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Ever have one of those moments when everything just sortof clicks into place, and suddenly everything is right with the universe? Yep, then you know exactly what I mean.

Mrs. MZM and I recently tried yet another set of phones. (That doesn’t sound like such a big deal, does it? Well, maybe not for you…) You know the kind, right? It’s got multiple handsets with built-in speakerphones, a digital answering machine, and only needs one phone connection.

I don’t know why, but we’ve had the worst luck with phones (and with most other electronics, for that matter). At first I could use the excuse that maybe the phone lines were a little noisy, since we’d just moved into a new house. When we tried to use that first set, it sounded like we were making calls from the middle of the freeway.

So back to the store for set #2, which… didn’t work at all. Grrr. Back to the store again, this time with fingers (and just in case, toes too) crossed.

Our latest phone set (#3, in case you’re keeping score) made annoying little background noises whenever we tried to make calls or when the answering machine picked up calls. So, back it goes, too. Ah, well; in spite of ending up 0-3, at least I have something to celebrate. Really.

In recent years, I’ve noticed that every time we buy something electronic in nature, it comes packed in a cardboard box, the nature of which would do Kazimierez Kuratowski, considered the father of topology, proud. I mean, c’mon; I’m an engineer for cryin’ out loud, and even I have problems unpacking the little darlings! (You technology geeks will bear me out here.)

But what really takes the fuzz of my chaps is when it’s time to return the dang things (which alas, seems to happen all too frequently). The ordeal of getting all the pieces and parts back into that blasted Rubik’s Cube thingie they call a box is practically impossible. In fact, solving a Rubik’s Cube is probably easier! (Actually, it’s something I’ve never done – not because I can’t, mind you, but because I choose not to try.)

Usually I just give up and end up bringing everything back in one of those plastic grocery store bags, like some kind of vagabond or something. It’s actually pretty humiliating, you know? I mean, here I am, a highly experienced engineer, and yet I can’t figure out how to put something back into its box. And I’ve been known to be able to re-fold a completely open map! (Although I don’t hear any actual laughing out-loud, I just know the clerks behind the return counter are pointing and giving me condescending looks behind my back.)

So, while in some circles it could be considered a bit cheeky to say it, I really think I deserve some kind of award or something. Here’s why.

Last night, when I was packing the latest casualty of our continuing daytime soap opera, As The Phone Tones, back into its cardboard equivalent of a Klien bottle, it was with a completely unexpected sense of accomplishment and wonder that I managed to actually fit everything back into the box! No kidding, I really did! (I’m thinkin’, somebody alert the media!)

I looked around, ready to shout out and start the celebration but… there’s no one around (sound of crickets). Alas, it felt exactly like that time I bowled a 200 game for the first (and sadly, the last) time… and had no witnesses whatsoever.

Anyway, if you see me wearing a sling on my arm for the next few days, you’ll know what happened. I think I sprained it patting myself on the back.

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