Boy was I wrong. (That's a link to yesterday's entry, so if you've read it (and remember it) you don't have to click. I should have said, "Boy was I wrong yesterday," but that doesn't have the same punch.)

The point I'm teetering on is that if I thought the fact that the Boss was away from his office would make today go smoothly, and if I thought I wouldn't have to hear from him all day long, I was hideously, naively mistaken.

I spent most of the day on the phone — with the bank, with the Boss, and sometimes with both at once. I'm not sure we ever figured out which one of us made the $8,500 error, but we finally got the bank to reverse the $66 in overdraft fees and other penalties. I'm pretty sure it was the bank's mistake anyway, and I'm not saying that just because I don't want it to be my fault.

So it was pretty much a wasted day, and I had the good sense to cut it short. It was so much warmer outside than it was in the house, and the air was so much fresher, that as soon as I could manage it (about 3:00 pm), I found my book and took it out on the porch to read.

It had been so gray all day, and the air so heavy, that I'd just assumed it was as cold out this afternoon as when I went to the post office this morning. It was chilly inside the house, and when I opened the door to walk out to the mailbox I was startled by how warm it really was.

I wonder if that's how a butcher feels when he gets off work and leaves the meat locker for the evening air that feels cool to everyone else but warm to him. It's a similar sensation to walking out of a movie theater and being surprised that it's still light outside.

While I was reading on the porch, it got darker and cooler, not gradually but all of a sudden. It was too early for this to be happening simply because time was passing. It turned out to be yet another change in the weather. Even though it's early fall, we've had a taste of spring and summer over the last couple of days, and we're getting more and more glimpses of the coming winter.

In another week, when daylight savings time ends, it'll get dark an hour earlier. As the days grow shorter, whatever sunlight we get will be even more precious than it is now. I can always work at night; that's both the advantage and the disadvantage of working at home. But I'll have to seize every chance to spend time outside, the way I did today. It's what keeps the daily battles with banks and bosses from driving me all the way around the bend.

It never did warm up inside the house. An hour after I was outside enjoying the air, I was inside with the doors and windows shut, pulling on a sweatshirt. They say we don't have seasons in California, but sometimes we seem to have them all in one day.