The best laid plans

I have some friends who, when sharing some spiritual truth, will sometimes say something along the lines of, "Oh God must have really laughed at me when I made those plans," going on to explain how something they had planned had gone differently than they had envisioned -- the lesson being that God orders our steps.

Although I'm not sure God laughs at us (maybe He does; I just don't have any certainty of it), last week when I closed out my blog post stating how we would be going to Dallas, implying we would  escape the wintery weather, He, being the all-knowing one He is, had to have known how things would ultimately turn out.

Which was much different than what we planned.

Wife and I set out last Thursday, one week ago today, at approximately noon, and arrived at Older Son and DIL's home in Dallas about 11 hours and 15 minutes later. Yes, it was a long drive, but Wife and I have always traveled well together and it was really quite pleasant.

We did find the weather more agreeable in Dallas. I enjoyed nice walks through Older Son's wonderful old neighborhood in shirt sleeves.

About mid-day Saturday, however, we began to hear weather reports saying things would turn nasty there in Dallas by Sunday. We were planning to leave Monday morning. We planned to stop by and see Wife's parents in Little Rock and have lunch with them, and then drive to Memphis to spend the night.

We listened attentively to the forecasts that became more ominous. Sunday morning I got up and ran -- in shorts, no less. When I got back to the house, Wife was looking at her phone, tsk-tsking about the weather. Rain would begin in the early afternoon and it would turn to ice overnight.

To summarize, we went to church, ate a quick lunch and hit the road in a driving rain about 1:30 p.m. We decided we did not want to risk getting stuck there.

We bypassed Little Rock, where it was beginning to snow, and headed east toward Memphis. We made it as far as Forrest City, Arkansas, about 70 miles west of Memphis. The snow was coming down steadily and our car thermometer told us it was 30 degrees outside, which was a good indication of why said snow was sticking to the ground and the road.

Wife called a nearby Hampton Inn and we got the last room. We left there about 10 Monday morning. Wife dropped me in Memphis so I could work in my office there part of this week, and drove home.

I arrived back here today. Nashville had more snow last night but today the temperature has finally risen above freezing and there has been significant melting. I talked to Older Son and he said it's still very cold in Dallas and they have hardly thawed out from the ice earlier this week.

Maybe God's laughing, maybe He's not.

But don't look for an announcement of any short-term plans here anytime soon.