Paying Taxes

I have paid my taxes, once again.

I am all for the payment of taxes, by the way.  This is not a whine about how eeevil the government is for taxing us. I like living in a place with roads that are paved, and water that is (often) clean, with decent schools and social safety nets.

In fact, I wouldn't mind if the taxes were higher, and the social benefits were better.

Oh, So That's Why...

We did our taxes yesterday.  Why we are so very broke becomes a little clearer -- between jobs he lost and jobs I did (because the university cut down on summer teaching), we made nearly twenty thousand dollars less this year than we did last.  

In fact, we made so little this year that we qualified for that Working Families Tax Credit gizmo.

Which -- good shit, that's all I have to say.

No wonder I can't afford to buy shoes.

And -- here's the really bad news -- Dr. Skull (that's his official new blog name) needs a root canal and a crown.  Which dentists in Fuck Smith want the money for that up front, of course.  Our insurance (we do have dental insurance, but it sucks) covers some fragment of it -- about half of the first $1200, as I recall, and then nothing after that.  There's a yearly $1200 cap on dental with our charming insurance.

But!  Good news!  I don't actually like shoes!

Surely tomorrow will be a better day.