This can be a metaphor for life, even though it pertains to baseball. Don’t put the cart before the horse, don’t count your chickens…blah, blah, blah.

Timing is everything and while I’ve known this for a long while, today I was given a smack upside my head as a nice little reminder.

The story: We sold our beautiful VW van to a friend. She said she wanted it. We trusted that she did. On her word we felt it was a done deal and we considered it sold. She drove it, we showed her everything about how to care for it, gave her our bazillion extra parts, and she was excited. She went home with the plan to get us our down payment by tomorrow (Tuesday) and we would keep the car till it was paid for.

At this point, I deleted the ads I’d run and told two other prospective buyers that it was sold. A gentleman in Seattle had offered to buy the van for its full asking price, as well as give us $1,000 more if we delivered it to San Diego, but yesterday I told him we had it sold. So sorry, I told him.

We bought another vehicle for $10,000 with the idea that we had sold the van. We’re all set now, right?

Apparently not. Our friend, who will remain nameless, just called and said she changed her mind. “It’s just not a good idea for me right now,” she tells me.

“What? What?” I exclaim. “I already told the other people it was sold.”

“I know, I’m sorry. But I couldn’t sleep last night and I don’t think this is a good idea for me right now.”

You have to catch the ball before you can throw the ball. Don’t put the cart before the horse and don’t count your chickens until they hatch.

Don’t buy a new car until you have the money for the one you sold.

And don’t trust ANYBODY.

 

I don’t want to be bitter. So I’ll work at getting over it. In the meantime, I have learned: