9-04 10-04 11-04 12-04 1-05 2-05 3-05 4-05 5-05 6-05 7-05 8-05 9-05 10-05 11-05 12-05 1-06 2-06 3-06
4-06 5-06 6-06 7-06 8-06 9-06 10-06 11-06 12-06 1-07 2/07 3-07 4-07 5-07 6-07 7-07 8-07 9-07 10-07 11-07 12-07 1-08 2-08 3-08 4-08 5-08 6-08 7-08 8-08 9-08 10-08 11-08 12-08 1-09 2-09 3-09 4-09 5-09 6-09 7-09 8-09 9-09 10-09 11-09 12-09 1-10 2-10 3-10 4-10 5-10 6-10 7-10 8-10 9-10 10-10 11-10 12-10 1-11 2-11 3-11 4-11 5-11 6-11 7-11 8-11 9-11 10-11 11-11 12-11 1-12 2-12 3-12 4-12 5-12 6-12 7-12 8-12 9-12 10-12 11-12 12-12 1-13 2-13 3-13 4-13 5-13 6-13 7-13 8-13 9-13 10-13 11-13 12-13 1-14 2-14 3-14 4-14 5-14 6-14 7-14 8-14 9-14 10-14 11-14 12-14 1-15 2-15 3-15 4-15 5-15 6-15 7-15 8-15 9-15 10-15 11-15 12-15 1-16 2-16 3-16 4-16 5-16 6-16 7-16 8-16 9-16 10-16 11-16 12-16 1-17 2-17 3-17 4-17 5-17 6-17 7-17 8-17 9-17 10-17 11-17 12-17 1-18 2-18 3-18 4-18 5-18 6-18 7-18 8-18 9-18 10-18 11-18 12-18 1-19
2-19 3-19 4-19 5-19 6-19 7-19 8-19 9-19 10-19 11-19 12-19


FROM RAMBO III:
Bad guy: Where in my sector are the missles being delivered?
Rambo: I don't know.
Bad Guy: You liar! Where? Where?
Rambo: Okay, I'll tell ya.
Bad Guy: I knew you were lying. Now where are the missles located?
Rambo: Close.
Bad guy: How close?
Rambo: IN YOUR ASS!

Friday, 1-31-20: Analog Man.
In honor of my playing SNES Classic tonight I need to listen to Joe Walsh's Analog Man. I do not own this awesome song; I should buy the mp3 if I can find it for sale. Unfortunately I will probably forget to look for it. What a bunch of crap!

I am so bad at technology The framework for this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read is from 15 years ago. AHAHAHAH. My cellphone cannot get on the Interweb, and sometimes I don't want to own a cellphone. The whole world's living in a digital dream. It's not really there it's all on the screen...

GREAT SONG!

I tried to play my SNES Classic a week ago, and I tried some before that, but the HDMI cable was bootleg and did not work. (BECAUSE IT WAS NOT ANALOG DERRRRRR!) Thankfully my badass wife had a spare cable at the office so she brought it home and it worked like a boss. I was going to use my gym, but I decided not to use the gym so I played Nintendo instead. Hehehe. I would have used the gym, but I am maxed out on my exercise and all joking aside I need a break from that thing for now. Too much gym at age 44 with no HGH or steriods or other PEDs = CAN NOT DO.

I'm not quite half drunk yet so I can actually still get to the bar. I'll head on down to Jester's shortly, but first I have to write about nothing to almost no one, ever. Yeah where's my psychologist? When I was over at my gym I got my office mail, and then Gavin popped in and instead of getting my swell on I shot the shit for a while. I got a gas bill, middle of winter price per therm is 76 cents. I think that is pretty good, but I am not checking it now F that.

All I wanna know is why? Why are the cats doing things that cannot be explained? Again. One of them is trying to get into the basement, but there is a closed door there and the door will win every time gods damn it.

Let's listen to Fly Like Superman now. This song is so fucking awesome and if you disagree then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I will hate you a little more.

I fucking suck at video games these days. I am so terrible that I maybe should not even play. What a bunch of crap! I died on average one time per minute, maybe more. I did beat a couple levels, but when I died it was epic fail incredibly fast. We're talking death within 20 seconds of starting a level more often than not. One time I even went the wrong way in the final level 6 castle. THE WRONG FUCKIN' WAY OMG! I definitely did not fly like Superman because when I jumped I died. A lot.

I wish Populous was on my SNES Classic. I want to play Populous right now. That game was the best in 1991 or 1992. I played that game so much that I never learned how to pick up chicks. No wonder my prom date found someone better and I ended up mostly single until roughly 2010. That is sad but true and if you reverse-engineer my age you really see how much of an epic failer I became. Oh well at least back in the day I could win some video games. Now I cannot beat any video game without Google helping me a few times along the way. I SUCK. What a bunch of crap!

Alright turds, all two of you who actually read this pathetic excuse for a website, I am going to the bar now to listen to karaoke (but not actually to sing karaoke because that requires talent) and to drink more until last call. Goonies never say die!

^POPULOUS LIKE A BOSS. There was this thing called Armageddon in the game when everyone fought each other, but it was not quite as cool as the Def Leppard 1987 song from the Hysteria album called Armageddon It because no one had a sweet guitar solo prefaced with the lyrics "Come on Steve, get it." Okay now I want to listen to Def Leppard. Guy wonders why guy is not in a mental institution...

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Thursday, 1-30-20: Shopping flights for our spring vacation.
Every so often I go to Travelocity.com to see what flights to Cancun are available for either May 2-8 or May 2-9 this coming spring. We already booked our 6-person, 2-bedroom villa a couple months ago for a pretty low price so now we just need flights to and from. As an added bonus last week I found another full 2-bedroom villa for only about $300 so I snagged that right away for Neil and Ang. We have the sleeping capacity to bring 12 people with us to the Royal Haciendas now! We won't bring 12 people with us, though. Most likely 8-9 of us will all go.

Awesome my tax office phone just rang and I made an appointment for next Wednesday, two people coming together twice the revenue. I had two appointments yesterday, but both of them had to cancel. What a bunch of crap! I don't think they canceled to go somewhere else, though. One didn't have her school 1098T yet and the other had other stuff come up. I wasn't bored yesterday, though. I had a really nice older couple call and come in and I had drop-off stuff to work on. Today I don't have any appointments so that is why I am on this bootleg site writing my useless thoughts to almost no one.

^From Boston to Cancun there are 4 nonstop flights starting at $416 so that's not horrible. Flight down is nonstop,but return flight does have one layover. From Portland last week was about $470 for one-stop flights to and from, but now I see the times have changed some so that is a bootleg option at the moment. The $470 flight currently has a 3.5-hour layover in Charlotte, NC before arriving in CUN at 1917. What a bunch of crap! Long layovers suck. A lot. Nonstop flights are better, but getting them from Maine = epic failer.

Flights from Bangor are ridiculous, and that is usuaully the case for a flight to Mexico. Last year we found decent flight times and prices to Phoenix from Bangor, but forget it going to the tropics. I like flying from Bangor since the airport is only 4 miles from the house and going through TSA is easy, but paying over $250 more per person per ticket to fly from BGR = DO NOT WANT. The cheapest flight from Bangor right now per ticket to Cancun is $665. F THAT.

Travel to exotic locales involves a lot of headaches and makes for a long day. It gets even more compounded when planning a trip with a big group. Paying extra for one ticket for the ease of flying out of Bangor is okay, but for 5 people not so much. Katherine, Dillon, and Debbie all plan to come with us this time so I shop for 5 tickets. Neil, Ang, and Cam will likely find their own flights. Hopefully we can all be on the same flight to and from for commuting to either Portland or Boston, but Cam doesn't have his passport yet and I don't want to wait until March to buy our own airfare.

Hmmm... Southwest Air has some decent-looking round-trip flights BOS-CUN. $199 a person down, $215 back, layover in Baltomore, $415 a person is a lucrative deal considering all the other airlines are going to fuck us up the ass $60 for baggage fees ($30 down, $30 back.) That $60 baggage fee for my awesome wife and I doesn't even factor in the $60 Dillon and Debbie will pay and the $60 Katherine would pay for her bag. GODS DAMNED BAG FEES!

^Awarded to airlines that charge extra fees to check a bag. If you are taking a week-long trip then of course you need to bring a fucking suitcase gods damn it. Also, most airlines seem to charge a fee just to select your seat now. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I could see paying a fee for extra leg room / first class, but just to sit together costs more. FUCK THAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

Southwest Air does not charge bag fees, at least for the first two bags per person. Since we are NEVER going to bring more than two bags a piece then that is great. "Bags fly free." Thanks Southwest Air! Unfortunately you also have to pay a fee to get an assigned seat on SW Air, at least I think you do. I know if you don't pay extra you herd on like damn farm animals into a corral and it is a free-for-all piece of shit.

I'll ask my awesome wife what she thinks, but she will probably just agree to do what I think is best. I spend precious... precious hours on this crap so I better get it right or else I shall have to award myself with my own bootleg fail trophy.

^All the headaches that go along with planning the trip and actually flying to and from seem to disappear when we are actually there in our tropical paradise. That was our view from May, 2019 at the Royal Haciendas.

If I don't get more business happening from this damn tax office this spring vacation will be our last one for a while. Thankfully I have had several "drop offs" to work on, and I am just waiting for some people to come in to pay and sign so I can get their stuff filed. I have had a couple really great new clients this week so that is a huge help.

Two days ago I did taxes for a nice lady who does hair at a place nearby. She was so happy with me that she gave me a tip. Awesome! The best thing she did for me was not the tip, though. Yesterday morning she was doing someone's hair, she told her customer about my tax place, and that lady called and had me do her and her husband's taxes yesterday. Word of mouth will make or break me so I better be good at what I do for everyone. Always. 100% of the time.

Alright turds, I guess I should go read more and find other somewhat productive ways to pass the time. Tomorrow is the last day of January already, wow. According to the almanac the average coldest day of winter here is around January 27th so we are starting to climb out of the hole, so-to-speak. Bring on spring so we can enjoy warmer weather here and so we can take another trip to MEXICO. Goonies never say die!

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Monday, 1-27-20: The LED sign is fully operational.
I ordered an LED display-sign last week, and it only took a couple days to arrive. Oh Jesus, hell ya! It came Saturday PM, but I waited until this morning to get it programmed and plugged in. Right now it is in the front window with some scrolling messages like "TAXES DONE HERE!" I'm not sure if the thing will help get customers to call and/or to just show up, but I hope it does. The LED sign cost $200 so if it gets even 3-4 more people in here then it was worth the money. Maybe it will be a valuable marketing tool for both Kat and I for the next couple years or more. How long do these things last? Eventually the bulbs will start to wear out.

^5-star rating, but only rated by two people so that is not a great sample size. I went with that one because it is designed to be visible even in direct sunlight. The sun hits this place hard until midday-early PM so that is an important consideration.

Right now I only have a few scrolling messages about taxes on the LED scroller, but in the future we can change it and add cool things like "BOOK YOUR WEDDING HERE!" or "FRIDAY NIGHT KARAOKE AT JESTR'S!" I didn't bring my camera to take a picture to post, but I should have. The IRS opens today for e-filing so maybe that will get me more people as well. I do have an appointment each day for the next three days, and this weekend I saw a few people at the bar who plan to come do their taxes with me this winter. I was at Jester's both Friday and Saturday nights since my awesome DJ-wife worked both days there. It was a fun weekend; I got liquored up but didn't wake up hungover so that is a win. We ended up at Denny's Saturday late-night so bedtime was between roughly 0330-0400. It was pouring rain Saturday night and not too cold for this time of year so that is great. The rain was not so great, but it sure beat heavy snow and freezing cold.

Our own taxes are alreay close to done. Thankfully most of our income from 2019 was the capital gains from the Holyoke Street house sale so we fall into the 0% tax bracket on that gain. The big expenses, things like finishing the tax offices, renovating that Holyoke house, and paving the lot here at the tax office cancel out the income I reported from all the carpentry. I could have left that carpentry income off the books, under-the-table, but F that I don't need to get pwned for tax fraud and shut down by the IRS for failing to do our own taxes right.

Heat last year for the rentals cost $12,507 and plowing was $1735. That is actually great since I expected it to be higher. Repairs and capital improvements were HUGE costs last year, $50,853. Plus I spent another $9,846 on labor. That's $60,699 total for the tax office building and the other apartments. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Some of that labor cost was for Modern Pest bedbug remediations, but most of it was for upgrades and big projects. We obviously do NOT have $60k kicking around in any bank account so a lot of that money spent was from the Holyoke house sale and from a home equity loan on our own house. Property taxes added another $17,185.

Having Dakota here last year allowed me to get a lot done. A LOT. He was a huge help not only with the carpentry jobs that I picked up but also for the rental properties/tax office. He also helped Kat with the DJ gigs and Gavin on his house. Too bad he hauled on Katherine a few weeks ago. What a bunch of crap! Kat and I figured their long-distance relationship would not last since he didn't seem to love Katherine enough to want to stay up here with her. He chose a life in Tennessee over her, and once she got serious about moving down there he pulled the plug on the whole thing so that sucks. A lot. She'll find someone better eventually

Vacancies were not a big problem last year. I did have the Gilmore house empty for some summer remodeling, and evicting the previous tenant there was a financial setback as expected. However, it was worth it because it allowed me to downsize so now I have less on my plate. Having two less properties to care for this year has been great; I have NO desire to add any more rental units. I enjoyed doing the carpentry last year so hopefully I can pick up some side work again this year. Gavin will have a lot of work needing done on his 3-unit building (His money pit what a bunch of crap!) and it is possible I will end up on Cape Cod installing siding and/or a deck for Aunt Susie. If I do that at all it will be a big job involving a couple week-long stays down there. She got quotes from contractors in her area, but those quotes are way too high for what she needs done. Contractors jacking up the price = what a bunch of crap!

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Friday, 1-24-20: A few thoughts before I go to Jester's. Impeachment?
I drank a couple coffee brandys and milk (FATASS IN A GLASS LIKE A BOSS CAUSE I GIVE ZERO FUCKS IF I GET JUDGED I AM NOT A FAT CHICK) then I drank some Dr. Mcgillicutty. I don't even know how to spell that what a bunch of crap!

I was going to post a Dr. McGillicutty meme but it was too hard to find. Stupid site has too many photos gods damn it. Guy looks again...

^I could not find it, but in the D-section was this for the win. AHAHAHAHAHA. Fucking babies I am so happy I don't own one of those.

I'm pretty sure I suck at almost everything. Would not blame my wife if she decides to haul on me.

I talked to Mom on the phone tonight for about a half-hour, and then I watched a little of the Celtics game. I actually mostly watched the Celtics on MUTE as I talked to Mom, and then after that I checked in on the IMPEACHMENT trial of President Trump. I tried to be unbiased so I watched some CNN and some FOX News. CNN pretty much hates Trump, and Fox seems to love the guy. At least that is my impression. CNN was interviewing Democrats who shit on Trump; Fox News was interviewing Republicans who were shitting on the entire impeachment process.

My conclusions about the impeachement trial for Trump is as follows:

^AWARDED TO ANYONE WHO THINKS TRUMP SHOULD BE IMPEACHED.

Trump seems like a terrible person. He probably dodged the Vietman War draft, and it seems almost certain he cheated on his wife. He probably just "bought" his wife somehow, but that is of course speculative. I think he is a little racist and looks down on wommens. However, despite his myriad of flaws he is running this place like a boss and I plan to vote for him later this year. Our economy is doing great, and he is a big part of that. Meanwhile we have Biden and his family getting posh leadership positions when he was vice president yet the mainstream media leaves that one alone. All I wanna know is why? Why does that not get more press coverage? Answer seems obvious: they all hate Trump. What a bunch of crap!

The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump last year before Xmas, but then turdd-burglar Pelosi just sat on the impeachment for a month so that is ridiculous. Now the sentate is having a trial, and most expect Trump will NOT get impeahed. They basically are trying to haul on him because they hate him. I don't like the guy either, but come on that is bullshit. Fucking Democrats epic failer indeed FAIL TROPHY for the loss there.

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Thursday, 1-23-20: Shopping LED signs.
I'm at my tax office in my "reception" area up front near the bay window and the street. I already shovelled in lunch, read some of a book, studied more on S-Corps, and screwed off surfing the web. More recently I've been shopping LED signs on amazon.com. Amazon is awesome and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. Amazon should pay me for any clicks I get for that referral gods damn it. At a rate of let's say a penny per click my net worth would increase by a cent as a result of such a promotion. Hehehe.

I'm not doing jack shit for business yet at my new tax office. What a bunch of crap! Of course I can count on a lot more business to come in the next 12 weeks, but maybe not enough to meet my first full-season goal. Last month and even maybe in November last year I spent some time on Amazon looking at scrolling LED displays. I decided to hold off on buying one, but now that things are slow I have revisited the subject. Since I didn't pay any money for advertising at all this year (as planned) I think I need to make this place stand out more. I have a fantastic location right on North Main Street with a constant flow of passers-by so I'm gonna order some made-in-China thing and hope it helps. This is the type of thing I have been looking at:

^There are many more options than just what is pictured above, and of course I can shop beyond just the large expanse of Amazon. Actually I should do that next because I really have only been looking on Amazon. I'm close to buying the $148 sign in the photo above, left side. A 4/5 rating is acceptable. 4.5 or 5 would be better, but signs with that high of a rating cost a lot more. Like hundreds of dollars more.

I like the idea of a scrolling display because I can put cool messages on it that vary. I can go with something classic like Goonies never say die! Hehehehe. I wonder how much new business that would get me? I do have my sandwich board that really stands out, but an added scrolling display would only help. A size of 40x8 is not huge, but I don't need people to be viewing the thing from friggin outer space.

I could also put cool things on an LED display that promote my awesome wife's business as well. One day I could change it to read Book your wedding here today! Or I could do a combo where it scrolls something for her business and something for my business. Book your DJ, file your taxes, something like that.

I have had no calls emails, or walkins today regarding taxes, but there are still 3.5 hours left before I close at 1700. Yesterday I had a client come in for an appointment, a referral from one of Kat's friends, so that helps some. It was not a complex tax return at all, but it did help me pass the time. I really haven't been bored, but a couple times I have come close. This book I'm reading isn't that great so I should find something better. I have better ones here, but I'm halfway through this thing so I might as well finish it. I read some, I study tax laws some, I screw off some, and I hope people reach out so I can do more taxes.

Kat starts a stretch of four consecutive nights of working tonight so the extra money will be good. She also booked a wedding yesterday, her first one ever booked at Morgan Hill. Oh Jesus hell ya! We both have always hoped to get one there since that is where we got married back in 2015. Even better it's our plow and landscape contractors daughter so we were able to swap plowing done for some of the upcoming wedding cost. Even more extra precious... precious money for the bank. We're not broke, I have some money set aside from the Holyoke sale last year, but seeing more go out than what comes in is not a good thing. So far the tax business income of $93 doesn't do much to cover operating costs. It's as expected, though. Slow start and *hopefully* much busier finish.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I guess I should go finalize a decision on a LED sign so I can get it ordered and on its way. When it arrives my first message should be IT DOES ITS TAXES OR IT GETS THE HOSE AGAIN.

^HAHAHAHA.Classic Silence of the Lambs. I actually have a better one thank you very much, Interweb:

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Tuesday, 1-21-20: The things we have watched on the tube lately and the things still to come.
I've had a pretty easy last few weeks, relatively speaking. No crazy work hours, no major calamities anywhere, piece of cake. 2020 has been off to a quiet start, and that is both good and bad. The bad is I almost get bored at my new tax office when there are no customers. I say almost because I never really actually get bored here in the tax office. There are always things to do like study, read, prepare, surf the web, do a crossword puzzle, etc. Some more customers certainly would be great, though. Making money > sitting here not making money.

I haven't had much business yet, but I have to tell myself it is only January 21st and lots of people don't have all their forms and stuff yet. I did have a guy stop in earlier who will most likely be back so that's great. No phone calls in a long time, though. So much time that I actually called the office phone from my bootleg, nearly-ancient cellphone yesterday just to be sure the thing was actually working still hahaha. It does work but no one wants to call yet. I guess.

The good thing about not being very busy is I have plenty of time to decompress, so-to-speak. I was so damn busy last year that I felt like I was always behind on everything so this is a nice change of pace. I've pretty much maxed out on the time I have used to exercise so far with a mix of yoga, weightlifting, racquetball, and a some miles on my awesome new treadmill. The weather hasn't done anything too fucked up so far, and we are actually about 6 degrees above average month-to-date. Awesome! No huge snow or ice storms so far at all this winter, and the cost of natural gas is down so that really helps tremendously, especially with all the meds my poor wife has to buy to try and treat her lyme diseases.

Since I have had plenty of extra precious... precious time I've been able to read a couple books and watch several different TV programs and movies in late 2019 and into this year. We recently watched the Joker movie, and that was a bunch of crap. I give it a 2 on a scale of 1-10. We haven't seen too many other new movies, a little here, a little there, but mostly we've watched some different series. Oh, we did watch Ad Astra last week or the week prior, and that movie can eat the peanuts out of my ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttt. Great visuals, great vision for the future, but other than that fucking terrible.

^Ad Astra = CRAP ASTRA. Brad Pitt in space doing jack fuckin' shit for most of the time. 2.5/10 and only gets that many points because I liked the visuals and the concepts. Everything else was epic failer. Too bad cause I'm a sucker for a good space movie.

Last month we chewed through Watchmen on HBO. I don't know anything about the graphic novels/comics or the Watchmen movie that was made several years ago so I started off with a clean slate of knowledge of the source materials. Overall that was a very good show. Confusing as hell at first, but with a very satisfying and well-done finale. I give that one a solid 7.5/10 rating.

We recently finished both seasons of You on Netflix, and that was very good. Show is about a stalker/killer but has a unique twist and does a great job of making you both love and hate the main character at the same time. Season 2 > season 1, but both were good. Season 1 = 7.5/10, season 2 = 9/10.

We started watching The Outsider on HBO last night; we watched all three of the first episodes before bed. So far that series has also been great, but I can't give it a real review yet since there are still several weeks' worth of episodes left to watch. We can't binge-watch that one because new episodes come out once a week.

There are some weekly shows that we check in on. Manifest on NBC gets thrown onto the DVR, but that show kinda sucks. Much like Ad Astra has some neat concepts but gets bogged down with stupid shit. We still watch The Walking Dead, but that one is on hiatus until next month. I don't mind watching that show or its spinoff, but I don't consider it to be riveting TV anymore, not like it was several years ago. We watch Jeopardy and some wrestling each week. I watch Gold Rush still as well as Gold Rush Whitewater, but I don't get too excited about it. Sometimes it takes me days to get around to those shows. Really the stuff on "regular" TV lately has been inferior to some of the things we have discovered on the premium channels like HBO and on Netflix.

Tonight when I get home around 1700 we will likely watch some of last night's WWE Monday Night RAW. That wrestling show is 3 hours long, but we condense it to about 45 minutes because most of the stuff the WWE puts out these days is not great. Gone are the must-see days of 20 years past when pro wrestling was fucking awesome. I'm sure we'll also watch that not-great Manifest show, Jeopardy, and who knows what else but likely something not too arduous to chew through before bedtime.

Kat works four consecutive nights later this coming week. Thurs is the Eagles Club, Fri and Sat this week is Jester's, and Sunday is the Pour House. I used to think the Pour House was a piece of shit, but I have to give the new owner credit for investing in the place. That Bangor bar is actually closed now for new flooring installs, and I bet it will look great with that done. I don't usually hang out at the Pour House since I mostly do my boozing on Friday nights and being at the bar sober fucking sucks. I do help her set up for her show Sunday evening, but then I go home to watch some TV and to go to bed. Maybe one of these weeks I'll actually go to the Pour House and hang out, have a couple beers and keep my awesome wife company...

Alright turds, all two of you who actually read this bootleg site of mine, I'm out of here. I'm gonna read more and hope for some paying customers. So far not much happening here. What a bunch of crap! Maybe next year I will advertise more to drive early-season business or I just won't open at all for regular hours until mid-late January...

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Saturday, 1-18-20: A good start and a bad end. Being married is fucking hard.
Yesterday started off good; Kat and I had a nice morning and were really on the same page. Last fall I thought our marriage was pwned, but since then we've been doing much better. Unfortunately last night at Jester's I got pissed off at my awesome wife, I walked my drunk ass home, and I bivouaced in the spare bedroom. What a bunch of crap!

Most of the time Friday nights at the bar are fun for me, but last night not so much. It started off fun but then Kat got liquored up and things went downhill. She was too drunk in my opinion, but I was also drunk. However, I was not at work and she technically was at work so there is that. She wanted to sing Cheap Trick's The Flame for me, but I could not sit there and pay 100% attention to her karaoke singing because drunk-Debbie was in the middle of trying to give me good/terrible advice. Kat got mad at me for supposedly not paying attention, I told her it was not my fault, things escalated, we ended up with too high of a bar tab, I got pissed off, and I hit the road. Could I have handled things a little better? Definitely yes. Walking home was friggin' cold, very cold, so thankfully we live close and it is about a 6-minute walk.

Too bad I could not 100% pay attention to my awesome and very talented wife singing a great song for me. The Flame is a fantastic song and it used to be one of, if not my all-time favorites. There are a few songs that remind me of my childhood/teenage years, and that is one of them. When I hear The Flame and Eric Carmen's Make Me Lose Control I always remember spending time on Cape Cod in the summers. I don't know why those two songs bring back those memories so much, but I'm guessing I heard them a lot back in the day when we were hanging out down there. Some of my fondest childhood memories are from the time we spent on the Cape, 19 Second Avenue in Osterville.

^That photo was from at least 10 years ago, maybe 15 years ago now. Grammy and Papa lived there for a long time, and even before they lived there the house/cottage was available for us to use every summer. I wonder if Grammy and Papa regretted moving to Maine from Osterville? It was too hard for them to keep up the house down there so they really had no choice but to move to somewhere else. They were both awesome and seemed to have lived great lives, both into their 90s, but I still do miss them and wish they were here in the flesh still and not just here today as pixels and photos.

I really do love the fact that, for the first time ever, Kat sang that song in my honor. She does that sometimes, sings songs that she knows I love so she does it for me. (Goonies R Good Enough!) Unfortuantely when we are at the bar there are other people around, and people come and go and create unintended distractions. Debbie did not pick a good time to sit down and to try to give me advice. I was boozed up, but not totally wasted and I remember that chat. She said Katherine needed a father figure and a hug because Dakota hauled on her a couple days ago. Then she said I was a robot. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! She was not trying to be cruel to me, but the timing was terrible. She's drunkenly telling me I am emotionally impotent (ROBOT) and I'm trying to pay attention to my awesome wife's singing. From Kat's perspective I was ignoring her, but it was not really my fault gods damn it.

Kat and I are not fighting now, and I think we are okay again. Maybe? Hopefully! She says she is not going to drink again for a long time because she is starting a new regiment of drugs. I get pissed at her when she gets really drunk, but I can't totally fault her for it because I'd probably do the same thing if I had 7 different lyme and other diseases. However, I would not do it when I was supposed to be working. Fucking erithromyiacn she just texted me she was crying at the pharmacy because it costs $750 for a month's supply. OMG ROBBERY! What a bunch of crap! She has this "GOOD RX" card, but is seems like a BAD RX card right now. Wonder what it costs without the card?

^FAIL TROPHY TO THE BIG DRUG COMPANIES SHE HAS SOME HEALTH INSURANCE BUT I GUESS NOT THE KIND TO COVER A DRUG THAT I CANNOT EVEN SPELL WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP.

WHAT A GIANT BUNCH OF CRAP!

Alright turds, all two of you who actually read this bootleg site, I am going to go do other things now. I have the tax office open, but I have no appointments and no one is here so I think I'll close between 1300-1400 unless I get some business. So far gross revenues for the business are $40 year-to-date. That would be epic failer, but I know a lot more is yet to come. Maybe? Hopefully!

In conclusion I am probably a shitty husband and a robot. I'm good at doing taxes, though!

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Thursday, 1-16-20: Happy birthday, bruh.
Today is Jason's 42nd birthday. I texted him well-wishes earlier, and I'll probably give him a call tonight. I didn't buy him jack shit because I suck, but hey at least I remembered the day. Hopefully he has a good day with Holly, Nadia, and Hawke down at their beautiful house in Warren. 40 acres and a mule hehe. Just kidding about the mule, but I think they do have 40 acres. Fantastic woods that slope down to the St. George river; I turkey hunted those woods with him last spring and hope to spend many more hunts down there over the coming years with him and Hawke. Nadia has a pink bow, but I have a feeling hunting just is not going to be her niche in life. She likes horses and girlie shit. Has a kitten, etc. Who knows maybe Hawke will grow up to hate hunting also...

All joking aside Jason grew up to be the prodigal son and good for him because one of us three should live close to Mom and Dad and have kids for them to dote upon. Doug is still 3000-ish miles away in Tucson, AZ so hopefully this year we can figure out how to get him back east and closer to "home."

^Happy birthday, bro. What a bunch of crap man I love posting that bootleg Asian-looking turd-cake hehehe.

I'm updating this pathetic excuse for a website that almost no one will ever read just after lunch and from our own house. Hang on, Winders wants to do "important" updates so I need to click that away. I thought Winders 7 lost its support from Microsoft a couple days ago, but I guess a few final updates are in the queue on my Acer laptop computer that used to be Katherine's. I guess this thing became obsolete for her a couple or three years ago, but my technology-laggard-ass plans to hang onto this thing until smoke pours out of it one day. Just kidding I guess if the technology is obsolete then I won't have a choice, and that is a bunch of crap.

I do have a year-old computer at the tax office that I use to do taxes with a newer Winders, probably version 10, but I don't even know for sure. I'm not at the tax office right now because it is snowing. No huge storm, but one that started right around revielle so the timing is bad. We'll end up with 3-4 inches, but the roads are somewhat greasy and no one was on my schedule for the place anyway so what's the point of going over there for nothing? Back in the JH days as an employee I would have had to be open, but F that I am my own boss now and I can make decisions that aren't as corporate-minded.

^Heaviest snow staying just to our south for the rest of the afternoon and slowly ending around 1600. Another inch to go, or so says Keith Carson from channel 3, NBC. Keith does a great job with his forecast, better than any other meteorologist I have ever watched on TV. When I was younger I wanted to be a meteorologist, but then I joined the Navy and they convinced me to do air traffic control. HAHAHAHAHA. Stupid 17-year old kid they could have told me I'd be shovelling shit and I probably would have said "Okay sign me up!"

Actually they did want me to be a "nuke" and I objected to that path. A 6-year minimum requirement and possible radiation to be sterile and to get cancer = HARD NO. The being sterile part would be great since F kids, but I'm all good now I'll never pokerize a woman again who could possibly have kids so no worries. Maybe I will get cancer and die anyway seems like half of society gets cancer and there is no reason why I should expect to win at the illness-roulette. One of our good friends has a brother who had stage 4 cancer, but he beat that shit. Good for him awesome! Kat beat cancer before like 3 times in her life. If I get cancer I guess I'd fight it a little, but then I'd just give up and die because F it, death only happens once. No sense leaving behind $100k in medical bills fighting a battle odds say I'd lose going to war with a really bad form of cancer.

I wonder how old I will be when I do check out for good. I'm glad I don't actually know because it would be depressing. What if I knew my expiration and it was at age 45. That would give me about a year to finish things up and that would suck. Conversely and even worse, what if my expiration date was 2075? Living to be 100 seemed cool when I was around age 30, but not anymore. Shit living a long, really long life now seems like a form of punishment...

I had my first paying customer yesterday at the tax office, a simple tax return that didn't cost a whole lot from someone whom I have known for many years. At least half if not over 75% of my clients will be people I know from outside the tax office. Former co-workers, friends, family, people who work with Kat, people I know from years of being around town, etc. I do hope I get a bunch of "walk-ins" off the street, but "a bunch of" is subjective. Last year I was only open to the public for a few short weeks and I got 3 or 4 walk-ins so that is great.

I might actually go over to the tax office midafternoon when Kat and Katherine go to the vet to get cats some shots. I don't think the vet will close since the snow is not horrible, but maybe? I am hoping that in a couple hours most of the snow is done so I can go shovel and clean up around our driveway and the properties. Get it shovelled during the daylight when it's 30-ish degrees outside and not too brutal because we get a hard freeze tonight and into most of the next week. I won't open the tax office, but I can check messages. If Kat does work tonight at the Eagles (likely she will unless they decide not to do karaoke) then I might try to play rball, but I haven't even asked Mike to play yet so maybe I'll just work on the gym ceiling some more. That ceiling still is not done because I SUCK. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, no rush. I have used my gym a lot so far this year, and I did yoga for four consecutive days Sunday through yesterday. I felt a little sore yesterday so maybe I should not have done the yoga, though. I felt good this morning in my gym, no yoga, so each day my body tells me a different story. Joys of getting older takes longer to recover and is harder to stay in shape. Gods damn it!

This morning my awesome wife and I finished the last two episodes of a Netflix show called You. We watched season 1 a week or two ago, and we just finished season 2. We didn't even know what the hell the show was until friends told us about it. Netflix is chocked full of movies and shows so it's hard to know what is good and what is a bunch of crap. I'd say their best and most-known show is Stranger Things, but they do have a lot of interesting other things on there and I think it's worth the $12 a month that we pay for it. We go months without using it, but then when we do use it we more than make up for lost time. Nothing else to do in the winter but work, exercise, read, and watch TV. F winter I'm glad it's already about half over.

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Tuesday, 1-14-20: No paying customers yet.
My tax office is open 1000-1700 for the time being, most likely until after April 15th. I know there will be days I am here well before 1000 and days I'll stay well past 1700. I'll also do some weekend hours based on who reaches out to me and for what. Certainly more than a few Saturdays will be needed if I actually want to make more precious... precious money.

Speaking of money, so far there are no paying clients to speak of. I have met with three different prospective clients and I just emailed back and forth with one of Kat's friends who will come to see me once she and her husband get their w2s and stuff. I looked back at what I did when I worked at Liberty and JH, and I really didn't do much at all until the third week in January. Last year I did NOTHING here in this tax office until February 14th! Of course the entryway looked like this about a year ago:

^Not ready for customers and still loads of work left to do. I fell behind schedule by several weeks on this building because I wanted to have the tax office and DJ areas all done in early January. What a bunch of crap! It is REALLY hard to stay on schedule for these big projects, and they take a tremendous amount of precious... precious time and money.

I could be bored here with no calls and no customers 99% of the time so far, but our own taxes are going to be more complex than ever this year so I have already spent many hours on that. As always I have two schedule Es for the rentals, but this time we will have three schedule Cs for the other stuff. THREE OMG. One for the tax business, one for all the carpentry I did last year, and one for my awesome wife's DJ business. I made quite a bit of money doing all the work for Phil, Mike, Gavin, and my parents and I need to claim that if I am going to even pretend to be a real tax professional. Trust me it is tempting to NOT claim it, but F that I could lose my tax business if I can't even do it right on my own friggin' taxes. I'd have to say WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP and EPIC FAIL if I ever got shut down by the IRS for being a dumbass.

I have over a dozen depreciable items on our taxes including two new ones from last year. First was the cost of finishing the building itself as shown in the photo above. We spent a shitload in 2018 when we first started this place, but the costs spilled well into 2019 getting it done and paying down the Lowe's and Home Depot cards. Plus the garage had to be removed and we paid for the paved lot. Tons of business expenses in 2019. Thankfully I hauled on the Holyoke rental house so we had precious... precious money. Thankfully all of that income will be long-term capital gains so it is entireply possible we will owe zero on our federal taxes and under $2000 to the state. I still have to play around with allowable depreciation and decide what's best. Thankfully my awesome wife and I still have 3 months to figure it all out. I do want it mostly sorted sooner rather than later, though. Even though I'm not busy now and I have plenty of free precious... precious time I might get busy later this winter and run low on time to do our own tax stuff.

2019 was the first year in my adult life, at least I'm 99% sure it was, that I won't be getting a w2 for any of the work that I did. I was NOT an employee at all in 2019, and it felt great. I worked as my own boss and as an independent contractor. Being totally self-employed is great, but it is risky. I have a general idea what I'll make each month since I keep spreadsheets and projections for everything (to the point where it is weird? Perhaps!), but anything extraordinary can and often does happen. Hopefully I can be self-employed for the rest of my life...

I'm thinking back on my employment history. First was the Navy right out of the gate at age 17. I got w2s for those years starting in tax year 1993, but it seems like a lifetime ago and I don't really remember anything about it all. I think I filled out the 1040 by hand and mailed it in most of those years. Then post-Navy in 1998 was Aubuchon Hardware, Circuit City 1999-2003, FedEx Ground 2003-2010, Liberty Tax 2011-2013, UPS 2013-2014, the USPS briefly in 2014, and Jackson Hewitt 2015-2018. I might have flubbed some of those timelines, but it's pretty close.

It was 53 degrees Saturday before temps crashed and we got a light glaze of ice around midday Sunday. The forecast was for up to 1/2" of feezing rain Sunday so we really got lucky. I did have our new parking lot here at the tax office sanded, but nothing else. there is not much snow left on the ground at all right now. Oh Jesus hell ya! Unfortunately a little snow is coming tonight, a few inches seems a lock for Thursday, and a bigger snowstorm looms for the weekend. It's gonna get cold also so winter is back, bigtime. Oh well the above average temps were a nice relief for the end of Dec and into the first half of this month. Saved a lot on heat and plowing as compared to a year ago and that is fantastic. I'd love to see the rest of winter be this easy, but based on the forecast I can want in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up faster hehehe.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this pathetic excuse for a webpage, I'm gonna go work on oour own taxes a little more then read some tax laws. Goonies never say die!

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Friday, 1-10-20: At home Friday night, half drunk, going to the bar soon.
So far 2020 has started off for me as I hoped it would. Pretty easy overall. Oh Jesus hell ya! I have had plenty of precious... precious time to not feel stressed out about any of the work I have had to do. I've had enough time to get some great exercise and to be a presence at my tax office that is now starting to look nice. I didn't do jack friggin' shit for business there this week, but I didn't expect to be busy. A couple walk-ins with questions, handshakes, advice given, cards passed out, hopefully people come back later this winter to see me.

Channel 1928 plays Del Leppard Love Bites. 1987. Hysteria. Best album of all time and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. I seriously have Hysteria in my truck CD player and have been listening to it on and off for the last couple weeks. Every now and then I just listen to Hysteria, and when I die I want to either be buried or cremated with that cassette in my hands. Cassette you ask, but why? Obviously I grew up with cassettes and not CDs and MP3s so derrrrr give me a cassette for old-times sake. OMG I am almost too drunk to keep writing already what a bunch of crap!

^ON CASSETTE, BEOTCHES. Like a fucking BOSS.

I don't consider me to be a.. okay I forgot what that was supposed to say. Rod Stewart is Lost in You, and this song rocks as well. I talked to Mom on the phone for 58 minutes tonight, and I drank the whole time. Mom is in total "Grammy" mode so thank you Jason for pumping out kids. Fuck kids I hate them. I don't hate them, but they are just not for me.

Kim Karnes Betty Davis Eyes. WTF are those anyway? Are they extra-special eyes or something? Do they have lazers? What makes Betty Davis eyes so gods damedn special?

i dont think I can write much anmoyer becaue I don't feel like rewinding this this. I can eat peanut butter crachers because those are awesome, though.

I have tomorrow off. No tax clients, no nothing. It will be 50 degrees so that is great. Unfortunately we get ice Sunday and not vanilla Ice that is weirdly cool 20+ years after it ever happened. Ice, Ice Baby hehehe. Isn't that a 90s song?

okay I really want to know what Betty Davis eyes are so guy Googles it. Thanks the gods who do not exist for Google...

It's Bette Davis, not Betty Davis ahahahha! I suck.

^AHAHAHAHA! Fucking Internet for the win!

Pat Benetar wants us to know that Love is a Bettlefield. YOU'RE FUCKING RIGHT IT IS CHICK I READ ABOUT THE NORTH POND HERMIT EARLIER TODAY AND I PARTLY WANTED TO DO THAT SHIT BECAUSE LOVE IS HARD. I won't ever do what he did because F that, he stole over 1000 times, but being a hermit does seem to have a certain allure. I'll never do it, but Mr. Boston coffee brandy and Dr. Migillicutty says maybe the hermit-life is not all-bad.

So 2020 is 10 days done, 356 to go. This is a leap-year so February gets a "bonus" day. I feel like I "earned" the right to booze it up tonight and to do nothing tomorrow because I got a lot of exercise this week and I accomplished all my goals. All two of them. Maybe I didnt have goald I already forgot. All I know is typing now is hard so I should drunk drive to the bar. Jusy kidding I am not rally drunk if you are the police and your lead singer is not STING then forget I was ever here. Hehehe. Oh, in conclusion Goonies Never Say Die!

Wait this song sounds pretty cool and I don't know it. TKA One Way to Love. Well obviously there are 69 ways to love and I have to rewind and fix a lot of my shit. Just kidding I ain't doing about 92% of those 69 "positions" because, even though I got halfway decent at yoga, I am not that flexible and I am not that innovative. Where's my psycholigost gods damnf it? What a bunch of crap!

I'm not half drunk anymore byt the way. I am pretty well boozed up but that is okay becase I plan to do jack shit toorrow and to eat a CALZONE because I earned it by doing a lot of exercise and shit. The end. Fin. Man, this is a weird song I feel like I just got into a Dolorian, went 88MPH, and now am in the future. There is no god. The end. Fin.

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Thursday, 1-09-20: A look back at my 2019.
I'm hanging out at the tax office, and I have not had either a walk-in or a phone call from a prospective tax client in 48 hours. What a bunch of crap! I'm not really worried about it now, though. It is still incredibly early for w2s and other forms, and those select few who may have gotten their w2s already are either waiting or going to the big corporate firms for refund loan advances. I'm not doing that loan bullshit, F that. My Drake software does partner with banks that offer loans, but I give that option a hard NO for the time being.

I've spent my past couple days reading both tax books and info online, reading some of a book about the North Pond Hermit, and organizing the office. Oh, I did work on our own taxes a bit. My tax office looked like this about one year ago:

^IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE TAX CLIENTS HAHAHAHA. I spent most of January sheetrocking, mudding, taping, sanding, and painting. Jeremy helped me do a lot of the sheetrock work, and without a helper I would have been pwned and never gotten the tax office open. Jeremy did a great job helping me and I hope he's doing well these days.

I was far from finished with the place by the end of January so work continued through most of February. I did have a few tax clients in February, but only people I know. The place was not ready to present to the general public until March. I did get this at the end of Feb, though:

^Approval from the city to do business awesome! I use a lot of I and ME sentences on this site, but the tax office is also a DJ office/meeting area for my awesome and quite skilled wife. She helped a lot with painting, decorating, setup, etc.

By March I was finishing up the bulk of the tax office building so I had some time to do a little more work on my bootleg gym ceiling and play some old video games. Unfortunately I realized in 2019 that I am just not a good video game player anymore. I was never great, but gods damn I was a lot better 25 years ago and I know I didn't die 10000 times and need Google to show me how to find out where to go. (SNES Metroid, SNES Zelda, SNES Super Mario) Sucking at the old video games = what a bunch of crap! I haven't played my SNES Classic at all in many weeks so I need to use it again. I left off with SNES Megaman before I got boozed up, died a ton, and went to Jester's instead hehehe.

In March last year I wrote this plan on my bootleg site that almost no one ever reads:

Now-mid-April - Do more taxes, finish "other office" at North Main, and finish my bootleg gym ceiling and cleaning/organizing.
Mid-April/mid-May - finish Phil and Danielle's house siding. There is still a lot left to do down there in Oakland for them.
Mid-May - VACATION (thank the gods who do not exist that we already paid for most of that trip back to the RH in Mexico)
Late May - Re-rent a 2BR apt that will be vacant. That one might need a little work, we'll see. I might throw a deck on over there.
June - Mom and Dad need a couple floors done. Also maybe a deck for Deno and a bunch of this and that.
July - Fresh paint, deep-cleaning, and new flooring for my Holyoke St house that I plan to sell. Tenants should be out by then.
Aug - Blueberry raking then start North Main garage rehab and more landscaping over there. Maybe expand parking.
Fall - Finish N Main garage then DEER HUNT and maybe help Gav with his house if the place hasn't eaten him by then Poltergeist-style. Also maybe take a vacation back to AZ with my awesome wife as long as we have money. Also new kitchen and other upgrades here at this house.
Dec - Get ready, really ready, for the next tax season so I can promote, promote, promote, and do some good business there.

It is interesting to look back on my rough schedule to see how I fared. I did mostly well in the spring only failing to finish that friggin gym ceiling (still not done I suckkkkkkkkkkkkk!) and not doing Mom and Dad's floors until late in the fall. I did get Phil and Danielle's siding done, and we had a GREAT vacation back to Mexico in May. I also got Mike a badass new deck. I would have been pwned had Katherine not met some dude on Plenty of Fish that became almost a member of our family in 2019...

When Katherine told my awesome wife and I that she met a guy online last winter we were somewhat mortified. Not the online dating part, good for her for doing that. No, the part that was terrifying was the fact that she met him on Plenty of Fish (hookup dating site?), and went to his house without ever meeting him first in public and getting to know him more. OMG THAT IS THE MAKING OF A KILLER SHOW ON THE ID CHANNEL THAT KAT LOVES TO WATCH. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! She could have been kidnapped, raped, tortured, and scarred for life by some sketchball. Thankfully Dakota turned out to be a cool guy who did all kinds of work with me over the spring, summer, and fall.

^Dakota at Phil and Danielle's in the spring helping me shingle the place. That was a HUGE job spanning two years, and now thankfully it is in the rear-view. I was grateful that Phil trusted me to do all the work, but it was a lot to take on. Lots of trips 61.5 miles south on the highway to exit 127 then 61.5 more miles to exit 182 and home. 130 miles a day travel plus full days of work there at the house made for many long yet rewarding days.

Selling my Holyoke Street house was a big part of my 2019. I wanted to have the place on the market in the summer, but unfortuantely I fell behind schedule and didn't get it listed until the end of August. What a bunch of crap! The house did NOT sell for what I was hoping for, but oh well it finally did sell for $89k before realtor costs and other bullshit. After my loan was paid off I got a nice chunk of money, most of which I saved aside. We did get to AZ for a second vacation in November, just a couple months ago, and I got much more work done including removing the old garage and having this tax/DJ office lot paved:

I spent a fucking ton of money in 2019. Finishing this tax office building was a massive undertaking that still is not 100% done. The tax office part is finished, but I have a sink and small counter to finish in the "other office" area and I want to build a new garage later this year.

I have 100.3WKIT on the radio, and sometimes this station plays some really cool and obscure songs. A listener all the way from Texas requsted Def Leppard's Rocket a while back (awesome!) and now we're getting U2 One Tree Hill. I haven't heard this song in forever. At least 10, maybe 20+ years. U2 has some awesome songs from the 80s and 90s (not as many since but still a few decent ones) and this one from last century is really good.

I also wrote this in March last year about my tentative work schedule:

It will be fun to look back on that list in 6 months to see how close I came to hitting the mark. I'm sure all kinds of other things will come up between now and then because they always do. One thing I know for sure, though. I AM NOT BUYING ANY MORE FIXER-UPPER BUILDINGS. F THAT! I've gotten pretty good at rehabbing old places, but it just takes too much precious... precious time to do.

I still feel as strongly now as I did when I wrote that part about fixer-upper buildings. ME DO NOT WANT. I love doing the carpentry and polishing the old turds, but it just takes too much precious... precious time that I don't want to give up.

I did a shitload of carpentry last year. From siding in Oakland to Mike's deck to rehabbing my own properties. Finishing this tax office, Gavin's siding, flooring for Mom and Dad, working on my gym ceiling, the new kitchen at our house just a few weeks ago. The list goes on. This coming year I will have a lot of carpentry as well, but probably not as much as I had in 2019. I had so much work last year that I was able to give Dakota steady work hours for many weeks, and when there were times I didn't need his help Kat had DJ work for him and Gavin had demolition work for him. It was great having him around, and now he is back in Tennessee and probably there for good. He and Katherine are still dating, though. She plans to move down there to be with him this spring. OMG!

I didn't get enough exercise last year in the traditional sense of weight lifting and jogging. I actually had my worst weightlifting year since I started keeping track over 12 years ago. What a bunch of crap! I also only jogged 173 miles last year, also a record low since 2007. My annual average had been 302 so yeah I suck. However, I did more yoga than ever, I played plenty of racquetball, and I got a lot of exercise just doing all the carpentry. Sanding drywall is a workout for the arms gods damm it. I actually did have some tennis elbow issues a year ago and lasting well into the spring/summer, but since roughly the fall the tennis elbow has not been so bad. Buying a good elbow brace has helped, and not doing as much repetitive-motion work like sanding/prying also helped.

Overall right now I feel like I am in good shape both physically and financially. Emotionally I am doing fairly well, but not long ago emotionally I was in pretty bad shape. Kat and I had a rough fall of 2019 and our marriage was on the verge of collapse. What a bunch of crap! It was so bad I was telling Gavin to finish up one of his under-construction apartments so I had a new place to live. Thankfully Kat and I still do love each other and we have not done destructive shit like abuse to each other/cheating. (Well I haven't done that shit and I don't think she has cheated on me. I hope not!)

The one wish I have for 2020 above all else is actually not for me to be healthy and for my new tax business to succeed. Those are high on the list, but first and foremost I want my awesome wife to start feeling better. This lyme disease/lupus illness of hers puts a major damper on her way of life and I can't really relate because here I sit, healthy as I have been in any January I can ever recall. No wonder sometimes she gets mad at me for not being emotional enough. How do you act around someone who constantly does not feel well? I try to be supportive, but admittedly emotional support is not really my strong suit. I can provide resources and financial stabiity like a boss, but will that be enough? I hope so!

My most enjoyable moment from 2019: Wednesday down in Mexico in May at the Royal Haciendas just hanging out all day at the pool in the tropics with my wife and with Neil and Angela. We drank all day and had fun that night as well dancing around and having "SoChill" serve us a variety of interesting shots and drinks.

My least enjoyable moment from 2019: Feeling overworked right before blueberry raking started not getting my work caught up and having Kat get pissed at me for it because I had to work too much. That created a huge rift in our marriage because I did have too much to do and I was not able to spend enough time enjoying the short summer with her like we wanted to do. I told her i wouldn't work that much yet I worked too much and let her down. I let myself down, too. What a bunch of crap!

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Tuesday, 1-07-20: Second day at the tax office. Photos of the place.
I got to the new tax office yesterday morning around 0945 to three messages on the office phone answering machine. Unfortunately they were all stupid shit from what I presume to be bootleg/telemarkting/phishing junk. What a bunch of crap! Three different calls from area code 202, different rest of the digits each time, all busy signals on the machine. What a waste of my precious... precious time gods damn it. I get crap like that on my cellphone on occasion, and I also get automated messages asking me about extended warranties and other sales-type garbage. Those mudda fuckas!

^My office looks like this right now, close to what it looked like when I took a picture of it and (probably) posted it onto this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read last year.

^That corner in my office is a tad disorganized so I should get that looking a little better before I have many clients.

I set up my "sandwich board" sign yesterday, I got the OPEN sign up, and I played around with my software. The Drake program I use seems about the same as last year so that is good. I really do like the program; it seems to be able to handle just about everything I have needed so far. For this season I bought the unlimited package for a pricey flat rate whereas last season I was on the "pay as you go" tier, roughly $23 for every tax return I prepared. If I do less than about 52 tax returns I screwed myself by purchasing the unlimited, but I think I'll do more than that. I hope to do 100, but the dollar per return is more significant than the total done. I can do 100 easy returns and take in $5000 or I can do 100 complex returns and gross $30,000. Obviously I will have a mix of various types and if I can gross at least $10,000 I'll be very pleased since the business is still so new. I don't know what my expenses for the business will be yet, but an income of $10k leaves room for at least a small profit. Last year was a loss as expected since I had to get the place open.

^Open sign, sandwich board, LED open sign in the window not shown above, hoping they all pull people in. It's like I'm fishing and not everyone will take the bait hehe. It does look nice in here so that helps.

I had my first walk-in of the season yesterday at around 1430. An older couple stopped in with some questions, and after 15 minutes at the desk I think they walked out happy with me and ready to come back later this season when they get their forms. Maybe? Hopefully! Today their adult, working-age son called and then came to see me for more advice so that might get me a couple returns and some precious... precious income towards the ultimate goal. As expected I have NOT been busy yet, but I actually like things that way so I can keep testing my systems and learning all I can learn. I can also work on our own taxes as a good test of my software and knowledge since we have fairly complex personal taxes with lots of forms and schedules.

I'm really excited to be out on my own with a business I feel confident about. The location is great with plenty of exposure to the street so that is a huge plus. I just need to ensure I don't make mistakes because a bad reputation will sink this ship faster than anything else. Some of the taxes I do this season will be quite complex, and someone could call or stop in with any oddball/unusual problem or question that really puts me to the test. I do have my old boss working her own tax business locally so if anything really confuses me I will send her business.

I have a reception desk coming on Friday, but I don't have a receptionist. Hehehe. I do plan to use the desk often when I am not busy so I can watch the front door and get a better view of the neighborhood. Change of scenery, etc. I'm fine holing up in my back office for the entire day if I have a steady stream of clients, but when it is slow I'd like to hang out up front. I'm actually at the DJ-meeting table right now in my awesome wife's area of the business. In this space I can clearly see the street, our entry, etc. I'll go back into my office shortly to do some more reading/learning and then to work more on our own taxes. Our taxes take many hours because I have to add up all the rental property income/expenses.

^Reception area at least has a nice comfy padded rocking chair that my awesome wife and I picked out at Marden's last month. It will look at lot better with a desk, the second office phone, some books, etc.

^The meeting table that I probably won't use much if at all for clients, but that I will use sometimes like I am now. Kat uses it for her wedding client meetings, and sometimes I sit in on those depending on how busy I am.

^You pass through the DJ-display area to get to my tax office so that might be weird for some, but hopefully we set it up well with the open and *hopefully* inviting feel of the overall space. A front reception area will help in years to come when and if I get really booked so I can hire someone (or have my awesome wife come over more) to help me run the place. If I get incredibly busy then I will struggle to do it all myself, but when I worked at JH I did handle busy days quite well so maybe I can take care of a lot all on my own before I need some extra help. Too soon to know for sure.

Alright turds, all two of you who actually read this shit-show bunch of crap here, I should go do some more work and reading. Goonies never say die!

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Sunday, 1-05-20: Regular office hours start tomorrow. End of the "Greatriots?"
On Thursday I spent a little time in my tax office getting set up for the season. I had to mess around with my software, do some reading, tidy up, etc. For the first time ever I also made an HOURS sign. Last year I never posted hours because the business was still so new and I wasn't even ready for new clients until late Feb or March. I actually already have an appointment on my schedule for later this month already, a new client. Oh Jesus hell ya! This coming week will be slow for me since most w2s and other tax forms are not out yet. Hopefully I can at least take some calls and establish a presence even if I don't actually do any tax returns. The friggin' IRS isn't even ready to accept e-files yet anyway.

For this coming week I will be there 1000-1600, M-F, and for the following weeks of this month I will be there from 1000-1700. I also posted on my sign that later, earlier, and weekend appointments are available. Hopefully I don't do too many very early or very late appointments, but I need to make precious... precious money so I'll do what I need to do. If I do get quite busy I'll often be there well before and well after the posted hours, but I don't expect to be too busy for this year since the business is still so new.

Tomorrow I will finish setting up my software and do some more training/reading. I also have some bills I can pay and two invoices to finish and to print. Yesterday I finished my first carpentry project of the year, and my final one (I hope!) before tax season. I had to get a combo microwave oven installed for Mike, and I had to coordinate with Ben for some electrical work over at Mike's house as well. Doing the combo vent-microwave took several precious... precious hours. The install was "only" 2-3 hours, but the coordinating, the trips to Lowe's, and all the planning and running around took up precious... precious more hours. Thankfully the end result is a success:

^Needed wiring, needed a hole for a wall vent, needed to find studs (guy looks in mirror to find one looking back at him hehehe), needed parts, tools, etc.

^Also couldn't be a standard-size microwave/vent due to space issues between top of oven and bottom of cabinet above. A sleek one cost extra, but Mike's mom worked with me on it (her idea actually) as a Christmas gift to him so that is why I need to do two invoices. One for her for the work done in the photo above and one for Mike for the other electrical work he needed done while Ben and John were there.

Last night the Patriots lost to the Tennesee Titans in their playoff game. What a bunch of crap! The Pats were something like 10-1 earlier in their season, but they faltered hard lately and finished 12-4 in the regular season. They did take 1st place in their division, but they played ugly and were hard to watch these past couple weeks. I actually didn't even watch the end of the game last night because I was tired and wanted to bivouac. Brady is 42 and a free agent, and the team has a great defense but a poor offense right now. Brady is showing his age some, but a lot of the problem was related to reveivers and an offensive line that was just not up to par. Maybe this is the end of the "Greatriots" as we know them? Hopefully Brady stays with the team for another year or just retires if he feels worn out, and hopefully the team can make some off-season moves to improve things. 9 Superbowl appearances and 6 Superbowl wins puts Brady in a league all his own. GOAT? Hard to argue against it!

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Friday, 1-03-20: 3 days done out of 366.
There are 365 days in a year, right? Pretty sure the answer to that is a yes. However, I'm also pretty sure this is a leap year so there have to be 366 days in 2020. We throw a 29th day onto February. WTF is wrong with Feb anyway? 28 days in the month yet there are other months with 31? All I wanna know is why? Why do we use that bootleg system? Ah well it beats the Mayan one where we would have all been dead in 2012 hehehe.

So far 2020 is off to a good start for me. Unfortunately not so much for ny awesome DJ wife who is at work at Jester's tonight but who is not feeling well. No Eagles Club last night because she was sick. What a bunch of crap! She still feels like crap tonight, but work = precious... precious money so I know why she is working. I was a little hungover on the 1st because we had a fun booze-fest on New Year's eve here at the house. We just lounged around all afternoon and watched NetFlix and TV on the 1st, but I wasn't totally hungover. Maybe 33% hungover? The last two days I've done yoga, used my bootleg gym, and today I also played rball. Cutthroat with Gav and Deno, and we had good games I got great exercise.

2020 is off to a pretty good start for me. The gas bills came in from last month, and they are averaging around $100 LESS per property than they were at this time a year ago. OH JESUS HELL YA $474 less than a year ago is a major win. Unfortunately this has been a weird winter where we have had a few weak-ass snows to the tune of 3-4", just enough to need plowing so bye bye precious... precious money for that. Overall winter lately has been very easy, though. The extended forecast has some more smaller snow events, but more importatly there are no massive cold snaps expected through at least the middle of January.

^A LOW TEMP OF 30 IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER HERE = I WANT MOAR THANK YOU GODS WHO DO NOT EXIST. A few years ago I hated Bangor Gas company, but the price per therm this time is 69 and a year ago it was $1.14 so that is huge. Plus above-average temps help a lot. A LOT. November was fuckin' cold, but December was a little above the norm and so far January has been easy. We have had some horrible winters in the past few years so another easy one would be great. I write a lot about the weather, but it is important to me because it affects my profit and losses hugely. Plus I just like to follow forecasting because I have mental defects. Many of them. Hehehe.

Oh, I got heat in my bootleg gym. Oh jesus hell ya! It is nice using that thing and not freezing. I would not freeze anyway since the temps outside have not been bad. I have the thermostat set to 62, and overall it must be near 60 in there. The thermostat is closer to the heat register; the thermometer on the clock further away shows 57 so I just average it out. I know by feeling where I'm at, though. 60-62 is about perfect so I don't get too cold in the beginning of my execise. Too cold = what a bunch of crap.

Next week I have regular hours at my tax office so I should enjoy these last few days of "freedom." Unfortuantely I have to install a damn vent/microwave for a friend and that job is not so easy. I've already spent about 3.5 hours on it and only one hour actually doing any install/work. What a bunch of crap! Figuring out what to get and coordinating with Ben (electrician) takes up a lot of precious... precious time. The thing needs electrical and a vent. Do I vent through the ceiling or through the wall? What size vents do I need? I think I can vent through the wall, but I'm not even 100% sure on that yet and I was there earlier today working on it. Getting supplies and dealing with the proper install = I'd rather just not have the money and play SNES Classic. Hehehe.

Speaking of video games, check out these badass coasters:

^I OWN THEM AND MY EMPTY BOOZE GLASS IS ON ONE RIGHT NOW THEY ARE AWESOME NINTENDO COASTERS. I feel badly setting a glass on one, but this time of year the dew point is low and there is no damaging condensation. My glass is sitting on Sper Mario Bros 2. That game is fucked, but at the same time it is awesome. I kinda want to play old video games now, but I don't feel like pluging it in and I want to go to the bar soon so nevermind. Friggin Birdo shooting eggs. It is weird, but very playable and fun. I need an NES classic because Super Mario II is a NES game, not an SNES game.

I watched a TV show earlier about asteriods and how Earth is pwned when a big one hits. Scientists just about guraantee a giant asteroid killed off dinosaurs 66 million years ago so we are pwned at some point. Hell one might hit tomorrow. Think NASA will make a public announcement if the big one is about to land? I think not due to general public panic. I hope one doesn't hit for a long time, but oh well it if does I ain't getting onto a spaceship to go colonize the nearest planet. I'd rather just die and hopefully I can get drunk first because death really isn't that scary, but when you are drunk it really seems a little inviting and not scary at all. BRING ON THE REAPER MOFOS I'LL GO DOWN LIKE A BOSS. I'm not suicidal yet, but cheking out > living in a fucked world or living in a bunker. Fuck you death, I don't fear you at all I welcome my time card getting punched in the future.

Hopefully I have a good 2020. It seems there will be no blueberry raking in 2020, my first year with no raking in 15-16 years. I'd love to rake, but Cliff doesn't plan to have a field at least as far as I know. I am almost too drunk to keep writing I just wrote goooe instead of good what a bunch of crap~ John Parr sings St elmos fire, great song from a movie i never gave a crap to watch. I am writing poory now but rewinding to fix it is to much work so I guess I will drunk drive my ass to the bar. However, if you're a cop please nott the fact that I am boozed up hard yet I know the difference between your and you're. I WIN!

I think 2020 ill be busy but hopefully not too busy I have people already wanting me to do carpentyry afet tax season ends and speaking of tax season goal from now until April 15 is $10k revenues or bust. That ain't profit just revenue I have expenses and the business is still building so it will be a few years before a respectable profit is actually made, if it ever is at all. The end. Fin. Oh Goonies never say die!