Seriously interested buyers.. yeah right!

Why is it that when I put stuff for sale on newsgroups and online classified ads, there's always a bunch of people claiming that they are "seriously interested", and then end up being not interested after all? WTF is wrong with you people? Ask questions, that's fine, but don't say you are interested if you don't know yet! And there are those who offer you trades... my add does not say "for trade" or "for sale or trade", does it? It baffles me... I even got someone offering me puppies in exchange for a 51" TV I sold not long ago... o.O

I'm currently selling an iMac. I know it's a big purchase for a potential buyer, we're selling it for $1200. So I understand that people would have doubts about making that purchase. I know it's a good deal, I know it works flawlessly, but it is understandable that people would have doubts. I mean if the machine is so good, why do I sell it, right? (I previously wrote a blog about why, so I won't go into detail again, but simply put, it was just not cutting it for the use my wife was making of it - and you cannot upgrade an iMac unfortunately). So that's why asking questions and even coming to see it and try it out is a good idea. The last person being "seriously interested" was supposed to come last Saturday, and the way he talked, he was coming to pick it up. Then he called saying he was sorry but he could not come because he did not know that his bank was closed on Saturdays, and at the ATM, he has a daily limit. So he would come Sunday instead, with a second daily limit withdrawal. Understandable, and he seemed honest. I told him it was no trouble. Comes Sunday... he did not come by. He didn't even call to say he wasn't coming. Seriously interested? Yeah, maybe he was too embarrassed to call again to cancel or something, but then he did not think that maybe he was preventing us to do other things... which he did not, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, that was my rant for the day I guess. The iMac is still sitting on a desk, waiting for some new-owner love....

Incom tax return - 2006 edition

Wow! The provincial and federal government are very generous for me this year. Of course, there are a number of factors that happened this year, which makes the total go up. It has actually never been this high before for those reasons.

For example, last year I changed work to a completely different department. Still in government, but different department. They call that a lateral move. This has different side effects, although they claim there shouldn't be any, like some deductions you start paying from scratch again once you transfer over. You end up paying too much of these deductions, so that's not good during the year, but it come back to you at tax time, which is good at that time (of course, the government make interest on that money in the meantime, but that's a whole different subject). Also, I'm pretty sure I payed too much income taxes during the year, because when I transferred, my salary went down a bit because they had not signed a new contract yet, so of course my federal and provincial taxes should have went down. But instead, they went up o.O!! Whatever... And last but not least, and this applies for multiple previous years, since I have two handicapped children (they are autistic), that gives me a tax credit on the federal side (on the provincial side, it's a monthly allowance instead, so there's no effect on the tax return itself - and fortunately, that allowance in non-taxable). Nice, yes, although I see this as a compensation for all the times we had to fight to get the services our children are allowed to get, or all the time spent to go to appointments to school or doctors, or any type of extra effort or care that is required for our children. Actually, I would say it's a small compensation for all of this, but still much better than nothing.

So I'm going to file this tonight, and, thanks to the Internet revolution, I should be getting my reimboursement within a week or so. With this money, I will be paying for some (not all) debts, and also to give us some breathing space...

Maybe I will then, buy tickets to go see Mr Waters.... ;-P

Official first post... WOOOHOOOO!!!!

Well, not that I'm overly excited about this, but I'm going to try and use this Blog. I have a LiveJournal, but for some reason, I'm uncomfortable knowing that when you post something, it automatically goes on the page of all the "friends" on your list. I prefer people coming to read my stuff here directly, knowing very well that this will make very fewer people coming here. That way I know that when there is actually someone reading one of my blogs, it's because he or she wants to and has an interest in what I have to say.

Anyway, I'm at work right now, so I should not be spending too much time here, although it's really not busy here recently. I have stuff to do, but there is no rush to do it.

Good day!