Weeding

I've been ill. Since Sunday, I've had a migraine (or maybe sinusitis) so bad I could barely function. So today, the first headache-free day I've had since it started, I really wanted to dig a deep hole in one of my treasure spots. It would have been funny, trust me, especially since we haven't had any rain in awhile and the ground is like concrete. Could you see me, rocking back and forth on the shovel, hoping for a cache of Confederate gold only to find a pocket of roofing nails?

It would have been sweet, but I didn't get that far. I was distracted by The Weeds - not just the evil chickweed that had grown up between the tight threads of lime thyme around the birdbath in front, or the pernicious spurge and noisome purslane that widens the cracks in the sidewalk and the driveway, though I wrestled with them, too (and won, at least for now). No, I'm talking about the weeds in the balance sheet.

Yeah, idiot me, when the headache finally cleared, did I continue resting (and watching last season's Smallville)? Did I chop a few olives and make pasta puttanesca? Of course not - I gave Angelus the vampire head-throb a gilt-edged invitation straight into my cranium. And why? Because I'm absolutely determined to live off the Big Lug's salary and use mine to further my insidious, secret plan, that's why! What a dope!

Well, not completly stupid. Weeding is necessary, and I've done far too little of it both last month (outside) and in our nearly thirty years of marriage (fiscal-side). Just today I found out that the pocket of Whole Life insurance we've been paying for since the kids were small is worth about $17K in cash but is costing us about $140 a month - nearly ten times what we pay for 50% more in Term through his job (that we can increase during the next open season). Once upon a time, when our balance sheet was hemorrhaging, we needed it. Now we're well into black territory.

Besides, it's just me, the dog, and the cat, and none of us will miss the cash as much as we'll miss him. (And did I mention it's with AIG?)

I also researched buying back his military service years to apply to his current retirement plan, made copies of survivor benefits for all-things-now-in-place so he won't protest me cashing him out (before the floundering economy does it for us - maybe without the cash), and figured out how much catch-up coinage we can afford next year (when we both turn 50).

Yeah, it was a laugh a minute today. Between the slice-and-dice purple sedgegrass and the intricacies of the IRS and social security systems, I'm pooped. Luckily, the headache was beaten back by some ice water and last Wednesday's Criminal Minds, but it was a close call. Now I need to start dinner because eating out is one of those wicked weeds (alongside cell phones, cable TV, and anything not on sale) that can be eradicated with a bit of desperation and a whole lot of resolution.

Those I have right now, in spades. Stamina, on the other hand, is in short supply. But that, too, shall pass.