The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

It was the great Scottish poet Robert Burns who wrote "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough."  The video above is a Scotsman reciting the poem in a true Scottish brogue.  The poem is much known for its penultimate verse:

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane / In proving foresight may be vain: The best-laid schemes o'mice an' men / Gang aft agley 

It is that line that is often quoted by others to help explain that even the best laid of intentions goes awry when an outside force acts on it.

Yes, that's my typical long way of saying that today did not go as I had expected.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I decided that I should relinquish my basement fortress from being my card room and, instead, that I should use our bonus room above our garage for the same purpose.  It makes complete sense too.

The bonus room was used as a teen's bedroom by our previous owners, so it has a full bathroom connected to it.  It also has a much larger TV than the basement -- the bonus room TV is my old plasma from my bachelor days.  The bonus room has exterior windows while the finished part of the basement does not. And, finally, the bonus room can be closed off from others going in to it while the basement has a lot more usefulness for others.  So, it makes complete sense.

The only problem is that it is painted in OLD GOLD and Navy.  That was perfect for the Georgia-Tech-loving people who owned our house previously, but it is not what I want in a room as a Georgia fan.  So, today I was going to paint that room.

I diligently taped all the baseboards, the ceiling line, the door frames, and the window this morning, and I was on my way to Home Depot to get the paint we had decided on. My tire pressure light came on again, so I stopped to put some air in my tires.  When I got to my front tire on my driver's side, I noticed what looked to be some feathers sticking out of the tire, so I grabbed at it to try to remove it.  It wasn't feathers.

It was the tread, coming apart and separating.

In other words, my best laid plan to paint then come to the basement and blog turned into an afternoon at Tires Plus getting four new incredibly expensive run-flat tires for my car.

It's been a long day.  It could have been a lot worse -- the tread could have separated while I was driving and caused me to lose control of the car, after all, so it was an afternoon well spent.

Anyway, enough whining.

I'm tired, annoyed, and unenthusiastic right now, so let me tease something.

About a week or so ago, I mentioned that I bought a case of 2013 Topps Series 2 to rip through.  And, that was about the last of it that I said.  Since I got a case, I got a lot of cool stuff as a result.  Here's just one item, which is on its way to Bob Walk the Plank shortly:

Y'all have a good night now.

After all, "Still thou are blest, compared wi' me!"