And the moral of the story...

My manager didn't have a very good day at work today. A slew of irritations piled up around him, and eventually around me. Normally he's quite good at protecting me from these day to day inanities, but today they seemed to get to him. And consequently to me. Every few minutes it would seem that a new problem would crop up and and he'd come around to ask something else of me. And each time his mood was darker and his face grimmer, though none of directed towards me directly. And each time he'd ask a little bit more of me.

Time wore on, and as the work day crept to a close things settled down a bit - though still he kept a calling. Eventually I stopped him in his tracks and told him this story. Then I went home the next time his back was turned.