As I was driving in from the post office this afternoon, I stopped at my mailbox at the end of the drive. The new location where Landlord Fred put it is now a place where I can easily drive by and reach my mail, if I get back late enough in the day. Today it was late enough, but for some reason my mail carrier had stuck the one envelope so far back in the box that I had to lift my foot off the brake a little to reach it. So it’s a good thing I thought to pull the emergency brake before I did that.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about (although it’s no less consequential than what I am here to talk about).

When I got to the garage, I was of two minds (as usual). I wanted to rip into the envelope I’d picked up from the State of California, because it looked like a check. But I also wanted to reset the clock in my car, because I knew I wouldn’t be driving anywhere before 1:00 am, when the time changes. I can never remember how to set that clock, so I reached into the glove box and pulled out the manual. After several false starts, I got the clock set for tomorrow’s daylight saving extravaganza. Now I can sleep well tonight. Just for one hour less.

I actually only had to set the car clock ahead half an hour. That’s how much time the clock has gained since the last time I reset it, probably six months or so ago. I’m so used to it being half an hour fast, that I guess I could have left it alone and let it be half an hour slow, until it caught up with itself. That would probably have been just about the time when I would have to set it back an hour in the fall. We do make things hard on ourselves, don’t we?

And that envelope from the State was indeed a check, for about twenty thousand dollars less than we billed them for. I guess I should be happy with anything from the State of California right now, but it does make it hard to pay bills and keep the business going if our customers don’t pay us. I think you know what I mean.