I had a perfect plan this past Wednesday.

My schedule was empty for part of the afternoon, and I was going to be extremely productive during those three hours and catch up on my backlog of papers and reports.

Woohoo! It was going to be a great feeling to be rid of those nagging reminders, and to have those deadlines out of my mind.

Then an emergency calving came. I didn’t feel defeated and it would yet be ok… because the emergency took only an hour. I still had an hour and a half of the precious free time (after factoring in the driving to-and-from the dairy).

I was feeling good as I sat down at the computer and made my first phone call. That shiny feeling left me when I heard my name called only 5 minutes later. There was now an emergency prolapae holding at the same dairy I had just left.

The adrenaline started to flow, and I felt more like fight than flight. I went and took care of the prolapse and was hoping I could find some more time to get my work done. I called the office and heard a loud crunch as I was turning and backing out.

The passenger side quarter panel met a strong iron stake, and the thin panel didn’t fare well.

I spent the next two hours, back at the clinic, bending the panel back out so that I could open and close the passenger door.

Time was all gone.