Learning Curves

I left the house without my phone this morning. I rarely do, but I didn't charge my phone over night, and it needed charge this morning. I drove my wife to work, because it was raining, and I'm not doing much this week, and I know the way, and had no reason to think I would really need my phone.

But I wished I had it. Driving away from the museum, only a block or so away, there was this loud clunk under the car, and then it wouldn't drive. The engine was running, and sounded normal, but the gears wouldn't engage. No drive, no reverse. Just sat there. I was thinking about what to do when a police car pulled up behind me.

I explained what happened. He fiddled with the car, trying it in drive and reverse like I had, and then asked if I had the means to call a tow truck. I said I didn't, but could get a message out if I could get the car off the road. He helped push it into a parking lot right by the intersection where this happened. I walked back to the museum, waved at my wife through her window, and met her at the door of the building where she works.

She called around, talking to our insurance agent, and finding a place nearby where we could have the car towed to get it checked out and maybe fixed. Still waiting on that. Busy place. The tow guy said it might be a broken axle. He said even in Park, he could push the car, which meant the gears weren't engaging the axle. The car shouldn't be pushable in Park.

Back home, I started in on the taxes. Our taxes are straightforward. We don't itemize, because we don't have deductions. I use Free Fillable Forms from the IRS. I put in the information, and found, no surprise, that we owe about $700. The withholding system doesn't work for two-income couples, at least not lazy ones that don't add to the calculated withholding. But we've saved the money, so it's not a burden to pay the taxes. I discovered, though, that I can't file federal or state taxes without my wife's driver's license. I need all the information from it. Okay, not all. Height, weight, eye color, hair color, those I can skip. But date issued, expiration date, and number I must have.

I could avoid that, and just fill out paper forms and mail them. Online filing is just a matter of convenience. Of course, the cost of that convenience is sharing more data over a system I don't really trust, because the data gods might actually become reality some day, and hackers might compromise my data and my life. But why should I think hackers or data gods can't get the same data from the destination? I expect that my tax forms would end up in a database somewhere, even were I to send in the paper forms.

So I learned a little today. Not very useful information, but something. Shows my brain is still plastic, or something. I may be more careful about charging my phone at night for a few days, and I will write down the data from my wife's driver's license for future use.

I think it's a bit odd that the state tax form, for online filing, won't even let me put the data in until I add in the identifying information from the driver's license. I mean, since we file jointly, both of our licenses must be included, and who knows his spouses driver's license information? I know her Social. I looked up the PIN I made up for her last year at tax time. Just how much data do they need to be sure she is who I represent her to be?

I suspect that this kind of growth in bureaucracy will accelerate under the regime of the data gods. Beware the rise of the data gods, all ye who hate boring paperwork, even when not on paper.