First, let me say - we had another snow storm this past Monday - April 2. I know that it affected many others around the country. It of course put husband into a panic as we were hearing about 8 inches of snow - again. Luckily what came down was not much and was mostly melted by the time we went out.
This leads into today’s topic in the “life” part of the balance. Husband’s birthday is this week. He had planned (hoped?) for us to go to Lancaster for his birthday and/or the day before. The day before is one of the farmer’s markets we go to. To go there for same would have been fine with him. To go on his birthday would be fine with him. If the weather was mild I had suggested that we drive down for the farmer’s market in our RV and stay overnight (without running water as we have not yet been able to dewinterize and put the water tanks and pipes back into use, due to the cold weather that is still around) so he could be there both days. He really loves the idea of his birthday and being a special day, so he is terribly upset when it does not work out. Not only did we have the snowstorm on Monday, we had a terrible rainstorm today and we are due to have heavy rain on Friday and rain or snow on Saturday (which already has him in a panic) - so a trip to Lancaster on a day we would like to go is out. His latest plan is a trip to New Jersey for dinner at Golden Corral Thursday (tomorrow) when it is not suppose to rain or snow - yet. (For a story about another attempt to go to this restaurant - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07). I should say that despite huge snow storms in our general tri-state area, our immediate area has been fairly lucky with much less snow and electric outages than other parts of the general area.
When it was his birthday we ended up eating our normal lunch at Wendys and then we went to a large chain computer store just to walk around, amuse him, and take his mind off the lack of birthday fun he is having and the coming snow. Of course, with our luck, the store was in the middle of a major redo and it was hard to find where anything he wanted to see had been moved - and the aisles so narrow that one could not really bend to see anything without hitting the other side of the aisle. I wandered over to the laptop section to look, as I always do, what they have, just in case I need a new one quickly. It amazes me that I can walk around and look at the laptops for 20 minutes (or more) and no one comes over. As soon as husband comes to find me, one or another of the salesmen comes running - do they still think only men buy computers?
We could not figure where to go to dinner for his birthday which would be “special”. We rarely take food in and had been looking at a local chicken place’s handout which was delivered to us and decided to go there. Dinner seemed okay - and I was able to get grilled chicken instead of fried - but about 20 minutes after dinner he decided that there had been too much grease and he did not feel well. “Great” ending to a disappointing birthday.
So life has been pushing into my trying to work.
Now the period between, say February, and April 15 is my busy season. I no longer have the size accounting/tax practice I used to and have less than 10 income tax returns - plus a couple of business returns for businesses that I do the books for all year. The week before last it suddenly dawned on me that I had only received information from one client - and I had been holding theirs to work on as they were away anyway. Most of my clients have moved away and are in other states, so I need some time after doing their returns to get the returns to them in mail so they can file them on time. (Well, actually most of my clients have died which is why I have so few left.) Oh, and our return and our business return of course.
So I sent an email to a client in FL which is a fairly quick return who normally sends me her stuff early. She had an accident and had not had a chance to send her info - but she was planning on getting it out to me right away. (Hers was received the beginning of last week, done and back to her.) I was going to email to two other clients, but heard from them. One arrived later last week and is mostly done now, it has to have it’s state return prepared - she lives in New Mexico. I plan to have it out by Friday so she gets it in plenty of time. Another just mailed me their return - and I received it today. They are local, so if it is finished close to deadline, I can always drop it off instead of mailing it, but I hope to have it done soon enough to mail out. One client always asks for an extension and I heard from him today and will prepare his extensions and his estimates for next year and mail them to him and then do his return later in the year. And so on.
How is life making a problem? Well, husband is so upset about the weather and his birthday that I don’t get enough time to work on all the tax returns. I did nothing on returns today to keep him company. Plus I have to do some of the returns on husband’s computers due to some odd circumstances and I need to displace him from his computer. I had hoped he would ask to warp his loom - when he has a weaving project in the living room I have the office to myself - but his upcoming project is trying something new and between the weather and his birthday, he is too nervous to warp the loom for the project.
Now, I know that somehow it will be all be done and on time. How do I know? It always has been before. Our return is done last - of course - and I can always get an extension for it if we need to. But what made this year terribly odd is the nothing until the last minute. We had our car in for work a week or so ago and the owner commented to me that I must be jammed as the tax season is coming to an end and was shocked when I told him that I had not even started yet. I If I had realized that nothing would come in until this late, I would have done our return instead of figuring I would have to stop in the middle of it to do a client’s return.
And of course I also have to do the housework - dinner cooked 5 nights a week (we eat out on weekends), dishes washed every meal 7 days a week, laundry, etc. Somehow, though, it always done.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
What we must do ebbs and flows. There are times when we have too much to do and times when we are looking for things to do, so that they will be done before we run out of time to do them. I have learned that as a general rule, what needs to be done somehow does get done - and on time.
I grew up in a house with accountants. I know the ebb and flow of tax season. Nothing to do. Then all of a sudden a rush (my rush is smaller and over a shorter time than it used to be, but it is still a rush). Then all of a sudden it over. Since being married I learned how to deal with husband and his wants and needs during tax season - and he learned what will be going on during tax season decades ago.
If you are having a time problem - think back to the last time you had to do something similar and how you managed to find the time to get it done. Generally most non catastrophic problems or something similar, have happened before and will happen again. Learn from the past to help with the future.
Think about what you do and the ebb and flow of time - when is your time short in supply and when do you have a chance to breathe and are looking for things to do.
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