Well, I’ve delayed it long enough, and so now that it’s the last week of February, it’s finally time to start working on income taxes. Throughout the last year, I’ve stacked all the important papers on my desk and piled everything else neatly on the floor. Now, with the filing deadline creeping ever closer, I really need to get started.

But first, I had a thought…

To have the mental energy to work the entire day up in the office, one must have a good breakfast. This thought got me going to our local breakfast place where the service is fast and the food always delicious. The trip only took an hour, and I was on the way back home to start the laborious task of filling out all those tax forms. Then just before turning into our subdivision, I looked down at the dashboard.

I had a thought…

With the work week starting in the morning, it would be a good idea to fill up my tank, so I bypassed our entryway and headed to the gas station. It would also be a good place to pick up a large soft drink for that extra pick-me-up I’d need while sorting through last year’s faded receipts. Once back home I walked across the living room on my way upstairs and stepped on that irritating squeaky spot in the floor again.

Then I had a thought…

It being the weekend, The Wife was home, and we had a rare day without the granddaughters. What better time to ask her to help me finally rid ourselves of that annoying squeak that had gotten so much worse in the last month? But first, a quick trip to the local hardware store for special floor screws was in order. (I only bought six because I was sure that would be enough to fix any squeak.) With The Wife upstairs walking across the floor and me in the basement with a pocket full of screws and a drill, it would be a quick fix.

To locate the squeak, I had to remove insulation from the basement ceiling and squeeze between dusty HVAC duct work. With The Wife’s help, I was able to silence about half of the squeak. Why not all of it? I dropped three of the screws and couldn’t find them, so I had to make another trip to the hardware store. After returning home, I decided the rest of the squeak could wait until the following weekend because it was time to get upstairs and start all that tax work. That’s when I had an itch.

The Wife had a thought…

She suggested I take a shower and wash off all that insulation. This was a great suggestion because I was really itchy. After the shower, it was time for a hearty lunch. After all, we can’t work upstairs all afternoon on an empty stomach, can we? With lunch finally over, I made it upstairs, sat down at the computer, and gazed around at how messy the art/writing/doing taxes room had become over the last year.

Then I had a thought…

I know me, and with all the mess everywhere in sight, no way would I be able to concentrate. All I would think about is the mess, so a major clean-up was in order before any serious tax work could start. Besides, it was still early in the afternoon. There would be plenty of time left for filling out all those forms.

After two hours, every surface was cleared, and all artwork that had been displayed on the walls had been taken down and replaced with new. The Wife came up during this process and picked a few paintings to adorn the walls in her new office at work. As she was leaving, she asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be working on taxes?”

“Yep! Getting to it right now.”

Finally, I sat down at the computer and opened the software program, entered my username and password, and watched as the forms populated our tax information from last year. This won’t be so bad, I thought. A couple of hours and I’ll be done. Then I looked over at the almost finished text for my next kindergarten coloring book.

And that’s when I had a thought…

Taxes aren’t getting done today.