Notes at the End of the Month

Apologies to those who looked in vain for a blog entry from me this week.  During the last two weeks, I have been home from work nursing what is now becoming an annual event: pneumonia.  The symptoms did not leave me much strength beyond coughing up brown (yes brown, not yellow) phlegm.  Parking myself at my computer keyboard for any length of time to write a blog entry was out of the question.

Not wanting to be left out, Warrior Queen is now battling bronchitis.  Her illness also came with the coughing, breathing difficulties, and brown phlegm.  The good news is we are now being treated with drugs and we each have our own inhaler to aid in our breathing.

The illnesses and cold weather also played havoc with our scheduled review of our taxes with our accountant. We were originally supposed to meet with her on the 20th, but the weather that weekend was too cold for man nor beast, let alone two middle-aged people who increasingly find the simple biological act of respiration a challenge.  We made another appointment for the 27th and hoped like hell that our health and the weather would cooperate.

The weather improved, but our health crashed.  No matter this time; we kept our appointment with the accountant.

Our accountant is wonderful and very helpful in explaining everything about our taxes. I truly believe all this despite her one flaw: she votes Republican.

At times like this I am reminded of the words of wisdom from the wise philosopher Joe E. Brown, who once said, “Nobody’s perfect.”

In our tax year review for 2015, our accountant went into great detail about how “your President would not allow this deduction,” and “your president would only allow you to declare this percentage of your medical payments,” and “your President, blah, blah, blah.”

Warrior Queen and I took all this veiled political baiting in stride.  For one, the accountant was good-natured about it.  For another, I know that “our” president could not have passed these tax regulations alone without the cooperation/advise/consent of the Republican dominated Congress.

I am also philosophical about my standing as a member of middle-class America.   We in the middle class have an understanding that tax laws will not always, if ever, break our way.

And oh, yes, I nearly forgot something else about our meeting which allowed me to be gracious in the face of pointed observations about my political leanings.  The accountant advised us that this year we did not owe any tax, AND for the first time in years we would actually receive a refund.  Joy! 

A refund? Okay, I can chuckle politely at your political barbs if you’re telling us we will get money back. Thank you, sign our names and date, swipe the credit card for the balance of your services, smile and wave, and see you next year!

Now, how much more gracious can I get?

(Thank you for reading. Sympathies to our accountant on knowing that she’ll be stuck voting for Donald Trump.  Ha, ha, ha…oh, wait, that isn’t funny.)