Electronic estimated tax day

Now here's something I never had to do when I had a job. Back then the employer (aka sweat shop operator) withheld from my wages. I have money withheld from one of my current sources of income but when I went to the local office of the other source of income (the big federal one, the one that nearly everyone is eligible for) the office was a complete zoo. I had gone on-line and successfully completed the necessary application process to receive the income but withholding had to be done in person. Instead the zoo drove me away unwithheld. I limped along for a couple of tax years waiting for filing day to figure out exactly where I stood and each time ended up owing more money than is seemly. Can you say penalty? I can. So today I embarked on this whole estimated tax payment deal. Because I am such a modern kind of guy I have decided to file electronically. According to the feds you have to file by 8pm eastern time on the previous day to assure that the fund transfer will actually occur on the due date (which all of the rest of you know is tomorrow). So I have just completed all of that and it was surprisingly satisfying.

CPAs and others with more extensive knowledge of these matters are now free to weigh in with tut-tutting about the inadequacy of my tax planning strategy. Well, I tell you, I have stories to tell. Let's just say . . . oh, never mind.

Yesterday when I had a Guest Rider we had to swing past Lake Como to be sure that she met her lake quota. I had intended to go to this lake.It is Loeb Lake located in Saint Paul's Marydale Park. Marydale Park falls into the category of really, really cleverly named parks being at the corner of Maryland Avenue and Dale Street. We didn't ride there yesterday because I decided that GRider is not ready yet for the several block long descent from the area in which we were riding down to the lake. Well, she could have handled that OK. It would have been a long hard climb back up, a task better suited to someone in mid-season form.

I have ridden past Loeb Lake a few times in the past but I am pretty positive that this is the lake's first appearance in a photograph.

In 1976 I was security for the bicentennial fireworks display held at that lake. That meant that I was inside the ropes where the fireworks were being fired off. My impressions? Very interesting one time, the lighting, the sulfur, the flares being used to set off the rockets, the thud of the rockets igniting in their tubes to shoot into the air, the whole explosion thing, very interesting one time experience. I have no desire to be that close again. The whole explosion thing.

Some remarks have been made in the past about the lack of poetry in Ramsey County Lake names. It might have been someone from Michigan who commented that our lakes were pretty making it unfortunate that the names are so unattractive. I believe the comment was specifically addressed to Snail, and to Sucker.

Well, buckle up, this is way better than that.

According to my street name book, Loeb Lake's official name is taken from the Loeb real estate company which platted the area in 1907. In earlier times the lake was known as Dead Horse Lake. In the words of my street name book, this is a descriptive name that defies precise explanation.

Further bicyclist sayeth not.

I rode on down to the Capitol to see if I could catch a glimpse of the dueling budget shortfall/government shutdown controversy. I was a bit surprised to find that the parking lot in front of the Capitol was mostly pretty empty. It is worth noting that repairs to the dome are continuing. I wonder how they intend to pay for THAT.It seems to me that those people should be at work. I guess they feel as though it is only, after all, the middle of June and this whole shutdown thing won't even occur until July 1. I mean, where's the urgency?

I could go further I suppose but I won't. Rimshot please. That would be like beating a dead horse.