not making plans | Bertram's Blog

The Best Laid Plans

August 7, 2021 — Pat Bertram

A friend asked me what my plans were for this weekend, and I admitted I had no plans. It sounds a bit pathetic, I suppose, not planning on doing anything, but that’s the way I like it. My favorite times are when I have no plans, no schedules, no appointments, just the day — pristine and full of possibilities — stretching before me.

Despite my lack of planning, I still ended up with a full day because with no plans in mind, I am open to spontaneity. I stopped by the library and visited with a friend who sometimes hangs out there. She mentioned a luncheon that the VFW was putting on to raise money, and added that a mutual friend wanted to go but had no one to go with her.

So I went with her.

I was a bit nervous because I still don’t like being around strangers especially since most people don’t seem to care about keeping their distance. Almost everyone was crowded inside, but we ate in solitary splendor on the tables outside. It was nice being sociable for a while, but I am just as glad that tomorrow will be another plan-free day. Perhaps I will spend it by myself. Perhaps something will come up and I’ll go gallivanting. Either way, I’ll enjoy the day — and enjoy having no plans — because come Monday, I have a lot of notations on my calendar.

Come to think of it, those days with plans and appointments are good, too, because things get done. Or at least the hope is that things will get done. Even when I make plans, those plans often go awry because things change or people cancel out on me. And that’s the worst sort of day for me — when I don’t get the luxury of waking up to a planless day, and I don’t get the satisfaction of accomplishment by following through on plans I didn’t want to make in the first place.

Am I confusing you? Don’t worry. I’ve confused me, too.

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Posted in life. Tags: getting things done, making plans, not making plans. 6 Comments »

Updates and Update

February 11, 2015 — Pat Bertram

I came online an hour ago to write a leisurely (or as leisurely as it gets in my newly hectic world) blog when my computer decided to update itself. I have my computer set to where Microsoft doesn’t update automatically, but apparently MS got tired of waiting for me to allow the updates and went ahead and hijacked my computer for a long while. There were a lot of updates because I restored the system during my “troubles” (computer troubles, that is) and so all the updates I’d recently uploaded needed to be reuploaded and applied along with the current ones. And I didn’t take the time to do the updates. Well, now for better or worse, the updates are done. And I still have a few minutes to update you as to my situation.

My life continues to be hectic and frustrating, but I see an end to my current workload. One by one, the items on my to do list are being ticked off (metaphorically, anyway — I never actually made a list. The length of it would probably have scared me into immobility.) And when the list is cleared? Who knows? I am still not making plans. My current philosophy “Either things will work out or they won’t” seems to be working for me at the moment.

Per icecream haps I should care about the near future, but I don’t, at least not yet. I suppose it will be a different matter when the house is sold and I have to scramble for a place to live, but that is not a problem for today.

Today I have to . . . well, to be honest, I guess I don’t have to do anything. The chores will wait for me. Maybe I’ll just scrounge a makeshift meal from the almost empty refrigerator. Unluckily (or maybe luckily), the only dessert I will see is the one decorating this blog. Thle refrigerator is so shiningly clean, I’ve been hesitant to fill it, and I don’t have a car to use for grocery shopping anyway.

But there is light even at the end of that particular tunnel. (There, I did it. Used that trite old saying even though I promised myself I wouldn’t.) I took my car to a guy who specializes in air-cooled VW engines, and he promised to try to fix the current problem immediately instead of waiting until the overall checkup in two weeks. He seemed to know what he was doing, so there’s hope. And if not, well, I’ll deal with it at the time.

It’s been nice visiting with you. See you tomorrow. Maybe.

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Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, andDaughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Connect with Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.