The Best Laid Plans

Scottish poet Robert Burns was spot-on with his famous line, “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft’ go awry.” But you know the origin of that poem? Legend has it that Burns was plowing the fields at his farm late in the year when he accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest, something the little critter needed to survive the winter. It was said that he wrote the poem to express his regret for the incident.

I can sympathize, because Burns isn’t the only one whose plans often do not work out. Let me tell you about yesterday.

Terry had an appointment at Seventy-Seven Subaru in Show Low at 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon to have the 6-month service done on her new Forester. They said to expect the appointment to take about an hour. I decided that I would meet her there with my pickup and we would go across the highway to the dispensary to pick up some gummies to help me sleep and deal with my back pain. Then, we would go out to Snowflake, which is about 25 miles from here. I wanted to stop at a gun shop there, and then we planned to eat an early dinner at the Snowflake Smokehouse, one of our favorite restaurants in the area.

Those plans didn’t work out when I checked their website and found out that the gun shop is closed all week for inventory. We decided to scrap that plan and just go to the dispensary instead. The dealership told us it would take about an hour for the service appointment. Experience has taught me that you can usually expect twice that much time at any car dealership service department. But this time around they surprised me, and within half an hour, about the time I was finishing up at the dispensary, they called to say they were finished, and the Forester was ready to pick up.

That was a nice surprise, and it still left me time to go to Plan B, which was to go to the indoor shooting range at The Hub in Lakeside and try out my new .38 Super, as well as some 10mm handloads that Kenny had worked up for me. But given what I had found out about the Snowflake gun shop, I called first and found out the range was closed for the day.

Okay, no problem. There’s always Plan C. I have a large collection of police badges in display cases, which I have been wanting to hang up in my office ever since we moved here in June. Back at home, I asked Terry if she would help me get them hung up. We managed to get one display case hung, and then our granddaughter Britni showed up to visit. We always love spending time with the grandkids, so we didn’t mind the interruption. Britni is a very intelligent and interesting young woman, and having some quality time with her is always a treat.

We were enjoying the conversation so much that time slipped away from us, and by the time Britni left, it was past dinnertime. Rather than cook something that late as planned, I suggested Terry just make us some cold sandwiches and we would have a light dinner. After that, and watching the 10 o’clock news on television, it was time for me to write the blog and turn in.

I wonder what I can get accomplished today? The weatherman says starting tonight we are supposed to have a major cold front coming through and the possibility of several inches of snow. If that happens, I’ll have plenty of time to stay inside and work on projects here, because I try not to expose myself to that kind of nastiness if I can help it. But I’m not planning anything, just in case!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – No matter how bad things get, I’m always rich when I go to the Dollar Store.