Weirdbook.org

Some blog housekeeping

Hiya. Just a couple of updates to the blog I'd like to point out. These weren't really time-consuming or anything, and in fact, I've been playing with this slightly new look locally for awhile trying to decide if I liked it or not. I decided I did.

Just in case you're wondering why there's been a marked lack of entries lately, this isn't the reason. It's because 1) I've fallen asleep in my new recliner several evenings over the last couple of weeks, 2) raising two kids is much more challenging than raising one, especially when one of those is five years old, and 3) trading my mental energy for money all day long leaves less and less for me as I get older.

Now, with all that said... probably the biggest and most important thing is the search function in the top right corner. It cheats and uses Google. I built about half of a decent search thing myself, but ultimately decided it would become more trouble than it was worth and abandoned it. There's a bit of a lag before Google indexes newer stuff, but it seems to show up within a few days — I think that's good enough.

In the left sidebar, you'll find a couple of RSS icons for your subscribing pleasure. The entries here have always been available via RSS (the first paragraph, anyway), but there's never been an explicit link on the page — just the usual feed icon rendered by your browser. So now there's something to click too. A feed for comments is now available as well (that's actually been broken the last few days and is now fixed). I believe RSS is far better than email for pushing out subscription content despite rumblings that RSS is dead. If anything, it's become an invisible layer upon which other things now ride. Saying RSS is dead is equivalent to saying electricity is dead. Email, on the other hand, is a spam-ridden wasteland we've largely lost control over, and I predict it will be completely irrelevant within the next five years.

Last but not least, a bit of fluff — a torn paper look along both the sidebars, kind of an homage to earlier days when the written word was primarily on paper. It serves no other real purpose besides being eye candy. I wanted to spruce things up just a little without overdoing it, and I think that effect does the job pretty well.

So that's it. I like it, I hope you do too, and I may add a few other little touches here and there in the coming weeks... or maybe not.

The taxman cometh

I've done my own taxes for 22 years — a majority of them as part of a couple. There are lots of reasons I do them myself instead of using software or a tax preparer. Most of these reasons boil down to points of pride, but there are a few practical points there as well, cost being one of them. Why should I pay money to use a software package when part of my own tax dollars are spent to create, print, and mail the forms, not to mention employ the people manning the IRS hotline for my benefit? Why should I pay someone else to read and interpret the instructions on the forms for me when I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself? Why should I pay some random tax preparation office to transmit my tax form electronically when I can just as easily slap a stamp on it and drop it in the mail?

Ah, e-filing. The government has been pushing people to do this for several years now. I always said if the government really wanted me to file my taxes electronically, they would provide me the means to do so for free, regardless of income level, and not point me to a third party company. I guess they finally listened (or ignored those third party companies who lobbied the other direction). Last year, the IRS rolled out something called Free File Fillable Forms. Basically it's a Flash-driven interactive tax form library system. You create an account, pick out the forms you need, and start typing in the relevant info. When you're finished, you click a button and it gets filed. If you already know what forms you'll need and don't mind filling them in yourself (or had planned to do so on paper anyway), it's pretty straightforward to use. And it's free!

So I was finishing up this year's tax forms and got down to the "how much tax was withheld" section. Normally that's a fun moment because it's right before the refund calculation. As you've probably guessed, I'm one of those who would prefer a smaller refund, or even a small payment, because that means more money has been in our pockets over the year instead of being loaned out to the federal government for free. This year, I was rather shocked to find only $144 was withheld from my paycheck for the entire year — which meant we owed over a thousand dollars to the feds. Withholding is something I'm usually super attentive to, but it looked like my attention lapsed while something went drastically wrong in 2009. In fact, when I looked at some old pay stubs, I found the withholding had completely stopped at some point rather early in the year, so no federal taxes were coming out at all. What the hell?

A thousand dollar tax bill means penalties, quarterly filing, and a bunch of stuff I really don't want to mess with. I decided I might as well start assessing the damage. And while researching the penalty, I came across this gem:

The IRS will waive the penalty to the extent any underpayment is due to adjustments to the income tax withholding tables because of the making work pay credit.

— Form 1040A instructions

What's this... a credit? Adjustments to the withholding tables? Making work pay? By now I'm looking for the hidden camera and Allen Funt. It turns out things were proceeding as normal, though, and I'd apparently missed out on a pretty important tax notice from 2009.

The Making Work Pay provision of the tax code is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Essentially, the federal tax withholding tables were tweaked so less tax was taken out throughout the year. The net result was everyone ended up with a little more money in their pockets in 2009. And you get to take that as a credit on your tax bill via a new form called Schedule M. It took me awhile to figure out how that part worked exactly, as it sounded a lot like double-dipping. It isn't. And thanks to taxgirl for shedding some light on this shady subject.

The amount you have withheld from your paycheck is not at all tied to how much tax you owe. You can have any amount withheld you want, provided you can justify doing so... but your best bet is to withhold the exact amount you owe at the end of the year. In this case, the credit reduced the overall amount you owed — and your withholding was reduced to give you that money earlier in drips and drabs. That way, everyone was more likely to spend it and stimulate the economy instead of stick it in the bank or pay off bills like in the old days when you'd just get a check. Not very intuitive at all, but hey. I will give George W. Bush credit for keeping things simple. I can imagine him saying, "This tax stuff is too complicated. Fuck it. Let's just send everybody a check."

Needless to say, I attached Schedule M, filled it out, and took the credit — and after I found another credit (the real estate tax credit), I got the tax bill well under $200. My goal is to reduce this even further and actually turn it positive, and I can do that with an IRA contribution (which we can actually afford this year). So, it looks like we're getting a refund after all. Quite a big change from how things looked earlier!

A day without snow

A rare weekend day without snow brought people out in droves to shop, run around, and shake off the cabin fever which has inflicted everyone for the last several weeks. That includes us. We started with lunch at McDonald's (even me, which is rare — Mickey D's normally makes me physically ill, no exaggeration) and we finished the day with a grocery cart piled high.

Here are some random pictures of our excursion. Strange things catch my attention sometimes. One strange thing which isn't pictured here — two guys in McDonald's wearing ties. One tie had Jesus on it, the other had a cross. If I thought I could have taken their pictures and gotten away with it, I would have.

Apparently when you order unsweet tea at McDonald's, what you really get is a sweet tea without sugar. I'm not sure what the difference is there, but it tasted just like unsweet tea to me. Fail.

Just for the record, the zip code for Elkview is 25071. Either whoever programmed the cash register assumed "zip code" meant the normal five-digit variety, or somebody didn't read the instruction manual, or it wasn't clear how many digits were required, or something. Fail.

I thought maybe a sign reading "This is not a trash can" would have done a more effective job here, but decided it probably wouldn't have after all. Fail.

These are your Wheat Thins...

...and these are your Wheat Thins on drugs. Any questions?

And finally, a view of the mountainside covered with snow. Hopefully there will be less and less of this view in the near future and we'll instead see trees blooming and green leaves popping out.

Wrapping up a random week

Here are a few quick updates on several things.

The cat is home and largely back to his old self, with three exceptions. First, his diet is now exclusively canned food instead of dry. He used to have dry food sitting out to nibble on as he pleased throughout the day while we were at work or otherwise out and about, with about a quarter can of canned food in the morning because it turned him into an effective alarm clock for me. Now he gets a whole can of canned food each day — half in the morning and half in the evening. The alarm clock effect remains with this arrangement, which is good. I have a few issues with the food itself, however. It's a prescription diet, and an expensive one at that. And, it's the exact same flavor day after day after day. Is it a bad thing to feed our pets a monotonous diet? Is it possible to find "over the counter" versions of prescription pet foods?

The second big change is antibiotics, which we've been through before. Charlie originally came from the Kanawha Animal Shelter and contracted a respiratory infection within days of arriving in our home. The treatment was a round of antibiotics, given orally. And, it's part of the treatment he's receiving now. If you've never given a cat medicine, let me tell you right now it's no fun. Fortunately — for both of us — this is a temporary thing, and when they run out, we're done with that torture.

Thirdly and lastly, he seems to be sleeping a lot more. That could be from the antibiotics, the stress of spending a weekend at the vet's, or maybe I'm noticing him more and he's been like that for awhile. It just seems there used to be a certain playfulness which is now absent.

Endless winter. It seems like we've been getting two big snowstorms a week since before Christmas, and in the nearly twelve years I've lived in Charleston, I think this is the worst winter I've seen. This is, in fact, the first winter we've bought salt for spreading on the sidewalk, porch, and porch stairs. It works amazingly well, though I will observe it works much better on the concrete sidewalk than it does on the wooden porch and stairs. Anyway, we have a little path down the sidewalk and into the driveway so we can get to the cars... only to scrape and sweep the snow off them nearly every morning. I'll say this: meteorology is a hell of a lot easier when the weather never changes. And I'm reminded of a scene from LA Story: "The forecast. Sunny. 72°. The next forecast will be in three days."

Rumor has it the kitchen counter will be in place Monday, and phase one of the kitchen remodel will be completed. Most importantly, we'll have a dishwasher and sink again. Doing dishes by hand is a pain in the arse. When we first moved back to WV from NC, we lived in Belle in a tiny little apartment (and most apartments are tiny little apartments). It had no dishwasher, so everything got washed by hand. I was out of work at the time so I assumed that duty, and I tried to get the dishes done every morning. By the time I was done I was usually in a pretty deep funk. Eventually we bought a used portable dishwasher from some old lady on the West Side. At the time, I thought it was the best fifty bucks I ever spent.

That's enough for now, I guess. Life is moving quickly now, and lots of things pop up and resolve in the space of a few hours — things which 1) hardly seem worth mentioning and 2) eat up enough of my time that I really don't have time to stop and think. Sad... I remember better days.

Eight lives to go

After a heartbreaking week, Charlie is coming home tomorrow. His blood tests are returning to normal levels, he's off the IV, eating on his own (with a vengeance, according to the vet), and acting very much like himself — though perhaps a little shaken up by the whole experience, which I'm sure will pass. His diet will have to change a bit, and we'll have to keep a closer eye on him and his health than before. But overall, we've caught things early enough to do something about it... and that's good.

A couple of things in the meantime. I've learned quite a bit about cat biology over the last few days. You'd think I would have delved into that subject already, having lived with two of them so far. No, I've always seen them as four legs and a tail (or a stub in the case of my feline friends), eyes, fur, meows, purrs, and randomness. Supply food in one end, collect waste from the other, be entertained by mischief and comforted by a fuzzy hello. But there's actually some complex chemistry going on under the hood. I suppose that's true of any living thing — easily forgotten as we all go about our business and focus on each other as whole systems instead of hundreds of interacting subsystems. The details remain hidden well enough, most of the time, to make this possible.

In my opinion, that's a pretty neat trick. If the details are running well enough, they never need to be seen. They manifest in the whole, but not necessarily in a way that you can discern — or need to discern.

Now: Perhaps unrelated, perhaps not, I've recently discovered Caprica and have been watching it like a fiend. It's a prequel, 57 years prior to the recent Battlestar Galactica reboot. I never got into Battlestar Galactica at all, more from never watching it than watching it and disliking it. I like Caprica quite a bit, and it's become a "can't miss" show for me. The basic premise is Dr. Daniel Graystone successfully — but unknowingly (so far) — uploads his dead daughter's mind, consciousness, or "soul," if you will, into a robot... effectively resurrecting her. From that spins several plotlines to explore. Is it moral? Is it really her? What is the essence of humanity? And the question which forms in my mind, will this be possible one day? After all, a person's arms and legs can be replaced with artificial ones, making 33% of their total body mass artificial. How much further can this be taken? Could all the biology be turned into a detail suitable for hiding?

I guarantee you replacing failing servos is a lot easier than replacing failing kidneys.

It wasn't an intestinal bug

I got the cat off to the vet's office on Friday, and they immediately determined he was suffering from a severe urinary tract infection, which turned out to be the root cause of the nausea and lack of appetite. Simple enough to treat with antibiotics, but given the lack of food and water over the last few days, they suggested I leave him there through the weekend for further treatment, rehydration, observation, and recovery. That sounded like a wise thing to do so I agreed. As part of the overall treatment they did urine and blood tests, and they found some numbers in the blood test indicating Charlie is in the early stages of kidney failure. And though the vet didn't come straight out and say that when we were visiting the patient today (I took the kids up to visit the "cat hospital"), the discussion he and I had sounded very much like the beginnings of a management plan for a terminal illness.

Needless to say it's been trying the last few days. I didn't realize how strongly Charlie had integrated himself into our family until he disappeared downstairs earlier this week (his method of dealing with being sick is to go hide somewhere quiet until it passes), then was hauled off to the vet's by yours truly for an unexpected weekend stay. Katie and I went to visit by ourselves on Friday — and after our visit, she kept telling me she now understood the sentiment of not realizing what you had until it was taken away from you. Charlie wasn't quite the chipper cat on Friday, but he was today when I took this picture — both kids were loving on him and petting him (and yeah, me too), and I think it's the closest my children have ever willing stood next to each other.

In the meantime, I've been researching kidney failure in cats. It is a progressive illness, but it is manageable, and cats have successfully lived with renal failure for years. And it's actually a fairly common illness too, so there are lots of resources out there to help cat owners deal with it and manage the disease. The Feline Chronic Renal Failure Information Center is an excellent place to start learning. I suspect I'll be hitting that site quite a bit over the next few months.

A lot of this depends on how Monday goes. Charlie will get a second set of tests then to determine how much he's recovered with the treatment he got. This, in turn, will be a good indicator for what needs to happen next. Based on what I saw today, it looks like he's recovering pretty well, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.