Karma can be a real bitch.

But first, and more importantly, my father is making very good progress in his hospital in Hawaii. The ventilator tube is out and he's talking now. I think they're just holding him until the biopsy results are back.

But karma, as I was saying, is inescapable. I was confronted today by my office manager about a hole punched in an office wall. I immediately offered to make restitution and pay for any damages, and was told that the estimate was for $150. That made me so mad that I threw a chair through a window.

Just kidding. But one moment of loss of self control and bam!, a one-fifty fine. I should have known that incident would come back to haunt me. And worse yet, the manager wants me to think about how to publicly acknowledge my regret for the incident. "I usually resort to self-deprecating humor, but that's just my approach," he said, and told me to think about it for a day or two to come up with a solution.

Matsuoka Roshi, my teacher's teacher, used to say that when you thought angry thoughts, it was like a knife through water. "But when you speak out of anger, it's like a knife through sand - it leaves an imprint, but it can be smoothed over. But when you act out of anger, it is like a knife through granite - it leaves a lasting mark that can hardly ever be erased."

Yeah, sure, but he never deleted a spreadsheet, I'll bet.

Coming home, I found a summons for jury duty in the mail.

The good news was that it was Monday - my night to open the zendo. I got to attend to others as they sat in meditation, take my mind off of my little problems and try to actualize my bodhisattva vows and allow others to attain realization.