Life doesn't always go according to plan...

For no particular reason, let’s start this week with a couple of “interesting” headlines I happened to see scrolling through the BBC News app on Monday...

“Root hits 50 as England pass 200-3, chasing 378...” 

“North Korea claims Covid arrived on ‘alien things...”

I wonder if the two news stories were connected. And please don’t ask why I was spending time on the BBC News app on our nation’s Independence Day. 

Meanwhile...

Life doesn’t always go according to plan... True. True. How true.

I ran across those words while reading through some “junk” mail which arrived one day last week. To be honest, the item which arrived in the mail was one of those that I normally would not read. Generally, such things just get tossed in the recycling bin.

However, for some reason...I went ahead and started to read the item. 

Life doesn’t always go according to plan were the opening seven words in a sentence under a headline which declared: Prepare for the unexpected and stay flexible.

Without going into the details, I’ll just say that the Journey Through Life for The Other Half and yours truly since about January or so has pretty much been about life not going according to plan, preparing for the unexpected and doing the best we can to stay flexible. Of course, we’re not the only ones facing such challenges. 

With all that being said, over the weekend, I attempted to do something “normal” in the midst of the unexpected.

Saturday evening, and then again on Sunday evening, I did a little bit of wandering around in the country. At five bucks a gallon, I didn’t wander far, though.

I hadn’t thought about it much until these words were being crafted, but my wanderings involved some time along what we’ll call both ends of Kaolin Road: the section just off old U.S. Route 51 between Anna and Cobden and the section just off Kaolin Road, not far from Illinois Route 127.

Saturday evening, I made a side trip along the section between Anna and Cobden, just to see what there might be to see. Turned out I saw some interesting birds. Can’t tell you what kind of birds they might have been. They did seem to like water, and didn’t seem to mind getting their feet wet and muddy.

Sunday evening, my imaginary Other Half and I motored out in the direction of Mountain Glen Road...and then to the other end of Kaolin Road.

My goal for the evening was to spot some white-tailed deer. Evening seems to be a good time to achieve such a goal. At first, I thought I was only going to see imaginary deer. However, a drive past a couple of fields filled with what I think were this year’s new soybeans proved to be successful...and I spotted real, live critters. 

On several occasions during my weekend adventures, I again pretty much stopped a couple of times right there in the middle of the road to take some photographs. I’m pretty sure that is not legal. The critters never say anything.

I can tell you in complete confidence that even in the final hours of daylight last Sunday, the weather outside was almost frightful...warm...humid...pretty much uncomfortable.

Enough for now. Try to stay cool. And remember...life doesn’t always go according to plan...