As y’all may know, “eat the frog” is a time-management axiom: grit your teeth and start the day by doing whatever necessary task you least want to do. Which this week was taxes. And they took more than a morning.
Things are way more complicated this year than in previous go-rounds (hence my choice of the Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko cover right). What I thought was the proceeds of Dad’s life insurance last year was actually a beneficiary account of some sort and the income is taxable. TYG did a lot of investment stuff. There were dividends, there was interest on various accounts, we had a tax credit … it took me a day to work it all out and to enter some of the taxable transactions on the various schedules. And that was more like a day and a half because I had errands to run getting dog meds (I would have combined them into one errand but I didn’t anticipate running out of two separate meds at separate times).
For the record, the totals look good — we’ll pay in a small amount due to my inheritance, but no shell-shock. I still have to go over it a second time early next month to double-check everything’s right. It’s possible correcting errors will work out in my favor — for whatever reason that’s how it’s worked out in the past.
On top of the taxes, we had the house cleaners in on Thursday. This didn’t use to complicate things much — just move around with my laptop out of their way — but having to put Wisp and Snowdrop somewhere they can’t run out while the Strangers In The House are opening doors makes it a lot more complicated and distracting. So a lot of Thursday was a wash.
Another wrinkle: I worked on two stories for The Local Reporter and for various reasons had to spread the work over three separate days. It always expands if it spreads beyond one day. Monday I got in a story about how Carrboro property values — and possibly property taxes — are going up. Wednesday I interviewed Blue Cactus, a Chapel Hill musical duo, though the story probably won’t be out until next week.
I also got progress on the cover for Southern Discomfort. Deciding it was an ounce of shag problem — the only way forward was to sit and think it through — I set aside a chunk of time, thought, and finally have suggestions for Samantha Collins, my cover artist (see her previous work for me above).
Over at Atomic Junk Shop, I blogged about the Losers, the Metal Men and Spider-Man, as seen in that Jim Mooney image above.
And last but not least, my brother Craig’s birthday present for me arrived, as seen below.
Way more fun than taxes.
All rights to images remain with current holders.
