It’s the day after. D day plus one. Personally, I lose all motivation to do anything at all work related once the deadline has passed. It may be human nature I think. Most of my clients respond to deadlines like Pavlov’s dog responded to the bell. Today will be a quiet work day. No one cares after they miss the deadline unless they can blame me for it AND it’s actually my fault. I run my life proving that wrong. I do not wish to pay someone else’s late penalties. It has happened but very seldom.
Anyway, few things work wise are planned for today. All the things that don’t pay me and all the personal errands I have put off. Gotta a tire going flat. Gotta talk to an employee. Gotta go to the bank. Reconcile personal checking. Go thru personal email. See a trend? Post-deadline crap. I have the same sense of completion from that as I do from work. Maybe a little different.
Back to breakfast, for those of you keeping score, (my dwarf sister Doriene does) I have switched diet pancake “flavor”. They taste far better than previous type. I eat them without cringing. I do so now. A much better start to the day. Weigh in is tomorrow and I hope for a better outcome this week. I dropped .5 lbs last week. I wish I had not been so “bad” on vacay this year. I would be in maintenance now and not in losing phase. Blame me.
Yesterday the light in my car that tells me my tire or tires are low came on. I had the tires rotated last week and all were brought up to proper psi. So when the light came on I knew I had a problem. You don’t lose that much air in a few days without a problem.
On my way to work today I went by my buddy Jim’s tire shop. He is on vacation right now in South Dakota. But, he left his manager Ernie in charge. I got there and they gave my job to the new guy. Nice but not too competent. He took the tire off and proceeded to look for the leak, because there has to be one, by pouring soapy water on the tire and looking for bubbles. In ten minutes he decided no leak. Then Jaime, a far more experienced tire guy stepped in. He found the leak in under 30 seconds. It was right on the bead next to the wheel. Which means, no patch, get a new tire. Great. They installed my spare on the car and I left my wheel with them. Ernie ordered a new tire. Come back before 6pm.
Off to work with a donut spare tire, looking ultra cool. At least I got that much. I know what you are thinking, Bill you always look ultra cool (unlike your sister) going to work. But, a donut spare looks stupid.
Almost ran out of gas going to work. Another warning light I missed. Caught it when I arrived at the office. Need to get gas before I leave. If I can remember. A big if.
Work was really miserable. I am hungover from last nights late beat the deadline charge and yawning constantly. One great thing, I received not one phone call today. I had an appointment when I arrived. A client looking for info on a company he invested in. The company is a client as well. He was disappointed to find out they are losing buckets of cash. I personally believe they will close up shop. Probably very soon.
He left happy with getting the info but unhappy with the info. Careful when you invest your $$. Easy to lose. Especially when the company you put money in has zero integrity.
My good friend and associate Hal Brown came by next. He was there to discuss ongoing cases we are trying to close and I have 4 or 5 more we are going to try and get moving on. We have two cases that should be closed within 45 days, with a substantial sum paid out at that time. Not retirement level pay out but still very good. One of those we have been working for over 18 months. That will be a sweet one. If only because it’s finally finished. And by finished I mean I only deal with it once a year.
Hal and I discussed what has been done, needs to be done, who needs a kick in the ass, the usual. It takes a lot of work and pressure on others to get the job done. We do things for people that save them millions for dollars in taxes. And we have to drag them every step of the way. Go figure.
We are meeting again soon to schedule a few appointments with the new prospects and again follow up on where the cases have moved to. It’s exciting having a nice payday in front of us. Just a months worth of stress and hard work and it’s ours.
The balance of the day was spent finishing other work I did not finish yesterday. Some had a deadline of yesterday but if you owe nothing, the deadline has no penalty and is meaningless. So a few returns like that and worked in some that had only partial info.
I am really exhausted today but kept working till the final bell. I left at 510 before everyone else. At which point I remembered my tire. So I stepped on it and jumped in to shit traffic to try and get there quick. At which point I realized I had no gas. It took 20 mins to go the four miles to a gas station in West Sac and tank up. I am sure I had a quarter gallon to spare. Back on the freeway and more traffic. Did I mention traffic sucked today? I called the shop and Ernie said he would be there well past six pm closing doing the sales input. Saved.
I got there at 615, Ernie opened the shop doors and we were off to the races. Seems the idiot in the am smashed up the spacer on back of the tire. So he had to repair by hand. Also, the idiot balanced the tire with said spacer still zip tied to the wheel. Ernie balanced it again. That’s why he is in charge. Managed to get it all done and off to pick up taco Tuesday. Jim, give Ernie a raise.
Evening was busy. Tomorrow is Breakfast with Books. An event Emily created for the kids at Tremont Elementary where she works. The kids come in before school and bring in a book to read as well. All Emily does is bring in breakfast for 200. That’s all. So tonight we got that ready. No big. I’ve been helping with it for many years and it has gotten much easier. Emily is good at it. Everyone loves it, we pay for most of it though donations have gone up quite a bit from years ago. Oh yeah, btw, my wife is a saint.
After that we had our taco Tuesday dinner. Always a highlight of the week. But gone very quickly. After dinner she tried to find a deal on a cruise for one of her class parents. We have travel agent privileges so can cruise the industry websites. We were only semi successful, we could not find the dates she wanted.
It’s not Tuesday without putting out the garbage, and dumping the cat box. Its a ritual in long standing. I can’t say I love it. Because I don’t. Done quick, I know what I’m doing. It’s bedtime and I’m going.