Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Men

Everyone has heard the old saying "the best laid plans of mice and men."  Well yesterday no truer words could have been spoken.  I'm sound asleep all nice and cozy after my husband left for work yesterday morning and suddenly my phone rings and it is my daughter telling me to open my door and so my day begun.  She had brought me breakfast and then went on her merry, or maybe not so merry way.  I was supposed to go somewhere with her but she entered the house in one of her not so merry moods and as it turned out I was in one of my not so patient moods.  After a while we both decided that discretion was the better part of valor and she went on her way alone and I remained behind.  It was all reached very amicably.
After a while I decided to settle in to take a nice little nap and continue with what would be a peaceful day of solitude.  You see this was supposed to be one of my husband’s long days and I had every intention of taking full advantage of this.  So I settled down and got nice and cozy.  Again it was not to be.  My phone rang.
It was Gina and she was finished with what she needed to do and was headed back my way.  After a brief discussion about lunch with me telling her that I really wasn’t hungry, remember she brought me breakfast, I figured I could go back to my lazy day even though I knew she would be stopping by before she headed home.  Believe me I was OK with this because I knew that she too was wanting to spend the afternoon in lazy repose because of the very hectic schedule she had been under for the past several months.  Ho hum. The day was not going to be a total loss and I settled down if not nice and cozy for sleep at least comfortably curled up on my couch with the remote in my hand.  The phone rang.
Oh flipping lovely I thought as I picked up my phone.  This time it was my wonderful husband and he was having to jump from one location to another with his work as it turned out and this one would bring him by the house right at the lunching hour.  Guess who was going to lunch.  I called my daughter and we made arrangements to meet at a very nice little place that serves wonderful home cooking.  Now of course here again my lovely daughter and I ran into a bit of an issue with directions because she had never been to the place we were going and let’s just say things got lost in the translations, on both sides.  I’m a north/south type of person and she is a right/left kind.  That may not seem like a big deal but try bringing the two together over the phone with roads and highways changing names within feet of where you are supposed to turn and it can cause confusion for the person receiving the direction no matter how good the person giving them is.  Oh well, she had GPS so it worked out.
After lunch Buddy, my dear sweet little hubby went back to doing what he needed to do and I rode home with Gina, well with a slight detour.  Two women out together what do you think happened?  Yes shopping.  Now I hate to shop but I decided I was actually in the mood for it so for once it was me leading my daughter astray instead of her dragging me kicking and screaming.  Shopping was fun and for the most part uneventful, almost uneventful but that is a whole other blog.  Believe me.
Back at the house Gina stayed for a short while and then went on her merry little way, this time truly merry, well almost anyway and I settled in to quietly enjoy the rest of my afternoon.  It was four o’clock.  The phone rang.  Buddy again.
Hey hon Susie, another daughter, has had a blow out and she doesn’t have a spare or a jack so I’ve got to go and see if I can help her.  I’m leaving work now but I’m coming by to get you to go with me.
The only thought that went through my head was ‘what.’
Buddy of course works not on what you call the other side of the city but damn near in another state from where we live and that alone would constitute a long drive back to our place but for those of you who do not live in our lovely little hamlet you have no idea what a nightmare it is to get around here during non-rush hours, what it is like during that time is HELL.  Imagine Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas all rolled up into one and you might get a small inkling of what I’m talking about.  No it isn’t that we are bigger, more crowded, or have the worst drivers in the world, OK we do have the worst in this country, but because of all the damn road work they decided to do at one time.  Every major road, highway, and interstate going into and out of this city is having something major done.  I’m not kidding here.  Every one.  You cannot go north, south, east, or west that you will not run into some type of road work on just about every major roadway.  Not just the ones going in and out of the city but ones in the city.  It is so backed up that in neighborhoods where you might see one or two cars on your street in a day's time are having huge traffic jams.  Hell I think the little neighborhood street that runs in front of my house has become an alternate freeway, both for number of cars and speed.
Buddy called at five he got home about six.  Now we have to go back out into that traffic, oh he wanted me to drive the ass, so we set out in what is still bumper to bumper traffic to get to what is probably one of the absolute worst parts of town on any day when it comes to traffic at any time so let your mind take it from there.  Off we go.
I somehow managed to find a little sweet spot in the traffic on one of the less traveled roads and managed to get to Susie in about forty minutes.  Great now what?  She has no tire and we have to get one.  Guess what?  Everything that has to do with that closes at seven.  It is now eleven minutes till.  Crap.  Once again off we go only this time it is beat the clock.  We did and didn’t beat the clock but there again that story deserves a blog of its own so we will skip the explanation of that for now.  We did manage to get her a new tire and back to her car we went.  Once the tire was on her car we of course had to stop to grab a bite to eat and that put me back at the house, oh traffic was now pretty much manageable so Buddy wanted to drive, at nine o’clock.
So what is the point of this stupid, long, pointless rant?  Well two reasons.  The first is to draw your attention to the title.  Yes no matter how we plan out our day something can and will go wrong and screw you up.  The second, well let’s just say because I can and I wanted to.  If you have stuck with this all the way to the end then you are probably someone who knows well what I’m talking about and my heart goes out to you.  Please feel free to add a long and detailed account of anything screwing up your day and blowing up your well laid plans.  I promise I’ll read and offer the appropriate responses of sorry and understanding of your plight.