Making Preparations

Dearest Rachel –

Since I really want to get this out before I have to leave the house in the morning, this letter is mostly being written ahead of time. Oh, I expect to have a fair amount to tell you about regarding today’s activities, but that won’t be until I get home, and by then, I expect to be sufficiently tired as to just want to pour myself into bed and call it a day. You already know I’m a morning person; first out of necessity, and then out of habit. But the reverse has been true for that much longer; I’m not a night person, so I can’t promise to be able to write to you as of the end of today’s activity.

So I need to make preparations ahead of time, in order to get something sent to you prior to heading out. Ironically, this means writing this letter during the evening beforehand, when I’m not necessarily at my best. On the other hand, it’s not as if I have to complete it then; I can finish this up and add a neat little bow to it all in the morning, when I’m fresh.

The thing is, yesterday didn’t have a lot going on, in and of itself, to tell you about. Indeed, most of my time was spent, as with this letter, making preparations for the days to come, one way or another.

For starters – and this is to give you a quick preview of what might be coming in my next letter – I was looking up the best way to get into the city, as instead of walking in the woods this week, I’ll be meeting Lars downtown, by Navy Pier. I’ve always been of the opinion that it was cheaper to take public transit downtown – especially given the price of parking – but didn’t know how to connect from Metra to the “L” or the CTA. So I had to look up (using AI assistants, of course) how to make the connections, as well as how to pay, as the systems don’t play together as nicely as those in, say, Tokyo. Based on what they could dig up for me, it looks like a fairly straightforward matter, although I’ll have to get back to you later on with either confirmation or correction of that conclusion. But at least I’m prepared for tomorrow, more or less.

On a more ‘office’-related issue, I’ve also gotten things pretty much ready for me to assemble the monthly reports, although for the moment, that process won’t actually begin until after Labor Day. Then again, since I set my own hours, there’s no reason why I can’t show up at the ‘office’ on Monday regardless – although there’s also no need to have the pedal to the metal, as the board meeting won’t take place for almost another two weeks from now. But again, I’m prepared to finish the job at a moment’s notice.

The other thing taken care of yesterday had to do with more mundane stuff, and on a more personal level; that of the taxes needing to be paid. While out at Costco together, Mom had asked if we had received our property tax bill, as hers had arrived that morning. Since we’d left before our mail tended to be delivered, we hadn’t gotten our bill, but sure enough, it was there when we got home. Which meant I needed to free up the cash I needed to pay this off. So yesterday saw me calling our investment advisor to do just that – and, as per usual, I asked him to free up a little extra as what I’d hoped to have as walking-around money.

Good thing I did, too, as I hadn’t considered the fact that Daniel and I both need to pay an installment for income taxes in a week; while Daniel’s been making these payments each quarter this year, this was the first time I needed to make such a payment. Basically, all that walking-around money I’d freed up was going to be walking to Springfield without me. But hey… at least I’d prepared for it, albeit completely inadvertently.

And of course, in order to get this letter sent off to you on time before heading out, I made sure to wake up early this morning by setting the alarm on my phone – I never set my clock alarm; for some reason, I simply can’t abide that “scree-scree-scree” sound – which I managed beat awake by a mere five minutes. And a good thing, too; when I went to switch it off, I discovered that I hadn’t quite completed the process of setting it. The app was still in the process of selecting the time it was supposed to go off – and it wouldn’t have, because of that. Good thing it didn’t matter. So that’s a bit of preparation effort wasted, but that’s how things go.

Anyway, I expect to have a few things to tell you about being a tourist in my hometown, but that will have to wait for later. Until then, as always, keep an eye on me and wish me well; I’m going to need it.