First day of spring, eh? I hardly had time to notice. It was run, run, run all day long, and I could have worked until midnight if I'd had any energy left. The only thing I know for sure is that it was cloudy all day, but warmer than it has been. That can only mean that there's a spring rain headed our way.

Believe it or not, the Big Project that I put to bed a month ago is awake and alive again. The Boss found some things he wanted to change in the financial picture. He calls it a better way to present our position, but it's a trade-off. Either we didn't make any money and therefore don't pay taxes, or we made a lot of money and impress the bonding company with our profitability. That allows us to get more work, make more money, on and on, la de da.

So I spent most of the day redoing spreadsheets I thought were finished weeks ago. I try never to think I'm getting near the end of the road, because I know from experience that there's always a surprise around the bend. Sometimes it's a little hill, and sometimes it's a big pit of snarling vipers. The only way to survive is not knowing, because if you know it's the vipers, you don't stay on the road.

Whatever the opposite of a relaxing vacation is, that's what I'm on right now. I'm still losing track of time and cut off from the rest of the world. It's just the reason that's different. I'm not away from it all, but so much in the middle of it all that it's like swirling in a whirlpool, with the sharks circling. It's taking its toll — physically, emotionally, and in some mystical way that I don't understand but that makes me feel as if I'm driving downhill and the steering wheel just came off in my hand. This might be a good time to stay out of my way.

Now that spring is here, I'm looking forward to that day a couple of weeks from now when we set our clocks an hour forward. Getting up an hour earlier in the morning is a minor form of torture, but that extra hour of daylight in the afternoon makes it worth putting up with. I don't know how to use extra time early in the day, but the afternoon and evening can stretch on and on forever and I'd never run out of things to do.