Still Dangerous

I have a lot of mottoes. One of them is that there are two types of people in this world, the dangerous and the irrelevant. This particular saying only applies to wars and business. I used to be considered dangerous; but, the opinion seems to be that little old Pimpernel isn't what he used to be and as my retirement approaches there seems to be some question as to whether or not I have lost my abilities. In fact, I was called in at the last minute to deal with an audit. It has apparently been going on for around 6 months and all of our best have been working on it. Well, we had a meeting scheduled regarding the final report which I received Saturday morning and knew practically nothing about. Prior to the meeting our internal people meting and I requested that I be allowed to present the answers. There were those who questioned my ability to answer all of the questions which were wide ranging covering multiple disciplines and topics. Pimpernel felt insulted by such a question; but, as I had not been involved I understood it. I did however demonstrate the my answers were better than everyone elses and was allowed to attend. It turned out to be a good thing as many of the others who were to attend were taken away to a more pressing matter.

I attended the meeting with an old timer who knew our operations inside and out and had actually seen me do my thing once before and a young gun who had never seen me in action. Both of them had been involved from the start and each is intelligent; but, they had never seen me in a situation like this. I was exquisite. It was sublime. I left my opponents dazed and confused and my coworkers with a new found respect for my abilities including my ability to strategize and execute with no net. I was able to demonstrate my depth of knowledge of all fields and my industry. How well did I do, well half way through the meeting, the old expert on the other side asked me if I wanted a job as an auditor when I retired and I am not even a CPA and he knows it. It felt great. It felt great to know that I still have it and to see that everyone around me understood just how good I was.