Broken Down in Break Week

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

(Robert Burns, To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough)

It is Break Week at Sunset (and, consequently at Charamon in Abilene) which includes Thanksgiving. I was looking forward to getting a bunch of stuff done (won’t bore you with the details) but Brenda and I are reluctantly entertaining the worst cold (bacterial, apparently, as opposed to viral) we’ve had for years. Our doctor kindly saw us both and has given us the requisite antibiotics and steroid shots and a breathing treatment for your’s truly.

It would have been satisfying to leave some shamefully neglected tasks in our powerful wake as we plowed through the murky waters of waiting work. But, truly, as Robbie Burns warned, our plans have gone “agley” (whatever that means) and we are left with “nought but grief an’ pain / For promis’d joy!” Oh, we’ll weakly eke out some effort and put paid to a few of the more impatient chores. But a much more glorious and joyful outcome had been anticipated. Bummer!

Anonymous

   From time to time I will be posting material from the most prolific author of all time, Anonymous. Many organizations have been named after him. I know Anonymous must be male because who would give their daughter such a name? People often give money and stuff trying to make it look like the gift came from him. How famous can you get?

There may be more than one person with that moniker.  You know, the person that writes angry/obscene letters using his name? Here’s a little poem in limerick style I wrote especially for this particular Anonymous:

Here’s to the writer, Anonymous,
With trouble his name is synonymous,
His address is unknown,
Never answers his phone,
He won’t say a word to the rest of us.

You might even say he’s quite villainous
The letters he writes somewhat boisterous
He just has one name,
So it’s hard to pin blame,
When Anonymous kicks up a ruckus.

Anonymous is very ubiquitous
Pompous, contentious, cantankerous
This is his description,
But with no fixed location,
His true essence seems quite amorphous.