day off until key dropoff

The end of the year has a number of meaning to me. I mainly review the year and think of its pluses and minuses in my development towards finality. 2013 was a fair year. Economically it seems square with 2012, so no regression is good. My family has been healthy, though we have burned through over $5K in HSA funds.

Nothing sticks out. I have a job, which is much better than being on unemployment. I would never consider bringing another child into this world if I was not working. I could work more, but childcare is so expensive that avoiding it is like free money in a strange way.  If you spend $20 a day for a kid to be watched, then I saved easily $10K ($20 X 2 kids X 5 days X 52 weeks= $10,400, plus not having to pay taxes on money saved means an additional chunk saved considering Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes are still owed on the money paid towards childcare).

HSA will be beneficial when tax time comes, for the medical expenses would have been made regardless of HSA, but HSA saves us whatever % of income tax we'd have paid on the money that we were spending. Lowest tax bracket is 10%, so that's a minimum of $500 less in taxes owed.

Dull stuff, taxes, but I think of them a lot after reading Rex Stout's reasoning via Nero Wolfe.

I'm reading Richard Zacks's Island of Vice, which has given me a new perspective on William McKinley's successor in the White House. I once wrote a paper on President McKinley's untimely assassination. I didn't have anything nice to say about McKinley's term in office given my impression of Mark Hanna as his puppet master.

Though I am not done, I am glad that Richard Zacks told me about his research when I emailed him that I enjoyed one of his previous books regarding pirates. I still have the email dated November 7, 2007, which seems a lifetime ago.

--- Richard Zacks <rzacks@echonyc.com> wrote:

> always glad to cement a marriage...
>
> Thanks for your note... it gives me a boost as I try
> to make sense of Teddy
> Roosevelt, prudish police commissioner of NYC,
> 1895-1897. I'm a tad behind
> schedule but hope to have a book out late next year.
>
> Sorry for the delays... I toyed with writing fiction
> but it doesn't suit me
> to make stuff up. I prefer the strange but true to
> the merely strange.
>
> If you have a friend or neighbor to tell about the
> books, pls. go right
> ahead. I have delusions of... being surrounded by
> adoring eyes, followed by
> applause. I would probably run off the stage or trip
> down the stairs but
> it's a nice delusion.
>
> Richard Zacks

 TR had his fair share of haters. Wonder how he would have reacted to today's blogsphere.

Quiet day. Kids are home another week and I had the day off until I got a call needing my key. Someone from corporate had inadvertently pocketed a manager's key during an inspection and is now out of state. I live 20 miles away from my job so the venture takes an hour roundtrip, which is much shorter than anyone else who was available with a key to spare.There's worse things.

My New Year's resolution is to embrace the happiness I have achieved. Sure I'll look for opportunities and be forward thinking regarding taxes and the like, but I have to remember to be thankful for the family with which I have been blessed despite my personal failings.