A Taxing MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s that time of year again. At least in the US. Commercials on TV for tax preparation services and software. Offers of loans on anticipated refunds. Plenty of advance notice for those who will wait till April 14 to start gathering their tax paperwork… :smack:

If all goes well, I’ll be able to file our taxes tonight. If we have to pay, the gummint will get their money in April. If we’re getting a refund, I WANT IT NOW!!!

:smiley:

I have to say, tho, that I resent the thousands of dollars I have to contribute to the upkeep of a President who doesn’t pay taxes. I don’t mind paying my fair share - I know taxes pay for roads and schools and police and on and on, but I saw an article that says it’s costing a million dollars a day for Secret Service protection of Melania and Barron in New York. Can’t swear to the dollar amount, but the very idea pisses me off.

Happy Moanday.

2

Morning, mumpers!

Saturday night in Birmingham (the original one, not your copy) saw the final date on Black Sabbath’s final tour. Their career as a band has spanned almost 50 years and they finally decided to call it a day. Since then, the local rock radio stations have almost been in mourning, calling it the end of an era.

It was, by all accounts, an emotional performance as you might expect given the fact the band’s been around for such a long time. In fact, there are some people who’ve grown up never knowing a world without the Sabs.

Half of me feels kind of sad that they’ve decided to retire, but a part of me thinks some people are taking it way too seriously. So, tell me what’s been an “end of an era” moment for you, before you hijack this like you’re meant to!

3

First! Woot! And I managed to start another MMP at the same time…I’m sure an obliging Mod will come along and sort that out.

I don’t have to do taxes, my employer does all of that for me although when I was self-employed, I had to do them every year. 'Twas a pain in the backside having to keep a yearly bundle of invoices and receipts, fill in forms and then hope everything’s ok and I didn’t get audited in case I messed up completely.

I would resent subsidising a president who didn’t pay taxes too, luckily I get to ignore that inconvenience and instead I can be grateful that I’m helping to keep our NHS afloat instead.

4

I asked for the 2 threads to be merged, so we should be OK soon!

Boss is out of town and I have only 1 thing to do. This does not bode well…

5

Hi, I’m here to break up the stream of faes.

The rental is all clean an’ shiny. At one point I opened a faucet and couldn’t close it; the owners sent her mom and she eventually could do it but admitted that faucet needs to be looked at. They tell me that “well, all this stuff, well, since the gas and the water were off we couldn’t check them, you see” but one, they could have got the utilities back on after they were shut off for their previous tenant for nonpayment, and two, it’s quite evident they hadn’t done any maintenance in the 10 or so years they’ve rented out the place. Once I leave, the place will be in better shape than it’s been in years :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 50 Amurrkin out and cloudyish with a predicted high of 74 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. The big plan is to at least start on cleanin’ da cave as I do every week. Right now the motivation is not there. I slept until 7:15 this mornin’ even! I do have some errands to take care of so I should go ahead and do that this mornin’. Dindin shall be grilled ham steaks, cheesey rice from a box (don’t judge!), flytrap’s fave succotash, and rolls. That’ll be easy to put together.

I should get my taxes done this week. I probably shall. I know I have everything I need and it shouldn’t take long to get 'em done. OYKW has an appointment with his accountant sometime this week, I think Thursday, to take all his stuff. He has a ton more itemized stuff than I do but back when I had a ton of itemized deductions, I used the same accountant.

OK, I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I suppose I should purtify and start the day. Rah.

Happy Moanday Y’all!

7

An end of an era that would mean little to anyone not a Sydneyite, was when Gowings department store finally closed its doors in 2005. An institution since 1860something, aside from good quality clothing (with staff tailors!), school uniforms, and camping stuff, it sold an array of interesting games and weird novelty items you couldn’t get anywhere else. Like my rubber fish purse. (That eventually met its sticky, melty demise under the carseat on a 42°C day.) I have the best umbrella - its own brand - still going strong after 20 years. My wardrobe is littered with ancient gems from there.

Ah, Gowings. You only ever needed to be one one store. Not four. That’s what killed you, you silly greedy idiot.

8

Blurf #1

9

Blurf #2

10

I need to drop my taxes off today. And go to the library. I was going to return a pair of sunglasses that don’t fit, but the Walgreens is on the opposite side of town from the other two places, so that’ll be my on-the-way-home-from-irk chore tomorrow.

11

Not quite as dramatic as Black Sabbath’s, but my brother announced his retirement after 30+ years at his place, effective the end of the month. So both of us will be part of the leisure class; now if I can annoy him (with the support of my sis-in-law) to do some traveling…

According to the weather radar, rain should be along in about an hour or so. And again tomorrow and Wednesday. Oh joy. Sounds like a good day for three loads of laundry.

12

Almost done with my one and only In-box item. Gonna be a long, boring day if someone can’t give me some work…

13

I did my taxes with TurboTax and am getting a refund which will cover the furnace repair from Friday. I don’t need the money today–it will show up in about 3 weeks.

I watched Casablanca last night instead of football (which I don’t understand and don’t care about). Forgot what a great movie that is.

14

My financial chore for the day is wrapping up some paperirk for the refinance we’re doing at the moment. Then I can worry about taxes. :stuck_out_tongue:

Off to chivy children to school.

15

You can have some of mine. I have a stack of 24 reports that I have to put together.

16

Happy Moonday!

It’s bright and N.O.S. outside. Is supposed to be warmup to 54 today but it was a little nippy when I put the dog out.

I’m not ready to think about taxes.
I think I need a few more forms anyway.

End of an era…
The Rising Sun Ranch.
Which was actually in Ellicott City, MD, not Rising Sun, MD.

Rising Sun Ranch was a 450 acre horse farm where I boarded my horse for years. It was run by Mr. Ray, a horse trader from Tennessee. He was a damn good horse trader too. He could sell you a horse for 3-4x its value, and you’d leave with a great big smile on your face because you just put one over on that dumb hick.
I’d be shaking my head, and he’d just lift up the brim of his hat and give me a smile and a wink.
First lesson I learned from him, never drive an expensive car to go look at a horse.

The stories I could tell, about the farm and the characters I met there.

It’s a housing development now.
Has been for many years, but after it was sold I never drove past it again.

Mr. Ray has been dead for years, as well as Norman who took care of the horses. Poor Norman, he was mentally challenged and he’d be the one who would have to walk out into the fields and bring in the horses at night in the winter time. Probably 70-80 horses at any given time, and he hated my horse with a passion because my horse hated being in at night. Many a time he’d get all the horses almost to the barn and my horse would make a break for it and lead the herd back out into the fields.

My horse was half mustang, and I don’t know if that is where he got his wild streak. He wasn’t mean and was very smart, knew how to open gates and doors. He hated being confined in the barn.
He was also a lot smarter than other horses on trail rides. One time we were crossing a swampy patch and I really didn’t like the looks of it. My horse took off across it, doing a very fast extended trot with me just hanging on. We got to the other side just fine, not so for my friend. Her horse sank up to his thighs in the mud and she had a hell of a time getting him out of there.

I could probably write a book.

I love Black Sabbath… it so sucks getting old.

17

Do you do ppts? I have to do two ppts…

18

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Closing shift tonight. And it’s Gordie’s 10ish birthday today. :slight_smile:

I watched curling last night.

If she stays the whole 4 years, it will cost $450mil. We might save tax dollars by just building the wall around Trump tower, maybe while he’s visiting. “For the love of God, Montresor!”:wink:

Sari, I know, I wish I could have been there for that concert.

19

Taxes – I objected less when I owned my own business and had to do several layers (the usual three plus the Pitman-Robertson and other act VATs) myself which is a reaction I found as strange as everyone else did. I could tell you almost on any given day what my tax burden would be and what percentage it was of the money flowing though my hands. It was a Hades of a high percentage but ------ I knew just what it was and that made me OK with the whole thing. Now, having no idea as an employee where my tax burden falls in the overall scheme of doing business, it just bugs me a little.

I can live with my money being used by people I didn’t vote for. I can live with it being used to fund things I don’t approve of. I don’t even get totally nuts over it being misspent on $300 hammers and crap like that. But give me some idea exactly how my dollars fit into the overall economy in a more complete sense.

I do object to giving Uncle Sugar an interest free loan so I try to keep my payments/with-holdings as close to the actual tax as possible (I don’t get huge returns). But other than that if I made a million dollars I could happily kick in my fair share.

20

Not my favorite chore…

I did get a drawing from one of the engineers - I need to change a few things on the model and correct the drawing, so that’s something. It might take an hour or so.