Monthly Archives: June 2018
All Things Work Together for Good?
Looking back at my life, I see that many times things happened that I did not like at the time. But as a result of these so-called “bad” things happening, something good happened. The good that happened would not have happened if it wasn’t for the bad event.
All things work together for good? It would seem so. Or perhaps all things don’t work together for good, and I am too deep in denial to see the truth.
What If . . .
What if I had done everything I had set out do? What if I had accomplished all my goals? How would my life differ from the way it is now? Would I have financial success? Would I have emotional success? Would I be satisfied with how things turned out? Or, would I often gaze off into the sky and ask, “What if . . .”
Line 373
Panic! Panic! I panicked when I saw my 2017 Income Tax Assessment. I was expecting a refund of over a thousand dollars, but the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) said that I owed $5,000.00. How could this be? Throughout 2017, I had them deduct more taxes than necessary so I could get a refund. (It’s like having a savings plan with the money taken off before I spend it on something else.) There had to be a mistake. My gross income, for 2017, was below $20,676 which is the poverty line in Ontario. How can I owe the government a quarter of the poverty line when I did not make the poverty line? (Oh the life of luxury I would live if I made the poverty line!)
If it wasn’t a mistake, then I decided I would have to make monthly payments.
I called the CRA. The woman I spoke to instantly spotted the mistake. I do not understand why it wasn’t caught by the person who assessed my tax return.
Line 373, of the return, asks for your self-employed income. I wrote $373,991.00 with $991.00 being my self-employed income. Why did I write $373,991.00 on Line 373? I don’t know. Perhaps while filling out the tax return, I had my thumb up my ass and my mind in Alabama. Who knows? But nowhere else on my tax return did $373,991.00 appear as my self-employed income. Everywhere else I listed it as only $991.00.
Why didn’t the CRA catch my mistake? They assessed my gross income below $20,676.00, but accepted my self-employed income as $373,991.00. How can I make less than $20,676.00 and $373,991.00 at the same time? But they based the $5000.00 owing because of what was on Line 373. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one with my thumb up my ass and my mind in Alabama.
The CRA corrected the mistake, and I received my refund. Whew!
A few days after this incident, a friend told about someone who had killed himself because of money problems. I was sorry to hear about the suicide, but I felt fantastic. Why? Because I suddenly realized that not once did I consider suicide as an option. Until a few years ago, suicide would be the first thing I would think of to escape a problem—especially a financial problem. I wouldn’t focus on how to solve or deal with the problem, I would think of ways to kill myself to escape from the problem. But when faced with owing the government five thousand dollars, I focused on how I was going to solve the problem and never considered suicide. Wow! What a big change for me! What progress I have made!
Oh, the irony of life! If the Ouija Board is right and I die the first week of August, 2018, then I hear The Universe saying, “Okay, Gary, now that you reached a point in your life where you no longer think about suicide, it’s time for you to die.”
The Better Way?
May I vent about the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) ?
“Yes. We’re always ready to listen to your trivial concerns.”
Thank you.
The other day I took an eastbound crowded Finch 36 bus to the Finch Subway Station. When I arrived, just before 8:00 am, I could not see the subway platform because of the 87 million people waiting for a delayed train. If I waited, then it would have tin-of-sardine time once the train arrived. The 87 million people would have squeezed on the train and stood on my toes with their heads in my armpits with others standing between my butt cheeks and in my pockets. Not an ideal situation for someone who likes his space. I decided to try another southbound train from the other southbound line.
I took a westbound crowded Finch 36 bus to the Finch West Subway Station. I boarded an almost-empty southbound train. Wonderful! I could not believe it! It’s been a long time since I have been able to sit on a subway with space to breathe.
At Toronto Transit Control Centre . . .
“Hey, guys, Gary has a seat with space to breathe. We can’t have that.”
As the train approached the Eglinton West Station the conductor announced, “We’ve been advised by Transit Control to take this train out of service at Eglinton West Station. All passengers must leave the train . . . ”
They never give a reason when they take a train out of service, but I know it’s part of the plot against me. It’s all about me.
There were already people on the platform waiting for a train at Eglinton West. When we got off, there were more people on the platform waiting for a train. And then when a southbound train finally came, it was crowded. When we got on it was tin-of-sardine time. I remembered a friend once telling me, “TTC doesn’t stand for Toronto Transit Commission. TTC stands for Take The Car.”
Of course, this train often stopped in the tunnel between stations because of delays. If you’re on a subway in Toronto and the subway is moving, then something is wrong.
What is normally a forty-minute-to-an-hour ride took two and a half hours. But that’s okay. I had nothing else to do except ride around on crowded TTC vehicles and enjoy the delays.
A verse found its way to my head during the rides:
Crowded buses.
Crowded subways
With delays, delays, and a delay.
The TTC calls this,
“The Better Way.”
EINSTEIN EQUATIONS INCORPORATED 