LET'S HEAR IT FOR TURBOTAX MAKING LIFE EASIER

Whoopee, with the convenience of e-filing , the IRS will have my completed tax foirms before the deadline!  Unbelievable!  Naturally, I could not find last year's printout, though during the three hours I hunted last night for it (not even sure that there ever was one) I found all sorts of treasures I have not seen for years.. It proves that no time spent is ever a waste.

I really need to speak about the advantages of a Financial Planner. Having worked my whole life I realized a few years ago that my earnings were going to a stock broker  who could talk a cat off a fish wagon.  I bought and sold enough to buy his kids their college educations, I'm sure, while I had to work a second job to get mine educated.

My agreement with my CFP was 'as long you make more for me than it cost me to pay and your company, I will be happy.  I have been totally pleased.  I now know that I might be able to live out my life without having to sit on the corner with a tin cup hanging off my hand.

Thankfully, as technology advances, TurboTax made it easier and easier each year to file taxes with frustration not eliminated but, at least, brought to a minimum.  I did not fill in the forms myself but was handy for the person to ask about all the things needed.  I fetched info as needed and available.  Then I made backups of my backups, hoping to make things even easier next year.

NON-VIOLENTLY WAYS TO DEAL WITH FRUSTRATION

Procrastination is one of the ways to deal with frustration.  Denial also works well for a while.  It did not come as a surprise that taxes will soon be due and I need to do something about it soon.  So I started.  One must realize that it is not easy to get back a year of good intentions to avoid the yearly problems.  If I had filed, saved and documented properly, life would be easy.  But, alas, life is rarely easy for some of us.  There are always more interesting things to do than those tedious tasks.

Drooping leaves  tell me that plants need watering; my gurgling tummy tells me I need to eat which also says I have to be the person to provide the food...shop, and prepare precede the meal, There are showers to be had, teeth to be brushed (at least I can say most still there to be brushed); all those ablution things; all those body and maintenance things.  I have yet to put the IRS into one of those daily awareness tasks, which, of course, I should.

I've put thinking about taxes in the same category as the urge to climb a mountain. I do as my wonderful professor in 1949 advised, "When you have the urge to climb a mountain, lie down until the urge passes."  I can easily say I have faithfully followed that advice.  Sometimes  I don't lie down but play a bit of piano, listen to music, eat, read, talk to friends, and do mindless tasks.  I can be so compulsive with things that mean nothing important to anyone but me.  I keep data bases on almost everything and know where most everything is except that for which I happen to be in need at the moment, like the print out of last year's taxes..  Oh well, this too shall pass.

THE INDIGNITY OF A FAST IMAGING MIND WHEN READING ROMANCE NOVELS

One of my pleasures, as age creeps up, is reading 'feel good' books, ergo romance novels. By definition, they must have a happy ending.  However, authors often assume the reader needs no details to relate to the characters or events. I can't turn today's head off, while reading a story set in Scotland in 1375. Taking my descriptions from the author, pictures form in my head.  The heroine has escaped her captors just before the birth of her baby.  She is kept safe by an enemy and insured of her babe's survival only with a promise that she will spend one night with him sometime.  She agrees, feeling no choice, to save the life of her then unborn child since is going into labor.  The child is born, hidden in a secret room with her pursuers a thin wall away, assisted only by a somewhat dimwitted, male servant as she labors unable to make a cry. She leaves two days later with baby and servant to walk back to the father of her child, more than a day's walk away..

My mind turns to basics.  She has neither sanitary pads nor disposable diapers nor change of clothing.  Good grief, what must they look and smell like.  Nothing is mentioned about having been able to bring food or water, yet she continues to breast feed her healthy child.  They are rescued by servants of the father within yards of the house and she survives several days of fever.

For today's delicate readers, little is spoken of bad odors and some authors even talk about cleaning teeth before bedtime and washing up.  Women are chattel but our heroines would make our 21st C feminists look meek.  All heroes are strong, muscled, and good looking (not too difficult to picture) but they eat and drink the most horrible diet one could imagine.  It is small wonder the lifespan was short though the books never get to that..  Sanitation and sewerage disposal is never mentioned, other than to state historically that London smelled bad and was not a healthy place to breathe. Only the bad guys get VD, never the hero though he is hardly chaste.

I guess I can expect no less in a romance novel (now clearly understanding the term romanticized) but I sure wish I could turn parts of my head off.  Years ago I wondered what mountain climbers did who were on the side of the mountain for days.  I learned that they are catheterized but for the hard stuff, used a plastic bag that got dropped to the ground below.  Factually satisfied, it sure did add a dimension to the experience I was little prepared for at the time. Life is not pretty.  I read for entertainment yet my head contradicts when I criticize the authors for making a nice story, not a reality tale in full detail.  Will I ever be able to read without filling in the ugly blanks provided by my curiously detailed mind?

OH DEAR, WHAT CAN THE MATTER BE?

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” ― Mark Twain

My greater sense tells me that Obama should be re-elected but my greater sense has failed me before with Republican tactics brought to bear.The other elements shaking my complacency that right will out is how dirty they fight.  I'm not naive and know that all politics are dirty but the lies that people believe are mind boggling to me.  One relative is against 'Obabmacare' and could not give me one truthful reason why.  Another told me he thinks Donald Trump is wonderful. When I said he is a liar, he demanded I tell him one lie he had told.  I mentioned that Trump still doesn't believe that Obama is a citizen and was told, "He has never proven he is."  I am lacking the gene that produces patience in view of total ignorance

Robot call in Wisconsin:  "Please vote for social sanity and not for Mitt Romney and homosexuality."  We have become an ignorant nation of sheep who have lost all sense of direction and need to be led everywhere in life.  The unfortunate part is that they have been conned to believe that it is their Lord who is their shepherd and not the Koch brothers and other wealthy, powerful  men trying to take over (and destroy) the country.  They must see themselves as the Alpha Plus Intellectuals of a Huxley novel.

Aside from all the many other aspects as to why I would never be elected president, something like 49% of voters would not vote for an Atheist. No poll, to my knowledge, has been taken for how many atheists would vote for a religious candidate who admits he would serve in office with Christian religion ruling uppermost in his mind.  Apparently Atheists follow and believe the constitution more than religious people in politics do.

“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference.”
― Jack Kerouac

If only I could get to the same place as Jack Kerouac on the not caring part.  It seems to elude me.

GOOGLE ALERTS SAVE A LOT OF TIME AND KEEP YOU POSTED ON AREAS OF INTEREST TO YOU

It\y is difficult to stay abreast of the the news in which you are interested.  If we watch a particular channel, we are apt to be beaten verbally, to death, daily  (or for hours) ,about a particularly story.  The producers constantly play to the viewer who just tuned in, repeating everything ad nauseam   The best way to stay tuned into what is of particular interest is to make a Google Alert. 

Create an alert.  You may make several and specify if you want to be contact daily, weekly or as things happen. There seems to be no limit to the number of topics you can watch.  Instead of Google limiting, you are limited by the amount you can follow and clutter up your inbox.

One of my favorites is New Laws.  I find that of great interest, especially in the US currently with the weird Teaparty and conservative right.  For example a new law today: 

New law to be announced to allow internet contact monitoring

Monday 02 April 2012 11:31:37 by Andrew Ferguson

To get the details, click here.

LITTLE INVOLVING HUMANS LASTS FOREVER

When the government began to exam US military bases it decided we had more than we needed.  Closings may have been made somewhat on a partisan basis but, regardless of how choices were made, few questioned that more were draining our financial resources than were needed.  Those were not the only choices which gave us collateral damage.  Changes in the way business is done, outsourcing closing down large manufacturing facilities, new highways that put business out as they were now on by-ways and went bankrupt, are but a few.  Just as there is a food chain among animals, there are chains of businesses that feed an industry, a Mall, a profession (there aren't blacksmiths locally in urban areas to shoe horses any more), door-to-door salesmen, icemen, many people have had to force early retirement or find another line of work.  Teachers a few years ago went into computer work, nursing and other jobs.

So it will be forever only changes are happening faster than they ever did, not allowing people enough time to retrain or regroup.

Kari Lyndersen asks the question, "What is left in a small Arizona mining town when the mine shuts down?"  Read this article here. A year ago the same author had written about the government agreement to a land swap  Her article"  "Congress Approves Arizona Mining ‘Land Swap’: Job Bonanza or Environmental Disaster?"  he wrote: "The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve a bill that proponents say would create thousands of jobs in an economically struggling part of Arizona—and opponents say would forever change a fragile area renowned for its beauty and held sacred by various Native American tribes."  The companies wanted to mine copper."The mining companies say their planned Resolution Copper mine will create 1,400 permanent jobs and 3,000 construction jobs. The Arizona Republic, which editorialized in favor of the land swap bill, reported: "The mining companies say their planned Resolution Copper mine will create 1,400 permanent jobs and 3,000 construction jobs. The Arizona Republic, which editorialized in favor of the land swap bill, reported:

Resolution Copper said most of those workers will be Arizonans. The mine will also create about 2,300 non-direct jobs, including contractors who supply fuel, tires, cement and steel, company officials said… New businesses, such as restaurants, also would be expected to open to serve the workers, according to a report commissioned by the company."  Read this article here.

The article ends with:  When a lot of these foreign companies come in, they bring their workers with them…How does that create jobs?

GRETA CHRISTINA" ATHEIST WITH REASONS

As a child, I only accepted reasons that made sense to me.  Ergo I asked lots of question and never responded to, "N!"  I: "Why not?"  "Because I told you so."That reasoning didn't work from a parent so it certainly was not going to work in a church from a stranger .A very nice Jehovah's Witness lady with whom I have developed a relationship in which she tried to convince me of her God while I became more entrenched in my own lack of acceptance.

I've always wanted to listen to people to understand what they believed in and why.  I learn a lot that way when there are facts involved, sources, and information builds on all the things to date I have learned on the subject to which this conversation adds.  I did not find it possible to interact with my Jehovah's Witness friend in a dialogue that didn't end with, "You have to have faith."

The religious right that claims this as their country forgets that it was founded by people who were escaping a country where they were not free to practice their religious beliefs.  While there no many religions in colonial America, the constitution clearly advises freedom  to worship and a separation of church and state. It, therefore, saddens me that a country that professes so many free4doms seems it would not accept an Atheist as a president.  People should be judged by the life they lead, their achievements, family, integrity, patriotism, loyalty, honesty, and all those good things rather than the church they attend or profess to belong to in thinking.  We should not have to feel inferior in this country for being honest about what our beliefs are, yet Atheists are somehow seen as dangerous and not to be trusted.

Atheism is more and more accepted throughout the world but, only in America, are our citizens being asked to roll back the calender and adopt beliefs long since disproved, evolution being the first example that comes to mind.  My motto is certainly not "In God We Trust' as I find that one must not rely on God to save us from our own errors or poor choices.  People must be responsible for their own actions.  If there is a God, at no time was avoiding healthy nutrition for days on end to please God a logical act in my mind.

Whether you are a 'believer' or not,you might find the author worth reading.  Click here for Greta Christina's 10 reasons for not believing in God.