The Lost Month of September

I have a few minutes to sit and write an entry. I'll try to be brief; I'll try to ease my way back into blogging. It's been a long time since my last post. I knew this would happen. An average post takes an hour, and I don't really have that kind of time. September is a busy month for the band. We've been on the road almost every weekend since the beginning of September. There's Car Club and Train Club and workin' at the Museum. There's a hundred other things to do too ... like keeping my real estate license up to date. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have a few hours at home - a few precious hours of peace and quiet. So no heavy lifting today: No big thoughts, no photos, no posting to the web site ... just a few minutes to jot down a random thought or two.

It's been so long since I've made an entry that I considered just deleting my blog altogether. Just for grins I decided to re-read my entries before I let it all go. But now I've decided that there's something of value in it after all. I'd forgotten so much of what I wrote way back in July and August. It was refreshing to read a bunch of stuff I was totally in agreement with; it seems rare when I agree with anyone anymore - even myself. My blog made a handy reference tool; it allowed me to recollect my own thoughts after a disorienting month on the run. I used to read my own journal for the same purpose, but it got so long that I don't think I'll ever have the time to read it all again. If I keep blogging, I guess the same thing will happen here.

We had a minor milestone at the hotel today. We received the results from our recent audit: A+. The official wording was something like "no deficiencies found"; which is not a very impressive way to phrase it, but accounting professionals tend to be a pretty dry bunch - if you know what I mean. Anyway, it appears to be a first for the entire hotel division. Even hotels consistently rated highest by the auditors have had at least "one deficiency found" during their audits. E-mails are circulating, backs are a-slappin', high-5's all around. How is it possible that we could achieve such results? Begging the bigger question, "What are we going to do for an encore?" Perhaps now would be a good time to retire.

I've been baking a lot of shortbread lately. I still haven't perfected the art. It should be really easy: Flour, Sugar, Butter, Salt. Mix and bake for 20 minutes. What can go wrong? Results so far have only been acceptable. By that, I mean that all the shortbread gets eaten, but that's just not enough. Where is the A+? Where is the crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth goodness of a perfect piece of shortbread? What drives a man to attempt perfection? Why can't acceptable ever be good enough?