Wednesday

This entry marks what will hopefully be a return to a more normal life. These past couple of weeks have really been full of data processing in our tax software. If I had to do nothing but that for work all year long I'd be in serious need of psychological medication.

Some items of note during the last month:

1. Electronic filing is probably the best thing that has ever happened in the tax preparation business.
2. Our tax software is much smarter than I ever was with technical relationships within a return.
3. I always get a couple off-the-wall calls on April 15th on non-tax issues that make me wonder, "Customer: do you have any idea of what day it is?"
4. The April 15th party has pretty well gone away. It was me and @bcbison last night. And a guy at the bar who became our best-buddy.
5. My high-income clients pay a huge dollar amount of taxes. When I hear the current radio commercials hyping a proposed increase in Illinois state taxes on millionaires, I find it remarkable.
6. I cannot keep as many factoids in the air today as I could 20 years ago. If I don't write things down, I forget to get it done.
7. I beat the coffee shop opening-time (0530) a couple of times.
8. As hard as it may be to imagine, my signature has actually got worse.
9. There are several piles of random paperwork on flat surfaces in my office. One pile on the right side of my desk with the most active, recent additions may be toxic. I'm not so anxious to go through it.
10. The financial ratio of time spent and revenue realized for the last 30 days is a sad figure. Its a good thing that I get so much intangible benefits from the exercise.

The last return I worked on yesterday was my own. For some reason, I thought that I had done some calculations after the first of the year, but not so. And by that time of the day, I was not much interested in any fine-tuning. I took a guess, wrote a check, and filed the extension. Its always so fulfilling to work god-awful hours for several weeks, and then at the end of the exercise, get the thrill of sending more of your own money to Uncle Sam.

Today was RCL day...which is always a good day.

Dinner tonight with friends at Geneva is as close to an April 15th party as I will get this year. My pal Roy is opening his wine cellar for the occasion.

I took my new bike over to the shop today to get the add-on's that I knew I would have to acquire for the bike to be road-ready: cycling computer, bottle cages, pump and rear stow-bag. I remember when I did this with my first road bike 24 years ago. None of this stuff is cheap in the local bike-shop. I get it. They need to make money. Which is why I didn't do an on-line shopping spree. Not that spending another $150 on an already expensive bike gives me the warm and fuzzies. My first ride should be Saturday if the weather cooperates.

My iPad has begun to use more battery in idle mode. Curious that I'm getting this kind of thing now when it didn't occur previously. I can control it with Airplane Mode, but that requires another step in the protocol that LtPC just doesn't always remember to complete. I know that you need to close apps to avoid using battery life, but I think that the thing is just getting old. Maybe an upgrade is in my future!

OK. All for today. Get ready for more excitement on this site in the weeks ahead!!

BCOT



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