It's the first day of the work week and the first day of the month. The green is in honor of the tomatoes. Five out of the six remain dark green, blooming yellow flowers and setting tiny green tomatoes. The sixth is yellowing, and I can't figure out why, though there are plenty of little green wanna-be tomatoes.

It feels like Monday morning, though. I got to the office early, thanks to being awakened at 4 a.m. with yet another crisis. Stopped at Starbuck's for my venti red-eye, then at the post office to drop Netflix DVDs into the mail. Plenty of time for errands. Too bad more businesses aren't open at 5:30 a.m.

Wonder what the day has in store. Payroll, that's for sure. It's so routine, I could do it with my eyes closed. Probably a cranky phone call or two from customers whose service is less than stellar--some of our employees have trouble coming to work on time after a long holiday. They (and I) had four days off; Friday was a mandatory furlough/vacation day.

Well, off to set up the day's tasks on my desk. I like to have the folders and printouts organized by topic/date so that when the excrement hits the air mover, I can lay hands on the necessary documents easily.

I turned the page in my personal calendar. For this month, it says in big red capital letters "Anticipated Retirement Date". Where's my correction tape?