Fortunately this isn't my first experience on stage. Will eat a bit before the show. Since the curtain is at 7:30 pm I would be concerned about having enough energy through the show if I don't. But it will be light. Possibly a peanut butter sandwich. The most important thing is plenty of prayer.
Juggling act continues. What goes into storage, what goes into the vehicle for preliminary trip to West coast (interviews pending), and organizing what equipment stays behind for family. Big idea it was to settle in Montana, only to return to the big City (and Christian outreach). Might just start a simple daily blog with images
BC is pretty similar to all the western states, but perhaps a bit cleaner - seems like a lot of trash along the freeways. We also noted the many homeless camps in the cities. I assume many migrated to the more seasonable weather on the west coast from the interior. We just kind of ignore Trudeau. The New Democrats are in power in BC and they are theoretically left of the Liberals, but there are some sensible folks from the areas out of the major cities. Our MLA is a pretty decent guy. The federal MP is also very personable but he's pretty strong leftie.
Lots of random small jobs today. Our church hosted a community breakfast so we went to that with a couple of friends. Then my wife and I got a walk in early because the forecast was for rain and lots of it, and we wanted to get our exercise before it rained. Then I got some random bits and pieces ready for church on Sunday - I'm helping a friend produce a newsletter so needed to get a few of those printed and get some files converted and copied to the church computer. Then some minor home bits - I got the blade on the lawn mower sharpened. That was an interesting experience - I got to use a torque wrench my dad gave me years ago. Then some electrical work, replacing a switch with a combination switch/socket. It should have been a simple job but the wiring in that back box was - er - interesting. It's now a little less interesting but the only way I'm going to get it to a standard I'm entirely happy with is to replace quite a good chunk of wiring, and I don't feel like taking things quite that far. I still need to figure out taxes for the year. It seems to be something always in the back of my mind but never quite getting any further forward. I've got all the forms ready, it's just a question of compiling everything and sending it in.
Yep... that sums it up pretty well. You pays your money and you gets your.... well.... you gets to pay again later.
The show went great last night in spite of a couple hiccups. Including a loaf of bread that was still wrapped in cellophane that was supposed to be unwrapped. Ooops! Jesus handled it unobtrusively while the audience hadctheir attention on Judas. Still it was a moving experience. One member of the audience hugged the director while crying.
Our daughter successfully arrived in Sierra Leone yesterday. Two teachers and three students are visiting the country as a bit of a cultural learning experience as our church and school have a partnership with a very small school in a very small village there.
A longer run this morning, at a slightly more gentle pace than I've been doing more recently. I'm trying to slow the pace a bit and focus on endurance. It's frustrating trying to keep speed down but the idea is that it builds a stronger base fitness that I can then use to improve speed and endurance. Then I finally got on with some taxes. I got the federal stuff sorted out and from there the local tax takes just a few minutes. Now I need to sort out the state taxes and I'll be good to go. Having done the federal stuff it's little more than entering more or less the same numbers but with a different layout.
My condolences still waiting for the firm’s CPA to get the corporate return done and to get my K1 to me I’m more than slightly irritated
My state returns are weird. I spend the time to prepare a return listing everything on it, send it to the revenue department with a meticulously calculated figure showing how much my estimated payments exceeded my actual tax liability, only to get back a letter saying "the department has determined an overpayment of..." followed by a number marginally less. For good measure they use fractional dollars, despite expecting the return to be rounded to whole dollars. Last year they "adjusted" by $2.11 (yes, two dollars and eleven cents) that they felt they needed to apply to some unspecified other potential liability. What that might be is anybody's guess but the time it will take to get through to someone to find out is worth more than a couple of bucks to me.
The last couple years I've lucked out with taxes. This year I brought my documents in to my tax people. They saw what I had, made sure that was all of it, and said "don't bother." I don't make enough to bother reporting.
We (or rather my wife) completed our taxes recently. These online tax programs are pretty awesome. Our statement of incomes filed with the government are automatically linked and populated into the form. The program also optimizes the income between us for the best return.
We don't know all the details, but the flight from Brussels to Freetown ended up 16 hours instead of 6. The plane left, then turned around, landed back in Brussels due to some issue with the aircraft. Being there for Easter should be interesting as that is certainly the biggest Christian holiday there.
I did another 10k run today. I originally planned a gentle walk but my suggested workout was a gentle run so I did that instead. I just did a longer run than the suggestion, and the pace wasn't quite as gentle as suggested but still more gentle than I've managed for a while. It seems quite weird to get home after a gentle run and not feel like I've actually been out running. When I do a harder run my body knows about it but these more gentle runs are so much easier. I can cover the ground faster than walking, maintain a better fitness level and not work my system too hard while doing it. A friend who is a really serious runner told me about the benefits of low intensity running and I wasn't sure at first but I'm increasingly convinced. I don't think I'll ever get into the kind of runs he does - he does 100k trail runs in the mountains, and sometimes things that are even longer.
Took a day off running yesterday and went at it again today. My chest strap glitched and gave me silly heart rate readings, so I had to stop a couple of times to reposition it and then turn it off completely. It turned into a harder run than I planned but a good one. I've got almost the entire work room lined with soundproofing now. There's a small section right at one end where I need to do a little work on the ceiling joists first, then I can put the last if it across there. A quick run over it to tape up the seams and I can start framing my stud walls and finishing off the electrics.
A little bit of stud wall building today. Tomorrow I get to fit a couple of sections of top and bottom beam, then it's just a question of cutting studs to length and spacing them appropriately. Once the top and bottom beams are in place it's easy.