The Best Laid Schemes

Oh, the plans! I had them, I tell ya. I had them all. I was gonna get to my conference today with plenty of time to set my books up in the bookstore and get my promotional flyers to the bag-stuffing committee. I was going to meet my mentoring group in the morning and give them awesome gifts and be a good mentor to them. Then I was going to teach my class Friday morning, and team-teach a class with my husband, David, in the afternoon. On Saturday, David and I would be free to enjoy the conference and our time with each other, I'd sign books at the signing, then come home on Sunday. Everything was ready because I'd made my plans well.

And then I went and got myself sick.

I thought I'd be better in time to go, but I'm not. It's probably bronchitis, and the quick Covid test was negative, but the conference team and I decided that it was best not to risk infecting the crowd.

It's weird how the world has changed, eh? I mean, it used to be that you proved your reliability by showing up even if you were sick. Now, if you show up sick, people assume the worst and fear that you're going to make them sick--which you might. And these days, "sick" can be something quite scary.

Now, since I'm home for a few extra days than I expected, I suppose I ought to use the time for some writing, eh? I haven't felt well enough to do much of anything the past few days, but I'm gonna shoot for some serious writing Friday and Saturday, the days I would have been at the conference.

My book boss, Lorie, also reminded me that I had promised to reveal the cover for Dragon Protocol Wednesday. That would be yesterday, Wednesday. Oops. I feel all discombobulated now, so maybe I ought to try to come up with some new plans and try again.

My granny and grampa were from Scotland, and Robbie Burns was Grampa's favorite poet (like any good Scot). We get the line "best laid plans" from a Burns' poem called "To a Mouse". The poem's basically about the unpredictability of life, that neither mice nor men (creatures or humans) can know what the future holds. All we can ever do is our best and live for the joy of today's successes.

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!

Love to you!