Tax blues

Well, I was going to buy a new TV. It was going to be beautiful. 40 inches of 1080p, 120mhz referss, 80K contrast awesomeness. And it was going to have blu ray. All the crap I said I didn't need (and don't), I was going to have anyway.

Then I did my taxes.

Whoops. I owe about 2 TV's worth this year. #$@!

For me taxes are double trouble. First, because I now make enough, and plan poorly enough, that instead of getting HUGE refunds, which I did for most of my life, I now owe moderate amounts of money. So what used to be a fun time of year is now a time of pain. I feel so grown up. Second, because while I'm trying to be stoic about paying a moderate but significant amount of money, reminding myself that you have to pay in to enjoy the benefits of a society, and there are obviously so many benefits to living in this society (and I'm not being facetious - there are undeniably many benefits to being part of American society. You can argue about whether we as a nation deserve them and so on, but I think it's hard to argue that they're not there), while I'm doing that, I've got someone else in the house with a, shall we say, different view on taxes who has a quite different reaction going on. Which is of course entirely justified, but her reaction makes my own efforts at a calm reaction somewhat harder, if you see what I mean.

All of which makes for an unfun evening. And a lack of a new TV. So there you have it.