It was hard to avoid thinking about the Yiddish proverb "Man plans, God laughs" as Saturday unfolded.
That's because a typical Missouri thing happened in the early afternoon: A basketball game - yes, one of those events that are usually held indoors - got postponed due to weather.
Granted, it was snow that forced the postponement, so that's not too strange. Still, if you look at the calendar today, it's now March. Guess the groundhog was right this time around.
The game in question was the boys championship contest of the Class 3 District 9 Tournament at St. James. The gym seemed strangely quiet roughly 45 minutes before gametime with neither team having taken the court, although the top-seeded Blair Oaks Falcons were on site.
The gym would only get quieter when 2 p.m. - the scheduled start time - came and went with no game being played. That's because the second-seeded Eugene Eagles got to near Vichy, just 14 miles away from St. James, before turning the bus around and heading home.
The game will now be held at 6 p.m. Monday, which could have put the winner at a disadvantage going forward. Luckily for the Falcons or Eagles, the District 10 Tournament that determines their foe in the sectional round, was also delayed until Monday. So at least the District 9 winner and the District 10 champion - either Licking or Liberty: Mountain View - will be going into Wednesday's sectional game with the same short rest, with little time to game plan.
That is, if Mother Nature doesn't intervene again by dialing up another special treat and forcing Monday's game to another date.
It appears misery loved company Saturday, as a quick look at the website of the Missouri State High School Activities Association seemed to indicate that for every Class 1, 2 or 3 district that got in a game scheduled for Saturday, another one postponed one. So there will be more than a few teams looking to lock down spots in the final 16 with victories Monday.
And that doesn't even take into account any of the Class 4 and 5 districts that might have been looking to get a jump on their tournaments, only to see those best intentions get pushed aside. But at least that's how the plan is supposed to work, with the built-in flex days being able to accommodate any weather delays that come early in the tournament.
Among the bigger schools affected was Helias, as the Lady Crusaders were slated to begin the Class 4 District 10 Tournament with a game against Rolla. But even moving up the start times for the four-game slate at School of the Osage got just two games completed before the other two were postponed.
It's almost a kind of cruel irony for the Lady Crusaders. They were originally scheduled to play their regular-season finale Friday against Rock Bridge, but shifted that to Thursday so they would have a day between games once it was determined they would start districts Saturday. So much for the best laid plans of mice and men.
With plenty of contests still to come for area schools, let's hope fans don't have to contort their schedules like pretzels just to catch some games. It's already going to be tough enough to figure out what to watch with so many teams still alive - the Tuscumbia boys and girls in Class 1, the Tipton (Class 2) and Southern Boone (Class 3) girls, and the possibility of Linn boys in Class 2 to go with either Blair Oaks or Eugene.
We've still got a long way to go before the final game is played, so let's hope we can keep things on schedule.