“Now what kind of an attitude is that? ‘These things happen!’ They only happen because the whole country is full of people who, when ‘these things happen,’ they just say, ‘these things happen’ and that’s why they happen!”

– Mrs. Marcus
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

There was one more annoyance this weekend and it happened early on Saturday morning…the worst possible time for any annoyance to occur.

I’ve been having some minor issues with the cocker spaniel. He’s a good little dog for the most part, very sweet, very amusing, very loyal and very smart. Sometimes, he’s a little too smart for his own good, but he’s usually entertaining enough that I can let the craftiness slide.

Anyone who has ever owned a cocker spaniel knows that at times, they can be a little stubborn. Sometimes, he enters into a condition that those of us in the South might describe as “getting too big for his britches.” Those more familiar with South Park might describe it as “failing to respect my ‘authoritay.’”

I have consulted a few doggie discipline sites, after attempting a trick that an animal trainer in Richmond suggested that seemed to have no real effect. I’ve been making a good bit of progress with him lately, in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m playing some kind of cruel mind game with him. Still, I decided to have a local animal trainer stop by and give me some suggestions. This trainer seemed nice enough, and suggested Saturday morning at 10:00am for an appointment.

There are two things you should know about me (if you don’t already) that I should mention at this point. The first is that I am a major packrat. My house is never uncluttered. Never. My parents’ home is this same way, and it was how I was brought up. Not intentionally, of course; no one wants to teach someone to be a packrat. But they did without meaning to and so I am. I fight it whenever I can, but I usually am not entirely successful. As you might guess, this means that when company is coming over, it requires a great deal of cleaning, straightening and…gasp!…throwing things away! I envy those of you who, as a general rule, keep your homes spic and span all the time.

The second thing is that I often don’t sleep all that well. Some of you get your eight hours a night. You amaze me by being able to accomplish this single feat. There are some nights that I’m lucky — no, really…lucky!! — to get four. Saturday mornings, therefore, are my catch-up time. If I sleep until eleven or so, I feel much better for the rest of the weekend and the start of the new workweek.

All of that is to say that Saturday morning at 10:00am might not have been the ideal time for me. But I agreed to it. And I put the “finishing touches” on the living room Friday night.

The trainer had said she’d call me the day before just to confirm. I didn’t think that this was unusual at all, especially since we set this time up about two weeks in advance. Reminders are cool with me. It didn’t occur to me until about 8:45 on Saturday morning, when I got up, that this reminder call hadn’t happened. Well, she got busy, I thought. No biggie. Obviously, I remembered.

I guess she did, too. After I walked the dogs, had my shower, and was preparing breakfast, my cell phone caught my eye. I picked it up and saw that it registered a missed call and a voicemail. I leave my cell phone on vibrate, because most of the time someone would call me, I’m at work and potentially in some meeting where a ringing cell phone would be considered rude. I don’t always answer the phone if it starts shaking during a meeting, but at least I know to check it to see who called when the meeting is over.

When I listened to the voicemail, it was from the trainer. She said that her schedule had changed and she wouldn’t be able to keep our appointment. She said this sort of things sometimes happens and apologized in what I considered to be a fairly casual tone. The call had come in at 9:11 am.

Normally, if I cancel a doctor or veterinary appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice, I can expect to be billed, anyway. I can’t imagine trying to cancel an appointment 49 minutes before I am due there without them having something to say about it.

I was talking to a friend of mine, who said that I shouldn’t let the non-urgent tone of her voice on the message make me think that there wasn’t some legitimate emergency. My friend joked that he could remain perfectly calm on the way to the hospital if his hand had been cut off. I don’t have that talent, so it’s a little difficult to relate to that.

In the voicemail, the trainer invited me to call her back and set up a make-up appointment. I didn’t. I don’t think I’m interested in working with her, anymore. I would expect her to be the one to call me to find out what works for me. Anyway, if this kind of situation isn’t particularly out of the ordinary, it could just as easily happen again. And for me, once is enough.

I don’t know, maybe I’m being unreasonable. But I resent the fact that there was no real reason given for the sudden change of plans. Not that it was necessarily any of my business, but I gave up other plans and sleep to make myself available at a time she requested. I feel I was owed something in the way of explanation better than “these things happen.”