This is going to ramble.
I can plan. I make good plans. I also hate to plan because I know no matter how good my plan is, it is going to go to shit the instant I try to execute. (HA! As I was typing this, I remembered my favorite Dwight D. Eisenhower quote: "Plans are worthless. The planning *process* is invaluable." We'll see why:
The guy working on a car in my shed texted me last night to see if he could come by today--and how early. So I'm thinking about when I get up, where he is, when The Dog likes to go Out to use the bathroom and realizing there are too many variables and anything I say will be instantly wrong and I just say "How's 9 sound?" He says that's fine and that he has a lot to do. So I'm thinking. He really can come any time he wants. I've just got to get up to unlock everything and be aware of The Dog if she wants to be out while he's in the yard and text him this.
That's when I realized my phone was at about 45%. Since I had a cat on my lap and the dog was smack-dab in the middle of the bed, I stuck it on a charger for a bit. Got it up to 52% before I had to go to bed. Realized my plug-in charger was nowhere to be found so I closed the laptop monitor (in my bedroom) as far as I could and put a bandana over it and set the phone so I could see the charge light from the bed. Of course within 5 minutes the laptop went to sleep and the phone stopped charging. Fine. Fuck it. I'll go hunt for the charger again. No luck. I guess I'll shut the phone off and make sure the alarm is set. Then I spent the night penned into a tiny sliver of the bed by a dog next to my feet and a cat next to my side (which is odd, because the cat usually insists on laying on my feet--which sucks just as much, but I'm at least used to that).
I get up, turn on the phone, and around 8:30 I get a text that, because of the snow that is currently falling the guy isn't coming until around 11. That's fine. Then The Dog can get Out with plenty of time. We might even be on our walk by the time he gets here (I can just leave everything unlocked for him). Of course by now I'm running late. And then I get sidetracked by The Dog, who wants to go back Out. 17 minutes before the guy is supposed to get here. And she doesn't want to just go out for a quick bathroom break, she's doing fuckery in the yard. Phone beeps. He's a few minutes out. I'd better change out of jammies in case I have to collect The Dog. I'm halfway through that when I hear The Dog barking. She's ready to come In. Which is good because I can hear the guy turning into the driveway.
And as I let The Dog In, The Cat (who hasn't been out for any length of time--by his choice--since the cold and the snow) slips Out. And doesn't want to come In. By now The Dog has realized the guy is here and starts barking like crazy at him as he's pulling past the gate. I'm trying to get some outdoor gear on because the spot where he usually parks can be surprisingly treacherous in snow. Then I hear scratching at the door. The Cat has decided he wants back In, so I get to the door as quick as I can and get it open just in time to see him go "FUCK IT, I'M GONE" and jump down off the deck because a strange car is pulling in the yard.
I wanna get some boots on, but I'm watching my guy slide his car around as he's trying to get it out of the main driveway so I just have to jump out in slippers and yell to him to just stay up on the level ground. He manages that. Just. Oh, I've got around 15-20 minutes of morning routine computer stuff when this all started to unfold. I change out of slippers into rubber boots to see if I can coax The Cat In. Of course The Dog is going nuts in the mean time. Luckily with the snow, I can see where The Cat went. Over and into the neighbor's front yard. :/ Now I'm on good terms with the neighbors, but I don't want to be stomping around in their yard unannounced. Anyway, I've got to calm The Dog down too. So I might as well grab her leash and see if we can go lure The Cat back from the street. Since I don't want to stop for 5 minutes and deal with tracked in snow like I had to when I changed out of my slippers, I just reach in and grab the leash and the house keys and head out--even though the computer is still running on stuff I was reading and, more importantly, I have to pee.
While I'm doing this, the aforementioned neighbor let his dogs out. Which, if The Cat is still in their yard, is going to spook him. Started heading out to look for The Cat but then realized since the neighbor doesn't have a fully fenced backyard, there's a risk that his dogs will come out onto the street to play with my dog--and maybe get run over. And anyway, The Cat isn't going to come out if the dogs are out. Maybe I should stay home in case The Cat makes it back, but by now it is too late, we're out for a walk.
So now it's 1pm, a relatively simple plan is shot to shit, my cat is outside in the snow, and I've accomplished nothing. About the only thing that was good--totally not according to plan, but worked out--is by the time it is time to head home from the walk I have to pee so bad I can barely think but there's no discreet place to go so I'm resolving to holding it when what do I see? A porta-potty on a job site, right at the turnaround point of the walk. Amazingly it isn't chained up and there's a handy surveyor's stake to hook The Dog's leash on while I pee for about 5 minutes straight. Then, since it was a vacant lot that abuts a green space, I decided to cut through the lot and across the green space, saving me about 3 blocks of trudging along a slushy busy 2 lane road with a 45mph speed limit. I realized a flaw in my plan in that there would be a creek that would need crossing, but the weekend's extended cold weather actually froze it enough to easily support me (worst case, I had the tall rubber boots and the dog had already crossed).
So I guess I'd better get things wrapped up and get some lunch in me and try to salvage what remains of the day. The Cat is pretty resourceful and I know he has some sheltered hiding places--as long as they all aren't buried under snow--so fingers crossed for him. And if he didn't want to be outside he shouldn't have went outside, he should have come in when I tried to get him back in, he shouldn't have run off the second time I tried to get him in and he shouldn't have left the yard. And should've come when I called him. But there's no teaching cats. They'll do what they want.