Day 2648

I finally started working on my taxes today. You'd think that Quickbooks would make this process super easy, especially since I've got all my expenses categorized already. Nope. I quickly learned that if you want to save time, you have to put things in the right categories in the first place. I hate all those Quickbooks drop down menus. I frequently click on the wrong thing. When I couldn't find something today, it was almost always because I'd inadvertently clicked on the wrong menu item. I found car insurance payments filed under utility bills. I found office supplies filed under lawn care. All the information was there, but some of it was definitely misplaced. I think I fixed most of the errors, but it would have been a lot better if I never made them in the first place. My accountant thinks I've defined way too many categories in my Quickbooks files. I think the categories are fine. I just need to pay more attention when I'm doing my bookkeeping.

I didn't get a lot accomplished today. I paid a few bills and went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, but I've still got more work to do on my tax files before I can drop them off at the accountant. The most discouraging thing about doing my taxes is realizing that each year I'm making a little less that I did the previous year. If your lifetime earnings are like a Bell Curve, I'm definitely on the downhill slope. They say your expenses go down and you can live on less as you grow older. I haven't seen that yet.

I'm starting to wonder why all the calls on my caller ID say "unknown caller." Isn't the whole point of having caller ID to identify who is calling you? Telemarketers must be able to hide their identity by paying a special fee. Just about all the calls I get on my land line these days just say "Unknown" or "Unknown Caller." I'm sure AT&T doesn't care. They probably love telemarketers because they make a lot of calls. The post office is the same way. I remember telling my mail carrier that he could just throw away the junk mail if he wanted. I certainly didn't want it. "I can't do that," he told me, "because somebody has already paid for me to deliver it to you."

Dot was panting a lot early this evening. Janet thought she was in pain. I thought she needed to poop. About five minutes later, Dot did poop and the panting stopped. Was I right? I have no idea. She's not pooping quite as often now, so maybe this is becoming difficult for her. I guess the point is that it is often difficult to tell if a dog is in pain. Dogs hide their discomfort well and they don't talk. I try my best to keep Dot comfortable, but I'm not sure if I'm succeeding. I'm still convinced that Dot likes her walks, but she walks so slowly now that maybe the walks are painful. Often Dot is frustrated by her lack of mobility, but frustration and pain are two different things. The problem is that it's hard to tell the difference. The oncologist will give us another evaluation this Friday. I'm not even sure if these monthly cancer rechecks mean much at this point.

The sky is clear tonight and I'm thinking of going out stargazing. Too bad there is so much light pollution. You can't see anything but the brightest stars from our backyard. There are places in the park where the sky is darker, but I'm not so sure about hiking through the park after dark. The coyotes are out. The Bobcats are out. The drug dealers are out. There are lots of places to trip in the dark and sprain my ankle. Maybe I'll just go out in the back yard.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day