Pressure

Pressure  (Billy Joel)           7430  (650)

Tuesday, April 17, 2007-6:15 P.M.

If you want to really see where your relationship is with your spouse or significant other, sit down and file a joint tax return with them.  You'll find out quickly where you stand.

Last night, tearing ourselves to the core and tempting the last minute deadline of what seems to be an ever-expanding income tax filing date, the lovely Pamela Ruth and I sat down with the H&R Block Tax Cut tax preparation software and tried to muddle through our statements for the Federal and New York State governments.  Because we made more money than the year past, we got a smaller return, but it's a return nonetheless and I'm going to take it.  During the course of running the numbers, we hit each other, cursed, spit, and I'm not sure but I think Pamela mumbled something anit-Semitic (Family Guy reference....I'm not Jewish).

I'm off this week so we're going to spend the rest of the time trying to reclaim our living space which has become choked with detritus, the baby and her clothing and toys notwithstanding.  We've lived together for 12 years and have never thrown anything away (it seems) that we acquired in that time, and now we're in a small two-bedroom apartment with just too damn much stuff.  I'm mostly to blame, as I'm a collector of items, in this case, heavy metal records, books, magazines (mostly music oriented), comic books and God knows what else.  I have Slinkys, Spirograph sets, puzzles including Rubik's Cubes, 3D jigsaw puzzles and various brain-twister games, and that's just what's jammed in my closet.  I have a box of Micronauts toys (popular in the 1980's) that are in pretty good condition.  I have a cornflakes box with my picture on it (courtesy of the Kellogg's museum in Battle Creek, Michigan-Harmony calls it "Daddy's Cereal") and a box of Flutie Flakes with former New England Patriots/Buffalo Bills/San Diego Chargers/Toronto Argonauts quarterback Doug Flutie on it (flakes not included).  I have piles of cassette tapes (yeah, I still use 'em) of every artist imaginable, although I just donated about 300 of them to the Salvation Army (yes, I took the deduction on that this year), and piles of CD's from mostly unsigned artists because I can't figure out a way to sell them online.  This week is going to be a cleaning of the stables, or as much as I possibly can, before the tour resumes in Michigan next Wednesday.  I'm going to be eBay-ing a lot of it, so if you're interested in this type of stuff I've mentioned, keep your ear to the ground.

I hate to have days off, but they are inevitable, so the dutiful thing is to put them to good use.  I honestly don't think that we'll be able to get everything done this week, but as long as we can clear out enough space to make the apartment more maneuverable, I'll consider it a blessing and a gift.

Keep the sunny side up!

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY