One hot hot day today. 105^o and the dogs came in the house when I got home. This just wrings the energy right out of you.

Ellie and I finished the range of books (each side has the equivalent of 10 tall bookcases) this morning with a half hour to spare. That means we don't need to go back and do it later on in July when they scheduled more time for us.

Today a letter came from the tax office - I tried a new online tax protest link back in May. My house was built in the mid-1970s and is in good shape and surrounded by other houses built around the same time that are also in good shape. To our north 1 block begins a neighborhood with much smaller much older cute little houses, and to our east are the new houses being built in the development that started about 3 years ago. They're high dollar compared to mine, yet those were presented as the "comparable value" homes that kept my tax high (there was a form with those addresses and prices on the web site.)

I went into a realtor web site and found a couple of houses in my part of the village, the same size and age as mine, and did a PDF screen capture of each page, and wrote out a statement protesting that the comparables used for my tax rate were not right. The online protest process rejected my protest when I filed it (an instant response sort of site), but apparently a human later looked at the documents I sent in, along with my statement, and my house taxable rate was dropped by $8,600. This is the tax figure, it would be ideal if I ever sold it that it would go for more than the tax rate (they typically do). But that is a little bit shaved off of the mortgage next year.

I don't have a phone line or fax any more, so I did a little research and ended up faxing this back via a web page that will let you do one free fax a day, with no ads on the cover page. Three-page limit, but this worked perfectly. It's a Canadian company (http://www.gotfreefax.com/) and seems to have good reviews.

eBay is perking along. I picked up a flat of peaches today so I'll be cleaning the kitchen tonight in preparation for canning tomorrow, and I also need to use the juicer for the grapes. It's a general work around the house weekend.

SRS