So the “economy” is supposedly on the rebound. I’m not sure I’m buying that.
I got note from my bank, two points of interest for me: one, bad check NSFed, and two, a credit card that bounced. It’s not like I’m out a lot of money on either one of these transactions. Extra five bucks on the check, and the card that didn’t go through just means no product ships – except I’ve already done the reading.
Anyone who’s been in business for any length of time deals with such little problems. It’s the first of the year, my fireworks stand is rolling along, so cash flow is good, maybe not good enough, but I’m not going to worry about the bounced payments.
One them came from a school teacher, so I’m writing that one off. I consider it tithing to the gods. The other one is more problematic because there’s now a paper trail, and plus an extra five bucks. I don’t have hard and fast policy on how to deal with this, there’s no “returned check fee” prominently displayed when I work, not a lot I can do, not today. Not a lot I’m going to do but sit and fume. Or think about making my deposits a little faster, after I collect checks.
It’s been over a year since I’ve had a bounced payment from clientele. So the supposed “rebound” and “recovery” of the economy? I’m not buying that.
Unrelated [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3412619.stm]footnote[/url].
[url=http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1607481&nav=BsmgKHnu]Killer[/url] [url=http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_2589622,00.html]Fish[/url] [url=http://www.caller2.com/2004/slideshows/pages/WHALE.html]tales[/url].
(I was looking for corroborating evidence for TFG’s [url=http://www.thefatguy.com/archives/003788.html#003788]fishy story[/url].)
(And one more thing about that catfish: largest, according to [url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fish/infish/records/records.phtml]state records[/url], was 116 pounds.)
The same dream sequence
It’s been the same dream, and it’s popped up several nights now, in the dark of the night.
There’s a tiny speck of a “flying ship,” a cross between a da Vinci drawing and some childhood fragment from my own imagination. It’s some kind of a steam-powered helicopter with gossamer wings and two little smoke stacks, puffing away. One smoke stack is for the fire for the boiler, the other is the steam as it escapes.
The little thing has been slipping in and out of mountains, almost look like old maps, darting in a gawky, jerky steam-powered manner, as if the fireman is having a bit of trouble regulating the steam itself. Incomplete technology.
I’ve been working my way through Neal Stephenson’s [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380977427/fishinguideto-20]Quicksilver[/url], and I’m sure that has something to do with the dream sequence. It’s just, as I roused out of the dream the other evening, I remembered that it was the same dream I’ve been having for a while. Same flying machine. Same mountains, same map.
It just goes to show that whatever I’m reading before I go to bed usually has an influence on my imaginary life.