tablea.date -- I never populate it, it goes fine (by default, has a null value)
tablea.date -- I put in .null. -- program throws a C5 error
tablea.date -- I put in an empty date -- ODBC returns ivalid datetime type
tablea.date -- I put in a valid date, it works fine.

Grrr... I just spent two hours trying to figure that all out!