I just wanted a day off.
So I wandered to a public golf course for some sunshine and the hope of just one decent tee-shot.
When you wander out to play golf on your own, you never know whom you might meet.
I've learned what it feels like to go into a burning building, thanks to a golfing firefighter. I've learned what it feels like to fly a covert mission to Iraq from a young golfing Air Force pilot.
This time, the play was slow, and two men caught up with me. One was instantly affable and a good golfer.
He wanted to chat, and he was good at that, too.
Given that this was a weekday, I asked him how often he played.
"Around three times a week," he replied.
"How can you do that?" I wondered.
"I have a great boss who only cares about me making my quotas."
"So you're a salesman? What do you sell?"
"IT security software[1]," he said.
If there's one product that most businesses crave these days, it's this one. Hacks cost businesses millions[2]. Why some cities are even paying hefty ransoms to get their data back[3].
Many IT and security professionals blame ignorant, careless employees for most of the issues[4]. Some research suggests that millennial employees are the most blasé[5] about the whole thing.
Yet my conversation with this IT security salesman took a strange turn.
We were waiting to tee off, and suddenly he said, entirely unprompted: "You know, our product doesn't work."
Ah. Oh.
What do you say to that?