Here's the deal. I stayed up until 3:00 am getting the new site up, if not quite running. It wasn't until twelve hours or so later that I was able to access it. Then after work today I spent most of the evening working on a bio page, which I hope to have up soon. It's hard work making my life interesting. So if my entry is a bit scattered today, there's the excuse.

I got my car back from the mechanic this afternoon. There were no problems, he said, except that I needed new tires. Then I saw that he'd charged me $10.00 to rotate the old tires. Maybe he'll give me a rebate if I buy the new set there.

This mechanic is a guy I completely trust to be straight with me. I'm not totally convinced that he always knows exactly what's wrong, but I have absolute faith in his honesty. One of the things he told me, the last time I took the car in (it's a 1988 Honda) was that it might be time to start thinking about a new one. And so, maybe it is.

The 1099s will be out on time, even though I'll probably have to do one of them without an identification number. I'm not sure what the procedure for that is, but I'll have to do some research on it. I don't think you can just leave that box blank. This woman was our landlord briefly last year, and we paid her a little over a thousand dollars in rent for our shop on the Sacramento Delta. Maybe by not returning my calls she's hoping I'll give up and not send her a 1099.

The relationship was contentious, even though it was short. The Boss wanted to force her to extend the agreement we had with the previous owner of the building. She wanted us out so she could remodel and charge more rent. Eventually there were lawyers involved. We stayed longer than she wanted us to, and it turned out to be just long enough to put us over the 1099 threshold. I still have a couple of days to mail out these forms, but at this late date it's going to mean more night and weekend work.

The smoke detector strenuously objected to my first attempt at broiling tonight, so I had to deprive it of its battery for a while. The chicken wasn't very happy with the situation either, but it didn't stay around long enough to argue. I declared a unilateral cease-fire, and gastronomic harmony was achieved. The broiler rack, on the other hand, is no friend of mine. It's a good thing it can cook, because it doesn't clean up well at all. If I hadn't found some steel wool (and if my standards were a little higher), I might still be scrubbing.

Ronald Reagan may have had a more soothing voice and delivery, but Bill Clinton is the true great communicator. He might have been setting up his ducks so that Gore can complain about Congress shooting them down, but when I listen to him, I believe that he believes everything he says. He didn't really get to me tonight, though, until he got to my favorite themes — diversity, inclusion, tolerance. As imperfect a man as Clinton is, he has brought people into government who have improved how it looks and how it relates to those of us who believe in one human race. He has exactly what President Bush puzzled over and could never quite grasp — the "vision thing." I don't think any of this year's candidates have it. Or if they do, they can't articulate it. I believe that we'll miss Bill Clinton after he's left office, and that history will judge him more warmly than his contemporaries do, friends and enemies alike.