Not sure if anyone ever has anything good to say about paying taxes, so I thought I'd talk about something I like about paying my property taxes in Vermont. Like many of us, I often spend the majority of my day in front of my computer, inhaling email, instant messages, twitter messages, Linked In updates, Facebook updates, voicemail...and trying to get my work done while filtering through all the information coming at me. By the end of day, I often suffer from info-tique. So, there's something gratifying about unplugging, jumping in Ollie, my Subaru, and driving to the Town Office in Newfane, VT to pay my taxes. I love the fact that there is a sign right on route 30 in orange reminding me that taxes are due, and then when I get inside there is a plain cardboard box holding the checks of my fellow citizens. As I walk in, a kind woman comes from the back of the room and says: "Hello, I didn't hear you come in." She smiles. I walk back out into the Vermont summer day and I can feel all those email fly away, the technology disappears for a minute and I am grateful that some things in my life are still this simple.
