It was another one of those days. My Friday turned into the fourth or fifth Monday this week. So far.

The facts are these. The state obviously needs my money more than I do, so they’ve decided that this year, for the first time ever, I have to make monthly prepayments against our quarterly sales taxes. There’s an estimated payment due next Tuesday. I didn’t even know about it until I opened the note I got yesterday from the taxing agency.

The note told me I needed e-file these taxes, and gave me an access code to do it all on their web site. I followed their instructions to the letter, and the response was that I was ineligible to file on line. That’s right: They sent me a notice telling me to file on line, and when I tried to do it they told me I couldn’t.

So I bit the bullet and called the Board of Equalization. The woman from the board was helpful and cheerful, more so than I would expect of a state employee in these trying times. She laughed with me at my plight, and she was able to fax me the forms I need. It turns out the notice I got was automatically generated, but I can’t file on line because we sell fuel, and a whole different set of forms is required. I’m not sure why that can’t be done on line, but it can’t.

The crisis was solved, but between the tax forms and the drawings the Boss wanted me to get for a job he’d like to bid in Montana, of all places, the day was shot. I haven’t decided whether to make it up over the weekend or not. I rather enjoyed doing so little work last weekend. I think I might try it again. If the weather holds, I might even get out in the yard and cut back the blackberry bramble. That sounds like a good way to get over a stiff neck. Better than trying to make up for the time I lost on the Internet all week because of the bad phone line.