And the roofer pitches in

The roofer called at 7am, a full half hour before I was supposed to wake. I was half-awake as it was. The pounding rain on the roof of the past day and night is oddly hypnotic, but not in a sleep-inducing way, today.

Why did the roofer call at 7am, you may ask? Indeed. It could be because he's Irish, or because he's a workaholic, or because he was trying to passive-aggressively get back at me for not choosing him to work on the roof a few months ago. Oddly, I believe it may be all of the above. Regardless, he called, I answered, we arranged a time for him to come by, and I went back and dozed for another 15 minutes.

But when I got up at 7:30am, I was ready to exercise, eat a healthy breakfast of microwaved sweet potato (rinse tuber, wrap in Glad Clingwrap, nuke for 5 minutes, presto done, and don't eat the skin), and get onto emails. Then went to do some freelance work (CAD drafting for a guy who gets up at 5:30am and does "BodyPump" in the mornings), spent time with a friend, went to orchestra rehearsal, and finally, am back home reading JKLasser's book on 2009 TAXES! Shazaam!

I am an obsessive by nature, let's be clear. Taxes is not something I have to read about, I am compelled to. It's like a tic. It's like how I've been obsessively reading economics. And I had to figure out what a present value calculation is. Not many people (quick, what's the percentage of economists in the world?) know it - that is, less than know what that blond bimbo Jessica Simpson is up to currently. Actually, I could easily forget it, but I will probably obsess about it to the point of re-reviewing it.

For kicks and trivia quizzes later on in the nursing home, the present value of an annuity is the value you intend to get at the end of the time period divided by the rate of return per annum. Sounds simple, just have to have the right numbers. Also, there are "present value tables" that accountants use to do this without sitting down with a calculator.

Oh - one final note of a health/dietary nature: I had some Doritos and cheddar cheese last night for the first time in several months. I also had four Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies at the freelance job. My elbows hurt today more than they have in some time. Interesting, no? I just ate half a bunch of fresh organic celery and a cup of ginger tea to atone - my own personal, edible Hail Mary.