We had been grumpy at work about a client who had missed an appointment last week.

We thought he had just blown us off when he didn't show up or call. Over a week went by before he did get around to calling to reschedule, and we weren't truly sure he would show up for the rescheduled meeting. We had decided to give him a few minutes past the appointed time, then we were closing the office for the afternoon.

Turns out he showed up a few minutes early. While he was speaking with the attorney he apologized for missing the prior appointment, and said that he had been a little scatterbrained last week. He went on to say he had been in the metro New York City area on business, and had witnessed the tragedy at the World Trade Center.

We decided that was ample justification for being scatterbrained.