Thursday

I've been a little deficient here this week.  The Road to Perdition is paved with good intentions.

I have no issues with the new pope, Francis I.  Not that his role will likely change my life.  I'm kinda glad that the election was a relatively short process.  If the College of Cardinals had had a big difference of opinion, and the conclave had extended like a Florida-Hanging-Chad election, the USA press would have been merciless.  Now they'll have to move back to trashing anything non-Left.

There have been at least a couple of stories in the business news this week about glitches in the electronic-filing system for some tax-return preparers for 2012 returns.  H&R Block has had an issue with around 600,000 Federal returns claiming a student credit.  And Minnesota had a general warning out for any of filers using Intuit programs (including Turbo Tax).  We see a little of this on a recurring basis.  The IRS sometimes imposes limits on returns that their software has not yet been updated to receive electronically (which might explain the student credit returns).  And the filing software's are huge programs subject to the normal programming-oversights requiring fixes.  Welcome to America.

I've become a cynic on the play-lists of our local country music radio station.  On my four regular, daily car rides (to work, to second coffee, to lunch and going home), it is virtually certain that songs from Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Zack Brown Band, or Little Big Town will be played.  Throw in Taylor Swift and its not even a bet Vegas would make.  Not being a huge fan of the new wave of country-rock-wannabe's, I've taken to 2's standard reaction to Carrie Underwood and just turning off the radio.

I've toyed with the idea of getting Sirius for the Buick, but that really doesn't make much sense as I don't drive that car regularly for local travel.  The Beater isn't even equipped with Sirius technology (or a CD player for that matter).

Lots of serious conference basketball tournaments today.  In another lifetime, I would have been "out" most of the day.

It has dawned on me recently that while I keep trucking along supporting the economy, others have passed the baton.  Additional signs of LtPC's advancing age:

1.  My family practice doctor has retired.
2.  My general dentist has retired.
3.  My optometrist has passed-away.
4.  My pulmonologist no longer sees patients.
5.  I'm the only one of my brother and sisters not on Social Security.

If I wanted to be further depressed, I could extend the list, but you get my drift.

Busy day for me.  One the road later this afternoon.  I'll post Twitter updates.

BCOT