Sunday AM

Happy May Day!  Consistent with our Spring weather here, the high today will be in the mid-50's, windy, and then a chance of rain later on.  At least the sun is out for now.

I struggled with productivity this past week.  There was a little travel-hangover from Lincoln to start with, then I had the challenge of moving my old couch to the basement, which took most of two nights.  And then there was the stress from the IRS visit.  An audit always makes me at least a little uncomfortable (which encourages preparation), but this one is far from ordinary.  A return in the bell curve's third or fourth standard deviation (is there a fourth?) with permutations so obscure that it makes your head swim.

My pal Bill and I always have some post-April 15th ideas to improve our situation for the next tax season.  This year is no different and I hope that we are more successful in implementing some changes for 2011.  Its usually a matter of staffing.  Too many projects.  Not enough cooks in the kitchen.  You would think that after 25+ years that we would have it figured out better.

I've thrown up the white flag on my auto-forward option for my desk phone at the office.  I had rationalized in mid-March that leaving the desk unit on auto-forward to my cell phone, always, was the efficient answer to missed calls or the vicious circle of trading calls.  Unfortunately, there are a couple of fundamental mis-steps in that logic: 1) a much higher number of solicitation calls get through without a "gatekeeper" assistant, and 2) the software embedded in the mother-board of the phone system produces very curious secondary and tertiary results.  None of which would interest the peanut gallery.  Whatever.

My pal Roy and his wife spent some serious time last week at the Loueve, the Eiffel Tower, and the Notre Dame Cathedral while in Paris.  Roy has some feet problems, and he was well over the edge of how much walking he needed.  What he needed was a park bench.  All in all though, I think it was not a bad trip.  No canceled flights, or room mix-ups.

I've had this thought that 2011 could be one of those memorable years for the fam.  The girls each have big events going on in their lives.  Jobs.  Family.  Relocation's.  Travel.   Anyone ready for a separate blog with author-access to all for recurring entries on the progress we each are making on our journeys?  Just an idea.

Here's a hat-tip to 3 for handling an extremely busy week filled with travel, contrary clients, and the other usual stuff of the fast lane frequented by Wall Street financial analysts (actually Broad Street, but you get the drift).  In her honor, I'm throwing some props to Herky for his birthday last week.  I snapped this pic of him at a ball game a few years back.

Lots to get done here today.  I'll jump back on here after I've got some of those tasks handled.  It's a new day.

BCOT