Last week I had a tooth pulled by my dentist. This week, I performed my own sort of extraction from the world of the employed: I went to Charlotte, NC to ‘train’ my replacement because I am retiring at the end of the year.

Both extractions have left holes that will take a period of adjustment. Will I be able to live with such gaps, or will each need to be filled in again?

The hole in my head is currently under assault. I can’t seem to keep my tongue away from it. Experimentation seems totally out of my control. As in: I know I can handle these mashed potatoes but what about the pointy end of this Dorito? YIKES!

As far as the hole in my checkbook caused by the other extraction, time will tell. I will still be involved for three months. But I can feel the shift begin. Things I’ve done with little supervision for years are now very much someone else’s business. I would like to make the transition smooth for her. She wants to know exactly why I do what I do. But, Jesus, can any of us answer that?

I’m floundering some. After having moi as a consultant for twenty-two years, how will they survive without me? How will I survive without them? Will anyone even notice that I’m gone? I have to make this writing thing work for real now. And it is a very long way from financially viable.

Interesting times for a woman with an odd number of teeth and an even odder sense of fiscal responsibility.