It doesn't just get dark earlier after we set our clocks back. It gets cold, too. This was actually a pretty decent day, weather-wise, for late October, but by 5:30 this afternoon it was already turning into a chilly night. I guess that's appropriate, considering the chill in our hearts after the big loss yesterday. But enough about that.

This could have been a downer day in more ways than one, but I got all the state sales taxes finished, and some of the payroll taxes that are due at the end of the month. The end of the month is 28 days closer now than it was when the month started, and I'm not proud of wasting four weeks. But it happens every quarter, so I'm not ashamed, either. It's just the way things are.

So, with three days left, I have about three days' work to finish. That would be a lot more comforting if I knew for sure nothing else would crop up before Thursday. The truth is just the opposite. I can be fairly certain something will happen to throw the schedule off. I'd say something about "best-laid plans," but when the plan is something like "wait until the very last minute," it's hard to call it "best" anything.

But it's just the way things are. I'm not ashamed. Not of that, anyway.

It probably wasn't the best idea to watch A Walk to Remember on today of all days. When you're already feeling a little low, you don't need a movie that's engineered to bring you to great sobbing gobs of tears. It's a little bit appropriate, though, in that it's a story about hope overcoming heartbreak. What better way to move on from wrenching sorrow than by recognizing the healing powers of faith and redemption?