Barriers

I seem to have hit some sort of wall with the whole bike riding thing. All week I've been trying to break through an average speed of 12mph and cannot seem to get past it. I suspect it's one of those pesky physics things that have to do with air resistance, or at least that's what I keep telling myself. It can't possibly have anything to do with the extra 40 pounds around my still-rather-squishy center. (I've been called many things in my life; aerodynamic has never been one of them.) Or that I'm not 15 years old anymore like I was when I rode my bike 30 miles round trip to and from summer soccer practice five days a week. Nah. It's physics. Yea. That's it.

Not much else going on other than me trying to get the whole Tax Geek thing going and Debbie working. That's mainly due to summer weather in Florida. The 10-day forecast never changes; high in the 90's, humidity at 100%, scattered thunderstorms from 3-7pm. Every. Single. Day. We are currently planning to venture out somewhere on Debbie's day off next week. We'll see if we actually do it, or if we chicken out and stay in for a Sliders marathon. The stereotypical lethargy of southerners isn't a character flaw; it's a survival mechanism.

A woman rams the vehicle of someone she thinks is Casey Anthony causing her vehicle to roll over twice. Looking at the photos of the victim and Casey Anthony, I can't see any resemblance other than they are both white females with dark hair. And the attack happened in Oklahoma which, unless they moved it recently, is a fair distance from Florida. The police suspect drugs may have been involved. May?

Do you ever feel like the people who run things are completely out of touch with reality?

According to the Times' "cold hard math," this [living on $500,000 per year] is virtually untenable given expenses that include $32,000-a-kid private school bills, $96,000-a-year mortgages, $96,000-a-year co-op maintenance fees, $45,000-a-year nanny tabs and, of course, the undebatable requirement that very rich people take "at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes." And mind you, the Times was quick to inform us, this doesn't even include other "prerequisites" to living in New York City like "restaurants, dry cleaning... kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming" and $1,000 suits from Brooks Brothers.

Median household income in New York City is $38,000. I'm pretty sure their idea of necessary expenses doesn't include private schools, nannies, or Aspen ski trips. No fracking clue.

Ten reasons why we are already circling the drain of the next financial crisis. I can't think of anything to add.

Geithner says that the hard times will continue for many. Not for him, of course, or any of his buddies at Goldman Sachs. Just us little people. Thanks for the sentiment Timmy, but it don't buy my increasingly-expensive groceries.

Minnesota is still shut down. The world hasn't ended and I don't see mushroom clouds or dead bodies stacked like cord wood in the streets of St. Paul. Which tells me Minnesota could probably get by on a lot less government. That's likely true of other states as well in spite of the breathless articles about cuts to the number of state employees that reduces the number of jobs back to those horrifying times in the early 2000's. Because government must always expand. Budgets, laws, taxes and debt  are all one-way ratchets that can only be increased. Suggesting otherwise makes you Hitler.

Well, I need to go study for the Enrolled Agent exam. I received the materials Wednesday and started working through the stuff for the first of the three tests. It's supposed to take 100 or so hours of study for each test, and I only have about 8 in so far. Don't expect much from me for the next few months.