Bloggus Interuptus

I got in the car to come home from work a few minutes ago and while I was driving here a song came on the radio that I used to begin every day's blog with so I took it as a sign that I needed to share it again so a-one and a-two and a....hit is Roz. Now I am gonna sleep before I finish writing this and editing the show and working on Labor Day. Is Jerry Lewis still alive? Nighty day.

It is now 16:44 and I am about ready to go to sleep again before work. The podcast is 90% edited and I am still working on it now as I write this. I was also listening to the St. Louis Cardinals game; they beat the Pirates and are now sole occupants of first place in the National League Central. I will not speak of that anywhere but here, for now. The Pirates are the team I am worried about most right now; they have been playing pretty hot for the last few weeks. Work tonight will be regular time PLUS holiday pay - more OT / COMP Time for Matty. This coming Friday I will finally get ONE day off in a row. These last three weeks have been a rough stretch. The extra days off in the bank will be awesome!

Okay, now it is September 2nd - the day after Labor Day. Bloggus Interuptus! I ended up finishing the podcast yesterday and getting it uploaded. I paid for it last night at work but I am happy to have it out of the way today. Check it out free at Dirty Laundry Podcast or, as always, free on iTunes. I really do love doing the podcast.

Sure, list all of the things that I don't mind paying my share for

I just wrote the check for $3,357.10 to the County Collector for our second, and final installment for this year, for our property taxes. They list all of the things that my property taxes go to and I am not really that excited paying the: County Pension Fund, Forest Preserve Pension Fund, City Pension Fund, Park District Pension Fund, School District Pension Fund, Kishwaukee College Pension Fund, Sanitary Pension Fund... No wonder I will never be able to retire; I am too busy making sure everybody else in the city and county are owning a vacation home in Del Boca Vista. There are lots of other things listed there too that I have no problem paying (parks, bridges, roads, sanitary, library, forest preserve...)Why should my property taxes in the MIDDLE of all of these corn fields be $6,714.20 this year though? I know everyone who pays these taxes feels this pain. Two times a year I wonder why we didn't escrow this into our mortgage? It is nice every month when I only write a check for $990 for the mortgage though. These are the few days a year that I usually buy a lottery ticket or two. I know I will not win but I may as well pay into some of the state employee's pension funds too I guess. Hey, I am a state employee. Do I see any of that money? Maybe I can write lottery tickets off as a contribution to my retirement fund?

I have gotten myself all worked-up about something that seems to be out of my control. Some days I wonder why we don't just rent. It is nice having the yard and all of that but, it would be nice having a yard that someone else had to mow and pay taxes on too.

Tonight would usually be my hump day night but right now is my hump time (TWSS) this week. It is so much easier to calculate hump days when you work an odd number of days and you have days off. Thursday night, my normal Saturday, is only five hours though. Five hours will translate into 7.5 hours of Comp Time which equals one entire day off with pay in the future or the cash equivalent should I die or leave before getting to use said time off . Working five to get an extra day off is worth it too me. I used to work around the clock pretty much all the time but, now that I am on the dark side of The Middle, it isn't as easy on my constitution. I am such a pansy!

The first two are most believable because everything was black and white back then

I recorded the mini-series Houdini starring Adrien Brody. I have always been a fan of Houdini. When I was a kid I wanted to grow-up to be a magician. Now I am just hoping to eventually grow-up. I watched part one when I got home from work this morning. The second, and I believe final, part is on tonight. I never know how much of these things are true. I do know that I am happy I recorded it because I am fairly certain that one-third of the recording is commercials. They have some pretty clever commercials meant to trap you into believing they are the show returning (Houdini trying to get out of Visa/Mastercard debt troubles and things of that nature). If this show is true it talks about some stuff that I never knew; Paul Michael Glaser and Tony Curtis didn't touch on this stuff. According to this show Houdini was a spy for America during the war? He was welcomed into every country (even the scary ones because he was Hungarian by birth and a magician) and, supposedly, while he was seemingly locked in a safe on a stage performing for heads of state... he was off stealing papers and maps from safes and gathering intel from Presidents and Prime Ministers... of evil countries? True or not I like the twist. I have always liked Adrien Brody's acting. If I get to Toronto next year, like Greg and I have pencil'd in, I am going to the  Houdini Magical Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls. Supposedly, Houdini and his wife Bess have visited the hall of fame from the afterlife. They have photos there to prove it. And, all of the things he did in life were really magic - he wasn't a master locksmith. I am sure that is one of the first places they would visit as ghosts, sure! Slowly they turned, step-by-step, inch-by-inch...

I have to get dressed and get over and drop this payment to the tax man in the mailbox; it has to be postmarked by today or they will penalize me for the extortion they are charging me. I am not really that upset about the taxes though; ours do seem pretty steep for living in the MIDDLE of nowhere though.

Have a great day. Thanks for letting me whine. Have a great day and night. I will probably blog tomorrow; otherwise I would have to clean the garage, TTTT...MITM (out)!