Hubris

Hubris - a great word. It appeals to the Pessimist and annoys the Optimist in me. Just when one is getting along nicely and thinking all one's affairs are being managed, along comes The Fates/God/Life and sticks a stick in the spokes.

I thought I was managing our household accounts very efficiently, juggling credit cards and savings accounts to make sure no excess account fees or interest were being incurred, looking for the best deals when buying the new consumer item, keeping a watch on statements as they came in.

I obviously wasn't paying the right amount of attention when I filled in a monthly payment slip and instead of $xxx.10 I wrote $xxx.01. The credit interest vultures were circling and when they saw my 09c mistake they swooped to the kill. Two months later I see my little error cost me several hundred dollars in debit interest charges but was this obvious? Was the failure to pay off the full statement amount highlighted in the next communication with the bank - of course not! That's how those big billion dollar profits are made.

I'm going to put this slip of the digits down to my current slodgy brain which I attribute to hormones. My get-up-and-go is on a go-slow so there isn't much happening on many fronts. The knitting sits in its basket looking forlorn and unfinished and the pile of books beside the bed stays unread.


The only success I can claim is finishing Neal Stephenson's brick of a book Cryptonomicon. I can't say I understood all the math or the code unscrambling but I did enjoy his complex story line and interwoven plots, especially the reference he made to Athena as the goddess of weaving (and by association Knitting). The book wasn't as pacy as Snowcrash but maybe it was just right for my present mental state - not particularly focused and prone to wondering off on complex bits of interesting distractions without any real outcomes.