Shell Hell

Just back from a short trip to Florida, where I had the pleasure of paying $3.79 for a gallon of gas. Not bad compared to the UK, where petrol is so expensive that it's sold by the liter to sweeten the blow of buying it (present cost: about ten bucks a gallon. Brits don't get out much). Over here though, the Shell station I gassed up at was commiting daylight robbery.

Back in Charleston, SC (with a more palatable $3.13 a gallon rate) my vacation mood has been shattered by the heap of tax forms waiting for me on my desk. After almost half a decade of placating the IRS, you'd think I'd be able to fill the forms in quickly. But there are always complicated, confusing little bits in my 1040 that make the act more like trudging through mud with an axe in my head.