Grimes Canyon Road, Moorpark, United States by Sterling Davis

(This is an experiment with including images from Unsplash.com on posts.)

View from Herzogstand over Lake Walchen, Bavaria by Chris Holgersson

(This is an experiment with including images from Unsplash.com on posts.)

Landmannalaugar, Iceland by Amy Hanley

(This is an experiment with including images from Unsplash.com on posts.)

I wish all of my friends, family, church family and former co-workers a sincere Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings from the Chappell family!

I know it's cold outside (hmmm, someone should write a song about that), that there isn't enough snow yet and everyone is busy, but I still love all of you and look forward to getting together with some of you over the break and getting together with as many as I can in the New Year.

According to the Interwebs, the full quote that I take this post's title from goes something like this:

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

Robert Burns

The quote is a great reminder that we can (and should) plan, but that we can have no assurances that everything will proceed according to our plan. The universe contains too much entropy to offer any such guarantees to us. Besides, things change really quickly once you start following your carefully constructed plan. This not a new phenomenon and has been pointed out before: