Rant #3,083: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

My family’s taxes …

Let me talk about them first, to get that out of the way, and then, I promise you, I will talk about something that is much better and much more positive than paying the government—state and federal—money via the taxman.

If you remember in yesterday’s Rant, I spoke about the crazy and busy days I have had leading up to our visit to the taxman, and things continued in a downward spiral for myself and my wife when we found out how much we had to pay the piper.

Our son made out fine, which we pretty much expected.

He is getting back money from both the federal and state government, which is a far cry form last year, when he initially got little back from either.

In fact, I think he owed the state a little bit … but it was all rectified later in the year, when the tax laws were updated and he received money back—two checks if I remember correctly—to atone for the updates of the various tax codes related to people in his situation.

So we are happy that our son did well this year. He works hard, does not make much money, and should not be paying exorbitant tax rates.

Now for my wife and myself …

We also don’t make too much money, in particular because we are both retired … err … semi-retired.

Not only do we get Social Security—which is taxed, if you didn’t already know that—but we both have small jobs where we do make a miniscule income.

And that is taxed too.

We don’t have many write-offs—I do have a few business expenses that I can write off, related to supplies that I need to replenish that relate to my editor/writer’s job—but we don’t own anything—like a house—and quite frankly, we are prime candidates to be taxed, even though we make a smidgen of what we made when we were working full time.

So we got zonked again, not as bad as last year, but bad enough.

My wife was all upset, and I was too, but I explained to her that I am through being that upset about the whole thing … if people like us are taxed the way we are, then yes, the laws are unfair, but go fight city hall.

It ain’t worth it.

Just pay the piper and move on.

The most heinous thing is that Social Security is taxed—monthly and yearly—so senior citizens have to pay tax on money that at least in our case, we desperately need.

It is unfair, but nothing is going to be done about it—40 years ago, then Senator Joe Biden was a major proponent for, and pushed for, Social Security to be taxed, and it has been for the past 40 years or so, which somehow gets lost in all his bravado about how his administration helps senior citizens.

My wife and I are considered “middle class,” and if you are in that group, you have to pay a ridiculous amount of taxes, because the “lower class” and “poor” do not pay their share and the rich … don’t get me started.

So when “migrants” from outside the country come here, and New York City and State brag that they are being accommodated by receiving “South American meals,” you just know who is paying for that.

And it isn’t Michael Bloomberg or other wealthy New York Staters.

So rather than get all upset about what we have to pay each and every; year, just do it and move on.

And that is what we did.

Now for some better news … but the better news is mixed with a bit of trepidation.

Our son has an abnormality that he inherited through me, which I inherited through my maternal grandmother.

It is related to tic de la roux syndrome, a malady which impacts the face and jaw and teeth, related to facial movement.

My grandmother suffered through this greatly, with her entire face hurting her for days at a time.

Filtered down to myself and my son, it prevents us from fully opening our mouths, which for me, has been no big deal—as a teenager, I remember my jaw popping when I tried to open my mouth wide, and dentists always implored me to open my mouth wide when they were/are working on me—but for my son, it has become a bit of a big deal, as he has it a bit worse than I do.

Since like me he cannot open his mouth fully, dentists have a very hard time in treating his teeth, and in turn, he also has a tough time with brushing and keeping his teeth fit and clean.

So since his problem is way worse then mine, he has had two adult teeth removed, because they are too far gone for dentists to work on, and he must get another one removed, and this will happen on Saturday morning.

He came out of the other two dental surgeries very well—the last being in 2020-- and we expect him to come out of this one with flying colors.

A minor aside to all of this is that since the work is being done on Saturday, he will miss his bowling league that day.

But his league allows those bowlers who know they will miss a day to make up the games on their own time, and my son did just that yesterday.

After work, I took him to the bowling alley, and he bowled two games to make up for the two that he will miss on Saturday.

His team is in second place, just a few points out of first, and doing this shows full allegiance to his team and to his teammates.

Well, even though my son was probably tired from work, he bowled the two games … and I mean, he really bowled the two games.

I have said this numerous times but I am going to say it again: disabled people are not to be thrown into the garbage pail like my son and so many others have been, even by members of the medical establishment; they can do incredible things if given the chance to do so.

I still remember that one doctor—recommended by the school district, of all people—who, after about a five-minute session with him, declared our son was ready for the scrap heap at five years of age. She deemed that he would go nowhere in life, and that we should be prepared for the worst.

Well, that only made my wife and I—and our son—prepared for the best, and he has never disappointed us.

He has worked since he was 15 years of age and currently holds a job, and demonstrated why you should never fully believe what even a supposedly educated doctor tells you about anything.

Want further proof of that?

Our son—who again, this idiot of a doctor said would be little more than a vegetable in life--made up those two games yesterday by bowling his heart out.

The first game, he bowled a 170, including four strikes in a row during the middle of the game.

The second game, our son continued to defy his couch potato prognosis by bowling a 216, his high game ever, a game in which he threw three strikes in a row during the middle of the game.

So I am sure his 386 total pins for the two games—over his average 272 in two games in the league—will help his team on to victory on Saturday, and maybe even help vault them into first place.

I cannot relate my family’s tax experience to my son’s bowling experience in any way other than the way I just did.

My wife and I know that he will get through this latest surgery in great shape, and he will continue to astound us by beating the odds posted for him by a doctor who should have had her license suspended with her completely errant appraisal of him.

I guess to sum everything up, when you put your mind to something, you can do it and come out OK, whether it is paying exorbitant taxes, bowling the game of your life, or getting through dental surgery.

Let’s leave it at that.