December 12, 2012

There is a website with a countdown to December 12, 2012. (there is a website for everything isn't there?)This to some people is the 'end of the world'. The countdown currently says 0303 days, 3 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds. Amazing. In many ways. But the direction I am going with this blog entry is...if I have 0303 days left on this beautiful earth, how wisely would I use them? Wise does not have to be in the equation really. Just how would I fill those last days as they count down.

As I was going into March of last year, I had surgery coming up. At the time I had doubts I would survive all that. I won't go into those reasons now. But at that time I had a real live mental clock counting down. Did I use those days 'wisely'. Well, perhaps. Maybe not. Not sure.

My daughter and her husband helped me write my Will and last requests. That was good, I had not taken the time to do that before.  We have that to show for my surgery, along with my scars and my heart that ticks like a clock.

My wife and I had gone out to some nice restaurants. We did have a nice Christmas that year...though with a beautiful wife, three beautiful daughters, and Grand kids...I think a nice Christmas will always be penciled in for me. My cup overflows with love for my family.

But is a nice Christmas, a few great date nights, and an completed will enough to put all my chips on the table and cash in?


Probably not. Not then, not now. Boy, do I need to get busy! I don't know when my clock will run out. None of us really do. My middle daughter teases me that I need to get writing my 'Novel'...one I started years ago. I also have ideas for screen plays, poems, and maybe another novel.

I started this blog out to sort of get the writing bug rolling, good start...but not quite enough.

And there are places on the globe I really want to visit before I check out. There are things I want to do. And I really need a few more adventures before I can call this life full. ADVENTURE. I have long held the belief that life, with all it's bells and whistles,  is the greatest of all adventures. But it is made up of a bunch of little adventures...and sitting around the TV after working for 10 hours each day is not living the adventure.
I'll let you know what I come up with. Wink Wink. Watch what happens.

Cheers, nca

p.s. Leap Day is February 29. That gives us all an extra day before the end of the world. What mischief can I get into between Leap day and the Ides of March? I'm telling you, there's going to be something to blog here.

Irreverant Earth

If I knew then what I knew now. How often have us quasi-adults thought that same thought. But not just what we now know, but the tools we now have at our fingertips. I've talked about apps on this blog before. But my goodness,  what havoc some of today's apps would have done to my character if they were let loose upon my formulating childhood!

I was born chock full of mischief. Staying after school writing lines was a regular occurrence in my elementary days. I somehow always sought that which was most mischievous and embraced it with a vigor. But if I had some of the technological tools available now back in my day, oh the trials I could have put the nuns at my school through.

Google Earth comes to my mind today. It amazes me that I can type in an address anywhere in the world and pull up satellite or street images with a few key strokes. What an amazing bit of technology that is. And oh so useful.

I remember as an elementary youth trying to sneak through the oleanders down by the baseball field to get a peak at the swimming pool on the convent property. Yes, those sassy nuns had their own swimming pool, and by golly my youthful imagination wanted to know just what went on back there while we were out sweating on the sports fields.

Were the nuns doing Busby Berkley synchronized patterns out in the pool?

Were they secretly dressing in sleek bikinis with their habits amiss?

Was Father D#^&* throwing ribald raucous swimming parties like a pious Hugh Hefner behind our very backs?

We just had to know. It was one of the playgrounds greatest mysteries and we, like countless classes of boys before and after us just were dying to know. What went on back behind the oleanders at the convent swimming pool?

But low and behold, a few clicks on Google Earth, and there it is, as plain as day.

         

I can now view, with mystery deflated like a thrice punctured bicycle tire, from my lofty perch from a satellite orbiting earth....exactly what was going on in the convent swimming pool. Absolutely flipping nothing.

Maybe some mysteries are better left...without an app.   :)

Cheers, nca


p.s. (editors note) ... This is the second Kotkas posting involving a risque picture of a nun. Hmmm. What's Freudian drivel could that be ? :)

If u dont eat ur meat u kant have ne pudding

Time to do taxes again.

Whip Out the newest version of TurboTax and go for it.
Fed Tax, State Tax, Deductions, W2, W4, 1099, Long Form Short Form
Itemized, Receipts, Donations, Health Deductions, Dependencies, Mortgage Tax Credit

Fine. Uncle Sam, Governor Jan, and Sheriff Joe...what's mine is yours, what's yours is.....
Oh, but there is $400.00 they are not going to get. $400.00 I can feel better about.

I'm talking the Arizona School Tax Credit. $200.00 individual, or $400.00 for a married couple that I can donate directly to the school extra curricular activity or character education program of my choice. With recent cuts to education funding in the Statue of Arizona, Teachers and students need all the help and funding they can get.

The kicker is, you can't think of it as a donation. Because the $400.00 ($200.00) check you write is a Tax Credit. That means at the end of the year when you are doing your income taxes and you owe money to the State...you can directly subtract this 'donation' from the taxes you owe. Sort of a no-brainer if you believe in any of the extra-curricular or character eduction programs offered in the Arizona School Districts. Band or Orchestra, Sports, Clubs, Choir, Field Trips, Science Camps...the list goes on and on...there is bound to be some organization at a local school near you that floats your boat.

The last couple years my daughter has been pretty involved with the FFA program at Highland High School. This is a terrific program, character building, skill building, social skills building. I never knew anything about this organization until she dragged me to a couple meetings. Very very much more worthy of my $400.00 bucks then the state general fund. Then in years past, there was band and choir, and science camp. All worthy of my $400.00. It helps me feel much more connected to my community when I know my tax dollars are being spent on something worthy, something local, and something educational.

So, you don't have a school age child? That's ok. Relatives, neighbors, people in your church, bunko buddies, ask around, someone can direct you to a worthy school fund. I think it is a great investment of your tax dollars.

Did I mention it was a TAX credit?

Cheers, nca