What happens when you wait too long to buy a new wall calendar.

Every year, for the past four years, I’ve had a helicopter wall calendar. Not a military helicopter calendar. One that was mostly civilian helicopters with a few military models thrown in just to remind us that military guys do get to fly the best toys.

Back in October 2005, I ordered a 2006 helicopter calendar from Amazon.com. According to Amazon, the calendar was in stock, but it would not be shipped until December 26, 2005. That’s two months after I ordered it. What’s up with that? I asked them and they shipped everything except the calendar right away.

January came and I still didn’t have my calendar. Amazon didn’t have a clue when they’d ship. So I found the same calendar somewhere else online and ordered it. I cancelled my Amazon.com order. Of course, the second place I ordered from reported a week later that the publisher was out of stock.

So now it was mid-January and I had a blank spot on the wall where my calendar should be.

Yesterday, I flew up to Prescott with my friend Janet to do some errands. We went over to the mall, where there’s a Barnes and Noble. I figured I’d buy a calendar there.

Good news and bad news.

The good news is, they had calendars in stock.

The bad news is, there weren’t many to choose from.

The good news is, they were only $1 each.

The bad news is, the best one I could find was called “Fabulous Frogs” by David McEnery. The calendar consists of 12 different black and white images of real live frogs posed with various toys. (I really can’t make this stuff up.)

The good news is, July’s frog is in a helicopter.

So now you know what I’m looking at when I glance at a wall calendar for the date.

Next year, I’ll order my calendar in September.