Render Unto Caesar

D and I did our income taxes today, and it turns out we owe Uncle Sam about a third less than we thought we were going to. Woo hoo! The bad news is, because we paid so much tax for 2006 overall, we're going to have to make estimated tax payments in 2007 to avoid an underpayment penalty in 2008. But that's a headache for another day.

I can understand why people complain about having to do taxes, and why so many choose to hire accountants or other professionals to do it for them, but it's not really that hard--just tedious. Let's face it, the math isn't difficult; the problem is the paperwork, the tax code and all its various convolutions, which--to be fair--are probably required to keep things straight after a couple hundred years of legislation.

After all that, we watched the series finale of Rome tonight. A finer show we may not see on television for some time. It also puts things into perspective, to think about what still worries us two thousand years after Augustus Caesar rose to power, and what stories people two millennia hence might tell of our time. War? Politics? Love? Friendship? I hope the human race is still around then to ask questions.

~CKL