I can't believe I'm in exactly the same position I was in last July, when I couldn't get out of town because a payment from the state was long overdue. I never made it to Shasta Lake last summer, because I had to scramble to keep the company going in the face of a severe cash shortage. And here we are again. I'm a week and a half away from taking off, and I could be grounded for the second year in a row. I can't believe it.

The check we're waiting for is payment for a job that we started in January, at the state's request. Then they had weather problems and asked us to delay the delivery. But they couldn't pay for the materials we'd already purchased or the labor we already put into it, because the contract stated that payment would be made on delivery. So we delivered the job in May, at the state's request, and here we are in July, still waiting for them to pay for it.

Since this has happened two years in a row, I have a Theory. The state's fiscal year ended over the weekend, and I think the atmosphere in Sacramento is about half new-year's-eve, half all-hallows-eve. New rules and regulations take effect, contracts expire, people change jobs. There's just enough uncertainty in the air to keep everyone from doing their best work.

And (corollary to the Theory): There's a big fat holiday stuffed into the middle of this week. Most holidays are on Mondays, and there are so many of them that a four-day work week in the Capitol is almost standard. With the Fourth falling on a Wednesday, why not turn it into a five-day weekend? That would explain why I can't get through to anybody, and the people I do talk to have no answers (and no interest in helping us find out what's going on).

That's just a Theory (and a corollary). I have no proof of anything because (as I said) nobody will tell me anything.

So I don't know what's going to happen. I suspect the check will show up in time. I'll be ready if it does. I'll be steamed if it doesn't.

Getting ready for vacation, even if everything goes well, is disruptive to the routine I depend on to keep the work flowing. It's more than a matter of looking two weeks ahead instead of one. I don't know where to forward my home phone number (which is also the company's main number), because the Boss is on the road. It's the end of the quarter, and I have all the extra accounting for payroll and sales taxes. Plus, it's really, really hot, and I don't feel like working that hard.

One thing is new to me this year: I have a yard that will need a ton of water, or else by the time I come back all my greenery will be brownery.

And, of course, when I get back it'll take a couple of weeks just to catch up with where I should be. I'll try not to think about that while I'm gone.

So, does it sound like I'm talking myself out of going on vacation? Ha! That's one thing that's not going to happen two years in a row.