February 2, 2017
5:12 p.m.

Darn rodent! Six more weeks until spring!

Hahaha! Shadow or not, we've got at least six more weeks. It was snowing here earlier, just to drive the point home. Ugh! So over winter already. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Once again, tax season is upon us. Those of you who are regular everyday Joes who make just enough money to eke out a living and therefore qualify for an Earned Income Credit or an Additional child tax credit, you should probably be aware of this:

• Earned Income Credit
• Additional Child Tax Credit

According to the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015, the IRS is required to hold all refunds for taxpayers claiming these credits. This means the IRS won’t issue your refund before February 15. This delay applies to all tax preparation companies and filing methods and impacts your entire refund, not just the portion associated with these credits. While the IRS will begin issuing refunds with these forms starting February 15, your federal refund will not appear in your bank account until the week of February 27. (If you’ve chosen direct deposit and your return doesn’t have any IRS processing issues, this allows time for your financial institution to post your refund to your account.)

Amending your return to remove these credits will not increase the speed of your refund and could cause further delay.

If you were not aware of it, I'm letting you know. 

Now, I am not a tax expert, nor am I a lawmaker, but something about singling out the very people who likely need their refunds quickly and making them wait seems downright mean to me. 

What do you think?

Anyway, plan accordingly. It's not that you won't get your refund, it's just that you won't get it as quickly as you used to. 

Bummer.

___________________________________________________________________________________

I can't believe it's time to pay bills again already. Didn't I just do that?

Grr!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Oh, man, something special and wonderful just happened, and all I'm going to say is I am happy with an outcome. Yay and hurray. Sometimes it pays to speak out. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Why would the ending scene in my book come to me in the shower? Weird, aren't I? 

I love writing, although I do have days when all I do is stare at the screen and watch the cursor blink at me. Blink. Blink. Mocking me, you know? Daring me to tackle a scene I can't quite wrap my head around. 

That's when I sigh this one was sci-fi, and then I could just make stuff up. But I need to be in a real location that I haven't really been to, and I don't want to mess it up. It's messing with my head. But I'm almost there. 

In the meantime, most of the already-written stuff has gone through the first edit. Yay, me! 

And now I know the ending...

So, that's a plus. 

Writer challenges. Hahaha! 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, so speaking of bills--ugh!--I'm off to balance my budget. Or the budget is off to un-balance me, as the case may be.

Be cool.

Bye!