#thus i did my taxes at 10pm

[thinkinpoink]

Guess who finally did their taxes!!!!

[celestialgalaxyglow]

Batfam and Danny, Part 9

At the Justice League Watchtower.

Diana: Good morning everyone and thank you for coming to this pronto meeting. I known we all have busy schedules so I'll make this quick. Bruce, Clark, and I have been investigating an operation by Lex Luthor. He has been moving round large amounts of radioactive material to a secret lab in the Sahara Desert, we currently do not know what he is planning but last night the radioactivity around the base spiked. We believe that there was some leak of the radioactive materials and we need a plan to contain it.

J'ohn: Are there any civilians in the region?

Clark: No, the lab is far out into the desert. The closest town is a small village with a population of about 1000 people an hour and a half away.

Hal: I could but up a temporary shield around the lab and try to contain the radiation as much as possible.

Bruce: That would be a good start.

Arthur: This is concerning, how can I help?

Diana: There is another shipment currently on a Lexcorp boat heading towards a port in Algiers we need you to stop it.

Bruce: Oliver, you will help Arthur take control of the ship.

Oliver: Got it.

Diana: Barry, while we believe the town and its residents will be safe, we'd like to keep you on stand by just in case.

Barry: Yes ma'am!

Diana: That's all from us. Now that we are together we should start making a solid plan, we start this operation 10pm, local time in Algeria. That gives us 8 hours to prepare. Any questions?

Oliver: Just one question, who's Bruce's new kid?

Everyone turned to look at Danny.

Danny: Hi!

Bruce: This is Danny, alias Phantom, he's Jason's kid... and my grandson.

Barry (laughing): Congratulations Bruce, you're a thirty-four-year-old grandfather.

Arthur: Is he helping us with the operation?

Diana: Yes, Danny is half-ghost and immune to radiation, he'll be helpful if the radiation levels are higher than we expect.

J'onn: You have a quite mind young one.

Danny: If I let you read my thoughts there's a fifty-fifty chance your brain may get scrambled.

J'onn: I see...

Billy: I'm here! Sorry I'm late, just had to finish something before I could leave- Billy looked around the room till he saw Danny. He jumped back and covered his ears.

Clark: You ok there Billy?

Billy: Who is that kid?

Danny: I'm Bruce's grandson.

Billy: ...

Clark: Why?

J'ohn: The gods in Billy's mind all just screamed bloody murder and told him that under no circumstances, should he make Danny mad.

Everyone looked at Danny but before anyone could ask question Constantine walked in.

Constantine: You known if you're going to call a random meeting at least give us more than 3 hours to get ready- Constantine froze when he saw Danny. Shit...

Danny (grinning): Constantine!

Bruce: You two know each other?

Danny: Yes, he's the fool that sold his sold his soul to a hundred separate demons who are all now petition me to decide who actually owns his soul.

Constantine: ...

Hal: Why would they petition you?

Danny: I'm their king.

JL: What!?

Danny: And another thing Constantine, come over here. A green light encircled Constantine throwing him across the room, placing down in a chair next to Danny. You didn't pay your taxes for the last tax season.

Constantine: I- your majesty, I'm not a citizen of the Infinite Realms.

Danny: Actually you are! Danny summoned a scroll. According to section 8, subsection 45, clause B of the Infinite Realms Citizenship and Nationality Status Governing Deaths, Resurrections, and All Other Avoidances of Death Act, also known as the IRCNSGDRAOADA, due to your soul being more than 80% owned by citizens of the Infinite Realms, you too are a citizen of the Infinite Realms, and thus have to pay taxes.

Constantine: I-

Danny: You owe the Crown, aka me, $25,000.

Constantine (nervous): Would your majesty be so kind as to wave my taxes for this year, given I did not know I had to pay?

Danny: I'll give you... 120 days to come up with the money, if not I'll send the tax collectors after you.

Constantine (terrified): You- you're too kind your majesty. Constantine picked up a folder from the table. I'll just read the report... I- got to go. Constantine left the room.

Bruce (tired): Danny...

Danny: I was joking, I'll wave the his missing taxes.

Hal: Why is he so scared of tax collectors?

Danny: The tax collectors in the Infinite Realms are not just nerds with suitcases, they are nerds with suitcases that also carry paintball guns.

J'onn: Paintball guns?

Danny: The paint will never come off till you pay your taxes.

Berry: That sounds so fun!

Arthur: I'm happy to have another king on the team. Finally I have some to talk to about the duties of ruling.

Danny: Tell me about it, for some reason, people can't just do as their told.

Arthur (crying): You understand me my pain.

Clark: Where does your family find these children?

Bruce: We don't find them, they find us!

Diana: As fun as this whole conversation is we do need to prepare for the mission. Let's get to work.

JL: Yes ma'am!

(Master Post)

[nickgerlich]

Twenty-Four Hours To Go

I remember the first time I was exposed to a 24-hour diner. I was at university in Indiana, doing my undergrad. It was also about the same time I became friends with coffee. We’re still good friends.

My dorm mates and I would pile into someone’s car and head to the nearby Waffle House. Now that’s not the familiar Waffle Houses across the southland. No, this was an entirely different Indiana chain more akin to Denny’s. They welcomed us, if only to make the place look more crowded after midnight. Never the mind the fact that we weren’t spending much, and tipping even less.

I was probably exposed to this genre before university, but those kinds of things weren’t important to kids back then. But I fell in love with the notion, and found that I became energized about 1am. Bring on the lists to memorize, my caffeinated soul was ready to do some power studying.

After I moved downstate to Bloomington for grad school, it was newsworthy when the new Kroger store announced they were going to be open 24/7. This was great news for someone who doesn’t like crowds of shoppers. It’s almost Zen-like shopping at 3am, observing all the other zombie-eyed shoppers pushing their trolleys along.

I was hooked, and praise God, Walmart embraced the concept as well. There are 168 hours in the week, and I could pick any one of them to go shopping. That is, until everything came to a screeching halt in March 2020. I need not say more.

With practically everything shut down—depending on your state and locale, of course—the thought of being open eight hours, much less 24 hours, became moot. Curbside was a best-case scenario, if you were able to pivot to new ways of doing old things.

But once the pandemic subsided, and our hunger to return to the old normal began being sated, stores and restaurants were slow to return to 24/7. Even today, there are many businesses that not only have been reluctant to do so, but also have flat out decided they’re not going back.

And it signals what may well be a permanent scar, one among many inflicted by COVID. Consumer behaviors have changed. Available labor has declined. Costs of doing business have increased. It’s the perfect storm for an imperfect situation.

It’s sad, too, because a business that is closed thus has un-performing assets whenever the lights are out and the doors locked. It’s not as bad as it is for churches, many of whom are open for “business” only a few hours on one day of the week. You pay for the whole building as it stands, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The same goes for real estate taxes and utilities. If you’re not making money, you’re losing it, and the bills go on.

Among the consumer changes are a desire to eat earlier, eat out less, drink less, and not stay out late doing the things we once did. That doesn’t mean we have given up on sporting events, movies, and concerts, though. It just means we do those things less, effectively accepting a little shorter leash on life. COVID taught us to get by on a lot less, and with inflation still among us, we are able to handle it better because we’ve already been down an austere path.

We also learned that we can order online a lot more than what we did pre-COVID. Delivery, whether by courier or third-party driver, became a new normal. Groceries on our doorstep meant that we didn’t have to go at all, even if we rather liked those nocturnal missions. Everything else also on our doorstep meant that all that “shopping-in-our-pajamas” we thought we were doing a lot in the olden days was multiplied many fold.

Maybe I am just getting older, too. While I am not yet one of those home-before-dark senior citizens, I do know that if I am up after 10pm, I am living large. As much as I liked grocery shopping after midnight (there’s an ear worm for those of you who know that old song), I am good with doing it in the afternoon these days.

While some chains, like the southern Waffle House, have returned to full 24/7 operations, others are nowhere near what they once did. I suspect that those days are gone forever, with the realization that maybe—just maybe—we were trying to do too much, even though the alternative is to mourn the hours not spent earning revenues.

Besides, we could all use a little more sleep, and removing the temptation to be out and about may be a gift in disguise. And you can still shop Amazon. You may very well have it on your doorstep by noon tomorrow.

Dr “I’m Good With 15/7” Gerlich

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