April 19th

It's April 19th. But then, you already know that. I've been watching with great interest on the news how cities are losing money and cutting services to near nothingness. Makes me wonder what the rest of the world thinks of the mighty USA, but that's a blogpost for another day.

So, it's April 19th, four days past the dreaded April 15th, or four days past my charitable donation to the federal government. Why do I call it a charitable donation, might you ask? I call it that simply because I expect to receive absolutely nothing in return for it. When giving to charitable causes, we do not want for ourselves, we want for others.

This month I have been giving money hand over fist to anyone or anything that came along, it would seem. There was the aforementioned donation to the government, (and that hurt like a mother!), I paid $400 to my friendly neighborhood landscaper to remove my giant 30+ foot Chilean mesquite (before it fell into my house from all the rain!), and my home warranty was due (and you can bet I'm gonna pay that because I don't want a second mortgage should my AC decide to die, ever!).

That's not all. My tags are due on my car, paying a vet to vaccinate and medicate two beagles, a windshield replacement, my quarterly HOA fee (yes I know the good, bad and the ugly of it, I work for a company that manages them, remember?), and a bill complete with deductible for an urgent care visit I had two months ago.

All of this in addition to my regular monthly bills. Did I mention my mortgage payment went up by $11.00 per month because, in their estimation, my escrow account would be short? Perhaps they have not noticed that my home value has gone so extremely low that they will, in my estimation, be cutting me a check later this year because there is too much money in said escrow account! Give me back my 85 cents I tell you!

It may sound like I'm whining. Really, I'm probably not. I wish to extend my gratitude at this point to the illustrious and gregarious El Presidente Obama. Thank you for allowing me to fund your uber ridiculous economic stimulus plan, and self titled Obamacare. Thank you for bailing out the banks, we know what would happen if they were allowed to fail. (Duh, they'd have to learn from their mistakes and start square one, like the rest of America).

I digress. It's April 19th, the birds are singing and it's supposed to rain today.