What woke me up too early this morning was a problem I have nothing to do with, but one I'll be expected to solve some day. It's not the kind of thing I should be losing sleep over, at least not until that day comes and I have to deal with it.

The Company is currently doing a job in Arizona. The Company isn't licensed to do construction work in Arizona, but the Boss is. Unfortunately, we're not doing this job under his name, which means that we're liable for taxes, maybe fines, and possibly auditing.

It's a situation that's come up before, with Arizona demanding sales taxes for work we've done there, but the Boss has been able to avoid paying because those jobs were for the federal government. There are special rules about public work, but this current job is for a private owner.

The owner is based in California, and the checks (at least the ones I've received so far) are written on a California bank account. The Boss assured me that we were just delivering the project (which was built here in California) and getting out before we could get into any trouble with the state of Arizona.

That was either a lie or a misjudgment. Our crew has been down there for a week now, and they could be there for another week. Someone is going to ask questions, and no one who's there knows the right answers. I can foresee all kinds of legal entanglements and accounting nightmares. Suddenly I have a problem.

I don't think we're doing anything illegal (I could be wrong). But I'm not sure we're handling it the right way. I'm uneasy, and all the assurances the Boss has given me aren't enough to keep me from lying awake thinking about what might happen.

Eventually it will all get sorted out, and if we have to pay, we will. In the meantime, all it means to me is extra work and worry. I have enough trouble sleeping, without adding this possible future situation to the list.

A man came by the house this afternoon to commiserate with me over the state of my yard. Or rather, to lick his chops over the prospect of getting me to pay for cutting down some of the seriously high weeds. I showed him the back forty, he gave me a quote I could live with, and I told him to bring on the tractor.

It's amazing how fast all this burgeoning greenery happened. Every time I look out, the grasses are growing higher. When it's windy, as it was today, they bend back and forth furiously. I walked through the yard today and counted twenty different kinds of wild, unplanted growth. There are probably many more than that, but that's what was evident to my untrained eye.

This place came with a gas mower that looks big and sturdy enough to do the job, once the stuff that's out there now is cut down to size. Some of what I walked through today was as high as my head. I'm really nervous about trying to make a strange machine work. The mower didn't come with instructions, so I'm wary. I think I'd rather use the electric weed trimmer.

Actually, I'd rather have someone else do it altogether, but that comes at a price I can't afford to pay often.

There's a bird outside my door that sounds exactly like a whimpering dog. I expect to look out and see Lassie lift her paw as violins play "Greensleeves." All in black and white, of course.