Thursday 13 #3

My last post was two days ago, Wednesday is a busy day for my foster client. Thursday is my day off, but not today. No graphics or good pictures, but I'll tell you about it.

1. The day began at 5:42 a.m. when the cat woke me up by meowing loudly in the hallway. I silently cursed the cat when I got out of bed, then quietly cursed her again (even though she's old) when I picked her up and took her to the mudroom.

2. My husband woke up when I went back to bed and I told him it was beginning to snow. He said he'd take the cars up to the top of our driveway since we were expecting sleet. Since I was awake, I'd drive the van. Back to bed again. I finally fell back asleep and got up past 8:30 a.m. This was, after all, my day off. On the radio they announced that school was closed.

3. By mid-morning, I was sitting in the kitchen reviewing year-old mortgage loans from my now defunct business when the phone rang. Scott said I needed to call the home office. I had just made a pot of of Irish Breakfast tea and had hoped to have a leisurely morning sipping tea and looking through the files in preparation for an audit.

4. I reached the owner and she was frantic. She had tried to call my office to tell me the audit had been moved from the 12th to the 5th (next Monday). I reminded her that I had told her in early December that I had closed (the phone was turned off November 17). I had found the misplaced files. [I had moved my office home last June, then my husband re-arranged my files at his music store to make a new waiting room area.]

5. She insisted that I courier the files to her today and as she spoke, I watched the snowflakes fall. The forecast was supposed to be worse Friday, so I figured it was today or never. I began looking through the files with real urgency or near panic (you decide) since FedEx picks up at 2:30 p.m. in Floyd.

6. I called my husband to give him an update and got his voice mail. He called back in five minutes to say he'd pick me up at 1:30 p.m. The next three hours are a complete blur. I had only 7 files to review from January through May. [I wasn't busy in part because I didn't jump start the business for 2006 as we expected a new client to move in by June.]

7. Three of my files were in pristine condition and needed no further attention. The remaining four files had glaring omissions of important documents. I sent in original documents and didn't copy them for the file, I recalled thinking my business was closing before year end and the files would be buried in a dusty box. I had sailed through two audits in the previous five years and survived, why would a business that was no longer open and had only closed a half-dozen loans need to be audited?

8. I printed missing documents to be copied in town. My husband picked me up and we were in town before 2 p.m. I had thirty minutes before the FedEx deadline. I worked on the worst file first then the next. The last file only took a few minutes but I was rattled--and past my deadline.

9. I shoved the files into a FedEx envelope and hoped for the best. I quickly jogged to the Post Office (in my sturdy black snow boots) where the FedEx box is located, just two-minutes from my former office. I was twenty minutes past the deadline and Joel, the driver, had already been there. I can't tell you how many times he's picked up at 3:00, 3:30 or even as late as 4:00 pm, but not today.

10. I had a decision to make: drop my big envelope into the box or schlep it to Christiansburg (30 minutes away) where the FedEx deadline was 6:00 pm. By this time I was just plain ticked off about the whole thing. I was mostly mad at the state for auditing me a third time in six years (and my business was closed), but also wasn't happy with my former parent company. I let the envelope go and shut the door.

11. I was in a fog the rest of the day. I called home and gave the boys various instructions including making lentil soup for dinner. I would be at the music store with Scott until his guitar lessons were done at 6:30 pm since he had picked me up due to anticipated bad weather that never occurred.

12. We walked in the door at 7:15 pm. Our foster client went to his room, his bedroom door was wide open. He found his parakeet cage upside down on his bed from its normal position on a nearby dresser. We crossed our fingers we'd find the parakeet unharmed, but my son found feathers on the rug and nothing else. Hobbes, our predator tiger cat, was found in the house and is the guilty suspect. Earlier this week our long-time pet turtle died.

13. I went to do a spell and grammar check in Word on this post to learn that the 2007 Beta version I had has expired and will no longer work, I hope the 2003 version is still on my computer.

Next week's TT shall be more upbeat. Last week's happier 13. Thursday 13 site.