Herein lies a salute to one of the many people that keep the Hambox Empire going.

But first, a promise. I vow to file my taxes on time next year. Filing an extension and having to get into tax mode in October kind of wipes out the hearth fires and changing-foliage joy of early autumn.

I arrived at my accountant J’s home office frighteningly close to October 15, burdened with a chaos of papers and a dread in my soul. My financial woes have been so muckily awful lately that I assumed only bad news was to greet me. However, his sweet dogs seemed to be programmed to make fearful taxpayers feel better — they swirled happily around my feet as J whisked my paper pile from me and dug in. J’s wife S ushered me into the kitchen to feed me juice and leftovers. My doom-laden financial predictions started to soften and fade as J gently and methodically asked non-threatening questions of me, then did that number-crunching thing that is so mysterious and magical.

Magic, you scoff. J and S were just doing their jobs. This is true, but therein lies the magic — working with someone who is honest, kind, thorough, and good. People like J & S should be held close.

I did a victory dance at a tax return sum that, to others, might seem paltry. But who cares: I didn’t owe, I didn’t owe! Thanks, J.

Art of Money Wallpaper, uploaded by cobalt123. Thanks for letting me use it!

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