A Weak End....

[captainsblog]

The last workweek ended with two deadlines looming over me and a seemingly routine court appearance in Rochester Friday morning.  All got rather out of hand to one extent or another.  For one, the real deadline is tomorrow, but I hate putting things off until that, so I told the client I wanted to get things in place Friday. I emailed a specific time for that at the end of my day in town. When the appointed appointment time arrived and he was a no-show, I emailed with a ?, and got as a reply, Um, I don't always check my emails. So there will be massive running round tomorrow to get everything signed and mailed out, but I did manage to leave town earlier than I would have if he HAD shown up, and put in most of the time to work on it at my office here yesterday afternoon- on the biggest number-crunching part of the project, which I refer to as "The Big Ugly" in honor of our state's legislative process. It went better than expected for me; Eleanor's biggest problem with it was Pepper was inconsolable for the whole time I was out. Next time I have a major office commitment on a weekend, I'll just bring the dog with me.

The other deadline is officially past, but I emailed a Dog Ate My Homework to the other side Friday- my guy signing the documents was scheduled for surgery Friday, and the other side did not get back with an evil refusal, so I think I'm good.

As for the routine appearance? Well, in the end it was, but sometimes I just wonder what to do with these people.  There are two essential things that every client must bring to the one bankruptcy hearing they all have to attend. Only two. The court tells them what they are. I have ALWAYS sent a separate letter also telling them in bold what those two things are. Because of issues with one of those two things, I now send a separate reminder notice a week or two ahead, in handy interactive form, making them check off that they have these two things.

Guess who showed up Friday morning without one of the two things, before the worst person in the world not to have it for?  Fortunately, client lives "five minutes away" (more like 20 with traffic and parking) and made it back with Thing Two before her trustee left the building, but was still so stressed by it I caught her puffing on an inhaler after she sat back down.  From now on, I think I’m going to start confiscating the damn thing from the clients the first time I meet with them (the thing they need to bring, not the inhaler).  Assuming somebody doesn’t shoot me now per my request.

Because of all of that, I did not stay late in Rochester Friday night for what had promised to be, and wound up being, a simply wonderful musical performance. But I made do as I drove home in the dark:  after exchanging comments with our longtime beloved performer (and my now Facebook friend) Lucy Kaplansky earlier in the day, I cut off the usual shitstream in the car driving home and listened straight through to her newest album "Everyday Street." It was the perfect tonic to decompress- her own new songs about daughter and dog, old friends and new beginnings, and covers of beloved songs from Nanci, Leonard and Bruce (ending with covering her own "The Tide").

Then, home at last sorting the mail, came the annual missive from the Cornell English department. I scan these suspiciously, wondering which one of my former advisors has passed (none this time, although the immortal professor/poet James McConkey finally proved mortal at 98), but instead I found joy: in October, the university held Morganfest, a tribute to the decades of service and creativity by my onetime Creative Writing professor. I'd lost touch with him until seeing his "Gap Creek" novel in a NC bookstore while visiting a friend near his hometown in 2011. I wrote to him back then (creatively, I hope) to reconnect, and while I was sure he wouldn't remember me, he was touched to know that feeling was not mutual. He has a newer book out from 2016, which I got out of the library today and is now going to be the second or third of my books-read for 2020. Yes, I'm back to doing that on Goodreads.  The goal is a book a week, which I've failed miserably at for several years, but I already have one in the can and two, including Morganbook, which I'm already well into before this month hits the halfway mark.

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The other aggravation in my life these days is the insurance plan revision I mentioned last week. It's agreed and signed, but bureaucraptic things have resulted in my currently having been charged twice late last week for both the old and the new policy.  I'd expected the premium for the old one to be reversed last Friday, but at 6-something that night came the call from New Agent: he'd forgotten one thing in our Chinese menu of choices for the new one, and while it was an easy decision for me to make, it can't be processed until tomorrow, which is the soonest the old payment will be returned (and more likely not until midweek). Fortunately, I achieved a victory on a long-annoying file last Thursday, by resorting to the ultimate threat:

I got the client to "fire" me.

Note the quotes.  The opponent proposed a deal. I recommended it with bells* and whistles**, which the client agreed with and I promptly reported to the other side.  Opponent then proceeded to blow off four meetings to finalize it (with checks in hand) between December 31 and January 8.  That's when I sent my client the email: "Fire me. Be mean. Be nasty. Say it was all my fault."

He did.  I immediately forwarded it to opponent. THAT got his attention, and the checks arrived at the end of the day Thursday. Long as the first one clears, I can deal with the insurance BS.