How many miles have you gone?

I finished my taxes yesterday. I persist in doing them myself because- my dad helps me, they aren't that complicated, and I am a little bit of a control freak. Plus Turbo Tax makes it easy. Anyway, this past year I actually had enough medical expenses to be able to deduct them (well plus the fact that I was on disability for most of the year). Anyway, I dutifully read all of the supporting info on what could and could not be deducted including the per diem rate if you have to stay out of town for medical care. I followed all of the rules ( I hope). Then I got to the part that says you can deduct miles driven for medical care- huh. I thought about it for awhile, I plugged my address and the address of UCLA where I had my radiation and realized that it is 30 miles round trip and I went there every day for 5 weeks plus multiple other appointment. So, I grabbed my trusty calculator and figured that i had driven 2000 miles to go to and from UCLA a few million times. By then I was on a role. I went through my insurance log to figure out how many PT apts I had and how many times I went to USC and how many had my parents house as a starting point and I added all of that up. BTW- I had 60 physical therapy apt in 2007- yes 60. Plus many other apts. Total miles driven in pursuit of my own healthcare- >3000 miles. I was shocked. Who knew I had driven that much. Crazy. Thanks to the IRS for that revelation and for only letting you deduct 20c a mile which would barely pay for the gas at almost $4 a gallon.

Gardening

This weekend the weather guy said it would rain- he lied- it was an absolutely gorgeous Southern California early spring weekend. Early spring around here means my garden needs lots of attention, especially since I fired my gardener last fall. This weekends project was to trim the vines that run along 15 ft tall retaining wall. This is no easy task which requires getting all the way up on a ladder and then balancing yourself at funny angles while trying to reach the top of the wall to trim it with my hedge clippers (the muscle power kind, not the power kind- I am afraid of those) 6 months ago, I was forbidden from doing this same project becuase they were worried about me falling off the ladder, this time I didn't ask, but i felt plenty strong enough to tackle the project now. The whole process took about 3 hours, when I was done my ankle was sore, in a stiff overworked kind of way, but I never felt unstable so it seemed successful. Several icing sessions later and all is good. Now I need to attack the weeds and mulch my citrus tress.

Work Stinks

I just feel like moaning. Some weeks I love my job, but this week- not so much. (I say this week because for me my week is 12 days long since I worked all weekend, so this really is sort of like Wednesday in some crazy confused universe.) Anyway, I am in search of motivation to make me like work again. Maybe I'll find it soon.