Day 1054

For the second time in two years, I received a letter from the Missouri Department of Revenue telling me that I was behind on paying my Missouri state taxes. WTF? I have never lived or worked in Missouri in my life. I thought I had this whole thing resolved last year when I finally managed to talk to someone in the Missouri tax department who told me the whole thing was a bureaucratic mistake. The person I talked to must not have told anyone else though, because I got exactly the same letter again this year. And you still wonder why I don't have a lot of faith in government agencies? I only know what I see, and I see a lot of incompetence in government agencies at all levels. Of course, I see a lot of incompetence in the private sector as well. There is more than enough incompetence to spread around these days.

The time changes tonight. I used to be so obsessive that I'd reset all my watches whenever there was a time change. Now, I don't even bother. There's always something lying around that shows more or less the right time, whatever the season happens to be. For someone who likes watches, I have very little interest in what time it is anyway. A couple of hours one way or the other isn't going to change my life very much.

Janet finally got her car back from the body shop today. There were so many cars damaged in the big hailstorm last June, that it has taken until now for many cars to get repaired. Janet's car was literally in the shop for three months. This was only a hailstorm too. I can only imagine how long it is going to take before people in New York and New Jersey get their lives back to normal after the hurricane. Sadly, some of them never will. After Katrina, a lot of people in New Orleans just gave up and moved to Dallas and Houston. They're still here.

Janet volunteered me to take a mother/daughter portrait of one of her friends tomorrow. The lady wants to have her picture taken at our lake, paddling in a kayak with her daughter. I asked her if she'd ever been in a kayak before and she said no. Hey, what could possible go wrong? Oh, did I mention that her dogs were supposed to be in this picture as well.

Wolfgang is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 913

The rent house was sold today. I signed all the papers this afternoon at the title company, turned over the keys to the new owners, and that was that. It's over. I was relieved that the whole process was finally finished, but I can't say that my mood was exactly celebratory. I guess my initial thought was "one down, one to go." I've got one more mid-century modern house, but hopefully, I'll continue living in the remaining house for a while. I was really happy with my real estate agent. He really understood the peculiarities of selling a 1960's house in 2012. My agent is young. I suspect he'll still be around when it's time to retire and sell the other house. I'd definitely use him again.

I tried to help Janet get her car into the body shop today for repairs. I guess I didn't realize how bad the hailstorm actually was.  All the rental cars in  town are already gone. The Land Rover body shop said the soonest they could start repairing Janet's car was July 14. There are literally thousands and thousands of cars in Dallas that were seriously damaged by yesterday's storms. The Land Rover dealership itself was right in the path of the storm and my service representative told me that over 200 of their cars were damaged, including all of their loaner cars. When they told me this, I started to worry, because my own car is still at the dealership for repairs. I had them check and they told me I was one of the lucky ones. My car was already inside the shop when the storm hit. Some people weren't so lucky. The body shop told me that several cars they had just finished repairing were damaged all over again before their owners had a chance to pick them up.

With all the water problems I've been having with my roof, I was kind of hoping that yesterday's hail storm might have have left enough dents in the roof that my homeowner's insurance might finally spring for a brand new roof. I climbed up on the roof this afternoon to look for signs of damage. Nothing! No signs of damage at all. The roof looked exactly the same as it did before the storm. It's just a leaky old roof.

I went to Cafe Lago for breakfast this morning. This is the place where we sometimes take the dogs for dinner. I don't know why I haven't thought of this place before. It's right in the neighborhood and I've always liked their dinner menu. I guess I just forgot that they served breakfast as well. I came at 10 AM, which is when I usually eat breakfast, and I was the only one in the place. The owner cooked my omelet. The food was great and I kind of liked being the only one in the restaurant. I'll be back.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day