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Tax Day | Merry-go-round

Tax day. In the old world. For the second year of COVID running, the governments of America have moved the tax deadline back. All of which meant I got to spend yesterday working on a toilet/drain repair instead of doing my taxes. You decide if that was better or worse.

You might think I’m lazy for waiting ‘til the last minute to get my taxes filed. Call me a procrastinator. I’m just a guy that needs pressure to get things done, most of the time. Working slowly and steadily toward a deadline that lives somewhere far out in the future is harder for me. I don’t have a good sense of time.

Now don’t think I’m ignorant of time management techniques, though. I know how to break a task down into smaller parts, plot mini-milestones against a calendar, and deliver those results. I’ve done it. I can do it.

But for some stuff? Stuff like taxes? Where I know I just have to sit down for 2-4 hours and hammer it all out? AND I have to wait until all of my paperwork has arrived, which never gets here before the first of April anyway. PLUS, I’m not getting any refunds. I pay money. Every year, to the federal revenue service and two state revenue services.

So I’m not exactly eager to file. It’s not a happy time. Call it a perfect storm for a procrastinator, a host of motivations to wait until I really, really do have to file.

"Merry-go-round"

I sit quietly and feel the earth turn

It’s a giant merry-go-round

Hold on tight

Feel the wind against your skin

Watch the world blur in front of you

What starts as pleasure

Turns into joy

Is it going too fast?

How long can you hold on?

Laughing, calling out

Slow it down, slow it down!

Stagger off, lie in the grass

Feel the world spinning

Blue sky overhead, birds calling

The world at rest, ever moving

Our merry-go-round

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