Taken yesterday during a supremely sunny day. Today, on the other hand, is gray and cloudy and we have rain forecast for tomorrow. Oh – the sun just peeked out for a second. What a difference that makes!

We are immersed in Season 3 of Babylon Berlin – to me, the finest series I have even seen. It’s a relief to know that this season is just as good on every level as the first two. I’m just about to finish M Train  by Patti Smith. Don read Year of the Monkey  all day yesterday and he finished it late in the afternoon. Soon – when I finish – we’ll trade books.

These rocks – rose/pink agate and a geode – have been with me since my childhood. I was always fascinated by rocks and gems, routinely gathering them on family vacations – especially that well known stone from Northern Michigan, the Petoskey Stone.

We had a family friend who lived in Arizona and he collected and polished rocks. I was fascinated by his work. I had visions of him scaling mountains, chipping away at rocks, and then taking them to his workshop to polish. He gave me these. I used to have them on display in my childhood bedroom.

Over the years, as I moved from place to place, they were put in storage – in my red trunk that Don brought back from Detroit last year. I had conflicted feelings about the things in that trunk, if you remember. Too many memories of another time and place. So many, that I asked Don to take it all to our storage facility. But I kept the rocks, hiding them away inside some McCoy Pottery. Occasionally, I would pull them out and hold them.

I pulled them out today. I think it’s time to display them again. I’m not sure where…maybe on my desk? Or in the pink cabinet in the office?

Oh, some good news to share about something I never told you about. When we got back from Paris at the end of October, there was an official letter awaiting us from the State of New York. We were being audited. Neither of us had ever been audited before and I went into a panic. New York and California did not go along with the Federal Government’s tax bill/changes. They still support the deductions that actors and performers and freelancers and artists have always been allowed and that the federal changes took away, resulting in our having to pay several thousand dollars in taxes, far more than we had ever had to pay before. I suspected the return was flagged because Don had to live in NYC for six months during the run of Margaritaville – was required to – which resulted in far more deductions than we’ve taken in the past.

We contacted our tax preparer (she lives in California,) signed over Power of Attorney, and proceeded to gather every bit of documentation we could to support our claim. This took some time, of course, and I don’t mind telling you I was very nervous the whole time. Finally, on New Year’s Day as a matter of fact, we spent 5 hours collating and copying and writing a detailed document explaining everything and we sent it off to California the next day.

I was pretty sure that we’d lose money – maybe all of it; that something, or a lot of things, wouldn’t be allowed. I resigned myself to it. Both of us ended up feeling at peace with the investigation, knowing we had been honest, that everything had been documented, and that if there were any errors, they had been unintentional.

Fast forward to one week ago. I went online to check our bank balance and it was far more than I had expected. I looked at the statement and there was our refund.  Plus interest. The entire amount. I yelled to Don, who panicked thinking something had happened to me. No, I said. Good news!

I have to tell you that I didn’t expect it and I was delighted and so, so relieved. We are scrupulously honest and it bothered me that we might be perceived as dishonest. Just the other day, we received the official letter from the State. I feel like framing it (just kidding!) That audit had stayed in our daily consciousness for four months and leaving it behind – officially – is an enormous relief.

Happy Monday.