Flight Of The Procrastinators
"Ya'll got any of them Idaho tax forms?"
Never have I been so glad to have a mask obscuring the bottom half of my face, for I know I was smiling like a corgi who just got two new squeaky toys.
"Nope, I don't have any Idaho income tax forms," I replied in the most reverential tone I could muster, "but I can print you one."
Every year between February and April we get a consistent stream of people through the library collecting tax forms, filling out tax forms, cursing at Turbo Tax on our patrons computers, and requesting to use our scanner to upload various documents to various agencies. This year with Tax Day being extended to July fifteenth, this week I was not so subtly reminded of some of my favorite creatures, The Procrastitaxers.
Every year there is a group of folks who wait until the last possible minute to file their taxes. There are various types of Procrastitaxers who show up in that last week. I'll go over a couple of the most prominent sub-types with you all:
I Need A Form Fred
As referenced in the smidgen of dialogue above, I Need A Form Fred is the most common of my procrastitaxers. Nothing screams I wait until winter to get my firewood like getting a form the day before or day of when your taxes are due. Bonus points go to those who don't even know which form they want.
Turbo Tax Tammy
Ah, Turbo Tax Tammy...This Procrastitaxer tries their best to be efficient, and by efficient I mean they forget to bring their login credentials for Turbo Tax and then proceed to throw an epic fit of foiled toddler-sized proportions when they aren't able to logon and do their tax thing.
Printer Paper Patricia
This procrastitaxer loves to let me know just how they feel about the cost of printer ink. Usually I get the I hate that racket diatribe while they are printing about forty-two pages of instructions that they really don't need, but usually I can't get a word in edgewise.
Backwoods Bob
We live in a rural community. One great thing about rural America is there are a lot of self-reliant, independent folks around that know a lot about how to make things work. Computers though, quite a few of those who dwell in the woods hate them with a Orange Man Bad passion. When the tax deadline approaches I can always count on one Backwoods Bob shouting at me when he can't figure out how to use the mouse, "I HATE COMPUTERS!"
What Are Your Hours Again Wilma
We honestly get this question all the time, which I must admit causes me a bit of mirth, as we literally haven't changed our hours in about six years or so. That and they are posted on our door and our website. That said, I notice a huge increase of hours of operation inquiries around Tax Day. I also experience a huge increase of receiving expressions of frustration from people about said hours, as if I have any sort of say in setting them. One time I repeated our hours of operation to a patron on the phone four times. And they still yelled at me. Sigh.
Let me just say, I get it, times are a little frustrating right now. I mean, 
However, even I am getting my tail slammed in the door of life more often than not with all this sometimes hourly change. I mean, I work with librarians, who are the most planning of people. When their ability to plan is derailed things occur. Some of those things have not been so much fun.
Never one to get too down though, I came across this book while I was pulling holds:
Those Procrastitaxers and Covid Insanity isn't going to get me down, I'm just going to pop something restorative into the oven!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's sorta chill and currently covered with detritus that will be shortly going to the landfill iPhone.