The Happy Gardener

Today, as I was walking past one part of our office that is being renovated, I suddenly got a whiff of this real strong smell. Immediately, I realized that I knew this smell - knew it well. And then it came to me - it was the smell of the white shoe polish that we used on our canvas shoes for school when I was younger. It's a very distinct and strong smell. What was amazing was the line of images it brought to my mind. Lazy and still Sunday afternoons when we ( my brother and I) would polish our shoes, the sports uniform that went with those shoes and how some kids would frantically rub chalk on their shoes in a last-ditch attempt to make their shoes look white enough for the occasional inspection at the assembly. The image that really stayed was that of the pair of shoes leaning against a wall in the verandah where they would dry. I know - all this poetry around a smell that apparently is very close to the smell of white out. Nostalgia is a very powerful force. And finally, after ...

So I was working on my tax returns a few days ago. I have this software that I use - it asks me a bunch of questions that I answer and once I've keyed in every significant thing that has ever happened in my whole life - information about my ancestors, my pocket money when I was 7, the couple of bucks I had borrowed from my friend in undergrad, the mileage on my car and my blood group - this software eventually tells me that I owe the feds a little over one grand. The questions change a little every year but the end result is the same. I never learn and I always hope that this time will be different. Anyways, I was in the process of answering the multitude of questions this software generates when it asked me for some information regarding some shares and fair market value. Fair Market Value was defined as something like the price a willing, knowledgeable buyer would pay a willing, knowledgeable seller when neither has to buy or sell anything and both understand the conditions of th...