Taxes are a sign of wealth

I have never worried about paying our taxes. It was just something you do and figure it out somehow.

My father-in-law, Ennis Unruh, always told me that if you are paying taxes you must be making a little money so don’t fret about it. Be happy you are able to pay taxes.

We don’t fall into the very rich category or the very poor, so what they pay or don’t pay doesn’t bother me.

I was overly optimistic in this column last week about how I am doing after the fall. I seriously believe now that the recovery period may be longer than a week.

I’ve already made an appointment to have my neck brace removed on Jan. 15. On the bright side, I won’t need a neck scarf for cold weather the next four weeks.

Back in the 1920s, an impeccably dressed businessman was hit by a motor car in New York City and ended up in the gutter.

A passerby rushed over and covered the man with the man’s nice trench coat and asked the gentleman if he was comfortable—The answer was, “I make a nice living.”

The year 2017 is almost in the books now. Truthfully, I am glad it is over.

We looked back and discovered that we made 15 trips to the KU Med Center, plus other trips to Wichita and Newton. Still probably not enough to deduct on taxes, but I’m not going to fret about it.

A nurse at Wesley covered me with blankets and asked if I was comfortable. I answered that “I make a nice living” and I don’t think she knew what to say.

I feel the big software companies have us by the tail and I think they like to shake us until we are silly.

The two main companies are Adobe and QuarkXpress for desktop publishing. Adobe wants to rent you their software and charge a monthly fee to use it. Quark sells you the software and it is yours to use until it doesn’t work with your operating system unless you update to the latest version.

Adobe made a big push to sell to the schools and now is receiving rent every month from now into the future.

I don’t know of any school that uses Quark anymore.

There are workarounds for every situation and third-party vendors make software that lets you open Adobe InDesign in QuarkXpress. It is called ID2Q and is made by Markzware.

It all makes me dizzy.

I don’t make resolutions, but really would like to lose some weight. I really like to eat and that is the problem.

I am up 20 pounds from a year ago, precisely when I quit walking two miles a day.

Wishing you and yours a prosperous and Happy New Year.

If you wish to share your comments or ideas, my e-mail address is joel@
hillsborofreepress.com.

Written By
More from Joel Klaassen
Meeting Bay was a great day
I went to the press box during halftime of the Tabor-Bethel football...
Read More