Pointless thoughts

Weird day.

• I woke up early especially for the Saturday training session
• I found that the pickup car had already left, five minutes earlier than arranged
• This wasn't going to stop me; I ran over to the central station and took the train instead
• After 3 stations prior to my stop, an announcement declared that the train would be sat in the station for a very long 25 minutes. My attempt to arrive on time was shattered.

I ended up following the crowd heading to another train, trying to find a member of staff (who simply told me that I could get a taxi instead). So it could have been the case that I would have dejectedly picked up another rail ticket back home. But it happened that the crowd I followed was the 'Hillwalking Society' and the man at the doors of the train recognised me.
"Are you coming then?"
"Yeah. Fuck it."
He makes a smile and laughs as I get on. I think he may have been faintly surprised.
"Where is it you are going again?" I say.
"The Isle of Wight!"
"Ahh." I felt the tinges of doubt regarding this change of plan. "How much is it to get across on the ferry?"
"About £12."
So I check through my wallet and discover that I do in fact, have enough cash to include a ferry ticket, a meal and the train back. With the money account sorted in my head, nothing hindered me; the anger I felt about the train schedule a minute before evaporated. I had to think sensibly about money (for the sake of conscience, borrowing money is a last resort) but otherwise I left everything to impulse. And it was a fantastic day.

I may have missed a training session. But I don't think that visiting the coast of an island, finding a place from your childhood memories long ago, exploring the ruins of a Cold War base and seeing magnificent light beams across the wide and open sea was a bad way to go. At all.
It was fortunate that the day was a glorious one, making ever more new friends along the way. But it could have been a rainy and miserable one. But would I for a moment consider that unlucky? That is not my way of thinking, or at least it isn't any more. I don't hold the scales of luck over the events or results that come from opportunity, rather over opportunity itself. If I can get more than a hundred of such opportunities like this throughout my life, then I will consider myself lucky.

On the subject of the value of regret, whether it be consequences or even a missed opportunity:

Pointless thinking is worse than not thinking.