COWBOYS AND TAXES

Hello sunny California!!  I know it's probably getting hot down south in Arizona, but it's beautiful up here where diesel is now $5.98 a gallon at my favorite station down the highway.  It's not that the fuel companies are having to pay that high of a price for oil right now, it's because ONE they are greedy, and TWO refineries in California have shut down due to the ridiculous regulations they have to follow.  Maybe California should become the next state of CANADA since we are paying their fuel prices.

At any rate, I try hard not to think about that much.  It will just mean less trips to the quilt store.  Miss Kitters could care less too.  She sits in front of me patiently waiting for pets and rubs.  AND she has the doggy door down pat now.  

The day started out on an UGH project.  The budget for the Elks Lodge is over $1 million.  No we don't follow this list.  I go down the columns and GUESS what the costs will be based on last year, before trying to make the INCOME match.  It's hard to make them balance when dues only come to $250,000 of that large amount.  The bookkeeper and I spent two hours getting it in the computer.

It would be so much easier if they would actually try to FOLLOW the budget, but absolutely NO ONE does.  $4,200 worth of pins and badges were purchased last year when the budget was $1,000.  And so I just stuck numbers in the columns until it balanced.  I see some big problems coming up this year, but you can only scream and yell at them so much.  They will need to work REALLY hard to make the money to pay the bills.  The good thing is it's not MY problem!

After another long discussion with one of our other trustees that works just down the street, I headed back home just in time to see THIS.  YEEHAW!!  The Cowboys are at the White House.  Boy is THIS a surprise.  All of the World Champions showed up in their Sunday best for a picture.  Has ANY other President done this?  

I tried to rest up for a bit from the mental stress of cramming numbers together, but sleep was elusive, as usual.  There were lots more phone calls, mostly complaints from Elks Members about why THAT GUY got a free dinner.  Maybe because it's cheaper to give the VOLUNTEER a dinner than to pay a full time employee for those hours?  I don't remember this part being in the job description.  

That's when I got the phone call.  My taxes are done.  I logged in, hoping for some good news.  I had capital gains of $12,900.  What the heck was that?  I didn't sell anything!!  The good news is even with that, President Trump was right.  I actually saved $6,000 in taxes this year.  Yessiree ... last year I paid $6,000 EXTRA and this year it was ZERO extra.  That's pretty huge in my book!!  There's still the "gains" question, but I'll contact them today.

And so the day ended with ALMOST a sunset.  It was a stressful one I don't want to relive, but at least the budget is done and I still have a few bucks left in my wallet.

Too bad that doesn't compute to NO allergies.  I've been miserable for the last few days.  Another record 15 sneezes happened one after another yesterday, along with a Yosemite Waterfall runny nose.  

SPRING HAS SPRUNG in California!!