The time of year is finally upon us where we must chose between one of those two. Me? I choose liver. “Why liver?” you may ask to which I reply, “Why not?” Actually, I meant to type “life” but my fingers got all tangled up and started arguing. Once that happens I just have to take a step back and let them finish. Sometimes the results are harsh. I just never know what’s going to happen.

Taxes – I was going down the path where I didn’t think my pitiful little contribution to our nations coffers was worth their time. So, I was just going to quit paying it and see how long it took for them to ferret me out. Then, I gave it another thought, and another, and finally came to the conclusion that not paying my taxes, which is my God given right to do, would not be beneficial to my hair, which I have precious little of now days. So I pondered a while about that, wondering what my hair had to do with taxes and decided that my spell checker worked, but didn’t benefit me at all. What I meant to say was it wouldn’t be beneficial to my heirs. The I.R.S. would just seize everything so they would have nothing. They would even lose their memories of me. Just because I decided to not pay taxes. So, you know what? I’m going to fool them this year and pay up like the good citizen I am, and have always been. I do this because I’m compelled to contribute my fair share to help support the lavish lifestyles of our elected officials. The alternative just isn’t worth the hassle.

Nexy year will be different because all of our income will be fixed. No more consulting for me. No sir. Doing that is just a trick for Uncle Sam to shove you into another tax bracket. I suppose I could have altered my donation to the government, and avoided the need to pay up for my 2011 defciency but that goes against my grain, too. I’m one of those guys that supports the “flat tax” concept where everyone just pays 10% of whatever they earn, except for retirement income, of course. There are no deductions in my plan. It would be like a national sales tax that we pay at the end of every year. Doing that, of course, would put millions of people out of work beause the IRS would only need about half the people they have now. Maybe less.

OK – enough of that. Sorry I went down that road. It’s late and I’m tired. We’ve been gone from the house most of the day and the dogs are demanding our attention. I guess they missed us a little. They were really good, too, because all the pillows are still on the couch. It’s not unusual to find one or two of them in the back yard, which isn’t easy for them to do. I have this vision of Ziva holding the pillow and swinging her head back and forth, letting go on the count of three to see how far out she can throw it. The pillows are never damaged. They’re just in the back yard. To avoid that we could leave the patio door shut, but then they’d have to find something else creative to do inside. I’d rather fetch the pillows from the yard than consider the alternatives.

We had a late lunch, or early dinner, with Mike & Kathie this afternoon. We went to McGrath’s Fish House, which is a favorite. We used to have dinner back and forth at each other’s homes about once a month, then they moved all the way over to Oregon City. It’s a hike. Kind of like driving from Mesa to Surprise, AZ. So, we lost touch for a while. Now that we’re cavorting again, they tell us they’re moving to California. We’re happy for them, because they’re happy, but we think it’s going to be very confusing for some of us to deal with two sets of Mike & Kathie’s in California. Makes my head hurt a ittle.

Just got an email that the IRS has accepted the electronical forms I sent and they’re prepared to raid our credit union for whatever excess cash they can find next Tuesday.

Now I can sleep peacefully knowing our government will be properly funded.