But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!

Excerpt from Robert Burns’ poem To A Mouse.

I find that I’m comforted most by writings that are heavily influenced by Celtic culture, because from them we get to have such impossible writings like the stories of death that make you laugh and stories of life that make you cry; the sad limerick; the fall-down-funny eulogy.

I had it all planned out! Blue Spruce Inventory was going to start business in September to coincide with National Preparedness Month. I was going to set up a booth at the Summerset Festival to educate patrons about being prepared and to advertise my business. By October I would have a small stream of customers while encouraging people to get involved in individual and community preparedness.

Unfortunately, this is not the way things have turned out. I broke my leg in 3 places during a hockey game in July. I’ll be on crutches until late October or early November. I thought I’d still be able to start my business in September, but reality has set in. There is no way I can perform an efficient and accurate home inventory until I’m off crutches.

Blue Spruce Inventory will not be selling any inventory services until November… and I’m not happy about that.

On the other hand I started this business for 2 reasons.

1. Sell inventory services to home owners, renters and small businesses
2. Educate the general public on how to be prepared for any disaster.

I can still help educate people on emergency preparedness. I encourage you to do your own inventories! Make use of the media inventory software that I offer and catalog your own collections. I also encourage you to stay in touch with Blue Spruce Inventory whether it be on Blue Spruce Inventory’s blog, through Twitter or on Facebook. I may not be able to sell any services yet, but I will still be sharing emergency preparedness news, events and tips.

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Sunday morning I took my last test of the semester. This was a long semester. I was taking Small Business Management, Principles of Sales and Business Communications, and I took them all as online classes. If you think it’s easy to procrastinate in a regular class, try taking them online!

I’ve successfully completed 2 semesters and I only have 4 classes left to take until I have my Small Business Management Certificate. But why stop there? I still have 14 months and 22 days left of my GI Bill and that’s if I go to school full time (I only go 3/4 time).  I also have to use my GI Bill before 2012, so why not make sure I use all of it?

So I’m going to work towards an A.A.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Small Business Management. This means I’ll have to take 15 more classes and test out of 1 course. If I continue to take 3 courses per semester, I’ll be done in just over 2 years. This means I’ll use up all of my GI Bill, but I should have enough in savings to finish my degree. I should also have enough confidence and capital to run my own business full time by then.

There’s nothing like putting your goals out for the whole world to see to make sure you follow through on them! Wish me luck!

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