"If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep." ~ Will Rogers

Why wait? Today is Monday, April 9, 2018, and I bid you welcome to today's issues as determined by yours truly here at the ole blogger ranch. The why wait question has to do with filing my income tax return. I owed money. (Too much, if you ask me.) But, somehow waiting until Tuesday, the 17th, which is the official last day to file, well, it just doesn't appeal to me. I know many do it on the last day as a way of protesting the system. I actually don't see where it buys people a lot to do that. We file a joint return but I'm the one who does the calculations. This means that we both are responsible and will both have to pay the penalty if I make some kind of big boo boo. I think when we started out I may have let someone help me to prepare my tax return. That was the conditioning effect of the environment I was brought up in. You know. Taxes! You had better get someone with an accounting background to help you. It didn't take me long to figure out that I should be doing my own taxes and I have done them ever since, except for when I had the consulting business and needed some help with some investment losses. Today, there are many computer software packages available to guide one through the process. My take for this year? I well know why they don't give old people more of a break. They depend on any and all revenue to mortgage the future in the trillions that must be borrowed to keep our government afloat. I'll let you think on that for a while. Not too long. It will give you a headache. Or worse. But once again here is my bottom line: Still thanking God that we live in this country and that we were able to make it another year and had enough to pay what we owed. Amen.

Now would be a good time to find one of those deleted paragraphs that I flagged for later use. You know. The ones I was going to remember to remember. Since that's not working at this time, I need to either put a temporarily out of order sign on my memory bank or come up with something new. I'm almost certain that the new stuff might be the old stuff but since I didn't remember it, well, it will be new to everyone, including myself. No. I do not furnish scorecards. There's much about the current administration that is problematic all the way to the top. However, as it relates to dismantling notions that pertain to 'conventional wisdom' and 'status quo', well, I for one am okay with blowing up the bureaucracy and coming up with some new ways of doing business. I'm not sure the blowing up analogy is acceptable today given the sensitivity of the word police, yet, something drastic must happen if real change is ever to take place. I think respect for traditions is a good thing in its place. However, the continuing debacle of waste and corruption that passes itself off as 'this is how it works' needs to be annihilated. Sorry. I used another violent term that entrenched political operatives hate. Like I say, I'm not one of those who supports everything going on in President Trump's day to day functioning as our nation's chief executive officer. But, I do support those things that could make a difference in the effectiveness, efficiency, and in reducing the cost of our government institutions. You can quote me on that. Anonymously, of course. (Lois Lerner may still have friends at the IRS.)

My thoughts last Friday about my grandfather where no doubt prompted by the time spent over the past several weeks immersed in reviewing the information we have regarding our lineage. We will soon be celebrating the birth dates of both our mom and our stepdad, and, during the same interval, we will be recognizing their home going dates as well. They were something to behold for their 40-year run and we as a family can only be thankful for the time God gave them to share with us. They both had their quirks, just like we all do, and they were funny. Even together. And, they were together. That's how most people remember them. Together. Mom, in her 90's, was even jealous of ladies at Church who hugged 'her husband'. Dad laid out a template for a demonstrated devotion that most of us will have a hard time duplicating. But, it does give us something to shoot for. Some like to quote verses. "Love your wife even as Christ loved the Church." (Ephesians 5:25) Dad may or may not have been aware of that verse but he knew what it meant to live it. Which one do you think is more effective? Quoting it or doing it? When I would talk to mom she would tell me how concerned she was about dad overdoing it, some of his ailments, and his general welfare. They cared. They left us a legacy of caring. I do hope we all will take it seriously because God intended for love and devotion to define a healthy marriage. Even with peculiarities and quirks. May God help all of us who were witnesses to their lives to learn and to do our best to put what we saw into practice. Amen. .....More later.