Spoonful of sugar, and all that

Yesterday started out slowly and lazily: it was the better part of noon before I went downstairs to set up for my daily run on the elliptical. Fortunately, at that moment I made my intelligence roll, actually looked at the temperature outside, said, "What am I, nuts?", and went for a long rambling walk instead. Magnificent day for it: even a light long-sleeved shirt was really a bit heavier than I needed, and I wound up wandering four miles or so in a loop into town and back. I finally went into Building 19 1/2 for the first time (after living a mile from it for 6 years), and concluded that the rug section actually looks useful for me.

Mostly, though, I read, proving what I suspected: that the Kindle's best single use case for me is walking. It's as light as a paperback, easier to handle than a magazine, and since I have half a dozen books loaded onto it, I can change my mind about what to read mid-walk. I've always read while walking -- I have deeply-trained reflexes for how to do so safely. (When I hit a curb, my head snaps up, the Kindle goes under my arm, I check for cars, and go back to reading once I'm safely on the other side. And generally I pay attention to sounds around me, and peripheral vision.)

So the main task of the evening was finally dealing with the taxes. Somehow, despite last year being utterly straightforward, the process still managed to take about three hours. No major snafus, although I did have to infer one significant number from during-the-year receipts -- if the relevant 1099-x form ever arrived, I can't find it. (I suspect that Jane filed it somewhere sensible, and I'll find it months from now.)

The pleasant surprise was that I get a *hefty* chunk back from the Feds, even more than I'd expected. It's a colossal swing from last year, when I had a huge tax bill; I'd managed to forget that I spent the first several months of last year consulting, so that had been anomalous. This year, our income was high but conventional, and we were apparently pretty badly over-withheld. So yay for a bit of windfall bonus that I didn't see coming. (And yay for e-filing, so I get that money relatively soon...)

Spoonful of sugar, and all that

Yesterday started out slowly and lazily: it was the better part of noon before I went downstairs to set up for my daily run on the elliptical. Fortunately, at that moment I made my intelligence roll, actually looked at the temperature outside, said, "What am I, nuts?", and went for a long rambling walk instead. Magnificent day for it: even a light long-sleeved shirt was really a bit heavier than I needed, and I wound up wandering four miles or so in a loop into town and back. I finally went into Building 19 1/2 for the first time (after living a mile from it for 6 years), and concluded that the rug section actually looks useful for me.

Mostly, though, I read, proving what I suspected: that the Kindle's best single use case for me is walking. It's as light as a paperback, easier to handle than a magazine, and since I have half a dozen books loaded onto it, I can change my mind about what to read mid-walk. I've always read while walking -- I have deeply-trained reflexes for how to do so safely. (When I hit a curb, my head snaps up, the Kindle goes under my arm, I check for cars, and go back to reading once I'm safely on the other side. And generally I pay attention to sounds around me, and peripheral vision.)

So the main task of the evening was finally dealing with the taxes. Somehow, despite last year being utterly straightforward, the process still managed to take about three hours. No major snafus, although I did have to infer one significant number from during-the-year receipts -- if the relevant 1099-x form ever arrived, I can't find it. (I suspect that Jane filed it somewhere sensible, and I'll find it months from now.)

The pleasant surprise was that I get a *hefty* chunk back from the Feds, even more than I'd expected. It's a colossal swing from last year, when I had a huge tax bill; I'd managed to forget that I spent the first several months of last year consulting, so that had been anomalous. This year, our income was high but conventional, and we were apparently pretty badly over-withheld. So yay for a bit of windfall bonus that I didn't see coming. (And yay for e-filing, so I get that money relatively soon...)