Lots of stuff going on.
Of course, being a bookkeeper in the U.S., January is far and away my busiest month. I don't process income taxes, but numbers for my clients have to be compiled before their accountants (who usually charge way more than bookkeepers) can do the tax forms. Most of my clients are Sub-S Corps, which generally means small one-person businesses that are incorporated, and the deadline is March 15th. Unfortunately, I pretty much need to have everything done by January 31st, because I have to process 1099 forms, which reports monies paid to non-employees who performed some kind of services. So, in order to process the 1099s, I have to know how much was paid to each service provider, which means I pretty much have to have all the numbers input for the year. It's a lot of responsibility on a tight deadline.
I have regularly monthly clients, a few clients I only work with quarterly, and a handful of others who contact me only once a year. This year, on consecutive days, I heard from two different clients that I hadn't worked with since 2014. It was nice that they remembered me. And that they had work for me to do.
When I start feeling overwhelmed, I often end up not working at all. Still, everything manages to get done. At least I'm experienced enough to know that going into a panic about the Jan 31st deadline doesn't accomplish anything, so I don't bother. I do get amazed though, at the continual string of emails that come in this time of year. And then more emails, to make sure I got the first email since I hadn't yet responded.
I'm enjoying the "Adventure" story I'm currently working on. It's ironic that when I first moved from Kirk/Spock fandom to Starsky/Hutch fandom in the early nineties, one thing I really didn't like about S/H stories was the emphasis on police plots. Finding out whodunnit rarely did much for me. But with the "Adventure" series, which has the same characters story after story, I really appreciate the detective plots. It's an opportunity to introduce new characters and situations; mostly, though, I don't know whodunnit until the guys do. I like uncovering what happened as they discuss the case with various witnesses. I just go with the conversation, and learn in "real time" what happened, for the most part. That feels tremendously fun and creative. I do know, in the current story, what I expect the climax to be, in terms of the moment when they realize whodunnit. That came about simply from writing the earlier parts by the seat of my pants.
I've started reading a book about when Cortez defeated the Aztecs in the sixteenth century. I've only read the first chapter and am eager for more, but it's probably going to have to wait until I can focus on my Kindle between plays in the championships football games on Sunday. Cortez was far and away my favorite Spanish explorer, because he's the one who reintroduced the horse to North American. (Bones from the ancient small Eohippus proved that the horse was in North America in the dinosaur times. It's believe they crossed the Bearing Strait to Asia at some point, and evolved in Asian and Europe into the modern horse. It took Cortez to bring the modern horse to North America.) I remember in junior high, I wrote a story for history class, from the point of view of a Spanish horse breeder who was providing the horses for the dangerous voyage that Cortez was taking. I always wrote unique papers, mostly drawn from my knowledge of the vast world of horses.
As a racing fan, the two hallmarks of the year are the Triple Crown in the spring and the Breeders' Cup in the fall. Now there's the ultra rich Pegasus in Florida the last Saturday in January. This year is the third running, and in addition to the dirt race, they've added a race on turf. There will be an impressive undercard of other stakes races. No matter how much work I need to do to make the January 31st deadline for 1099 forms, I'll make the time to watch and bet the races that day. Should be large fields and opportunities for longshots.
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