Taxes, banking, and tongues hanging out

Well, the ex showed up at my doorstep yesterday promptly at 8:00, and dropped off the tax info from last year that I needed. Or at least, what I thought I’d need. I then bundled myself up (it was cold in these parts yesterday) and did some errands.

My company has a LOT of nice perks for employees including a branch of a local bank located right inside our lobby. This means that I don’t have to run out at lunch or after work to try and take care of business – I can usually do my banking right at work. Last week they changed the bank that is in the lobby from a big, pain-in-the-ass, buy-’em-up, take-’em-over, spit-’em-out bank to a newer local bank with a reputation for being very customer oriented. I’ve been fed up with my bank for a while (they did some real screw ups, like accidentally giving my ex access to my accounts for on-line banking purposes) so I really welcomed the excuse to switch banks. I opened a new savings and checking, asked about a safe deposit box (they have oodles available, unlike my former bank) and got my chit for a freebie something or other when I go into work on Monday. The only downside is that I just purchased about two years worth of checks for my old account about a week before I’d found out about the switch at work. No big deal, though, since the new bank gave me free checks (pressure sensitive ones, the kind I like). I just have a ton of scratch paper that I’ll have to Void out before using.

I then took my goodies to HR Block. I thought I’d have to make an appointment to come back, but they told me that if I waited about half an hour they’d be able to take me that day. Since the undone state of my taxes was starting to wake me up at night, I was more than glad to hang out. HR Block was good, they were relatively quick, and I now have the Fed and State taxes taken care of. I owe $26 to the Commonwealth, and the Feds owe me a little over $2,000! It’s nice to know I don’t owe anything (net) but it’s nicer to know that that damned things are actually done now! The money coming back just about equals the cost of my new furniture, so I’m a happy camper.

Last night The Prof and I watched a borrowed copy of Robinson Crusoe on Mars. A blast from the past (1963)! It’s hardly the best of the vintage sci fi films about, but it’s one of the few that I really don’t remember at all, and it made a nice diversion. The film isn’t nearly as kitchy as the title might make it sound. Things that would have been totally acceptable at the time the movie was released come across as patronistic, chauvanistic and even racist in today’s climate, but even that makes the picture more interesting, since it shows how far we’ve come in forty years. Anyone who has a passing interest in science fiction might want to take the opportunity to watch this film if chance should ever bring it their way.

The Professor is now on Spring Break. He’s taken advantage of this to revert to Eastern Vampire Time again, and is currently slumbering in bed. I’ve decided I’m taking myself to Barnes and Noble, grabbing a bunch of the new scifi’s off the shelves, buying myself a large chocolate cappacino, and reading away the afternoon. Monday shall come too soon.

Finally, Clueless Wonder has a nasty tendency to forget to put his tongue back in his mouth every once in a while. It’s embarassing. Here the simpleton is, in all his glory.

Oops. Nearly forgot. I’m 45 years old, Channing (nearly 46). And yes, I’m working in the field of veterinary medicine, though not in medical practice.