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Saturday Ramblings

For the first time in recent memory, I am at home alone. A couple of the neighborhood children have a birthday party today and my two older children were invited. It is apparently a Taekwondo birthday party. I didn’t know such things existed, to tell the truth. I’m not so crazy about the martial arts, but I guess there can’t be too much harm in letting the kids hang around, kick each other, and eat some pizza for a couple of hours. My wife decided to wait at the party since she is friends with just about all of the parents who will be there. And that left me home alone. And, literally, this is the first time in months.

So what did I do with my newfound freedom? I did my taxes. As a self-employed Canadian I have the privilege of being able to procrastinate until June 15. And, for the first time ever, I’m quite sure, I have turned them in sooner than the day before or the day of. It is great to have that thankless, tedious task off my back. Of course the drawback to being self-employed is that there is generally no such thing as a tax rebate. Instead I have to write a painfully large cheque to the government. I guess someone has to pay for all the “free” health care we enjoy up here. Yet I’m glad to be Canadian and am grateful to live here, even on the day I see my marginal tax rate nicely graphed out for me.

In other news, I still haven’t completed (or started, for that) the Study Guide for my book. I have a better idea of the book’s schedule now and it seems I’ve got until later this summer to finish it off. So that is going to be my summer project. Should be a fun one! And, on the subject of the book, I received the first endorsement for it just last week. It is from what is probably the highest-profile person who agreed to read the manuscript and the endorsement was very encouraging. There are at least six other people who agreed to read it and I’m hoping they’ll pull through as well.

And that’s all you’re going to get out of me today. It’s a beautiful, sunny day; I’m home alone; I’ve got a good book and a can of Coke awaiting my attention. I’m out of here.


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