And Now For Something Completely Different

Have you ever had one of those weeks when you can't seem to remember where you left your mind? I'm having one now.

It started Saturday night. I was playing a coffee house gig with my brother and nephew. My brother played his guitar intro to the first song, my nephew chimed in flawlessly with his violin, then right on cue, I started to play my guitar lead.

Great, right? Actually, no. I started playing in the wrong key.

How's that for embarrassing? My first thought was that my guitar was out of tune. I stopped the song, proceeded to tune up and only then realized what I had done. The last time I made a mistake like that was probably when I was a teenager, over forty years ago.

The rest of the set, thankfully, went well.

Life is like that sometimes. Things pile up. Our minds get cluttered. We get distracted. We lose focus. We make mistakes. At some point, hopefully before too long, we regain our focus and things get back to normal.

I'm still waiting.

While you are patiently waiting, along with me, for my return to some sort of mental acuity, I present for your edification some perceptive 'laws' articulated by other frustrated people, presumably while temporarily in a predicament similar to mine:



Murphy’s Law:

If anything can go wrong, it will.

Mitchell’s Law of Committees:

Any simple problem can be made insoluble if enough meetings are held to discuss it.

Law of Communications:

The result of improved and enlarged communications is a vastly increased area of misunderstanding.

Scott’s Law:

No matter what goes wrong, it will probably look right to someone.

Weiler’s Law:

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself.

Paul’s Law:

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you will need to catch up.

Oliver’s Law:

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

Sattinger’s Law:

It works better if you plug it in.

Pohl’s Law:

Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere, will not hate it.

Farndick’s Law:

After things have gone from bad to worse, the cycle will repeat itself.

Fanagle’s Law:

No matter what the experiment’s results, there will always be someone eager to:

1. misinterpret them;
2. fake them; or
3. believe they support his theory.


Well, I feel better now. Maybe things will be back to normal tomorrow.