Thursday

Here I am, back on the airways, in a two-fold sense, literally. On a plane. And on the blog.

The last couple of weeks of tax season were poorly managed by yours truly, leaving me with lots to do in a short period of time. I agreed to do a couple of new returns for individual clients referred to me by other long-time clients, and in retrospect, I should have just said "no". My lot was further exacerbated by me allowing even further rope to my perennial procrastinators. It just didn't work out that well. Changes will be made for next year.

I'm sure that I have commented here in prior years about the computing power available to me on my desktop machine today compared to the system we used in my days at Arthur Anderson in the late 1970's. It continues to amaze me what we can do with the new technology. We have instant answers to alternative tax strategies, and virtually perfect calculations for the tax liabilities that apply. The errors are almost always operator related.

That said, if I were a younger man, I would now be cross-training over to a new career path given the Obamacare enforcement responsibilities of today's tax preparing professionals. It's one thing to act as an IRS forms-processor as I have done for most of four decades. It's entirely something else to become the answer-man and the collection overseer for the cluster that is the new medical services law of the land.

Moving on to better topics...

In our office pool for the NCAA tourney, 3 was the only entrant to pick the Dookies as the winner. But I don't think she will be the jackpot winner as her other picks were a bit spotty. There were two or three other sheets that had all four of the final four teams selected (including the LtPC), so the wins selected in the earlier rounds will have to be tabulated. I've out-sourced that analysis to a staff person at the office. We'll have the final results next week. The winner gets $100 this year.

I missed recognizing Margaret and Phil's wedding anniversary last week. I think it was the 13th, but I need verification from the family historian (The Commish) as I think I gave the date erroneously to the newspaper for the obituary's...and I have those at my desk for reference. In any respect, it was sometime this month. And I think it would have been their 79th or 80th. Given that Aunt Martha would have been 78 this year, I'm going with 79. They were good Catholics.

A story that I think I will process here on the blog starting in the near future is one that I outlined about 15 years ago, finding those notes hiding in plain sight in my living room just a couple of weeks ago. It's a golf story that describes a fictional round with my pal Roy and three others, me being the fifth wheel. So you will have a couple of introductory entries to describe the players, the game that the foursome is playing, and some other information to lay the groundwork for the reader.

My original thought had been to present a bound version of the story to each of they guys as a Christmas present. And maybe even "tweak" a version for each individual that would make him the hero of their version. At this point, that part of the idea won't get done. But I think I want to get a book done similar to the Sicily book that 2 and I did for that trip. And the exercise is more about me getting something done now rather than have those notes go to waste. We'll see. Since ideas here on the blog have been so pitiful, a little story might just be the ticket to breathe some life into 4KDays.

All for now. Landing soon for the visit to The Big Apple. Glad to be back.

BCOT.



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