Life's uncertainties

I like days like today cuz I have no set plan and I haven't got the slightest idea what the day's events will bring. I know I'll do the usual stuff---cleaning barns, feeding animals, picking up around the house, checking email, etc.

Beyond that, however, forecasting the day's events is a total crap shoot. I never know when the phone is going to ring. This morning, will it be Debbie calling and asking me to come and get her cuz of car problems? Will it be Mother calling to talk about the overnight rain? Will it be some telemarketer? Will it be Tony setting a time to fix Mother's golf cart?

Who knows?

We do know that there is potential for car problems. Willie and Debbie just headed to the school, and Debbie will bring the car back so she can go into town later this morning and talk to a lady about a possible job.

The car---on their way home from the airport last night---suddenly went blank on the highway near the Selle turnoff with lights out and all electrical stuff going off. It was just a brief moment before everything returned to normal. Still, it's definitely a concern as to why it happened and if it will happen again.

Fortunately, there's a car here, should further problems ensue.

If Debbie's job prospect turns out well, life will take some dramatically different turns for her and the rest of us as she makes the transition from Southern Idaho to Northern Idaho.

Willie knows he has to cover the high school football playoff game tonight for two regional newspapers, but he has no idea how the Sandpoint-Middleton rematch will turn out. Like a good sports reporter, he's writing a potential lead in his head.

Last time he covered a game, he had his lead all ready for a day or two in advance, but the game's conclusion didn't match the lead, so he had to do some quick thinking at deadline time. I'm sure this time he'll be considering all possibilities cuz those sports stories have to materialize pretty quickly to meet the deadline once the game ends.

Usually on Friday nights, here at the Lovestead, we know the drill. Wait until Bill comes home. Wait until Bill reads some newspapers and watches the news and maybe grabs a few winks and then head somewhere for dinner. On this Friday night, we don't know what we'll be doing, cuz we don't know how soon Willie needs to be at the game or if Debbie will be accompanying him or . . . ."

Again, it's a crapshoot, and that's what makes life interesting. The hope always is that the unpredictable will be positive unlike the unforseen tragic events yesterday at Fort Hood.

I saw the photo of the major smiling and holding a donut, just hours before he held out his gun and devastated the lives of thousands of soldiers and their families. In one instant, an entire community of soldiers and their families faced a new dynamic of total uncertainty in their lives: the place they considered the safest turned into a setting for a horrific nightmare.

We never know what the next moment will bring on any given day or how those moments will evolve into whole new twists and turns of our existence or lack thereof. Life is definitely an ongoing crapshoot, and we're reminded every day of how powerless we are in writing its script.