Not on Tuesday

     The sign said, “Closed Mondays and Tuesdays” and it was Tuesday.  I stared at the sign, willing my vision to clear so I could read it ‘properly.’  Unbelievable!  I had checked with the online site which had clearly said, “Closed Mondays.”  Tuesday thru Sunday they were open!  But they weren’t.
     Nyel and I and our friend Linda were at the Tacoma Glass Museum.  We had caravanned there from Seattle for the express purpose of seeing the “Kids Art” exhibit.  I had seen it several months ago and had been working on a way to get the three of us in to Tacoma at the same time so we go see it together.  It’s not easy to get three busy people’s scheduled synchronized for a day trip and now…
     I was feeling like I had really screwed up (once again!) when three strangers walked up and read the sign with the same dazed look that we must have had.  It turned out that they were from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and they had timed their visit to the area to go to the Glass Museum on their last day.  “But I looked it up online,” said the woman with the attractive accent.
     Whew!  It wasn’t just me.
     As we were leaving, we ran into Earl Miller and his wife – familiar faces from the peninsula!  Same story.
     “Oh well,” we agreed, trying to put the best spin on it, “we’ll go to the Art Museum or to the History Museum instead.”  Wrong!  Both closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  “Winter Hours” the signs said.
     By then it was approaching lunch time… well, it was about 11 o’clock.  So we figured a drink and a good meal might raise our spirits.  We ate in leisurely fashion overlooking the harbor.  We then high-tailed it up to the Washington State Historical Society’s Research Center where we made a delivery of more (recently discovered) Espy papers to Archivist Ed Nolan.  Visiting with him gave a pleasant ending to an otherwise disappointing day.
     Doncha hate it when that stuff happens?