Taxes 2008

Katie and I just finished doing our taxes for 2008 and once again, I was quite impressed with Kansas' online FREE electronic filing.  After the muted pain of our Federal returns ("muted" by the use of TurboTax) the Kansas electronic filing was five minutes.  Copy a few values from the federal return, enter bank information for electronic deposit and we were done.  

One of these days very soon the Federal government will have free electronic filing for all simply because it will save a large pile of money/work by not having to deal with enter information on paper returns into a database.  Every year they inch closer and closer to this by allowing more and more "low-income" earners to file for free. (I think if your total income was less than $55,000 this year you could file for free.)  Right now, probably over half of the tax-payers could file for free.  My prediction: in less than 5 years over 90% filings will be electronic.  You heard it hear first.

(Oh, as a bonus side-note, TurboTax thinks the likelihood of an audit is "low" this year.  We haven't been audited yet for our 2007 return so we may have slipped of their radar for now.  I do have a friend, though, who is being audited for his 2007 return and due to my past experiences he has come to me for a bit a preparation guidance.  Once the word gets out that I'm fought the IRS behemoth twice and have been victorious, their going to be beating down my door for help.  I might have to start charging.)

In Wichita, at 3am...

I woke up at 3am this morning with a very runny nose.  After 20 minutes of attempting to blow my nose quietly so as not to wake up Katie, I finally gave up and went out into the living room.  (I have no idea what precipitated all of this but I went through about a dozen tissues in half an hour. Katie thinks I may be allergic to something.  Something that only shows up at 3am.)

My nose cleared up but now wide awake, I had the opportunity to explore the wonders of early morning television in Wichita.  Here are the results:

Several newscasts

Jay Leno

Infomercials

Leave it to Beaver

Now you know.

Life and Transportation

Yes, this is the first post in quite a while.  I mostly have no excuse.  I've started my second semester of graduate school, trying to get life organized after the Christmas holiday, took a a class offered through our church, working on taxes, and trying to take a respectable inventory of our house.  None of these really seemed worth writing about (at least by the time I ended up having time to actually do the writing.)So what is the cause of break the silence?  Not something important  or monumental but, rather, something fun.

I got a motorcycle.

Just got back from looking at it with Katie and though the owner needs a few days to do title paperwork, I am effectively the new owner of a 2001 Honda Rebel.  Compared to the scooter I've been riding, this things seems to be a dream.  It has all kinds of great features like gears, high-beams, readily available parts, etc.  It even sounds so much better than the scooter.  The bike is definitely on the smaller side for somebody my height. but I on the quick ride up and down the street it seemed to work for me.

Speaking of which, shifting on a motorcycle is going to take a little getting used to.  My scooter has not discrete gears so I never had to worry about shifting; just "twist and go" as they say.  Now I'm having to work a clutch and a shift pedal; there's not indicator of what gear you're in except for a light that comes on when you're in neutral.  I might have to toodle around the neighborhood of the seller to get the hang of things before I make the journey home.  As the seller commented to Katie while I was making a fool of myself on my test ride: "He's a bit out of practice, isn't he?" 

Yes, yes I am.

So what of the scooter?  My plans are to get it back in running shape and sell it.  I don't know how long that will take as the repair will involve removing the engine block.  In fact, the length of time it might take to repair it was a major factor in deciding to purchase a motorcycle.  Without my scooter life was considerably more complicated in getting both Katie and I where we needed to be.  Though purchasing a new bike may seem like overkill, the price was right and if/when Katie revokes my motorcycle privileges, I should be able to sell it for close to my purchase price.  

Was it a mistake to purchase the scooter?  I've thought about this over these past three years of ownership and am divided on it.  It wasn't a mistake in that the purchase price and operating cost of the scooter has still been much less than that of owning a second car.  (At 70 mpg, insurance at ~$150 a year and not more than $200 for parts total; the scooter has been very affordable to own and operate.)  Could I have made a better purchase with that money?  Yes, undoubtedly.  For a first bike, though, everything worked out fine.  I've learned about motorcycle riding and ownership and financially it has worked out in our favor.  Whatever I can make in selling the scooter is going to be gravy.

Not much more to say right now.  I'll post pictures when the deal is done.