Never ending post-marital aggravation

Although I decided to quit harping about the concept of modern marriage - mainly, how unrealistic it was - it now seems that it can continue to bite you even after one dissolves the relationship.

Over the past few weeks I've been cheerfully waiting for my tax refund. It was more than I had expected, because last year I'd jiggled my paycheck deductions to lessen the refund. It didn't make sense to let the guvment make money off my own money; I would be better off parking it in savings during the course of the year.

I admit I already had plans for the extra money. A friend of Ryan's was selling his Triumph Speed Triple, as his wife was verbally abusing him for adding a pricey Ducati to his motorcycle collection without selling one of the other bikes. So I had decided to use my tax refund to get a slightly bigger motorcycle.

But yesterday, fate vomited upon my eiderdown once again. It seems that Estranged Husband owed back taxes as he hadn't bothered to make his quarterly tax payments in 2007. And since we had filed a joint return back then, the IRS didn't care which of us actually paid the taxes, along with the penalties accruing during the past three years.

I don't know the exact figure, but chances are my refund will be zero.

Estranged Husband apologized, and said he would pay me back. But not at one time.

I suppose I'll just have to look at the lost refund as yet more of the costs involved with breaking up with one's spouse.

The only bright side to all this is that Ryan's friend's wife had quit nagging him to sell the Triumph (at least for the time being). So he's actually happy I had to renege on the purchase.

chasing the moon

I've been reading the director Luis Bunuel's autobiography, My Last Sigh, with deliberate slowness. The book is thankfully as without structure as his films.

For example, sometimes a chapter will have a set subject, like the Spanish Civil War. In this chapter he admits to finally buying a rifle for protection, only to give it away in less than a week. He realizes he can't identify the group most likely to kill him and usually can't tell if someone is a Communist, a member of the Falange, or neither.

At other times, Bunuel will ramble about his rejection of Catholicism. He doesn't talk much about his movies except to offer reasons why he included a particular scene. Since his films were almost always a surreal rejection of religion, the upper class, monogamy, or politics - or a mixture - I found these explanations intriguing.

I particularly liked this observation of Bunuel's. Considering that the control freaks I've met could never manage to find any joy in life,  I think he has a valid point.

"All my life I've been harassed by questions. Why is something this way and not another? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal.

If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence."

I wonder if anyone will bring a date to this...

You could buy a really good lap dance (or two or three, depending on the venue) for $102.98. If I had to spend it on this show or a lap dance, I'd go for the lap dance.

If you want to hear all about “winning” and the real story from the Warlock, Charlie Sheen will be here next month to tell you all about it.

The troubled actor has added Dallas to his list of tour cities for his one-man show “Live: My Violent Torpedo of Truth — Defeat is Not an Option.“

Sheen is set to talk about what happened between him and his Two and a Half Men producers, as well as  his interesting lifestyle.

The tour has already sold-out shows in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and Radio City Music Hall.

The Dallas show will be at the American Airlines Center on April 27th, tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster Saturday March 19th at 10:00am and range in price from $49.50 – $102.98 each.

too much effort for a tax break?

Over the past couple of days, I've made a list of stuff I need to do this weekend. It's not real exciting.

The strangest entry has to do with my bathroom sink. When I turn on the hot water, I eventually see a leak coming from the skirting board about two feet west of the sink (as opposed to directly under the sink). I'm slightly worried that this won't be something I can fix, but I better pry off the skirting board and see what's up.

Also, the front yard looks awful as my beneficial nematodes met an untimely frozen death earlier this year. I am anti-herbicide, so this means I will be digging weeds by hand before replacing nematodes.

I still have my plans for an owl box, but I haven't taken that anywhere.  I really should bite the bullet and go buy a table saw. I've spent more on shoes.

I also need to check for places where squirrels are getting into my attic. This makes me slightly nervous as I frequently fall off, or down ladders. But I shouldn't put it off any longer. The little bastards may be destroying something up there.

And there's the non-stop house painting. I'm beginning to think I'm the world's slowest painter, but the preparation is the slow bit. Filling plastic cracks is almost like pottery class.

On the other hand, I may just say "fuck this" and take the Suzuki out for a few hours instead.

at least we get laid a lot