Plans are a pleasant fiction; rules you make yourself break.
Due to some stunning surprises in my professional life, the course I take over the next five years could shift one way or another were I to miss sending a few emails. This is properly the first time this has ever happened to me, and it happens in a rural village in the Helambu rice fields of Nepal, a place I’d never expect it to.
To handle this, we’ve split up for a few days – Meagan’s bravely pushed on ahead, alone, and I have stayed behind, pounding on keyboards. The fact is that the bulk of Nepal suffers from what’s optimistically called “load shedding” – the power’s out 18 hours a day or so. No flowing electrons means no web. No web means no way to reach some folks in the US.
So, we’ve re-kindled our sense of adventure – I’m done pounding out email, and will be chasing Meagan up the lower Himalaya, thumbing it behind her rickety bus. Should be a blast.