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