December 04th, 2019

In behalf of those of you who are keeping score, yes, I did accidentally post two different blog posts on Monday this week.  That was me. I confess. I did it.

How does one make a mistake like that, you may be asking yourself.  Hey, anybody can make a boo-boo.  I know that I absolutely can.  I may have majored in error in college. I only minored in boo-boo.  

And if you assumed that the mistake  happened because my memory is so far gone now that I completely forgot that I had already written a post Monday, I am happy to report that that is not at all what happened.  I may not remember the name of the restaurant we ate  at last week but I know when I post a blog!

Y'see, sometimes the ideas come to me in a pile.  A laundry basket full of topics all at one time.   Generally I just jot down the ideas in a little notebook I keep right here beside my keyboard for future reference.  But every once in awhile, I get multiple ideas at the same time when  I actually have some free time to write so, what the heck, I go ahead and write the blogposts and set them up to publish or "drop" at a later date. 

This time it happened this past Sunday evening.  The cookies were done, packed, boxed, labelled and ready to go.  The kitchen was, once again, pristine and I had even caught up on all the laundry I hadn't done in about a week.  There was absolutely nothing of interest to me on television so instead of hunkering down on the sofa with a book, instead I sat at the keyboard and began typing.

Once the posts were written, I then had to set them up to be published at a specific day at a specific time.  Normally I would consult my desk calendar to be certain of the date in question.  This time, I did not. And that's where it all went sideways.  I was relying on my own questionable memory skills.

Since  the day I was actually writing was December the first - a Sunday - then it logically follows that the very next day - a Monday - would be December the second, right?  Yes!  And so the first post was successfully (and correctly) set up.  Then I stepped away to do.....something I don't remember what..... and returned to write the second post.  I began to set up it's publication and was interrupted again.  When I returned, I finished up thinking... "now when did I want this posted?  Oh yeah, Tuesday, December the second"  aaannnddd...you see what went wrong there, right?  I suspect that if I hadn't been interrupted, or if I had been paying closer attention,  this particularly  mistake would not have been made.

I actually do this advance writing thing quite often.  Whenever I have something busy going on in the morning, I will write that post a day or two (or more) ahead of time.  Every once in awhile, when I look at my calendar I see that my only "free" day is Monday so I write the entire week's worth on one day and set them up to drop individually for the rest of the week.  Which for me is so very cool!

AND it usually it works.  This time it did not.  This One Time!   And now my secret is out.
 
Funny story about secrets.  One of my dearest friends in college was a lovely woman from Denmark. She was smart and beautiful and classy and wonderful.    Her command of English was impressive (she actually spoke many languages!!) but occasionally there was a colloquialism or idiom that she didn't get quite right.   Once she was telling a small group of us about a surprise she was planning for a mutual friend.  She made us promise to keep the secret.  Her final statement to us that day was, "Don't let the cat out of the beans!" said very sternly.  She meant business.  Of course we all looked at each blankly....cat out of the beans?  Then it dawned on me.  She was combining idioms;  Don't let the cat out of the bag and Don't spill the beans!   (Come on...that was adorable!)    Whenever I think about secrets I still warn myself to Not Let The Cat Out Of The Beans!   teehee!

Back to the mistake at hand. You know, I used to faithfully wake up very early every single Monday through Friday, stumble out to my computer and si tin front of my computer still in my jammies, with bed head, typing like a madwoman so that no matter what else was going on that day, by golly, my blog would be published!  I am kind of goal oriented.   Then one day Tim showed me how to set up a scheduled drop and my life was ever so much better.  So was my typing!  Writing while fully awake has only improved the product, I assure you.

So anyway.  That's how that happened.  Never happened before. May never happen again.  But, since a few people asked, that's how it all went down.  And despite my error, the sun still rose in the east and set in the west.  Life went on.

And as long as nobody lets the cat out of the beans, it will continue to do so.

​Hugs all 'round.