A balancing seal in the circus has nothing on me

I balanced my checkbook today.

Maybe the import of that statement wasn’t clear.  Let me say it again:  I balanced my checkbook today.  I balanced it for the first time since October 2000.  I was so depressed over our finances after TEX fired me in January 2001 that I couldn’t bring myself to face the job.  I’ve been running my bank accounts and my finances generally ever since by the seat of my pants, by account balances printed on ATM slips, by vague feelings of disquiet about the amount of cash I had, and mostly by the grace of God.

Then one day last week, I finally found the strength to make myself do the job, and today I took a full day off work, sat down at the computer, and spent all day at it.  I finished up the last account about half an hour ago.

Yes, I know that failing to balance your checkbook each month is an excellent way to get into a storm, and it’s a mild wonder that I haven’t had some kind of horrible smash before now.  Still, the smash didn’t quite happen, and I now know exactly how much money is in each of my bank accounts—and little enough it is, which is cause for further gloom at some future date.

But not right now.  I balanced my checkbook today.

Dick Cheney avoids a gnarly Iraqi chicken with a machine gun.  Fnord.