My list of things to remember seems to be growing at a rate faster than my list of things completed. The only thing growing faster seems to be the list of difficultings I've been encountering.

The first, albeit a future problem, came last week when I visited my accountant. That's not always been a place of bad news, but this year was the exception.

It would appear that I need to handle an upcoming real estate transaction carefully, lest I find myself supporting the government in a much bigger way.

Being ignorant in many ways about these things, I didn't realize that I needed to even be concerned about selling property. But it would appear that the powers that be are very much interested in even my paltry business affairs.

Meanwhile, the water at the house, the real estate in question, froze up during that extended cold spell and now I've found out that the pipes have thawed inside the house but the pressure tank is no longer receiving it's necessary supply of water.

There were a few things that could mean, but one of the worst would be the well pump.

It's really not all that expensive, but it requires pulling the entire length of black pipe out of the well. In this case, I really don't even know how deep the well might be. I once had to drop several hundred feet of pipe and a pump into a well at a place I owned in Virginia and it was no picnic. I also had to pull a pump at a job I was working on one time and got to find out first hand how heavy a pump can be when it's attached to several hundred feet of wire and black pipe. It always seems to get heavier as you near the end of the job. Then I'd have to cut everything loose and start over, getting it ready to feed back down the well.

That's not easy work in the summertime, but it's much less fun when its slushy, muddy and cold. Luckily, I had the pump tested and it's fine. The flow from pump to house has just been blocked somewhere by ice.

On the bright side, the water pipes seem to be in good shape and the new laminant floor I put down looks great. Now all I have to worry about is getting everything done before closing. Well, that and figuring out how to handle the transaction and still protect myself from the Infernal Revenue Service.

For families like mine that don't make a fortune to start with, there are quite a few incentives to do less rather than more. For instance, there are food stamps, heating assistance, rental assistance, weatherization assistance, earned income tax credits, home buying help and work training programs.

I'm not against those programs, mind you. I really think that it's a good thing to help someone in need. However, I don't think it's a good thing to take away one's incentives for working. There's really not a way to fix the system, I suppose. There's always going to be a line somewhere with people making less than that paying less than people making more.

It just seems like we should all be encouraged to get out there and find ways to make something and not rely on assistance. I've always believed that if 10 percent is enough of everything for God, then the government should be more than happy to stop there, too. However, in this case the government wants almost a fourth of everything that isn't reinvested immediately and that doesn't count paying off the debts incurred during the process. I'm just complaining a bit and not offering helpful ideas. In that way, I suppose I'm starting to sound very much like a politician. That's what most of them do: complain about what the other party's doing wrong without bothering to come up with any solutions.

The way the economy has been going, I should be thankful for the opportunity for the chance to be taxed. Like my accountant told me, "I'd rather have 40 percent of something than 100 percent of nothing."

I agree wholeheartedly.
 

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