10:36 – It was 50F (10C) when I took Colin out this morning. The next 24 hours are supposed to be sunny and warm, if a bit windy, but then another cold front moves in. By tomorrow evening, it’s to be a lot colder, with the next five days or so having highs in the low- to mid-40’s and lows in the 20’s.
Colin got a bath this morning. Well, a shower, actually. He’s always terrified that someone is going to hurt him. He was showing his vicious fangy face and snarling when we finally dragged him into the shower stall. As usual, he then settled down, resigning himself to being bathed. Of course, water ended up all over the bathroom floor and both of us as well.
Barbara had a meeting of the historical society yesterday at 4:00 p.m. We decided I’d ride along with her and then we’d head over to The Pines afterward to have dinner. From the time she was a little girl, Barbara had been riding up to Sparta every year with her family to get a Christmas tree. They always ate at The Pines.
When we moved up here, several people told us that The Pines was fine, but Brown’s Restaurant was better. We tried it and liked it, so we made it our go-to restaurant. It was a family-run place, and Mr. and Mrs. Brown were about our age or older. Last autumn, they finally decided to retire and close the restaurant. The Pines moved from its old location into the old Brown’s Restaurant building.
At her meeting, someone mentioned going to Brown’s for dinner. Barbara pointed out that Brown’s had closed, and the person she was talking to told her that they’d reopened in a new location out north of town near our veterinarian’s office. So we headed out there for dinner. Turns out they’d opened the new place a month ago. It’s run by the son of the family and his wife, I’m sure with lots of advice from his parents.
We arrived just early enough to avoid the rush. There’s a big high-school wrestling tournament in town this weekend, which just added to the crush. We’d had to wait less than a minute for a table when we arrived, but by the time our food was served there was a line out the door. The food was good, so I’m sure we’ll be eating there often.
* * * * *
Just finished filing my federal income taxes. The system is entirely fucked up. I would have to mail 34 pages to the IRS if I wasn’t e-filing my return. My situation is not overly complicated, normal income (one full time job I quit, two part time jobs, retirement money, investments) with nothing bizarre about any of that. Did have a lot of medical deductions from wife’s surgery but that is not a big deal. It was all the other calculation sheets to determine various amounts such as credits and deductions. There is no way a tax system should be this complicated.
And for living in a state with no income tax but a very nasty Hall tax that taxes dividends and interest income about $2500 at 5%. I have had to pay that for the last 10 years and it annoys the crap out of me. People that are saving to retire get dinged by the state. Those that aren’t saving, such as the leaches, pay nothing.
And the really annoying part is that the state charges you $25.00 if you send in a paper form. You can go online and use a credit card but that will also cost you money in a transaction fee. The only way you can avoid the fee is to pay with a debit card. I don’t feel comfortable at all giving the clods in the state offices my debit card information.
Supposedly the Hall tax is in the process of being eliminated as the state has now set income limits of $68K before the tax kicks in. But nowhere on the forms does it indicate if that is gross income or net income as all the form says is “total annual income” whatever the state thinks that involves. I suspect it is gross because TurboTax did the calculations.
I did file electronically and if history repeats itself as it has done the last two years I should have the money within a week. The IRS using electronic filing is quite good about getting your refund to you very quickly. I suspect the filing is just a cursory check, the amount you indicated is sent electronically, with the actual number crunching on the return done over the next two years. That way if the IRS finds an error they can slap you with penalties and interest, such interest rate being much higher than any bank on the planet. Another way to gouge the taxpayer. But if the mistake is in your favor you get no interest, just the amount, maybe in another six months.
20 here right now but it will shoot up into the high 20s and low 30s tomorrow and the weather liars are saying we gon git us a whole passel of snow, with a winter storm watch in effect through Monday night. We’ll see.
I read Mr. Ray’s hate-filled screed concerning his tax situation and that’s as much as I wanna deal with it today. I anticipate similar rage and murderous impulses this year as I continue to be the point man on our own miserable tax issues, but with the vastly increased motivation to hook up with a decent tax lawyer.
“….but with the vastly increased motivation to hook up with a decent tax lawyer.”
Many years ago, a coworker convinced me to go to his tax accountant. The net savings, over the fee, was substantial. Our first year in our house with all those deductions and other, no longer available, business deductions of which I was not aware.
Just can’t go back to doing it myself.
Yeah, it is like unto several of my fellow vets in the group struggling for years to file disability claims and then finally getting a lawyer on it worked wonders almost immediately. We’re hoping a tax lawyer will Open Sesame! for us, so thanks for the encouraging anecdote. Our tax situation is also, or was not also, that complex, but it changes nearly every year with one or the other kid in or out of college and medical situations, buying the house, not filing for years at a time in the past, etc., etc.
I’m in the process of getting all the paperwork and forms together, and I will run the last two years through Turbo Tax’s hoops and hurdles and then instead of filing it electronically I’ll take it all to a tax accountant and/or lawyer.
I read Mr. Ray’s hate-filled screed concerning his tax situation and that’s as much as I wanna deal with it today.
I pay my CPA to do all our taxes, biz, personal (I still do biz quarterly and annual stuff for State requirements for the biz, but Quickbooks e-files most of it). I used to do it, even the Federal 1120 for the biz, but just got fed up and tired of doing it. It’s more money, but less hassle. As we get closer to retirement “retirement” I may start running the CPA’s results against TT to start picking it up again.
lol!
SyFy Channel honors “Michonne” from TWD for Black History Month. They couldn’t even come up with a real person. I guess the actress who plays Michonne isn’t worth.
lol!
” But if the mistake is in your favor you get no interest, just the amount, maybe in another six months.” I got quite a lot more back than I expected last year and to my surprise I also received interest on the difference.
But Mr. Ray and I are mainly peeved at THEIR mistakes which they barely acknowledge and never apologize for or pay interest on. If YOU make a mistake, however, they will hound the shit out of you and charge as much in interest and penalties as they possibly can.
to my surprise I also received interest on the difference
Maybe I am incorrect on the interest part. I know that many moons ago I got some additional back in 1973 for a return I filed in 1970. There was no interest to the best of my memory. I guarantee what they pay is not what they charge.
I believe some of us here are well aware how the lefties never shut up and never give up:
https://nypost.com/2017/02/11/how-obama-is-scheming-to-sabotage-trumps-presidency/
And only their speech is “free” speech; yours is hate speech. To be met with violence if and when they deem it necessary. Furthermore, for us to decry their violence is in itself an act of violence.
Got all that?
http://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/violence-self-defense/
Picture this situation here:
https://twitter.com/nontolerantman/status/830483645676785665
Far-fetched?
Remember, diversity is our vibrancy.
Just got back from a lovely day out with the family. One of our parks, (run by the precinct constables) has a Homestead Heritage Day. The park has a representative TX homestead from the 1820’s and volunteer docents. Twice a year they have a big day, with lots of re-enactors and all the demos filled. They had lye soap making, rope making, ink making, a bread oven, smokehouse, cooking over an open fire, blacksmith, cooper, weavers, trappers, etc. There were several period games for the kids. It’s a smallish park on the edge of a subdivision. All in all, a nice low key event. Very hands on, with food samples, make and takes for the kids, and the highlight- a Union army raid on the homestead, repelled by the faithful Texas irregulars (rebs.) Raiding party was repelled, to some loss of life on both sides, little pillage, and one freed slave. There was also an indian village, but it had very little of interest, outside the guy knapping flint.
The best part, this being TX, was that they caught some feral hogs this week, and had them penned in one area. They were all set to slaughter them and have them roasted for this event, but couldn’t get all the parts together, so the piggies were spared for a little while. They will likely be eaten soon. And possibly smoked. The guy running the smokehouse, with excellent beef jerky, had been up for two days minding the fire, and is aching to smoke some hams.
I’ll bet Cali wouldn’t let the park volunteers catch, kill, slaughter, cook, and then serve feral hog to event guests.
Kids had a good time, and we had excellent weather, mid-high 80’s, patchy clouds, and blue sky with nice steady cooling breeze.
Nick
“I’ll bet Cali wouldn’t let the park volunteers catch, kill, slaughter, cook, and then serve feral hog to event guests.”
We don’t have a feral hog problem here. Our problem is n0n-feral coyotes. They get out of nearby non-developed areas and into residential neighborhoods and grab family dogs.
Last summer one came over my 5′ cinder block wall and into my yard. I have one of those flapper doggie doors out to my backyard. Both of my 20# Boston Terriers got out there and ran the coyote into a neighbor’s yard over similar fence.
Check Google for Bolsa Chica Wetlands:
http://bolsachica.org/
@ Nick
We also have a reenactment:
http://www.huntingtonbeachevents.com/annual/civil-war-days.html
We had a War Between the States reenactment here last year or maybe it was the year before, I forget; I avoid crowds and “events.” Anyway, it was for the infamous Saint Albans bank raid/robbery conducted by Confederate soldiers be-bopping on down from Canada. I believe it was the northernmost War episode where shots were exchanged; a visiting businessman caught a round and died, and the raiders/robbers took off up what is now Route 105 toward Sheldon and Sheldon Springs, and were chased, but not caught. The ringleader visited again after the War and was treated very kindly.
I also saw something earlier today about the feral hog population spreading into a bunch of other states, including New England, and if so, ol’ OFD is ready for ’em. What would be cool, though, is if Colonel Atoz could slide up this way in a chopper so I could shoot the buggers from it.
Oh, and the temp here just dropped from 20 to 14, and still dropping. While we wait for the snow to hit tomorrow through Monday, I guess. A few inches with each blast, they say.
St Albans has smoking Wallyhogs. Not smokin’ hot, just smoking.
That is correct, and one of them is out on her deck/porch at various times of the day and well into the wee hours every night, even in the dead of winta with temps in the single digits. The mean mom and stepdad own that building so they must have told her no smoking inside, and/or because of her small daughter in there with her. I note, however, that the denizens across the street also have to smoke outside, which must be a condition of their residence in that multi-dwelling.
Smokin’ hot petit jolie filles are hard to find around here in the winta. The wimmenz is all burkha’d up.
And our winta storm watch has now gone into the red zone as a WARNING and the map indicates that we might get eight inches to a foot. Whatever. I have an electric snow blower and a shovel and snowshoes all ready to go. I may take a jaunt on the latter once it’s stopped, probably Monday night or Tuesday morning. I’ll bring one of the radios with me and see what I can pick up. Will also pack heat in case of zombies, coyotes, bears, feral hogs or wallyhogs.
“The only way to break the totalitarian stranglehold may be with a an authoritarian willing to bust down doors and crack some heads. Authoritarianism is only concerned with political power and as long as that is not contested it gives society a certain degree of liberty. You can still have judges falling out of helicopters as we saw with Pinochet, but the people can still go about their lives, free from the hectoring of secular fanatics living off the tax payers. Trump ordering the execution of the 9th Circuit is not ideal, but it beats the hell out of being ruled by angry lunatics from San Francisco.”
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=9594
Speaking of tossing peeps from helicopters….
…I’m makin’ a list…checkin’ it twice…gon find out who naughty and nice…
And I put forth the late night/early morning proposition, to wit:
A student of whatever age here in FUSA cannot learn any STEM disciplines without a mastery of the English language.
“I have said this before to the scorn and derision of my auditors: it should be the primary mission of schooling to teach kids how to speak English grammatically and intelligibly. Without that capability, they may not be able to learn much of anything else. That this is not regarded as important anymore is a spectacular disgrace.”
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/left-behind/
If the kids can’t read the instructions for Dr. Bob’s home ed science kits, they’re kinda screwed, amirite?
Let alone a DMV learners permit form or job posting description.
Not necessarily true.
In the Nineties I had a Vietnamese boss who came here as a refugee. While in the migrant hostel he taught himself photography and to play the piano, very well indeed.
He had a degree from a Vietnamese university which wasn’t recognised here, so he started a new science degree from scratch at Adelaide Uni, not knowing any English at first. Got through that and he and the wife both got jobs as programmers.
An exception which proves the rule; your Vietnamese programmer was/is motivated. I like to think that if the situation was reversed, most of us here could manage the same way, leaving aside, for the moment, the communist government there now. Frankly, it would probably be that, or we’d be up to our knees in muddy rice paddies. Your programmer had a similar choice; movin’ on up or working in restaurants and/or mopping floors as a night shift janitor. (still better than living under a commie regime)
My best friend from the time we were in first grade decided to go to med school, but he didn’t decide until late in his senior year of college that he wanted to be a doctor. By that time, there were literally no positions left at any US med school, so he ended up applying to a med school in Chile. He was accepted, but the problem was he spoke zero Spanish. So he spent that summer learning to read, write, and speak Spanish and then flew down to Chile in time to start the autumn term. He graduated with flying colors, did a residency in Chile, and then opened his own clinic there. After ten years or so, he decided to come back to live in the US, where he had to do another residency. He ended up doing that in emergency medicine at a shithole hospital in Bedford-Stuy and then got a job at the ER back in New Castle where we’d grown up. He’s been running the ER there for the last 25 years or so.
I got a much smaller POV from my deployment in Thailand; I did the two-months-long language school program and wow, doors opened for me anywhere I went in that country like magic. While the other GI drones treated locals like shit and simply yelled louder to make themselves understood, and/or spoke in pidgin English with them. It would take a lot longer to master their writing, though.
Speaking of tossing peeps from helicopters….
When you hear that rotor crack…
Throw some judges out the back…
Hueys on the storm…
Hearing a rotor crack sucks. Also suddenly not hearing any sound at all.
Are you sure you’re a chopper pilot? Hueys have side doors.
When the Chinook’s right on track,
Throw some judges out the back.
Rotors of the storm.
The pilot sits in the “front”, all else sit in the “back”. This high tech aviator talk, you wouldn’t unnerstan’.
We all seem to agree on judges…
Now you’ve gone and done it @OFD, now the gooberment is going to make Dr. Bob provide 81 translations for his science kits. 😉
the gooberment is going to make Dr. Bob provide 81 translations
Plus sign language and spoken words for the blind.
Speaking of gobberment, my tax return was accepted by the IRS in about an hour from submitting. I fully expect the refund by the end of the week. The audit will occur in about two years. Getting way too much back this year. Hard to predict with this obuttwadcare stuff my wife is on. Prior year I got $300 back, same withholdings this year and I get over $3K. Next year predictions (unless I change something) are that I will owe about $2.5K. All because of obuttwadcare.
I sure hope the Cheeto-Head fixes obuttwadcare with something else that is not tied to taxes. And speaking of taxes I hope he abolishes the IRS completely and just uses federal sales tax at the point of purchase. Will put a lot of useless IRS people out of work along with the sleazy HR Block and multiple tax accountants (except for the states).
+1 and infinite zeros
And speaking of “healthcare,” Mrs. OFD is now gonna apply for the top dawg position at our local medical center’s $40 million budgeted mental health care division; the previous honcho started it up and has been there since, quite a few years and he’s retiring in a few months. She knows him and the setup, so if the chemistry is right and it looks good for her, pray or light a joss stick that all parties make the right decision.
I don’t think either one of us cares so much about whatever salary/benefit package as we do about her being able to stay home and stop hanging around airports and airplanes and being treated like a peon where she works now despite her being with them from the start and getting them to the tens of millions they haul in now.
pray or light a joss stick
I pray she gets that job. Then tell the old job to shove it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUOVv99CZqA
that all parties make the right decision
It would be nice if your spousal unit could get an assignment and just not show up. Not take the flight, don’t call the company, etc. Problem with that is they probably still owe her money for expenses and salary from previous outings. Is it worth tossing that or getting a lawyer to file legal papers for the money owed in exchange for the pleasure of sticking it to the company? Only you can decide.
When I was contemplating leaving my last job I many times considered just walking in to the bosses office, laying the keys on the desk, tell him I am taking two weeks vacation, and by the way, here is my two weeks notice. Only thing that stopped me was it would penalize the other people in the office. As it was I stayed on for four months to assist my replacement. He told me that if I had not been there he would have quit after two weeks.
Here is hoping for a good outcome in your case.
She wouldn’t do that in a million years, she’s always been a good wittle girl since toddler years. They do in fact owe her now for at least a week plus, of course, the expenses, and we feel they also owe her about seven years of back pay that they cut from her and the other three senior instructors; that would be roughly $150k. And we also feel that the VA owes us about eight years of disability pay from when I first filed but which they now claim was not on time, roughly $90k. And I won’t even get into taxes today; it’s Sunday.
“…it would penalize the other people in the office.”
You didn’t do it because you’ve always been a good wittle boy since YOUR toddler years, I’m guessing.
And then we get to me. I was not a good wittle boy, and when I left my state of Vermont job in 2002, I simply walked out at 5PM one day and just left an email resignation effective immediately. I had no vay-cay or sick or personal time left and if I stayed another day I would have killed somebody, and I am not joking.
I’m wondering if her scumbag employers will REPENT when she gives them her notice…
Good luck to you both.
Repentance? You must be joking! The higher-ups there don’t give a blind rat’s ass about the very people who made/make them almost and maybe, millionaires. They act as if she can simply and easily be replaced at the drop of a pink knit hat and have made that clear on a couple of occasions.
But thanks for the good wishes, Mr. Miles_Teg; it is appreciated.
She may well decide that it ain’t her cup ‘o tea, or they may, since there seems to be an unwritten rule somewhere that you cannot work at a job in the same town where you live nowadays. Only CEOs get to do that.
Mrs. OFD is now gonna apply for the top dawg position at our local medical center’s $40 million budgeted mental health care division; the previous honcho started it up and has been there since, quite a few years and he’s retiring in a few months. She knows him and the setup, so if the chemistry is right and it looks good for her, pray or light a joss stick that all parties make the right decision.
Good luck to Mrs. OFD and I threw a prayer up the way for her. Not sure if the Big Man listens to this sinner though. He done has given me lots of talents over the years and I may be down to just one.
Your programmer had a similar choice; movin’ on up or working in restaurants and/or mopping floors as a night shift janitor. (still better than living under a commie regime)
Shoot, they would rather stay here in our detention centers !
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexican-migrants-signal-they-prefer-detention-to-deportation-1486878566
Something is really wrong here.
They’re better off in jail here than free back “home”.
@OFD, here’s hoping and praying for your wife and you.
Thanks much for the prayers, good wishes, lit joss sticks, and so forth, much appreciated.
Meanwhile I wing prayers daily for my wife’s uncle, in his 80s, and facing kinda drastic surgery to remove cancerous stuff from his jaw and replace it with healthy stuff from his leg, with up to a year for recovery. MIL told me on the phone today that he was bleeding again, but otherwise in good spirits. MIL is herself in her late 80s and her “big” sister was sitting there, too, 92, I think, and still rides a bike and kayaks on the lake. They’re all down in Floriduh for the winta and missing the now heavy and wet snow coming down sideways, with temp having rocketed up to 26 currently.
Tomorrow we’re expecting wind gusts of 30+ MPH and snow blowing around, lotsa fun with the snowblower is pending.
You didn’t do it because you’ve always been a good wittle boy since YOUR toddler years, I’m guessing.
Are you calling me a precious snowflake?
Nope, not always that nice. Left one job in just such a fashion. Wrote my resignation letter and handed it to the boss on payday as I was walking out the door. Boss said he was firing me instead and no vacation pay. Was working on a system design for a new system, about 200 pages and six months of work. Encrypted the stuff, the only copy (at work, I had a copy with me), before I left. Two days later they called and asked for the encryption key. I said nope, not unless you pay me for the one week vacation that is owed. They never did pay.
You da man, Mr. Ray!
When I left with virtually no notice at state gummint up here, I also left a pile of their stupid Excel pivot tables unfinished, but that’s not in the same league as you, hermano.
Hats off!
Hats off!
The boss, owner of the company, was an asshole. I sort of suspected that he would not pay me for the week that was owed. A violation of state labor laws that upon research would have been difficult to get him to pay as it would have been a long draw-out process. So I did something intentional to screw him over. Basically all the work I had done for six months was locked up in that document and he had no access and no copies. Extortion, sort of.
Yah. Various employers, clients, and tenants owe me easily over $100k total over the past decades, but collecting it would be largely futile.
Not “sort of”. I don’t know for sure about there-then, but in most of the US for several decades that’s been against the law. So is not paying you, but there’ve been a lot of cases where the programmer or engineer was clobbered while the client got a slap on the wrist.
Why didn’t the arsehole boss recover the desired unencrypted files from backups? Would he have known how? I think I would have paid up just to get the files.