The Case of the Missing 8

2026-08-11

🔑 Come 7:15 Uncle.

There are mornings when you wake up and immediately know that the day is going to be interesting.

Then there are mornings when the weather has already thrown hail at you, the wind is howling, the temperature is threatening to become snow, and your glasses are sitting somewhere other than on your face.

That was the morning I discovered that an 8 can be a very small number with very large consequences.

My employer sent me a WhatsApp message:

“Be here at 8:15.”

Simple enough.

Except I was looking at the message without my glasses.

I saw the figure.

I saw the colon.

I saw the 15.

Somewhere between my blurry eyesight and my overconfident brain, the 8 disappeared completely.

So I confidently replied:

“Okay.”

Naturally, I interpreted the message as 7:15.

After all, we normally leave around 7:15.

So shortly before 7:00, I arrived at the shop, collected the keys, climbed into the bakkie and started getting everything ready.

It was cold.

Very cold.

The kind of cold where the steering wheel feels personally offended by your hands.

I even told ChatGPT that I had to leave soon because I needed to be at work by 7:15.

There I sat.

Waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

The shop remained suspiciously empty.

Nobody appeared.

Eventually I thought:

“Where on earth is everybody?”

So I picked up my phone and sent a message asking where they were.

And that’s when I made the discovery.

I looked at the original WhatsApp message again.

This time, properly.

And there it was.

8:15.

That little 8 had been there the entire time.

It hadn’t moved.

It hadn’t disappeared.

It hadn’t been deleted.

It hadn’t been changed by WhatsApp.

I had simply failed to see it.

I had arrived almost an hour early because I had confidently read something that I had not actually read.

And that, dear reader, is how a man can sit freezing outside a shop while everybody else is still comfortably at home.

😂 The Moral of the Story

Sometimes the problem isn’t the message.

Sometimes the problem isn’t the sender.

Sometimes the problem isn’t even WhatsApp.

Sometimes…

you need your glasses.

There is a bigger lesson hiding underneath the comedy, though.

We often do the same thing in life.

We see part of a situation and immediately fill in the missing pieces ourselves.

We read half the message.

We hear half the conversation.

We notice one small detail.

Then our brain confidently constructs the rest.

And before long, we’re sitting outside the wrong shop at the wrong time wondering where everybody went.

The wiser approach is surprisingly simple:

Slow down.

Look again.

Read the whole message.

And when necessary…

Put your glasses on!

🌧️ A Cold Morning Reminder

This particular morning added another layer to the comedy.

The weather was miserable.

The wind was strong, the cold was biting, and we’d already had hail.

It was the sort of Johannesburg winter morning where you look at the sky and think:

“Snow would really complete this experience.”

Fortunately, the wind seemed determined to blow the possibility of snow somewhere else.

So there I was, sitting in the bakkie, warming it up for work…

almost an hour before anyone else needed to be there.

At least the vehicle was warm.

My pride wasn’t.

🔑 A Little Wisdom

There is no shame in making a silly mistake.

We all do it.

The important thing is what we do after discovering it.

We can become angry.

We can blame somebody else.

We can pretend we never made the mistake.

Or we can laugh at ourselves, learn something, and carry on.

I choose the last one.

Because sometimes life’s lessons arrive wearing a beanie, sitting in a cold bakkie, staring at WhatsApp and wondering why nobody else has arrived.

And sometimes the lesson is simply:

READ THE MESSAGE, OTTO.

With your glasses.

🙏 A Thought for Today

Before reacting to something today, take a moment to make sure you have actually understood it.

Read it again.

Listen carefully.

Check the details.

Don’t allow assumptions to become facts simply because your brain is in a hurry.

A little patience can save a lot of unnecessary trouble.

And sometimes…

a pair of glasses can save you an hour of sitting in the cold.

🗡️ ‘God’s Journalist’ in conjunction with ChatGPT and the Holy Spirit