There is a saying in the military as well as business, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”, and I’m not sure what caused this thought to pop into my head yesterday. When making a plan or trying to find a solution to something, there are times when you aren’t likely to have the perfect plan. That is not to say you shouldn’t plan carefully and do as much analysis as is practical. If you are dealing with a committee/group decision situation, a single individual can keep coming up with “what ifs” or concerns that cause a decision about what to do to be delayed indefinitely.

The flip side to that, however, is the military saying of, “No plan survives first contact”. In other words, once you engage in an operation, it can come apart. While it may seem contradictory to move ahead with a plan even if you don’t have it exactly as you want, it isn’t really. The ability to accurately assess a situation and realize you need to adapt is important, too. We are human and make mistakes which, if properly applied, provides good lessons. Granted, some can be fatal, yet most aren’t. There may be some pain and even humiliation involved, and I have had my share of both. I am on the periphery of a rather ambitious plan being undertaken by an organization and I suppose that’s why I got to thinking about the above saying. I was quite skeptical of initial discussions, although I wasn’t in a position to be consulted, nor did I want to engage. In learning a little more, I think “good enough” plan is accurate and if successful, it will be a plus for the community. I’m not sure though how much adapting can be done if anything major goes wrong, so I will cross my fingers, too – can’t hurt.

When I travel back to Louisiana to visit family and friends, the three (now will only be two) towns have different degrees of change. Minden, where Daddy lived, is a bit larger, yet not by much. Natchitoches, the historic town had changed more although not that it has lost it’s core nor has it become so populated as to strain the infrastructure. Many, the very small town where my mother was from, has few new things. It is in great contrast to Florida and especially South Florida where population is exploding.

When we moved here in late 2004, even though I was disappointed to learn this area is one of the only places on the East Coast that doesn’t have actual beaches, there were other aspects to enjoy. A fair amount of building was going on and as I have posted before, I wasn’t thrilled about living in a gated community. That, however, was the only viable choice for the type of house we wanted. It was enough of a small town to be reminiscent of where we both respectively grew up. As a quick reminder, the building boom went bust in 2008-2009, and was grim for people who were caught in bad timing. That cycle did pass and the book has come back multi-fold.

As always, it’s much faster to build houses than infrastructure and you can only do so much to improve traffic flow if you increase the density of traffic beyond a certain point. We may not be quite there yet, although crawling, stop-and-go patterns are common now in a number of places. There are those who have left, seeking somewhere else in Florida or neighboring states where growth is limited. Others are adapting, while those who recently arrive from even more crowded places find it “normal”. There are new services coming in as well which are generally more positive than negative. We shall see what the next few years bring.

For some people, summer is actually a bit of a break. That is most assuredly not the case for others. The areas that may not be as busy are overlaid by new ones or by either the ones on the “yes, I’ll get to it” list. These are the tasks that simmer along until such time as they really can no longer be avoided.This week has been a combination of the two. Ah well, we are at no risk of being bored in the near future.

After queries from a few fans I have begun work on Shades of Remorse, the fifth in the series featuring Police Detective Bev Henderson. As I explained to one of these individuals, I did not set out to write a series. My plan was for all stand-alone novels, but one idea led to another. As a reader, if I find a book I think is interesting and see it is a series, I try to go back to the first one instead to see if I like the writing and characters. As an author, it’s tricky to decide how much information to include about the characters and other background if a reader chooses to jump into a series beginning with a later book. Oh, I did plan the “Small Town” quilting cozies as a series so was able to set that up accordingly.

In this case, the long lapse between novels has to do with the structure of “Remorse” in order to tell the story in the way I should. I generally write in first person or dual Point of View depending on the book. This particular story requires writing with a triple Point of View and I’ve never done that. While I have the story pretty well outlined, there are a couple of gaps yet and rather than continue to wrestle with it, I’ve decided I have enough to start. The rest should develop as I work through the main and subplots. We’ll see.

We did have the Homestead Center for the Arts Art and Artisan Show Saturday an rain was not an issue. Heat and humidity were other matters as even for South Florida, it was higher than normal for this time of year. We had a great mix of vendors and while we would have liked more attendees, it was in a good range. We had some wonderful volunteers, too which made a big difference.

This week was supposed to allow me to catch up a bit as I had to focus a great deal on last week for prep and of course Saturday was consumed with the show. I did some work yesterday as well although not as much as I needed to. Then a few extra things have been thrown into the mix and there you have it. At this stage I’m keeping my fingers crossed for no more curve balls. In all fairness, the extra tasks are better than having some kind of medical emergency, so there is that to be grateful for. Hubby has had a couple of days and was able to get the grocery store taken care of which is always a help. He’s back at work tomorrow through the end of the week and we are going to try and keep the weekend clear. I’m not sure we’ll manage, but there is a good chance. May is Military Appreciation Month which comes with several annual events we’ll have to cover for the paper and Hubby is involved in one on the 20th. I may get pulled into it, too; that remains to be seen.

Anyway, here’s hoping someone out there has an uncomplicated, relatively calm week ahead.

It has been a while since I posted about this topic. Last evening, I attended a Scholarship Awards dinner and sat with a young lady and her mother. The student will be attending Florida State to major in Computer Science and is the first to leave home. The mom has some concern of course although that’s not the point of this post. The mom is proud of her and mentioned she only did one year of college as she became pregnant and was then able to get a good job while she raised son and daughter. That led to commenting her son isn’t looking to go to college, and prefers to work with his hands. I explained I was a big proponent of the trades rather than, “everyone should go to college”. This has been my position for years, strengthened by the inexcusable cost of college and the proliferation of degrees that aren’t remotely marketable. Now again, college graduates (especially anyone in liberal arts) often don’t go to work in their field of study, but apply the skills learned in other areas. The idea that someone who majors in something like Women’s Studies should also be able to find a high-paying job in that field is where things generally go awry.

Getting back to the point of the trades though. There is a shortage throughout the country of electricians, etc.,., and while Vocational Tech (VoTech) fell out of favor in many high schools, that seems to be changing. Major IT companies have long partnered with schools to provide the option to take courses in high school that can result in graduating with a technical certification of some type in addition to their diploma. That can lead to an entry level job that pays well and allows for upward mobility. In other cases, more training is required, but technical colleges usually have certifications that require only one or two years to a career. Costs are significantly less and again, job placement assistance is often included. Starting in a trade doesn’t mean being “stuck”; it can also mean that in the process of working as an electrician or whatever, the individual may well decide they do want to go on to college, or into business for themselves one day. No, not everyone is suited for a trade, but it should be encouraged for those who are.