Sometimes, however, stuff happens to jar us into thoughts other than those monopolizing virtually every waking moment.
My two-track mind at the time is focusing on all-things Ireland and today's version of March Madness.
Our ZAGS are playing in the prime time slot tonight when they take on the Number 4-ranked Arizona Wildcats. And, the ZAG women are starting their tournament this afternoon.
One aspect of March Madness has gone bust for me and maybe for a lot of other people.
Bad choices: Texas over Michigan, Syracuse over Dayton and Villanova over UConn. I'm thinking those big mistakes have all but erased any chance of a wad of dollars being handed my way.
So, now the focus can go full energy for a couple of ZAGS wins today.
The other focus, of course, is Ireland. Preparations have gone smoothly until yesterday afternoon when Bill was in town doing errands associated with the trip.
The Ford Ranger chose Second and Main in front of U.S. Bank to get sick and not start. Never mind that he'd had a new battery installed two days before.
When the pickup refused to start, a passing comment made by the battery installer came into Bill's focus---the guy mentioned something about the starter but just in passing. No red flags at the time, but maybe there should have been.
So, I took an unplanned trip to town, and we had our annual visit with Dan Smith from Evergreen Towing. This breakdown included an added benefit.
A few weeks ago, Carol Camp, who puts together the "Bonner County History" notes for the Daily Bee, called me with a question.
She selected a brief from the Sandpoint News Bulletin 50 years ago which had a glitch. Carol wanted to get to the bottom of it and maybe correct it before the item appears in an April paper.
The news brief had to do with the Mountain View Dudes 4-H Club, which had elected its officers for the year: Mike Boeck, president; Susan Baldwin, vice president; Marianne Brown, secretary; Peggy Watts, reporter. And, then Lena Randy Allen had been elected to an office (maybe treasurer, if I recall correctly).
Well, Carol surmised that there may not have been a person named Lena Randy Allen, so she called me to check it out.
Immediately, I remembered participating with Lena Smith (she's Dan Smith's sister) in 4-H, but I felt a little foggy about her being in the Mountain View Dudes.
For sure, she was in the Mountain View ABC Club, a home ec group led by Lucille Hudon, Winifred Nikkola and Eleanor Delamarter, but somehow the Mountain View Dudes, a horse group led by my mother didn't quite add up in my mind.
I told Carol that I would check with Lena and see if she had been in the club and had been elected to some office. Only problem, though, was I didn't have a phone number for Lena.
So, when Dan came yesterday to rescue the Ford Ranger and take it to Rokstad Ford for repairs, I asked him how to get in touch with Lena.
While he and Bill got the pickup ready to go, I called Lena.
No, she was not a member of the Mountain View Dudes. Yes, she had horses, and, ironically, she had sold her horses to the Allen family so Randy could ride a horse. She had also taken 10 years of forestry in another club.
So, we got that all straightened out. I asked her about forestry.
"Oh yes," she said. "I loved forestry and wanted to rid the world of the Tussock moth . . . still do."
Then, she told me she had tried to get into the University of Idaho Forestry college and, at the time (in the early '70s) they weren't too interested in women pursuing forestry as a career.
I told Lena she still had time to enroll, and we both agreed that the attitude toward women foresters may have changed a bit since those days.
My call ended. Dan towed the Ranger to Rokstad Ford. I told Bill about Lena, the aspiring forester who did not get elected to an office in the Mountain View Dudes.
Now, the Ranger needs to get fixed and brought home before we go, and before we go, I'll call Carol Kamp and tell her to take "Lena" off from Randy's name. By the way, Peggy, if you're reading this, we figure the error had to have been a typographical glitch at the printer's cuz we know you have always gotten your facts straight.
Speaking of which, Carol will be able to correct a 50-year-old mistake, and she can rub shoulders with the New York Times which recently corrected a 161-year-old mistake associated with the author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave.
It's never too late to right a wrong.
That said, for at least the time it took me to write this posting, I've forgotten about Ireland and March Madness.
Now, it's time to get back to business.
Happy Sunday. GO ZAGS! And . . . .
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
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