I've been feeling a little run down

and, while things are moving forward, as though I wasn't quite on top of my situation lately.

Then, last night my friend Louie came by with a bottle of wine, and I already had a bottle of chianti in the fridge, so we sat around, drank up and talked. Commonly our conversations are wide ranging: the families, the markets, religion, horse racing, not too much politics, and our respective situations and outlooks. We decided not to go to ND for the Syracuse game because I'm busy, but maybe to drop in at Willow Creek Church where John Ortberg will be visiting this week-end.

Then this morning I started to drive to work, and the blower on my heater didn't work, and my windshield kept fogging up on the inside, and I unwisely used the washer fluid, which I would have thought was made not to freeze, but it was freezing on my windshield. Driving to the east toward the sunrise made it very difficult to see to the front. I pulled over for about 15 minutes, hoping heat emanating from the vent woud defrost the windshield. Then I decided to fo home and email the office that I had car trouble and wouldn't be in today.

With the car in the shop, I worked on some things related to the bookkeeping service, including filling out paperwork to become a registered CPA. I'd been toying with the idea of applying to renew my license, and figured they'd tell me I had to complete a couple hundred hours of continuing professional education before I got my license back. It turns out that from 2006 to 2010 they established a window during which the unlicensed CPA could register and be allowed to use the CPA title on letter head, business cards and in the title on the door while offering accounting and tax services. I can probably not issue audited financials or represent clients at IRS hearings, but those endeavors are not on my agenda. Falling into the window on this deal reminds me that someone up there likes me.

Not going to work was probably a good thing. My boss' boss quit a month ago due to the inordinate demands being placed on him and the replacement has been pressuring me to change the format of my project logs, dress up the files before another audit in December, and record all transactions in the automated A/P system, which I had not previously done. Meanwhile my boss, thinking I must have time on my hands is throwing work my way because she's understaffed. As you probably know I'm not compulsive about work, but I do try to meet folks' expectations at some level of my own choosing. Given the dual responsibilities, even that was becoming difficult, and taking a day off seemed like the appropriate response.

And being home allowed me to close out an options position before the stock rallied late in the day. It was a December contract, and I don't like (don't do well) holding positions open into the expiration month as the premium evaporates. Now I can sleep well tonight, and go to work tomorrow with the sense that if people are too unpleasant toward me I can always take another day off.
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