Spectrum

I found myself taking note of the wide spectrum of time yesterday while I was sitting in my new painted living room with Helen, my bookkeeper. We found ourselves a little nook in the bay window area of the room, spread out our stuff and plugged in the computer.

We meet now every three months to take care of the quarterly Withholding, payroll and Rooms and Meals taxes. I won’t pretend like I even really know what any of that means. I simply schedule the time to meet with Helen and nod my head while she navigates like a Nascar driver through the screens on my Quickbooks Pro 2007. I end up cross eyed when we’re done, deeply craving a long hot bath, an entire bottle of wine and a good cry. This part of being a business owner is not the stuff I do best. Painting and hanging ivy plants I can handle with grace and ease. The IRS confuses the hell out of me.

Folks would come in and almost approach me. Maybe the deer-in-the-headlights expression on my face was a good indication that they come back later to say “hey”.

But……… mid-way through our three hour meeting, I found myself kind of humming along with Ramble on Rose and it being spring lately… even if it may be somewhat of a temporary pleasure………and the sun shining outside and the warm breeze coming in through the open window……….I found myself thinking that fifteen years or so ago I might have found myself somewhere in the country, at some random venue, dancing in the grass or in some hallway in some stadium, to this song…..live. And so I dangled there for a while, in that wide spectrum of time…. the light existence of one’s early twenties on one end of the spectrum and quarterly tax returns for the budding entrepreneur on the other end.

Just taking note. Taking stock.