Closer to the mark.

Closer but still no cigar.

Pegasus was 4.4% below middle estimate; which is much, much better than last month, which was 20% below. It was also less than 10% below last year, so I'll take it.

There were a couple of really, really slow days in the mix, and I've always seen that as a trend maker, in either direction. (A couple of really huge days might indicate a trend to the upside, for instance.) I'm sure the stock market technical analysts have all kinds of terms for it.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I've always used the term "a late Tuesday in October" as an example of the slowest point in the year. (That, and "a late Tuesday in Feb.") In other words, this is the low point in the year, usually, and that it came back to the average I'm shooting for, is a good sign. Again, it's looking as though September, like January, was an anomaly.

In fact, if I earmark a couple of my biggest merchandise purchases as Christmas spending, and carrying on my cards for a couple of months (which is fair, I think, if not rigorous) then I even turned a small profit.

I have to take my book sale table off the sidewalk today; so I'll be interested to see how that affects book sales, which were more than double last year.

Still, I'm using going to use that awful September as my new baseline.