Lost Documents Does Not Equal Lost Patience

Because my wife was feeling ill yesterday and today, I stayed home from work. Miraculously, I was able to put in almost a full day of work from home and draft a 25-page opinion for the judge. The only problem was that when I went to email it from my home account to my work account, it was gone. I spent close to two hours searching for it--in between visits to my room to pound on the bed as hard as I could--with the hope that it was somewhere in my computer. I know I saved it--multiple times. Being home was exciting for the kids, and for me when I still had my document. But when I lost it, every breath they made felt as though someone had crashed giant cymbals right next to my ears. Everything felt cacophonous and jarring. It took every once of energy not to lose my fragile temper. I moved slowly, spoke cautiously, and although I was not as playful as usual when I am home, I was able to refrain from taking the frustration of that random disaster out on my kids. Once they were successfully in bed, I took a breather, searched again for the document, then outlined what I remember in preparation for rewriting it tomorrow. The closer I was to the loss of the document, the more desperate I was feeling, but as some time intervened and put distance between me and the loss of the document--time not occupied by other things like putting the kids to bed--I could come back to my senses and get back to work. I of course double-checked that the outline was properly saved before I closed it, then emailed it to myself. Now I am fine. Although they say never to bring work home with you, sometimes it requires tremendous effort and you still fail. I think it would be easier to say, "Don't take your work out on your family when you get home." That I can follow.