2001-04-10 - 3:47 p.m.

Annoyances De Jour

I use email for almost all business communication. I love it to death. It offers fast delivery, a record of what gets said, and the opportunity to widen or narrow the audience at each step of the conversation.

So why, when email has these advantages, do people insist on responding to email by making phone calls?

I've been working from home today, to avoid interruptions as I plow through my back email. I sent one message to a very large mailing list in an effort to try to find someone responsible for some equipment that seems to have been abandoned. Since I sent this email message, I've gotten more voice mail in my office on this one day than in an ordinary month.

Aarrggh!

Meanwhilst, I still haven't done my taxes, although I'm inching closer to having them done. That is, I have now installed TurboTax and updated it. I have my tax records all in a nice pile. I have my Quicken data ready to import. Tonight could be the night!

This would all be a great deal more exciting if the government didn't think of people like me (young, well off, no dependants, single) as prime victims. Until I buy a house, I won't even be able to get close to itemizing my deductions. Knowing that I'll end up owing money removes the incentive to process my taxes early. They can *wait* to get hold of my money.

Once I get a house, of course, it'll be deduction city. I'll be filing on January 1. But that will be then and this is now. Stupid now. Stupid flow of time. Could the space-time continuum just work with me for a moment, here?

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