Speak, O Muse, of that resourceful man who had to find time in the meeting-filled calendars of several co-workers for a new council.(哦，缪斯女神，请歌唱那位足智多谋的男子，他不得不在几位同事排满会议的日程中为一场新会议找到时间。) This council was to happen on a fortnightly basis, ideally on a Monday morning, but that was a very common time for other councils to be held. Todd, for such was his name, had examined the meeting-filled calendars(排满会议的日程) of his colleagues and realised that the only time when everyone was free was at rosy-fingered Dawn(玫瑰色手指的黎明), but this wasn’t an option because some people had to get the kids ready for school.
哦，缪斯女神，请歌唱那位足智多谋的男子，他不得不在几位同事排满会议的日程中为一场新会议找到时间。这场会议本应每两周举行一次，理想时间是周一早上，但那是其他会议常见的召开时间。托德——他便是这般名字——检视了同事们排满会议的日程，意识到唯一所有人都有空的时间是玫瑰色手指的黎明，但此选项不可行，因为有人得送孩子上学。
Todd dispatched swift-footed(捷足的（荷马式修饰语）) invitations to all the participants, explaining that his council was the most important council of all and that he would be grateful if they made time for it in their meeting-filled calendars. He immediately got a swift-footed email back from the shiny-headed Harold, who declined his invitation and suggested another time that suited him better.(他立即收到了光头哈罗德的捷足邮件回复，对方谢绝了邀请并提出了一个更适合自己的时间。) Moira of the tattooed arms quickly rejected Harold’s alternative proposal, and suggested a time of her own. The studiously courteous Violet followed suit(跟着做，效仿), as did several others. Each one of them put forward(提出（建议、时间等）) a slot that no one else could make.
托德向所有参与者发出了捷足的信函，解释他的会议是重中之重，如果他们能在排满会议的日程中为此抽出时间，他将不胜感激。他立即收到了光头哈罗德的捷足邮件回复，对方谢绝了邀请并提出了一个更适合自己的时间。纹臂的莫伊拉迅速否决了哈罗德的替代提议，并提出了自己的时间。谦恭有加的维奥莱特也如法炮制，另几个人也照做。每个人提出的时间段都无人能参加。
Several hours passed in this way. The resourceful Todd wondered if he could schedule his council on Tuesday instead but the calendars were meeting-filled on those days, too. Just then he received a message from many-windowed Microsoft(多窗口的微软（戏仿多奥德赛式修饰语）), the god of interruptions, to say that his communications device was missing several critical security updates and would need to be “rebooted(重启（计算机）)”. The crafty(狡黠的，狡猾的) Todd attempted to ignore many-windowed Microsoft’s messages, but the god was insistent(坚持的，执意的) and shut down(关闭（系统），停工) what he was working on without any warning.
几个小时就这样过去了。足智多谋的托德心想，不如把会议改在周二，但那几天的日程也同样排满了会议。就在这时，他收到了多窗口微软——中断之神——的消息，称他的通信设备缺少几个关键安全更新，需要“重启”。狡黠的托德试图忽略多窗口微软的消息，但这位神祇执意坚持，并毫无预警地关闭了他正在处理的工作。