Ooops .... I knew there was something I forgot to do.

Yeah, I forgot to post anything this week, and only once last week. Sue me. Really, I could use the retainer.

Trouble with life is that it often finds a way to interfere with the fun stuff. I have determined that, if I want to continue to be a blogger worth a damn, I have to find the time to post, and keep posting at regular intervals, if not everyday. How the hell do I expect to build any readership if I don't provide anything to read. (assuming that more people than my wife are actually reading -- seriously, a bit of feed back would be nice)

Unfortunately, while there are the standard distractions of family, employment, and money management, there have been the Olympics barring my quiet time in the basement. Additionally, and pleasantly, work has found a way to prevent me from spending time pining away the hours in procrastination espousing my "bloggy" wisdom.

Things seem to be picking up in the economy. This may be a purely anecdotal observation on my part, but cases are rolling in and some bills are beginning to find satisfaction. The problem is that during this time every year there is a spike in filings and new clients. Why you might ask?

Tax Season.

No, I don't mean needing help filing. I refer instead to the fact that people are now flush with cash as a result of rapid refunds and electronic filing. Myself, I have not seen a "refund" since about 1998 and I am no longer familiar with this alien concept of the "gov'ment" giving back money once a year.

So, is the recent dramatic rise in my own available resources a result of the annual "tax spike," or have we started to turn a corner in the economy?

It feels like this is more than that annual litigation fest caused by large sums of redistributed funds. For example, last year one could sense that people were guarded and weary. Rather than splurge on that new divorce, or file to finally have custody of a child, the populace seemed more concerned with paying debts or "squirreling" money away in trepidation of a more serious crisis on the horizon.

By no means do I allude to a return to the largess of the early years of this new century. Sorry, that may or may never happen. As a student of history (really, a double minor even), I harken back to the fact that the "Great Depression" may have been set off in 1929, things were still pretty bad by 1935.

So things may be looking up on the local front. Still think I might put off the purchase of that new laptop for a few more months just to be sure.