So, last week I was in Parachute, Colorado, a little town about halfway between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, as part of our big celebration of my in-laws’ 25th wedding anniversary. It’s always hard for me to find coffee that I like on the road. (I wasn’t even very impressed with the coffee I got in France!) I was pleased to see that there was something called “The Little Coffee Shack” a couple of blocks from our hotel and decided to go over there, since I was sure that the coffee provided as part of our free hotel breakfast would be terrible. My big beef with coffee made by anyone but me is that it’s too weak. Someone several years ago suggested that I start ordering what’s called a “shot in the dark,” which is regular brewed coffee with an added shot of espresso. I’ve done that several times and had fairly good results. Okay. I went over there and ordered. I even said, “Just to be sure, a ‘shot in the dark’ is . . .” and the girl on duty said, “Sure—I know what that is.” Well, folks, she must not have. What I got was basically colored water, for which I was charged $3.75.
Now you tell me: What should I have done? I hadn’t even gone back to the hotel yet; I was sitting at a little picnic table out in front of the place. I SHOULD HAVE GONE BACK TO THE WINDOW AND ASKED HER TO REMAKE IT. Right? Will you believe me when I say that this idea didn’t occur to me at the time? I just sat there and DRANK the stuff, fumingly. Then I went back to the hotel. Only later did I think, ‘Hey, why didn’t I go back and ask how she’d made it? I think she must have made me an Americano,’ (basically a watered-down espresso). But by then it was too late, really. Was I going to go back and say, “Hey, I came by here this morning, now several hours ago, and ordered a coffee drink that was disgustingly weak.” I guess I could have done that, but I felt very foolish at the thought of doing so. Had I just then discovered that the coffee was bad? The chance to get my do-over had passed me by. I contented myself with writing a couple of negative reviews online, but that was pretty unsatisfactory. (Most of the other reviews were five stars. Do people in Parachute just like their coffee to be transparent?)
Well, my life isn’t going to change much because I wimped out at the coffee shack. I’m out $3.75 and I feel a little foolish, but hey! I’m getting a blog post out of it. There have been other times, though, when I’ve let an opportunity go by that was much more important, and I’ve come to realize that there are simply times when you can’t go back and fix things. Sometimes the opportunity just goes by, and that’s that. I’m reminded here of the Roman god Occasio, who represented opportunity, luck, and favorable moments. But you had to grab him as he came toward you because he had only one lock of hair hanging down on his forehead. If you waited too long and then tried to grab him by the back of the head you’d be out of, well, luck, because the back of his head was bald.
Because I loathe confrontation, and because I’m not always terribly good at thinking on my feet, I’ve often let good ol’ Occasio get past me. As I write this post I can think of any number of situations in which I’ve known there was a problem but never confronted it. Sometimes I’ve gone back later and tried to put things straight, and sometimes I’ve just let it ride. How much better, and how much easier in the long run, had I said, “Have I offended you in some way? You seem to be upset with me.” I seem to have a knack sometimes to get under people’s skin.
So I guess I’d better woman up from now on. Grab that forelock as it goes by!