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For the past two weeks I have been completely immersed in re-working an entire piece of functionality for the project I am working on. Working all day at the office, and then coming home and coding until midnight was the norm. This is a vital piece of work, and the flagship for the next release. The absolute deadline to get it all done, tested, and verified was yesterday at 3pm.
Shockingly, I beat the deadline by more than two hours, and thus far testing has not uncovered any major problems. Woo Hoo!
Unfortunately, being so single-mindedly focused caused me to completely forget another deadline.
Way back in early April I took the automatic four month extension for filing my tax return. Being unemployed in 2001 and drawing down significantly from an IRA made my taxes much more complex than they have ever been before, and left me with a significant balance due. The absolute deadline for filing my taxes without penalty was, well, yesterday.
I realized this in the morning. I had done all of the work in my tax preparation software, I just needed to print out the forms. I hadn't used my printer in months, and discovered that it would not print because of some problem with the print head. No problem, I thought, I'll just install the software on my laptop and use the printer at work. Except that the install disk was lost in my recent move. No problem, thought, I'll just pick up a new ink cartridge during the day, scoot home a little early, and print the sucker out. Except that the problem turned out not to be with the ink cartridge, but with the print head itself. Still no printer, and a wasted $25 for ink.
By that point the post office was closed anyway, so I wasn't going to get a postmark for the 15th anyway.
I blew the deadline, and wound up mailing in the forms today (I had to manually fill out actual paper forms *gasp*).
And you know what? If the worst thing that happens to me this week is that I have to pay around $100 in tax penalties, then my life as a whole is still pretty dang good.
Shockingly, I beat the deadline by more than two hours, and thus far testing has not uncovered any major problems. Woo Hoo!
Unfortunately, being so single-mindedly focused caused me to completely forget another deadline.
Way back in early April I took the automatic four month extension for filing my tax return. Being unemployed in 2001 and drawing down significantly from an IRA made my taxes much more complex than they have ever been before, and left me with a significant balance due. The absolute deadline for filing my taxes without penalty was, well, yesterday.
I realized this in the morning. I had done all of the work in my tax preparation software, I just needed to print out the forms. I hadn't used my printer in months, and discovered that it would not print because of some problem with the print head. No problem, I thought, I'll just install the software on my laptop and use the printer at work. Except that the install disk was lost in my recent move. No problem, thought, I'll just pick up a new ink cartridge during the day, scoot home a little early, and print the sucker out. Except that the problem turned out not to be with the ink cartridge, but with the print head itself. Still no printer, and a wasted $25 for ink.
By that point the post office was closed anyway, so I wasn't going to get a postmark for the 15th anyway.
I blew the deadline, and wound up mailing in the forms today (I had to manually fill out actual paper forms *gasp*).
And you know what? If the worst thing that happens to me this week is that I have to pay around $100 in tax penalties, then my life as a whole is still pretty dang good.
