The first matter, which I shall return to later in the post, is that Laurie is self-employed. We had been operating under the assumption that this would be the last year that we would have one of the major deductions that we have enjoyed in our annual taxes thus far in our marriage, but it turns out that last year was, in fact, the last year in which we could do that. The freedom of entrepreneurial independence is not free in our great nation. Indeed, it will set you back a few grand. Barring any deductions to offset said cost, one finds one's self in debt to the United States Government a couple thousand dollars. One, in this case, being me. Us, more precisely.
Meanwhile, we are offline. I wrote a long explanation, but, upon reflection, have decided that this will suffice: AT&T screwed up our internet service and I dumped them as our ISP. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my new ISP cannot take control of my IS until the 24th or thereabouts.
You may, at this point, have thought of suggestions as to how I can circumvent problems of this sort, but I refer you to the first part of my story. Circumventing problems is a luxury reserved for those who are standing financially pat. We are more than a couple thousand dollars in the red at the moment, which, despite what you might expect at this point, brings me around to a much happier part of my April 2012 story. My parents are visiting on what seems to be a vacation with the joint goals of celebrating my birthday, seeing my nieces perform in a local theater production, and a last hurrah before my father's retirement.
It occurred to me that if I had a bicycle, given the current circumstances of my life, I would no longer have the absolute necessity of owning my own automobile (Laurie, of course, still has hers.) It further occurred to me that if I were to sell my car, it is entirely plausible that such a sale would harvest at least enough to render unto Caesar. Long time readers will know that I have always been a pedestrian at heart and never even wanted to drive a car in the first place. My parents have given me a bicycle for my birthday.
And that is how I came to seize the helm of unfortunate circumstance to steer myself to more clement and pacific waters. We are not through the storm quite yet, but the end is in sight.
So, I will be back to my regular blogload somewhere around one week for now. I thank you for your patience, hope all of you are doing well, and wish you a lovely April.
Not too cruel a month for you. Many have much larger debts and you're surrounded by loving people.
ReplyDeleteEliot may have had the English weather in mind as like many years we have been experiencing Arctic-like conditions with hail and north wind for a couple weeks now !
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