The clock strikes back

In an earlier post I talked about an accident that happened when I responded to a request for help with the A/V equipment in our conference room. The group using the room had hung their homemade clock over the door so when I went in the room, of course it fell off and shattered into a million pieces. I felt terrible about it but at the same time was annoyed that they were stupid enough to hang it in such a precarious spot.

Well, I finally heard back from them in sort of a roundabout way. The leader sent a whiney message to our meeting room librarian and complained that we have treated his group very rudely over the past several months, citing the clock incident as one of several examples. He said, and I quote, "Also, I used to have a Laurel & Hardy clock, specially crafted by one of my group's members, that I would hang on the back door of the conference room at each meeting. About three months ago, one of the librarians opened the door to address me, and the clock fell to the floor into a broken, unrepairable state without a single word of apology from the librarian."

Man, that really burns me up. I DID apologize - I remember saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" and then attempting to help pick up the pieces, but the group members were so horrified that they yelled at me not to bother. They could clearly see it was an accident but were so grumpy about it that I could think was, "why the hell did you have it hanging in THAT particular spot?" So I was angry that their stupidity had caused me to be the agent of destruction, and I guess I wasn't abject enough in my apology.

Of course I had to respond to him, and I'm pleased to say that I (mostly) took the high ground and sent back a genuine apology (because, truly, I am sorry it happened). From his reply it seemed he was mollified, so all's well that ends well, I guess.