Don’t Go Off Half-Cocked!

mechanism of antique gunHonestly!  You’d think I’d learn.  Two days in a row this week I’ve assumed I knew where to go somewhere and didn’t bother with the GPS.  On both occasions I wasted time wandering around until I finally figured out where I was going.

And these experiences made me think about how often I do this sort of thing.  They also made me wonder about the phrase “going off half-cocked.”  I knew it had something to do with old guns, but it was interesting to find out how the phrase actually originated.  If you look at the picture you’ll see a lever or pin sticking up there on the left.  That’s the “cock.”  When it’s back as far as it will go and you pull the trigger, it will fall forward and strike the plate, making a spark and igniting the gunpowder.  You could also put the cock into the “half” position, which was supposed to be a safety setting which would permit re-loading.  But if this safety position failed, the gun could fire (or “go off)  accidentally and prematurely.  So that expression came to mean acting prematurely in general.  (We also use the phrase “flash in the pan” to mean something that doesn’t amount to anything even though it may start with a bang, with the original meaning of a misfiring in which the gunpowder ignites in the priming pan but doesn’t actually fire the bullet, and “lock, stock and barrel” to mean “everything,” but with the original phrase referring to all the parts of a gun.)

Got all that?  Okay.  Enough with the history lesson.  Isn’t it a frustrating and annoying experience to realize that you haven’t done that one small thing that would have taken care of a problem?  I keep writing about this issue on this website.  Always make a list, I say.  Make sure you have what you need. Have a routine.  Have a checklist.  Check the flight status before you head out to the airport.  How many, many hours of my life have been wasted by my not following these principles.  At the start of this year I determined that I was going to come up with some concrete reminders to help me stay on track.  Have I done this yet?  Well, no.  As I’m writing this post I’m reminded yet again that I still need to work on this issue, so I’ll plan to write about it again tomorrow, this time with a picture of something I’ve set up.  What will it be?  The suspense is unbearable!  Come back and see what I did.