Now there's a shock. It's not just a penny this week and two pennies higher the week before. And the shock comes on top of the cumulative effect of all those pennies over all those weeks.

It looks like that number is tracking at 6.8 percent, slightly higher than what we expected, ... We did expect it would be a lot stronger but sales got pinched at the end of the month because of cooler temperatures in some parts of the country.

For instance, temperatures last week in the Northeast were 10 degrees warmer compared to the same period last year. That helped push sales of seasonal merchandise. Is all sales strength due to the weather? That's hard to say.

It was an OK year, not a boom, not a bust.

This is the pause that refreshes. This is not a doomsday scenario.

My style was nostalgic and involved pearls and penny loafers, always with the pennies in them.