Villa Rica, GA

It's saturday and I'm empty. I was supposed to deliver this load to Atlanta on monday, but when I got there today just to recon it and maybe park, there was a guy there. He was just getting ready to go home, but he decided to go ahead and unload me.

Man, I just LOVE these people! I don't know--he might have got overtime, or else his bosses might have appreciated his initiative, but he sure as hell helped me out! I did NOT want to wake up at 0600 (my time) monday to get rid of this, and then attempt to escape from Atlanta, GA!

Before I got to this joint, I tried a couple truckstops. At the first, one of several guys immediately scrambled to "help me" park the damn truck. This, of course, is a squeegy routine for commercial drivers. I gave him a couple bucks, even though I sure as hell needed no help. But I looked around and saw a nightmare brewing, like the one in North Carolina.

Lot Lizards (usually very ugly toothless whores) banged on my truck all night and all morning. I didn't get more than an hour and fifteen minutes of sleep at a time, and was insane with rage. And there they were--a whole bunch of locals hanging out. It was clear that this truckstop was a local ATM.

I got out of there and found a closer, bigger truckstop jam-packed. For cryin out loud it's early afternoon SATURDAY and it's packed! That's when I went to the consignee, intending to park if possible.

Normally for a next days' delivery I do this first, but here I was expecting to wait til monday. No bathrooms, see?

But it turned out great. I got empty days early, and told weekend dispatch I wanted to stay down til monday morning for my reset. I had to burn about ten bucks in fuel to get here, but now come monday morning I'll already be empty, and just sleep until my dispatcher wakes me up by beeping my qualcom.

While in Little Rock, I checked my PO Box and found a message from the IRS. They just wanted to update my information, is all.

Well, I haven't filed, so this is like a hitman asking when would be a convenient time to meet you. It must be the kinder, gentler IRS dropping me a hint...which I appreciate, by the way.

So I luckily ran into another O/O on the yard and interrogated him about his tax service, which he had said good things about when I gave him a ride home for Thanksgiving (his truck was broke and he was stuck.)

He didn't have the info but gave me a name and said she was in Fort Smith, AR. I did a Yahoo search, and think I found it, although the name isn't an exact match. (That's analysis, by the way. Fort Smith, Tax Service, female, part of a name match--probably her...and if it aint I'm not going to impeach myself, see?)

Can't call her til monday, so I've dismissed it. I've done as much as I could, so I can do that.

My inner-child is still telling me to just ignore it and maybe they won't come after me. But he's the one that kept me from filing in the first place. He's a punk. I've got to take care of this, NOW.

It's not too bad. The two previous years I didn't file, they owed me money (I did fill out the forms.) Last year, I made a lot more. I did keep all my reciepts and jam them in quarterly envelopes. I can download records from my bank account to show internet and other deductable/writeoffable purchases (and they're all legit, by the way.)

Apparantly I was supposed to have kept my fuel reciepts, which I didn't, but my leasing company has records of all those. Some deductions such as clothing are capped, so I don't need all my reciepts. I get a flat daily meal allotment off the top as well--no reciepts required. With all the time I spent in hotels waiting for truck repairs, etc...

One other thing I can do is get my toll re-imbursements subracted from my gross. The company shows that as income, which it aint, and I have all those reciepts, as well. Oh, I don't own a house or anything, and I'm sure they'll nail me for some serious money, but I have saved like mad, and can pay it, period.

...and be a good boy from now on!

If they want to go after previous years, it will only save me money, because they owed me, and I presume I get interest too. In fact I can depreciate the computer before this one, and software, and stuff like that--they'd owe me MORE than I was going for.

I'd just as soon they leave it alone, even if it costs me more. Between freedom from paperwork and money, I'll choose freedom.

Well I might write some more later. Right now I've got to study up on what the Browns are doing, maybe blog some more on that site, and try to get some of my dough back from the damn poker site.