random thoughts – Day 2,166 (Friday) – motivated

Today saw some tasks get knocked off the list. The tax return is finally done and submitted. Most of the tax forms had been rounded up, except for the one from my old mortgage bank. I called their customer service number and learned that a form had been sent out, but it's anyone's guess where it is. I could either wait for a new one in the mail or pick one up at a branch. I opted for the branch pickup, and in no time, I had my form in my chilly hands.

In the library.

From the bank, I traversed a block or two over to the library and finally got myself a library card. When I tried to get one in the summer, I didn't have documentation showing my new address with me. Today, armed with my excise tax bill, I got my library card.

It’s a beautiful library with lots of wood, windows, and cozy nooks with comfy-looking chairs. I wandered around like I used to do when I was a youngling, turning down random rows, pausing at random shelves to read titles. One title would spark and idea and then I would be off looking at something else. 

The snow, which had started when I left the bank a few minutes earlier, gained intensity as I worked my way through the library and got heavier as I made my way home.

Snow falling.

The main roads were primarily wet, but the streets in my neighborhood were collecting snow. Back at home and looking out the windows, it was like being inside a snow globe. The snow was falling and blowing and swirling from multiple directions and piling up fast. It was pretty on the trees out back and across the street, and covered the yucky dirty snow. With the snow swirling outside and a new library card in my wallet, I was feeling sufficiently motivated to continue the momentum. The tax return was revisited and finally finished. 

The little timekeeping feature in TurboTax, which I imagine is intended to be encouraging, estimated my return would take 54 minutes. It was laughable, because in all the years of using the program, I've never been able to finish within the estimated time. 

Worse than the gross inaccuracy of the estimator was the way it held fast to that original estimate like if it repeated the lie enough it would finally be true. It passed an hour the first day I logged in and clocked more than six hours by the time I was finished. But it’s finished, officially crossed off the list, and it’s all over except waiting for the direct deposit of the refund. Bonus, I don’t need to deal with it for another year.