Flexibility has its own rewards

When I awoke this morning the only thing on the agenda was coffee in the village with a friend, followed by getting off to the mountains.

A half hour later, it went like this:

Housemate was going to be giving a reading of some of her books, including “The cockeyed Nipple” (bet that caught your attention! http://donnalanenelson.com/ for more information not only on this one – her recounting of her experience with breast cancer – but also on her other published works).  This meant dragging along several of said books (all proceeds donated to cancer research) and as she had intended taking the bus at the top of the hill, I offered to bring her to the bus in the village instead: first deviation from the schedule. Upon arrival there, the bus wasn’t for 20 minutes so she came in to say hello to my other friend and have a tea. We then discovered that the next bus was not going into town, but rather out to the border whereupon I decided to drive her into town when we had finished: deviation two. No sooner said than the other friend’s husband showed up (whom I haven’t seen in a couple of years, and whom I haven’t seen in the coffee shop for at least five years) – deviation number three.

Are we beginning to get the picture that today is not going to the original plan?

Although a bus did show up as we were leaving, it was (and currently still is) a beautiful, warm fall day so I decided that the car was faster and off we went. Housemate needed to do some banking so there were two choices: drop her at the one on the bus line (difficult as no stopping or waiting zones) or go park underneath one of the major grocery stores: deviation four with the excuse that I could get shampoo, chocolate and check out the magazines.

Here we split, each going to her own tasks. As I left – and again on the basis that it was a beautiful fall day – I decided to take the upper route back to my village to pick up the mail: deviation five.

This is where flexibility had its rewards.

A blanket of fog lay along the hills,

Fingers of fog touched the branches and trunks of the trees,

Pools of fog filled in the lower dips and

Wisps of fog circled into the cerulean sky.

The occasional wall of fog along the road let the

Discovery of bright red vine leaves piercing the

gloom shine even brighter.

All that would have been missed had I stuck to the original plan.

I wasn’t able to take one photo as didn’t have either of my cameras – I will have to simply retain the memory.