Delaying the Inevitable

To what lengths would you go to delay doing your taxes?

For me, it meant engaging in two of my less desirable activities—exercising and outdoor home maintenance.

Today’s warm weather—it’s still 71 degrees outside as I write this at 4:30 pm—beckoned me away from any thoughts of firing up Turbo Tax to complete my filing. So at 2:30 I laced on my sneakers, hauled out my Heavyhands, and power-walked around our neighborhood for 40 minutes. When I returned I noticed the area of our brick walkway near the front porch was rather slick. Because it doesn’t get sufficient sunshine, it gets infested with a mildewy moss.

Ah, goodie, another reason not to do my taxes. I hooked up the power washer and prepared to blast the mildew away. Prepared is the right word, for you just can’t stand there and hose down the crud, unless you don’t care about getting wet. I do, so I exchanged my jeans for a pair of waterproof pants, my sneakers for a pair of waterproof boots. Appropriately attired, I washed away for about 20 minutes.

The only problem is once you start a home maintenance project there’s always another task to be done. For example, when I went outside to check the thermometer on the porch a few minutes ago to provide an accurate reading, I noticed the power washing of the walkway sprayed dirt onto the storm door. Yes, I could have left the shmutz there for another day, but there’s no way Gilda would not have royally reprimanded me for being lazy.

This early spring weather is taxing my resolve to live up to the no socks credo of this blog. I actually hate not wearing socks, but you can’t imagine how many people ask me if I’m wearing socks when they see me. You’ll be happy to know I’m sans socks as I write this. I’m even sans shoes—Gilda is enthusiastic about a new discipline that promotes shoeless feet whenever possible. When she reads this blog I’m sure to score at least four points with her for exercising, powerwashing, cleaning up and walking around without shoes. Now, if I could only earn some points with the IRS...