills, I did a quick calculation and IMed:
“The PC is 25 days old? Who talks like that? In that case, I’m 18,253 days old.”
I listened for her reaction. She held up for the moment, but we laughed about it later.
I was about to close the spreadsheet, but paused to contemplate the number.
18,253 days?
Oh my Lord, I’m old!
Even though I already knew this, seeing my nearly fifty years represented in days was unsettling. I was curious, so the ridiculous numbers game continued:
438,072 hours
26,284,320 minutes
1,577,059,200 seconds
With so much time in the past, how much can I expect to have in the future? I can almost hear the tick, tick, ticking in the back of my head now. I suddenly feel like rushing.
At least, I now know what my answer will be the next time that someone asks:
“Do you have a minute.”
“Hell no!”
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Do you think about your age often? If you’ve already had many, do you still enjoy celebrating your birthday?
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Ray } – 
