Finally A Cool Breeze

Somebody finally turned down the temperature here in Michigan, from broil to simmer. Hope it lasts.

Another sign summer is nearing an end . . . our number two son Scott is headed back to school. Not back to Ithaca, N.Y. and Cornell this term, but on to Washington DC where he is going to intern with Congress for the rest of the year. I'm not sure exactly what he's going to be doing, but it has to do with enacting that health care reform that just became law. If I hear that we're better off moving to Canada or Cuba or something, you'll read it here first.

At least he made it there fine, unpacked, and even managed to find his way back to his apartment when, while trying to reconnoiter his Maryland neighborhood, he was swallowed up in beltway traffic around our nation's capitol. He navigated back to his apartment using the position of the sun along with locating a famous landmark near his apartment, the Washington Redskins football stadium.

Speaking of football, another sign that summer's near an end is the re-emergence of our family fantasy football league. Wife Wendy already chose the order for Scott's Detroit Rock City league and I have first pick in this year's draft. Go Mock Draft Bloggers! That's my team this year.

What else is on my mind here . . .

Haven't talked about my job lately. In fact, I hardly ever talk about my job here, lest somebody at work stumbles across my blog. But here's a couple things I found a little, well, amusing for lack of a better word.

Much of my job involves checking the accounting work of others and making sure the dollars and cents match up. My colleague likes to describe he and I as forensic accountants, forensic as in CSI. But without all the crime, drama and sexy women.

I had to deal with a returned check recently in which the dollar amount written in numeric form didn't agree with what the checkwriter wrote in the text portion of the check. The difference was about fifty dollars.

But what was amusing is that the check had a NASCAR theme with a blurb below the endorsement line that said "So many laps, so little time." Hea, when it comes to writing a check correctly so that it is not returned by the bank, TAKE THE TIME! Sheesh.

Also interesting was a refund done at one of the sites under my purview. The staff there was supposed to refund several thousand dollars to a client's personal credit card. But instead, they ended up charging the cardholder several thousand dollars instead. Errors like that are understandable, right? NOT! At least to me, not.

Anyway, the credit card holder, who I might add is a respected member of the our justice system, was understanding about it. The mistake was reversed and the cardholder was credited, though not until a few weeks had passed.

Then the site received a call from the client, stating that the correction had not been done and that malfeasance surely must be afoot. Very upset. I received a call from the harried staff supervisor asking me to double-check to make sure everything was fine on our end. It was.

As the supervisor stressed about what to do next, she received a call from the cardholder's husband. Whoops. They missed the correction. It was done properly after all. Everthing's fine.

Whew. Just another day at the office. Thank goodness for cool breezes.