It's too bad I hate misplacing things so much, because I'm really good at it. This time it's the check register that shows whether or not I recorded depositing my last paycheck. I just finished one register and started another, and all it shows at the top of the first page is the balance. And I don't know if this balance includes that check or not.

This is a big deal, because the end of the month is looming like the dark clouds over the North Bay. If I did record the deposit, I can pay my rent. If I didn't, I can't. It's that simple.

So I've spent the last two days, whenever I could spare a minute, looking for the old register. The trouble with searching piecemeal this way is that you forget where you've already looked. Or even if you don't forget, you feel as if you have to look there again anyway, in case you missed it.

Mostly I stand in the middle of the room with a vacant look on my face, turning slowly around, looking up at the ceiling and out the window and other places where I couldn't possible have put this thing. Then I'll dig through the waste baskets and recycling bags again.

I've looked in my paid bills file and my canceled checks. In a corner of a closet I keep a lockbox that I've opened and closed a dozen times. I have a file box where I keep important papers. Nothing. Nowhere. Up in smoke.

There's probably something I can do to reactivate my memory, but for the life of me I don't know what. I've looked in all the logical and illogical places. Whatever it is I'm overlooking will probably come to me in the middle of the night. I'm up anyway, so I might as well have an idea once in awhile.

Now that the World Series is over, I plan on reclaiming my life, getting to know the family again, trying to write journal entries that make sense, that kind of thing. I haven't wanted to miss any part of the Series, but I didn't much like the timing. I can't believe folks on the east coast enjoyed having the games last past midnight, and here on the west coast they started at five o'clock, right in the middle of the day (for me, anyway).

I remember the old days, when all the games were played in the daytime. I'm a believer in day baseball, even though the players don't like it any more because it spoils their daily routine. A showcase like the World Series deserves to be played under the best conditions, and to me that means sunshine instead of banks of lights.

World Series notes: I'm mad at the Mets. I so wanted to see a game six, with Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza facing off again. I think if the Mets had won tonight, they had a good chance of eventually sending the Series to a seventh game. There were some great games in the 2000 World Series, and game five was the best, with something interesting happening in every inning and a fabulous finish, but it would have been a more memorable Series if it had lasted a little longer.