Spoilsport Sunday

Twas sunny. And I was surprized. Pleasantly, ofcourse. I dont know why I get a secret pleasure when people's predictions/forecasts dont hold true.

Perhaps its the belief that no matter what, one cannot predict the future, one cannot capture the innumerable variables that are in play, that our forecasts are based on assumptions and it takes only one of those obscure variables to misbehave, to screw up our equations.

Or perhaps, I am concerned about my own forecast of my future and it consoles me to know that forecasts are often proven incorrect.

Either way, I headed out for shopping as planned. The highlight of the day, however was scheduled for the evening...my maiden self-maneuvered flight. And suddenly when it was approaching evening, the forecast became correct. It was as if someone up there woke up late on a sunday, and realized that he had forgotten to turn the weather lever in the direction of "Thunderstorm and heavy showers", as predicted by weather.com. The flight was cancelled.

I decided to overcome my frustration by going to wal-mart to satiate the consumer inside me. There are other times when I get that inappropriate pleasure which I mentioned earlier- Thats when I make a dent (accidentally ofcourse) on the financial standing of an invincible corporation. The last time I heard 3 yrs back, Wal-mart had annual sales of more than $300 Bn. Thats 10 times more than how big Microsoft was then. And I made them lose a couple of cents perhaps, by accidentally hitting a garments stand, which caused some clothes to fall on the floor. I did not put them back on the stand. So, those clothes have to be rescanned and put back again on the stands by some store supritendent. I am not sure, what exactly gave me that kick. Was it just the boyish tendency to be desructive? Was it the jealousy towards highly successful people and businesses? Or was it that I admire their business so much, that I realized that their process is so durable that it efficiently absorbs such minor losses?

The pleasure was soon replaced by a guilt. I have after all promised myself that by the end of my life, I would have created more than I destroyed, produced more than I consumed. Those couple of hours at Wal-Mart pushed me away from my goal by a few hundred dollars.