A to D to A to D to…

I recently needed to send some copies of some documents (the occupancy permit and such) to my bank for them to release the rest of the funds for our construction. I only had a physical instance of these documents. Since the snazzy all-in-one printer/scanner we got for Christmas was also a faxer, I figured I’d just fax it to the bank.

  • The machine took my analog document and converted it to a digital image representation.
  • It then took this digital representation and converted it to an analog sequence of sounds for transmission over a phone line.
  • My Vonage voice-over-Internet service took this sequence of sounds, and converted it to a digital representation and transmitted it over the Internet.
  • My cable modem took this Internet packet and encoded it as an analog signal over the cable lines.
  • Charter took this analog signal and converted it back to digital Internet packets, which it sent to Vonage’s servers.
  • Vonage took the packet and converted it back to the phone line sounds, sending it to my bank’s fax line.
  • My bank’s fax machine took the call, and converted it back to a digital image.
  • The bank’s fax machine printed the digital image out onto analog paper for the loan department.

This whole process worked flawlessly and transparently. Yet, somehow it seems inefficient.

We have a move-in date!

My dad managed to get most signatures we needed for the occupancy permit today. (I don’t know how people with a normal job ever manage to get anything done at the Town Hall.) The only thing left is the final building inspection, which is scheduled for a week from tomorrow. So, assuming that goes well (and there’s no reason to think that it won’t), we’ll be moving the rest of our things and ourselves that weekend (the 15th).

Tip of the day: Adjust your withholding periodically

So, I just sat down with Microsoft Money, and it says that the government is going to give us a really big refund come the end of the year. Apparently, while becoming a homeowner is expensive, the government tries to make things easier for you by not taxing you on money spent on property taxes or mortgage interest. So, I just filled out another W-4 and intend to give it to our Personnel department tomorrow.

So, this is just a reminder to fill out a new withholding worksheet when your life circumstances change. You just may end up with a bigger paycheck.