Cats use claws to climb trees and fire departments to get down.

For the second time since I started working in Ybor, a big thunderstorm shut off power to my building, essentially halting everything. the first time this happened I was still just a volunteer and think I had impressed people when I was able to whip out several headlamps from my truck so we could finish going through some papers before calling it a day. This time it was a bit strange since there was power in some places, but not everywhere, but computers wouldn't run. It was when I tried to turn on the small fan on my desk that I found it was running, but very, very slow. Though I didn't have the voltmeter with me, that simply told me that the voltage was really low, so essentially a brownout electrical condition. That can be very bad for computers, so I brought out the headlamp once again and went around the building turn off all the power strips on the computers so any subsequent surges as power was restored wouldn't kill everything. There was some kind of commotion across the road where a bunch of fire trucks came out, but we never really noticed anything and figure it must have been some electrically triggered alarm. Oh well, exciting day.

Paying income tax is voluntary, but it's mandatory that you volunteer.

Part of the process in starting with the new company with whom I am working is taking part in the organizations programs, including fund raising. Volunteers of America, Florida is a non-profit organization that provides many needed services including housing for elderly and veterans, training, and other services. Unfortunately with the severe decline of the economy, corporate and state funding has all but dried up, so fund raising activities are even more critical. The administrative side (each program does their own annual events) of our organization had set up a fund raising event at The Fox Jazz Club in Tampa. The venue had allowed us to set up a table outside and sell admission armbands for $10 (the normal cover anyway) to all of our invited guests. The staff also had been at work getting donations for the raffle and auctions and came up with great prizes such as American Idol and Cirque De Soleil tickets to spa packages and artwork. All of the money collect during the event goes directly to the program, so it was critical for the event to be a success. For the past couple of months I had been involved with various social and activity groups and worked with the organizer of one of them, Tampa Socials, to make this an official event. Overall we had a pretty good turnout of probably 70 people. Besides the general purposes of the fundraiser, I enjoyed getting an opportunity to get to better know many of the others with whom I work in the office. I ended up staying quite late in the evening just enjoying the live band, fellow patrons, and drink specials that were organized for our event. This is the first real jazz club that I've had the chance to visit outside of New Orleans and I had a great time.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mblitch/TheFoxJazzClubVOAFundraiser#

I don't know if we'll ever cure proverty, but the way prices and taxes are going we're sure to cure wealth.

I finally got my taxes finished last night at 3AM and am glad to have been able to catch up on one of my biggest, 'need to do' items on my list. I'd let a lot of things lapse over the years, so it was good to have this beast finished. I was even able to get in my maximum $5000 IRA contribution (money I won't see again for 35 years but helps save a good bit in current taxes) set up at my new favorite banking institution, Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Not only did they have about the best current rates on CDs, but I also just picked up a credit card through them that has the best cash rewards program right now. My old Citibank dividend credit card simply gave me a basic 1% cash back on my purchases, however I had to wait until $50 worth of rewards accrued before I could request a check. This new card not only provides 5% back in gas purchases (saving about 11 cents a gallon at current prices) but also 2% in grocery store and drugstore purchases and 1.25% on all other purchases. The nice part is that the cash back is applied to the credit card balance every month, so I don't have to wait any period of time to get the benefit.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been busting out the home cleaning and repair projects that have been put off for far, far too long and cost me more than I would have expected in terms of the delay. I've caught up on finishing the kitchen cabinet baseboards, repainting most of the baseboards in the house, scrubbing the floors and cleaning out old grout, repainting/touching up the walls, and various other things. I've also been spending my days at a new potential job location and even traveled to Sebastian for a day trip to get involved with a property management project on Monday as my first official task, pics below. On Tuesday I attended a pre-audit as an opportunity to learn a bit more and participate in the process. Sometimes the small things have to be fixed before the bigger things can sink in, but I do have a certain optimism for the future; which right now is pretty much all I have. I'm a bit excited and saddened at the same time; excited for the opportunities that might be coming up soon and saddened for the things lost, even old free time, but it is indeed progress.