3 More Days before I leave for Wisconsin and "The Lake"

It finally dawned on my husband that we have very little time between now and the time that we must have everything packed into our car ready to go to "The Lake". It never ceases to amaze me when I see this happen. I don't know why because it happens every year. It'll happen next year too. He waits until the last day or so and then complains he's running out of time to get things done. I think next year may be even worse because our son, God willing, will be graduating from high school and that along with all the resultant mania will add to the To Do lists. My husband prefers to wait until the last possible moment to worry about things. I, on the other hand, start my worrying (I actually prefer the word, planning to worrying) process months in advance (as evidenced above, I'm already starting to think about next year but I haven't gone so far as to start a new list yet). I'm sure my husband will live a lot longer then me (worry and stress are supposed to shorten one's live) but at least I'll be prepared (I wonder if I should choose a brass casket or a cookie tin). Almost all of my To Do list items have been checked off. I'm going to go out today and finish my "hunting". What I don't bag today will have to be removed from the packing list. Not to worry.

I've planned my "hunt" and I'll head out in the car. First stop will be to get some gas. Then off to my second stop. I always start with the hunting grounds farthest away from our house and work my way home. (Note to self: Last stop before home. Top off gas tank in preparation for trip.) I try to avoid "running around like a chicken with my head cut off " and thus "going around Patty's (Paddy's?)barn". I couldn't find that first cliche in my Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers, but I did find something close to the second cliche. My family often used both. I'll have to do more research on that first cliche (I seem to remember my mother..or it could have been my grandmother telling me about seeing a chicken beheaded at a farm but I could be wrong....it was a graphic tale) and I don't know how the following Cliche of the Day evolved from Robin Hood to Patty or Paddy. You'd have to ask my parents but even they probably wouldn't be able to tell you.


Go Around Robin Hood's Barn. Take (often unnecessarily) a circuitous route; proceed by indirection. Robin Hood, a perhaps legendary figure, has represented since the 14th century the free spirit who robs from the rich to pay the poor. He had no barn, since all his activities were outdoors, and so to go aound Robin Hood's barn is a labored effort. The phrase is more recent than the legend, having turned up in print in J.F. Kelley's Humors of Falkenbridge(1854): "The way some folks have of going around 'Robin Hood's barn' to come at a thing."