#2612, Tuesday, February 23, '21: Tax Day

Post 2612

- 11 years and 54 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment

I think I might be the only tax-paying person in the US who enjoys doing their taxes.

But I do. It's the numbers thing, how comfortable I am doing math and dealing with numbers. I really think I could have also been happy asa accountant. Sudoku is my favorite game.

I did my Federal and NY State Income Taxes today. It took about two hours, from start to fiiing, but it would have been a half-hour except for the hundred-plus entries for the day-trading I did last Summer and Fall.

I just don't mind it. I didn't even mind it when i ran afoul of the Alternative Minimum Tax and had to write the IRS a check for almost $80,000 in 2001 (20th anniversary coming up!). Well, i minded writing the check, but not doing the taxes that year. I remember somebody telling me, "Never to mind paying a lot of taxes, it means you've been financially successful." 

For the last twenty years, though, I've been getting refunds, this year, no exception. 

When I got my first regular job, at Frank Wolf's Drummers Supplies at age sixteen, my grandmother, the amazing Grandma Hannah, did my taxes. She made a little extra doing taxes in the season, the only work I ever knew her to do.

Of course, my taxes were dead simple, and we sat together and did them. I hired a family friend as an accountant when I incorporated my sales job (Ice-Nine, Inc.) at age nineteen. He did my taxes for the next two years.

During that time, Grandma Hannah died. I'd like to think it was just a coincidence. But, in my impoverished aftermath (and back again to dead-simple taxes), I took on doing my returns myself.

After my first year working at IBM, tax year 1978, with my taxes complicated by relocation expenses, I hired someone to do them for me. He gave me a form to fill out. When I realized that I had done all the most tedious work involved in tax prep when filling out the form, I vowed I would always do my taxes from then on.

Fast-forward a few years, and tax software arrived. Working with IBM, I was an early adopter, with a professional discount.

I started with Turbotax, then switched to TaxAct, and never looked back. And, like I said, it's like a fun puzzle to me now.

So today I'm grateful for a mindset that lets me look at something many regard as an odious and unpleasant task, and seeing it as fun.

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                    201.5 lbs.

Previous Weight (2/22/21):         199.5 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                     + 2.0 lbs.

Diet Comment

Completely unexpected weight gain. "What He giveth, He taketh away." Of course, 'He' is the Diet Fairy. Anyway, I feel fine, and I'm enjoying the extra carbs I'm allowing myself these days. 

Food Log

Breakfast
3:30pm: Overnight oatmeal, with red-, black-, and raspberries, walnuts, hemp and chia seeds and kefir. Also, scrambled eggs.

Lunch
7:05pm: Carrots with homemade mayonnaise. 

Dinner
12:20am: Cottage cheese and vegetarian sloppy Joe (Quorn Grounds (mushroom protein meat substitute), kale, spinach and Wegman's Grandpa's Sauce) with parmesan crisps.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 2;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Water: 60+ oz.; 

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