Grace files, or a parable about unexpected joy

I meant to blog this a while ago. I found my lost file!

It was hiding in a second 'My Documents' that had been cloned on to the system where I had obviously saved it by mistake.

The Kingdom of God is like this. A man had all his other files accounted for, but had lost one. He hunted high and low for it, and then he found it. He said to his (desk) neighbours 'Truly it is time for rejoicing, for I thought this file was irretrievably lost, but I have found it! Come celebrate with me.'

So they had a cup of tea.

Gaaah!

Two weeks ago in work I was on a creative roll. I wrote about three pages of nicely paced succinct copy, teasing out ideas for a book I'm writing. Last week I went to look for the document and couldn't find it. 

 I think I have done the thing that I always roll my eyes at when other people do it. I think I forgot to save the document before closing it down. 

 I was certain I'd saved it on my personal machine, not the network. I have rummaged through the temporary files on my machine. I have even put a call in to IT and risked looking like an utter fool in the eyes of the geeks. 

 To no avail. 

I just have to accept that I have lost it and move on. Hopefully at some point I will be able to recapture those lost thoughts. Who knows, I may write something better. But for now only one word sums up the frustration I feel. 

Gaaaah!

Lawbreaker Jon

I drove through a red light this morning.

I was in a hurry, taking a different route round the back of town because of a snarl up on St Mary Street. A truck was parked up and obscured my view of the pedestrian crossing light until the last minute so I just didn't see it was red until I was going through it. Fortunately no one was actually crossing at the time, but I felt a bit sick at the thought of what could have happened if someone had stepped out onto the crossing.

So, if there was a camera on the light I'll be getting a TS10 through the post. That's one of the benefits of working in an insurance call centre in a previous life - I know the codes for most traffic violations. I also know if you have four bald tyres on your car you can be charged with four 3-point offences, and when you hit 12 points they take your licence away. Scary, huh?

(I don't know if I ever 'fessed up to Mum and Dad about this, but just after I passed my test I was driving their old Astra and had to stop at a red light on a big roundabout. I had a good look round and then drove through it because it was really late at night and there was nothing coming. Looking back, I can't believe I ever did that.)