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Yesterday's post left me a bit shook up. I hadn't really planned to wipe out four characters all at once. Okay yes, two of them are wounded, one hurt (there is a difference between being injured and being wounded, ask Easy Company of the 506th PIR).
While Jack Wilson didn't fall out of a tree, he was not wounded, therefore not eligible for a Purple Heart. But I digress.
Sometimes I just start telling the story, it plays in my head rather like a piece of film. Things happen which I didn't foresee, but they happened. When I reread a scene, I seldom change it. 2Lt Heintzelman won't be back, Jack Wilson could be back sooner than expected, SSG Andersen, I don't know yet. Of course, Pvt Alfred Esposito, "Spaz," is finished. I realized as the German MG started shooting that Esposito was in the middle of the road and the lieutenant whom he had just handed the radio handset to had gone down in very gory fashion. He was no doubt shocked, which left him vulnerable.
Sometimes I don't know where the story is going until it plays out in my head. Makes it interesting to write, but being creative does take a lot of mental energy. Which, if the lead-in photo has given you any clue, is rather lacking Saturday evening as I sit down to write.
This year From 1040-SR (for "senior," personally I would have gone with "OF") is new and spells out the standard deduction better than Form 1040. In case you didn't know it, being over 65 confers certain advantages. Yeah, yeah, most of the time it's aching joints and grumbling about "kids these days," but hey, I'm mostly Scottish so anything which helps me save a penny or three is welcome.
Taxes seem easier this year, did Federal and State in under three hours, so I've got that going for me. No refund from Uncle Sam this year, that's standard, I usually have to write him a check as I like to use my money throughout the year, he gets his cut at tax time and not a day before. Though The Missus Herself has declared that she doesn't like that. So...
I can but obey, as Oberleutnant Vogel said yesterday, "Befehle sind Befehle." He still got his head blown off. I intend to stay low.
In other news...
Was awakened by the morning duty feline, Anya. Apparently she has taken it upon herself to make sure I don't sleep past 0830, ever.
Working from home for some four months now has gotten her into the habit of seeing me bound out of the rack at the butt crack of dawn and fire up the computer to commence the day's activities. (Okay, it's more like fall out of bed, with much attendant moaning and groaning whilst dragging myself down to the computer room. There I will fire up the work laptop and the personal desktop with much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.)
Anyhoo, weekends are no longer sacred. Bear in mind, this wake up call is after the feline staff have had morning chow as The Missus Herself gets up early to maintain the gardens in the cool of the early morning. She will open the mess at that time and feed the little darlings.
Cats are amazing creatures, apparently Sasha has "adopted" The Missus Herself as her personal human, I, on the other hand, belong to Anya. We are the human entertainment and sustenance committees to keep the feline staff happy and content. As they turn 17 next month, we must be doing something right.
And then there was...
So, after I had breakfast, I fired up the computer. Probably around two bells of the forenoon watch I believe. I had just turned the glass when I came here to check the early morning comments (I swear, some of you never sleep) and noted that there were already 500 views. Which isn't unusual for a weekday but is odd for a Saturday. By four bells the views had climbed to over 3,000. So yeah, the Rooski spambots are back. (The count is over 4,000 at 1900 local on Saturday evening.)
They're like bloody raccoons getting into the trash bins, though not nearly as cute. (Nor as intelligent for that matter.)
'Twas then that I noticed an odd comment from Any Mouse remarking how they were having trouble getting to the blog using Firefox. After a brief lecture as to what "https" means, they pointed out that the site had a "security problem." I responded in a diplomatic way, suggesting that Firefox doth verily suck in my book (we use it at work, it's bloody cloying and annoying) and the "security problem" was, no doubt, on his end.
I also told him (had to be a him, women are not that stupid) that email was a better venue to bitch about his connectivity problems. Then it struck me, it was a freaking spam comment! So I deleted his drivel and moved on to the real comments.
I am constantly amazed at the number of assholes on this planet, sorry there is no other word for that sort of behavior. It's why we can't have nice things on the Internet.
Anyhoo, that's all I've got for today. I still need to figure out what to write next in my WWII "saga." The Scotsmen have been laying low, the Canadians have seized Caen, and the surviving Germans haven't been mentioned in a few days. Also, where the Hell is Fitzhugh and his Sherman VC Firefly?
I shall return, enjoy the day, I have a virtual baby shower to attend Sunday afternoon. Should be interesting.
...and Polish 1st Armored will soon arrive...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.muzeumwp.pl/dictionary/oznaka-rozpoznawcza-na-pojazd-1-dywizji-pancernej,273,duzy.jpg
cue the "when the winged hussars arrived"
Yes, yes they will!
DeleteYa....just finished my taxes yesterday also, when you have to pay why not wait? Fed return takes less time than the state, go figure. Neighbors across the street have their backyards abutting a low, swampy area and the trash pandas seem to like to use that as their hangout. Los Gatos are getting up there, keep enjoying their company since time passes too quickly. Enjoying the storyline Sarge, is that a snake off in the distance I see.......
ReplyDeleteSnake!?!?! Where!?!?!
Delete😉
We use a tax guy, and we were all ready to go when the due date was extended, we went ahead and sent them in anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe started using a tax guy years ago because the challenge of taxes had grown past what I was comfortable with.
(And that subject would trigger a rant about the insane complexity of the tax code, and taxes in general, but my blood pressure is good and I want it to stay that way)
We would rather pay Uncle at tax time.
There are raccoons around, but it's the deer that cause the most problems for us.
One has learned to jump the fence around the pool, and we've had to ramp up our defenses.
Deer tend to jump fences only when there is a clear landing zone, and my wife did consider my idea for a tiger pit, but rejected it.
No, Beans, no caltrops because we are at risk. :)
My taxes are pretty easy. I don't invest (to me it's a form of gambling) and I keep things simple.
DeleteTakes only a few hours.
The deer, they are clever bastiges.
Friend of mine racked up an impressive kill rate against yard-rats (deer) just by opening her door to go to work. She apparently startled, at different times, Bambi, Bambo, Bimbo and Bimbi to startle, turn rapidly and then break their fool necks on trees or fence posts. No caltrops needed. Friendly neighborhood SCA Mongol was just a phone call away, standard price for butchery was 1/2 of the deer and the pelt. Fair cop, as North Central Florida Deer tend to be scrawny compared to northern Yankee deer.
DeleteAs to Taxes, Taxes, Taxes, the reformation of the Tax Code by the Trumpinator has made doing taxes overall much easier. You only really need a tax professional if you have your own business and do all those weird things, and even then, there are tax programs that are far more accurate than the local tax preparer. If you're into wicked weird taxes, a tax accountant is the way to go.
I believe in keeping things as simple as possible.
DeleteBeans. The yard rats used to startle and bolt when you opened the door and clapped, now they just shift their cuds and look at you with a, "Whadda you want?" expression.
DeleteWhacking them with a wrist rocket delivered marble only makes them twitch, and move a couple of feet.
I found a gent that did a lot with autonomous airsoft gun turrets, but his YouTube channel shows no recent activity.
They are very adaptable beasties, which is why there are so many of 'em.
DeleteHey AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteWe will be waiting; and the spambots suck, I had to flush a bunch a couple of days ago...sheesh...can't they go bother the chinese or something...
Good point, someone needs to be bothering Red China.
DeleteI get it. I don't like people sometimes. In another forum where I'd posted a picture of me as a Captain on a United Express plane one of the members said pretty much I wasn't a good enough pilot to work for mainline United (as he did). No, I didn't, as I didn't meet their eyesight requirements at the time (an accident pretty much took out my right eye in my early 30's). I told him off in appropriately salty Navy language and left the group. So did pretty much all of their female members.
ReplyDeleteI saw that. I'm taking a break from that place for just that reason.
DeleteToo many assholes have watered down the culture.
It's not so much the number of assholes, it's the new 'my assholeness doth make me so much better than you and because I'm special for one reason or another you aren't allowed to call me on my assholeness else I'll bring the wrath of the doxxers and other internet trolls down upon you and make your internet and real life miserable unto the end of days' people that have made the internet doth sucketh to the maxeth within the last few years.
DeleteI mean, getting fired from your real life job just because you point out to some dimbulb the actual truth or that you favor one candidate over another? Which happens all too often. (Though the idiot who, after getting hired by Deloitte and then getting on the interwebs and saying 'Ima gonna cut you and kill you' for having melanin-minimal skin tones was hilarious, as occasionally the cancel-culture karma car runs over one of it's own.)
Nope, I'm just talking about regular assholes, not tech-enabled assholes.
DeleteDamn Trolls. Some people just like to create hate, discontent, and general anarchy. Certain political groups fall into that category too.
DeleteToo true.
DeleteCats and dogs do tend to get focused on one person over the others. Happened with all our cats.
ReplyDeleteThe previous two dogs were happy to have me walk them and water them but were definitely Mrs. Andrew's dogs. Though Liesl did a good job of keeping me grounded. Kegan, on the other hand, has definitely selected me as his human. Mrs. Andrew is nice and is the dispenser of major treats and of food, but he'll be in the middle of eating with me out of the room and will stop and wag his whole body when he sees or hears me. Of course, this means he also sleeps next to me and sleeps on my spot of the bed whenever he can and all that, but that's the price you pay for having a bonded pet.
A "price" I gladly pay.
Delete