Some days seem to flow. One thing after the next, all in the right order, no wasted time thrashing around. Some days do not flow, and just lately it seems they aren't for me. No real reason why that I know of. Except maybe this. I'm tired of this.
I've been working on a blog post for most of a week now, noodling along, doing some math about the cost of water for us. I was reading it this morning and wonder what on earth I'm trying to say. Even if anyone clicks on the link, they're going to look at the wall of text and all the numbers and most will bail. And I can't blame them.
Some things are still working. I'm happy that it's things relating to other people, like the two recent photo sessions I did. One super fun one with Michelle, see here in case you missed it, and an Easter Egg hunt for my community association. I got a ton of nice photos out of each, so that much is to the good.
We scurried around to find all the tax slips. Most of mine are electronic now, but I still had to log in and download them. Some come on paper, and some of them are a duplicate of the electronic versions. About the only thing that isn't electronic are the receipts for medical stuff. Linda likes to include all that just in case it makes a difference. Mostly the process is pretty painless now. We send in the paperwork, electronic or otherwise, the accountant does his thing, we review and sign electronically. We've been using an accountant for many years. For me the fee is well worth it to avoid the hassle of filling out the forms. Even the electronic version has frustrations, and it's easy to miss stuff. I think we're both going to have to pay a bit of tax this year, and that's the way we like it. My thinking is that if you're getting a refund, it means you paid too much tax during the year. If you have a choice about it, and not everybody does, why give the government money before you need to?
Trying to avoid going down another blog rabbit hole, but the income tax situation is right out of hand. It begs for simplification. There are so many exemptions and deductions for an alphabet soup of programs, all of it administered by an arcane set of rules. When extremely rich people are paying very little or no tax at all, there's something wrong with the system. When a person with some accounting background, with a salaried job and fairly simple financial affairs, is reduced to rage and swearing and tears in the process of filling out the paper forms, there's something wrong with the system.
I was chatting with one of the people who periodically follow my blog, and showing them the recent Michelle photos. I was astonished to learn that they had not known that they could click on the photos to make them bigger, and that you can go from one to the next using the keyboard arrow keys. I hope you all knew that, but if I see a spike in traffic in the next little while, I'll know someone or a few someones are going back for another look. That's all good.
One of the reasons I dislike updating software is that almost always the new "features" are nothing that I need or want, and that often they get in the way of doing what I want, and sometimes something that I want goes away. This is not a springboard to an AI rant, that is still brewing.
The recent example of that is in Chrome. I use it to write the blog. When I was adding photos, I used to be able to tag it during the addition process. That way I'm less likely to accidentally repeat a photo. It worked really well for the serendipities because I could tag everything at once.
Except now I can't. I have to add it to the blog, and then go find it in the folder and tag it. Or them. In today's blog there is a serendipity. So since it's a two step process, and there are days I know my brain is not firing on all cylinders, I might forget.
So if you see a repeated photo, there could be a couple things. One is that it's a deliberate repeat, like for image of the month or year. Or it could be a really similar photo. Or, yes, it could be a repeat. Such is life. If seeing a repeat is the worst thing that happens in your day, I'm happy for you.
Of the Day
Driftwood (NZ)
Yukon
Film (new)
Frosty islands in the stream.
And a sunny serendipity as we struggle through 3rd spring.
Michelle X2
The double exposure, playing with some fabric.
I understand about not feeling the groove. There are times when I am excited or committed to a project or living. There are other times when dragging my ass is as good as it good as it gets. And then there are the days when I just procrastinate. I hope you and Linda have a good day.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of software, I would like an operating system that does only that and isn't trying to make my life better.
Cheers, Sean
You are soooo right about the income tax system. It's gotten bloody ridiculous. Tax law was one of my best subjects and hubby used to work for CRA and still we struggle with some things. It's only sheer bloody mindedness that keeps me from turning it all over to an accountant.
ReplyDeleteI like all these photos but especially the Yukon shot. I find it interesting that you and Michelle chose to share such different shots in your posts. (Yes, I did read them both, and enjoyed them very much! I was just a little too distracted to comment properly at the time.) It might be something worth chatting about, if you haven't already. In general, I think I preferred her choices.