Day 821

I started working on my taxes today. Every year these things seem to become more complicated, even though my life has actually become simpler. Once you start depreciating things and carrying losses forward, you are forced to do these things every year thereafter. Right now, my financial life is such a complicated mix of things I've done in previous years that I don't think I'll ever have a simple return again. Maybe someday, our politicians will pass a flat tax and put an end to this needless complexity. You should really be able to do your taxes on a single sheet of paper. Just write down what you earned, subtract fifteen percent for the government, and write a check. Right now there are literally hundreds of ways for people to try to game the system, and yet nobody is happy. A flat tax would be better.

I'm still having a hard time adjusting to daylight savings time. I feel like I'm getting up earlier because it's still dark outside. In reality, I'm getting up a bit later though and the whole day gets off to a slow start. I don't really care about having more daylight in the evening. All I do in the evenings is write the blog anyway. Somehow, I'm walking the dogs at 8:30 in the morning now, instead of 7:30 like I used to. The sun is way too high in the sky for me to capture any neat sunset shots on our evening walks either. I haven't even finished resetting all the watches. I'm just not cut out for daylight savings time.

I've got to decide what to do about the rental property. One day I'll wake up wanting to sell the place, and the next day I'll decide it would be better to lease it again. It's hard to decide. The real estate market certainly hasn't rebounded yet. On the other hand, I don't really like being a landlord. I've got to decide something soon though, because I can't afford to have the place sitting empty forever.

I noticed that Jupiter and Venus were real close together in the Western sky when I took the trash out tonight. I wonder if they'll get closer, or if I already missed the closest approach? I used to be real interested in astronomy, but like so many things, the fascination slowly faded away.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 820

I'm planning ahead. I went to the Storage Warehouse and reserved a new and much larger storage space that will become available on April 1. The plan is to move everything from my existing space and organize it neatly like it was inventory in a store. Maybe when I get things organized and have a better idea of what I actually have, some of the stuff eventually will become inventory to sell on eBay. Right now, I have no idea what I have over at the storage warehouse. I've spent years stacking boxes on top of other boxes until the room is completely full from floor to ceiling. I often think that I've stored away things that I really need, but it's so much trouble to dig though all the boxes and find what I'm looking for that I've stopped even trying.

I also bit the bullet and made the decision to switch all the household electronics from cable to U-verse. In theory, this will give us a lot more TV channels, the internet connection will be faster, and the land line phones won't sound scratchy anymore. In practice, probably none of these things will be true. Whenever anyone attempts to install anything at our house, there is always some sort of Catch-22 situation that results in higher costs and lower performance. U-verse is definitely worth a try though. It certainly couldn't be much worse than cable and I do seem to be saving money with the deal.

Have any of you had any experience with Angie's List? I'm real tempted to use Angie's List to find a good real estate agent to market my rental property. Maybe this would be more objective than just asking a friend. I've asked friends to recommend roofers, painters, doctors and even real estate agents in the past and the results have been uniformly terrible. I've kind of learned over the years that just because someone is a friend of a friend, doesn't necessarily mean they're any good. There has got to be a better way to find great service. I haven't discovered it yet though.

The sun was still up when we went to dog class tonight. Finally, a real use for daylight savings time. Last week we went to class in darkness, and this week there was light. I'm still not sure what monkeying around with the time actually proves, but it was nice to have a little light while we told our dogs to sit and heel.

Humphrey is our Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 819

I went to the AT&T store today to find out a little more about U-verse. I've been getting these flyers in the mail for the past several months with what look like incredibly good deals and I wanted to find out if they were really true. The $79 a month bundle price they quoted was indeed correct, but the more I learned about it, the more I wondered if anyone would really sign up for this rather limited service. You got a phone, but you were limited to a certain number of minutes a month. You got internet, but it was slower than what I have now. You got TV as well, but not very many channels. When I asked how much it would cost to get what I really needed, the price suddenly got a lot higher. Despite the bait and switch tactics, I'm still thinking of switching from Time Warner to U-verse anyway.

Why do competing companies make it so difficult to compare services these days? You always end up comparing apples to oranges and at the end of the day, you're just guessing which company is actually better. I'm convinced this is why telephone, internet, and electricity providers try so hard to get you to sign a two year contract. Without a contract, there would be nothing preventing you from just leaving when the disappointment sets in. Somehow phone companies always seem to deliver less than they promise. They never mention all the city and state taxes that are going to be added to your bill either.

I got a bid on putting in a new furnace as well today. Although the price was more reasonable than I expected, it was still pretty high and confirmed my decision to just wait until next Fall to do anything major. There are far to many expenses on the horizon these days anyway. Taxes are due in less than a month. The rent house is empty and not contributing anything to the monthly cash flow. The Defender 90 is almost due for another major service. The list never ends.

Enough complaining though. The weather seems to get a little nicer every day. I'm not wild about daylight savings time starting so early this year, but it's nice to be able to put the heavy Winter coats away for another season. Walking the dogs is a lot more enjoyable in warmer weather too. Although Dot and Dash haven't officially become photo assistants, they are both becoming better about letting me take pictures during our walks. I never really thought of myself as a nature photographer, but I'm actually starting to get some good shots.

The iCloud has turned out to be a good thing as well. I was a bit apprehensive about upgrading everything to take advantage of the Cloud, but it's certainly making my life easier. I don't have to synchronize calendars and contact lists anymore and I just noticed that my iPhone upgraded itself to the latest IOS all by itself. Now, if I could just train these devices to do my web and writing work for me.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 818

Decisions, decisions. When I went to the storage warehouse today, I noticed that there was a much larger storage unit available right across from mine. I've been wanting a larger unit for quite a while, so I went to the manager and asked how much more it would be to upgrade to this larger space. The manager told me that I could move to the larger storage space if I wanted, but that I would lose the entire discount I had received earlier by paying for my storage space in advance. What? This seemed ridiculous. I thought they would just pro-rate the new space based on the additional square footage I would be occupying. I should have known. If you want something that someone else has, you almost always have to pay for the privilege.

If somebody wants you on the other hand, there are all kinds of deals available. I've been getting these flyers in the mail from U-verse lately, offering what appears to be fantastic deals if I will switch from my cable provider to their service. Since U-verse is offering a telephone, television, and internet bundle for less than what I currently pay for phone service alone, I keep thinking there's got to be a catch. Cable was pretty reasonable too when we first got it installed, but the cost has kept going up dramatically every year since. Maybe U-verse really is a good deal, but I keep thinking that the minute we abandon our cable service, the U-verse will start acting flaky and we'll want the cable back.

I got a call from the HVAC folks today saying that the cost of the new gas valve required to keep my furnace limping along for another year or so is over $400. Since it was warm today, I'm thinking about just waiting until Fall and then getting an entirely new furnace. The only trouble with waiting until Fall is that I might have already wasted the money for the new furnace on something else. I think the yearly rent on the new large storage space I've got my eye on is almost exactly the same as the cost of a new furnace.

Life is complicated. If I could just bring myself to throw stuff away, I wouldn't need a new storage space in the first place. Of course, if I could bring myself to start wearing sweaters indoors, I probably wouldn't need a furnace either.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 817

It's amazing what a difference a little sunlight can make. While none of yesterday's problems have been resolved, today still seemed much more pleasant anyway. Spring made a surprise return this morning. I think this entire month is a meteorological struggle between Winter and Spring. One day Winter wins, and the next day Spring makes a comeback. There may be a few cold days left, but warmer weather is definitely on the horizon. The wild irises are already in bloom and most of the trees are starting to turn green.

I'm wondering if it's even worth fixing the furnace right now with Winter on the way out. It's only a matter of weeks before it will be time to start using the air conditioner again. In many ways it would be better to just wait until Fall to get a new furnace. I may need the money for taxes anyway.

The dog park was closed today because of yesterday's heavy rains, but the dogs had fun anyway. Spring brings lots of new smells and Dot and Dash ambled along on their walks through the park today, stopping every ten feet to smell something new. Dot loves to smell flowers and almost got stung by a bee when she got too close to one fragrant bud. Dash seems to have no interest in flowers, but he sure loves horse poop. Both dogs had plenty to smell this afternoon.

When I took the useless utility pump back for a refund today, I bought one of those new space-age light bulbs that supposedly took millions of our taxpayer dollars to develop. I don't know why people on TV are ranting and railing against these LED bulbs. I think they're great. Sure they're a bit pricy, but they'll last longer than I will, they don't get hot when they're on, they don't contain mercury like those compact fluorescent bulbs, and the latest models are just as bright as a regular incandescent bulb. I'd rather buy one expensive bulb that lasts forever than hundreds of ordinary incandescent bulbs that continually burn out at the most inopportune moments.

I replaced my client's Google map with a Bing map today. For some reason, Bing maps seem more accurate than Google maps. You'd think that with hundreds of Google photo trucks cataloging every last inch of the planet, these maps would be a little more accurate. This is the second time in less than a year that I've had to replace an embedded Google map because the location was off by more than a mile.

I hope I get a better night's sleep than I did last night. Dash woke me up five times. I finally figured out what he was barking about. He wanted a blanket. As soon as I covered him up in a blanket, he went right to sleep. Dash doesn't like the cold. I think he'd vote for getting the furnace fixed whether it's getting warmer or not.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 816

It rained all day. The furnace apparently can no longer be repaired. The new sump pump I bought for the roof today doesn't even work. Need I say more? Some of my friends keep telling me that I need to keep the blog upbeat and positive. Truthfully, I do get more followers when I'm upbeat and positive. Nevertheless, there are still days when everything sucks. This was one of those days.

The dogs were amazingly quiet this morning when Marty came over to look at the furnace. I was amazed at how quiet they were and so was Marty. What was so different about today? The only thing I can think of is that Janet was home. Either the dogs are more confident when she's home, or they don't feel the need to protect anything when two of us are here. The difference was amazing. I was actually able to hear when Marty told me that the furnace was on its last legs and probably wasn't worth repairing again.

I don't know where I'm going to be able to find a decent pump. The pump I bought today was advertised as the perfect utility pump, capable of pumping of 3000 gallons an hour. What nobody told me is that the pump needs to be sitting in at least six inches of water before it will start pumping at all. There's a lot of water on the roof, but it isn't six inches deep. The new pump didn't work at all and I'll have to take it back tomorrow. My old metal Simer Geyser pump was almost indestructible and would suck up standing water even if it was only 1/4 inch deep. All these new pumps are constructed out of plastic and appear to be made for the sole purpose of creating decorative fountains in backyard ponds. None of them work very well for getting water off a flat roof. Sign of the times I guess.

I was trying to figure out how to get the little red location circle in the right place on my client's embedded Google map this afternoon. I experimented by inputting slightly different addresses to see if I could get the circle to move and then I realized that this was a stupid plan. Even if I did manage to get the circle in the right place, it would still show the wrong address. I think I'll just take down the Google map and replace it with a Bing map.

It doesn't look like the dogs will get to go to the dog park tomorrow. With all this rain, the park probably isn't just muddy. There's a good chance it's underwater.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 815

It wasn't the best of days. The furnace quit this morning and I wasted a lot of time monkeying around with the thermostat, trying to get it to start again. I was hoping the last repair visit would take me through the rest of the winter, and it almost did. I think I would have been just fine if Winter hadn't unexpectedly returned a couple of days ago. The furnace wasn't the only temperamental machine today either. When I started the car later in the day, I was greeted with a squealing sound that told me instantly the power steering system was leaking again. Oh, well.

The dogs didn't seem too happy with the day either. Both of them barked incessantly all day. It was very windy today and every time a tree limb brushed against the roof, Dot went crazy. She a good little watchdog, but sometimes I don't think she knows what she's barking at. Dash is usually pretty quiet, but if Dot barks long enough, he'll join in too. Inevitably, whenever the dogs choose to have a barking spree turns out to be exactly the time when clients call with difficult problems to solve.

I had two clients call with website problems today and I could barely hear either of them. The first call involved third part code that wouldn't work. I still haven't been able to contact the developers, but eventually this problem will be solved. The second call was from a client who was unhappy where Google placed them on their maps. I keep trying to tell people that I have no control whatsoever over where Google places you on a map, but that doesn't stop people from asking. This time I think the location dot on the map was on the wrong side of the street. How quickly we take things for granted. Hey, the map did get people pretty close. I think if you went to where the dot on the map was, you could look around and actually see the sign on the building.

I was supposed to get my March invoices out today, but my website problems put me so far behind that the invoices are still sitting in a pile on my desk. At least I found time to run to Central Market and pick up dinner for tonight. I'll finish the invoices tomorrow after the HVAC folks come to look at the furnace. That is sure to be another barking frenzy. The dogs should know by now that the furnace repairman is one of the good guys. Jeez, Dot and Dash don't like the cold any more than I do. They ought to be welcoming the furnace guy.

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 814

I took Janet's tax information over to the accountant's office today and the first thing they asked me was why I didn't have my own tax information as well. "Well, I haven't started working on mine yet," I said. They gave me this look that told me I'd better get started. Guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend?

On the way home, I stopped by my rental property to see if the place was even close to presentable. I wasn't even sure I could get in the door, since I'd lost my set of back-up keys. I make lots of key duplicates though, so I took everything I could find that looked like a front door key with me. I almost gave up and went home, but literally the last key I tried worked. It's a good thing I never throw anything away.

I was disappointed when I saw the place. My renter had told me that she'd hired a maid service clean the place out before she moved, but it still looked pretty messy to me. There were Velcro strips glued to the wall where apparently pictures had been hung. There was a sticky residue on the dining room floor that looked like someone had been using spray glue for art projects. My renter apparently had a TV in every room, because the cable company had stapled wires everywhere. I've seen a lot worse, but I've seen better too. At least the refrigerator was clean.

It rained again today. I was able to use the weather radar app on my iPad to map out a few dry periods where I could walk the dogs, but basically it rained all day. As the day progressed, it kept getting colder and colder. Jeez! Why keep tempting us with Spring, if the weather keeps reverting back to this miserable stuff? I had to get up on the roof again too. The standing water was getting pretty deep.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I think I'll have waffles for breakfast.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day