As I left the school district classroom -my black satchel heavy on my shoulder- I glanced back to make sure I had everything with me. I didn’t. During a long layover hours later I realized that I left my laptop power cord on the table.
I decided then and there on a new rule: Everything that happens to me occurs to increase my delight. How might a missing key piece of equipment add to my delight? I was quite curious to find out.
It was late at night when I arrived in Yakima, Washington. I immediately liked my cab driver’s cheerful attitude. As we careened through the darkness, I asked if there was an electronics store in the small town of Toppenish where we were going. There definitely wasn’t. I was $120 in cab fare away from the nearest one.
My cabbie offered to shop for the power cord for me. Seriously. The plan was that the next day, he would buy the cord and hand it off to his trainee. The trainee would drop it by my hotel on his way home in the wee hours of the morning so that I would have it in time for my presentation. I thought of all that could go wrong. Including the possibility that I was being somehow scammed.
But no. The cord arrived at my hotel at 3:15am. And it was the right model for my laptop.
Cost for new laptop cord: $120.00
Cost of being able to trust my Toppenish cabbie and his trainee: Priceless
One of many Toppenish murals honoring the past.