Wow – another week already!
I actually got a project done that has been sitting awhile this past week – and ended up clearing up more things than I planned.
I have mentioned (I am sure) that I have a little village which is like a fancy Christmas village setup – but is cheap, has bears instead of people, and we now change it to seasonal “scenes”. It sits on a board on a wicker trunk – so there is no access to trunk when the board and village is on it. This is in front a window in a nook at the top of our stairs by the bedrooms and our office (which is in what should be a be a bedroom). When it was only a Christmas village there were some Christmas decoration items stored in it – I would take them out before the village was set up and put them back after it was taken down and. Since this can no longer be done as there is always a village set up there, that space in the trunk is empty and has been calling me. I have items in our third bedroom – aka the teddys' room (you did not think these bears were the only ones I have, the stuffed and non small figure ones took over the smallest bedroom some decades ago – and I have been planned to store some of the teddy bear items (I have much more than “bears” themselves) in the trunk.
Problem has been that we are always in a rush and I don't have a chance between setups – and when it is setup – well, buildings, bears, Christmas tree, heavy board have to all be removed and placed someplace safe – so I don't do it. To help me get around to dealing with storing the items while I am stuck home – when I stored the Christmas/winter village items away I left a bare number of bears out in the village. Basically the “storyline” has been that the bears are self-isolating and only certain bears are out – police, fire, those who sell food/have a restaurant, are shopping, exercising (bear on roller skates), and an accountant bear with clients sitting away from him are out. They were all spaced 6 inches apart, the size equivalent of 6 feet I figured. Husband was not happy with this as he is depressed about everything to begin with.
So earlier this week I moved the bears, buildings to safe places, and the tree out of the way and slid the board off the back. I started with some old tee shirts of great sentimental value that were out in the teddys room – I put them in a clear kitchen sized garbage bag and knotted it closed (after squeezing out the air and put it in the box. I then found a small carton of bear and some other stuff. I am guessing it has been sitting since we had the house treated for bedbugs in 2011. Some items of husband's boyhood were also in the carton and I stored much of it in the trunk. Some of it were small bear items which were good to use in the village including some bears and I set all of that aside on my office desk to keep available. I threw out some unrelated things also.
When I was finished with the carton there was a still a lot of room in the trunk. We have a stack of round plastic storage modules (1970s) and also a stereo cabinet which we had bought for and used for storing various items on its shelves. I first went through the stereo cabinet as it was in front of the plastic module stack. Some of what was in it was put there also when we had the house treated for bedbugs and I put those items back where they belonged. Others I wanted available and left in the cabinet. Other items were related to old computer games of husbands – so I put them back and mentioned them to him – he has since looked them up and when the Covid-19 problem is over and we can go to the post office again without being woried about being outside, he will put them up for sale online. I
I then pulled the stereo cabinet forward (it is on wheels) and started on the stack behind it. I tossed some items, found some more of husband's computer games – which I added to the others in the stereo cabinet and found – of course – more bear items. Again I either tossed them, put them aside to use in the village or stored them in the trunk. With the stack of plastic module empty, I removed them and pushed the stereo cabinet into where they had been – wow – it could actually be used as a bedroom now if we needed it – there is room to walk all the way to almost head of the bed. (Still a spare TV in there, spare as is there is a TV to watch in the room plus the one on the floor - have to find out if it works or not and figure out what to do with it.)
When I was finished there was still room in the trunk, but I had gone through what was there to go thru and dealt with it. I closed the top of the trunk and attempted to slide the board on top. Problem – it is a small space. While there is enough room for the board at the top of the trunk, at the bottom of the wall due to the molding along the walls, there is not enough room for the board to sit across the space – and the board had slid down on an angle and was wedged into the wall. I juggled it and managed to get it to shift, but it was too heavy for me to lift and it was then wedged into the other wall! I finally had admit to defeat and get husband to help me lift it from both sides at the same time and slide it into place on top on the top of the trunk. Next time I will not be lazy – I will remove the board from the area as I used to do to store it in the basement during the year – so this will not happen again.
I replaced the buildings, tree and bears – dusted it all first. I added a few of the newly found bears also. I then took the plastic modules downstairs. Husband saw me doing this - “You are not throwing those out are you?” I asked if he had a use for them – he did not, just did not want them tossed out “in case”. I explained that I planned to replace a storage piece located behind my work table in our studio with it and said that was fine – he just did not want it thrown out. One module either had green paint in it or a piece of green plastic or such melted in when we had the bed bug treatment (they heat the house VERY HOT for the treatment) and I told him I will throw that one module out if I cannot clean it.
So right now, the stack of modules, the empty carton and the problem module are in our dining room waiting for me to now move out the storage piece from behind my work table to put the stack there. The carton will go out to our porch to use for putting out recycling when again our township is collecting them. The other piece of the module piece I will see if I can clean.
The storage piece behind my studio work table came as a small cabinet with/to sit over my computer desk and I did not want it there then – I will see what we can do with it when I move the stuff out of it (ribbons, laces, rolls of velcro and such) or it will end up getting tossed out when life and garbage collection are more normal.
As to the bears – we have decided that the bears “decided” that since it over 2 weeks, all of the bears have continuously been in our house and none of them are sick – the spring village can be set up and I hope to do so this coming week.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you are stuck in your house – use the time to do projects you have not had time to do. If you have children – perhaps you can get them to “help” you to keep them busy. Yes, they may be more trouble than help, but if you try to make a game out of it or give a prize for the one does the most, finds the most etc. it will keep them busy also.
Please take care of yourself and yours – stay well.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Thursday, April 23, 2020
COVID 19 #6 - BILLS, DEPOSITS, AND MEALS FROM WHAT IS ABOUT.
Well, here we are again – another week in the house. I am getting some stuff done. I also have learned to pay bills – so far electric and heating oil – by charging them to my credit card. The electric bill last month was a timing problem – it was due before the money for it would come in and we could not go out and move money into our checking account. The heating oil company, which I normally pay by check for each delivery, has its employees working from home and no checks can be mailed to them as there is no one in the office to deal with them – and I am guessing that they don't want to go out to the bank to deposit it either. I had hoped that we would not get another delivery this season, but we did. (Better than running out any way.) So today I called one of my credit card companies and told them that I would be making an unusual charge to my account (did the same before the electric company bill was charged) and wanted to let them know. Then I called the oil company and charged the bill to the credit card by phone.
I have received 2 checks by mail and not being one to use my cell phone to deposit them with an app, I deposited them “old school. I wrote out a deposit slip for them and mailed them to the local bank branch we use with a self- addresses, stamped envelope to return the receipt to me. Most income we have is direct deposited into our checking account. Luckily over the past couple of months I have changed almost all of the direct deposits to our checking account from our savings savings account. The ones not changed are small and will not come for several months.
I have also been calling the bank/credit card companies' computers to check what deposits have been received for my account and what amounts are due for the credit cards as I am not receiving statements since they go to our Post Office Box and cannot be forwarded. Being the old-fashioned non-trusting person that I am - I do not use the computer for anything financial.
I am still coming up with meals with what is at hand. Go figure fried eggs with a touch of brown sugar is good. Baked breast of chicken with leftover (from March) Chinese restaurant rice was good – and since the rice when boiled again expands greatly taking in the water – one of the most filling meals we have had. I also found out that we have probably have popcorn to pop to make meals on its own for a week! I have found 3 separate plastic boxes of it in our pantry closet.
Well, I have been busy doing nothing and now husband is here and ready for snack before bed so I will run with this quick, short post for this week.
I have received 2 checks by mail and not being one to use my cell phone to deposit them with an app, I deposited them “old school. I wrote out a deposit slip for them and mailed them to the local bank branch we use with a self- addresses, stamped envelope to return the receipt to me. Most income we have is direct deposited into our checking account. Luckily over the past couple of months I have changed almost all of the direct deposits to our checking account from our savings savings account. The ones not changed are small and will not come for several months.
I have also been calling the bank/credit card companies' computers to check what deposits have been received for my account and what amounts are due for the credit cards as I am not receiving statements since they go to our Post Office Box and cannot be forwarded. Being the old-fashioned non-trusting person that I am - I do not use the computer for anything financial.
I am still coming up with meals with what is at hand. Go figure fried eggs with a touch of brown sugar is good. Baked breast of chicken with leftover (from March) Chinese restaurant rice was good – and since the rice when boiled again expands greatly taking in the water – one of the most filling meals we have had. I also found out that we have probably have popcorn to pop to make meals on its own for a week! I have found 3 separate plastic boxes of it in our pantry closet.
Well, I have been busy doing nothing and now husband is here and ready for snack before bed so I will run with this quick, short post for this week.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
COVID 19 #5 - ANOTHER WEEK IN THE HOUSE - TAXES, MAIL AND RAIN
Normally the last few days would have been busy ones for me as I am an accountant. I would be finishing up the tax returns for my husband and myself and our business – they are always done after I finish the returns for clients. I would be preparing and mailing out extensions for those clients who did not manage to get their information together in time. And I would be looking forward to some quiet time to catch up on what has been thrown aside due to lack of time.
This year is so different. I am down in general to less than 10 clients, but even so this year, well, I have barely done any returns. Clients have contacted me that they can not wrap their minds about putting the information together, not going out so they cannot mail me the info, etc. I tell them that it is not a problem – quite frankly we are not going out either and their completed returns would be a problem to mail to them -we can only put letter sized envelopes in our house mail box for pickup by the same postal employee who delivers to us, as when I tried to put larger envelopes in the clip – they fell inside the mailbox when I closed the front door of it (which they were clipped to). So I have two 6inch by 9 inch envelopes sitting in the house until we feel safe enough to go to a mail collection box and send them out.
I have a dear friend who is also a client and had not filed her 2016 return (her husband was ill and they had also moved) and that was a priority for me to get finished and out. I knew she would be getting a refund and if returns are not filed within 3 years of their due date one loses their refund and I did not want that to happen to her. I kept reminding her by email and telephone – but suddenly it was this past Saturday and I still not have her information – too late to mail the return to her even in the best of the times as she lives out of state (which is where she moved). My husband caught her on Facebook Saturday night and reminded her. I received her information on Sunday and did her return and emailed it back to her with specific instructions – in my panic and excitement to get the returns to her – I sent the wrong version of her Federal return – it was blank! She telephoned me and the correct one was emailed to her on Monday. Another client had her info to me earlier in March and her state was not extending the time for her to pay her taxes, so I finished it and mailed it to her back then.
I managed to fix some errors in our corporation's last year return, when I was going through the “do everything wrong and redo it no matter how I tried” period. It is ready to go out when we go out to mail larger items again. I am now doing this year's return for same. Next I will start ours. All will sit and wait for us to go out again.
We actually had a problem with the mail which goes to our PO Box – most of our mail does as we have problems with mail delivery at our house. We had put in to have it forwarded to us as March 31. Nothing has arrived which has been forwarded. I called the Post Office on Monday and was told that since our box is in our business's name only mail from same has been forwarded as there is no way to say to forward all from a business box. Husband started crying – the employee heard him and said she would put what she has in an envelope and mail it to us – it came the next day. She said we could call again in a couple of weeks and make arrangements to pay the postage and have same done again. What does confuse me is two things. If a company moves should not all the mail addressed to the employees of the company, even if the company is not listed in the address be forwarded also? And on the USPS website it says that if a business puts in a forward all will be forwarded to the business and the business is responsible for getting it to those who receive mail through them – doesn't that mean it should all be forwarded to us? Well, we got the large, full envelope and I will get to take them out of the sealed plastic bag that I put them in, this Friday as we cannot wait a full week for 2 week old mail to be opened. The community where our mail goes (just north of where we live) had over 4 times the number of virus cases as does our community so it really scares husband to go to the Post Office, even late night on Sunday nights as we had been going. When life is normal again we will find out how to change the box from our business name to our names so next time we can specify “all for address” if God forbid we ever have to do this again.
We also had to deal with a bad storm this week – heavy rain and huge winds. Not as bad as those of you who got hit tornadoes, and we were lucky and only lost our electricity for a few seconds. Husband was terrified, as he always is, of losing our electricity, as to do so would result in the loss of much of our food. I moved everything from the kitchen refrigerator's freezer to our spare small freezer in the basement and turned that one to the coldest it goes and added some frozen plastic “ice” also. Our logic was the larger the amount of frozen items in a confined space, the better the cold would keep if we lost electricity. I also found out that we still have some Thanksgiving leftovers – more food, which we did not remember we had, a dinner for one of us.
How are all of you faring in lock down – or are a some of you in areas which have not been hit enough to have stay home? I would love to hear from any or all of you – and I am sure that others would like to hear how people are getting by and coping.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
We are another week along and closer to being able to go out again. In our state and our local area they say we are now at the point where the number of new cases and hospital admissions are both going down – more people are now leaving the hospitals than being admitted. My original guess when the area was hit was mid to late May before we could go out. I hope I guessed right.
My best wishes for you and yours to remain healthy – or to safely return to good health.
This year is so different. I am down in general to less than 10 clients, but even so this year, well, I have barely done any returns. Clients have contacted me that they can not wrap their minds about putting the information together, not going out so they cannot mail me the info, etc. I tell them that it is not a problem – quite frankly we are not going out either and their completed returns would be a problem to mail to them -we can only put letter sized envelopes in our house mail box for pickup by the same postal employee who delivers to us, as when I tried to put larger envelopes in the clip – they fell inside the mailbox when I closed the front door of it (which they were clipped to). So I have two 6inch by 9 inch envelopes sitting in the house until we feel safe enough to go to a mail collection box and send them out.
I have a dear friend who is also a client and had not filed her 2016 return (her husband was ill and they had also moved) and that was a priority for me to get finished and out. I knew she would be getting a refund and if returns are not filed within 3 years of their due date one loses their refund and I did not want that to happen to her. I kept reminding her by email and telephone – but suddenly it was this past Saturday and I still not have her information – too late to mail the return to her even in the best of the times as she lives out of state (which is where she moved). My husband caught her on Facebook Saturday night and reminded her. I received her information on Sunday and did her return and emailed it back to her with specific instructions – in my panic and excitement to get the returns to her – I sent the wrong version of her Federal return – it was blank! She telephoned me and the correct one was emailed to her on Monday. Another client had her info to me earlier in March and her state was not extending the time for her to pay her taxes, so I finished it and mailed it to her back then.
I managed to fix some errors in our corporation's last year return, when I was going through the “do everything wrong and redo it no matter how I tried” period. It is ready to go out when we go out to mail larger items again. I am now doing this year's return for same. Next I will start ours. All will sit and wait for us to go out again.
We actually had a problem with the mail which goes to our PO Box – most of our mail does as we have problems with mail delivery at our house. We had put in to have it forwarded to us as March 31. Nothing has arrived which has been forwarded. I called the Post Office on Monday and was told that since our box is in our business's name only mail from same has been forwarded as there is no way to say to forward all from a business box. Husband started crying – the employee heard him and said she would put what she has in an envelope and mail it to us – it came the next day. She said we could call again in a couple of weeks and make arrangements to pay the postage and have same done again. What does confuse me is two things. If a company moves should not all the mail addressed to the employees of the company, even if the company is not listed in the address be forwarded also? And on the USPS website it says that if a business puts in a forward all will be forwarded to the business and the business is responsible for getting it to those who receive mail through them – doesn't that mean it should all be forwarded to us? Well, we got the large, full envelope and I will get to take them out of the sealed plastic bag that I put them in, this Friday as we cannot wait a full week for 2 week old mail to be opened. The community where our mail goes (just north of where we live) had over 4 times the number of virus cases as does our community so it really scares husband to go to the Post Office, even late night on Sunday nights as we had been going. When life is normal again we will find out how to change the box from our business name to our names so next time we can specify “all for address” if God forbid we ever have to do this again.
We also had to deal with a bad storm this week – heavy rain and huge winds. Not as bad as those of you who got hit tornadoes, and we were lucky and only lost our electricity for a few seconds. Husband was terrified, as he always is, of losing our electricity, as to do so would result in the loss of much of our food. I moved everything from the kitchen refrigerator's freezer to our spare small freezer in the basement and turned that one to the coldest it goes and added some frozen plastic “ice” also. Our logic was the larger the amount of frozen items in a confined space, the better the cold would keep if we lost electricity. I also found out that we still have some Thanksgiving leftovers – more food, which we did not remember we had, a dinner for one of us.
How are all of you faring in lock down – or are a some of you in areas which have not been hit enough to have stay home? I would love to hear from any or all of you – and I am sure that others would like to hear how people are getting by and coping.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
We are another week along and closer to being able to go out again. In our state and our local area they say we are now at the point where the number of new cases and hospital admissions are both going down – more people are now leaving the hospitals than being admitted. My original guess when the area was hit was mid to late May before we could go out. I hope I guessed right.
My best wishes for you and yours to remain healthy – or to safely return to good health.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
COVID 19 #4 - MAIL, FOOD AND HOLIDAY WISHES
Well another week in the house in the house due to COVID 19. Other than walking out our side door (through a small porch) 3 days a week to take in the mail from the box at our front door, we have not been out of the house in an evening short of 2 weeks. Not as bad as one would think, I have been catching up work and in email contact with some friends from college as we check on each and say happy birthday/ happy anniversary as we have had several of same among us these past few weeks. Also found that a friend with cancer has successfully completed her treatment. A friend had COVID 19, luckily a mild case, and is recuperating. My sister told me that a family of our (adult) cousins also has same – but are doing well. So – knock on wood – we are doing okay.
Husband has become terrified of going to the Post Office to mail out items – work I have done and has to go to clients, paid bills, etc. - as the community where the Post Office is located has one of the higher COVID 19 counts in the county - even though I would only be only throwing it in the mail collection box in front of it. I telephoned our local Post Office (I think I have explained that the Post Office which serves our home is considerably further away than 2 others – one of which is where we have our box) and asked and, yes, one can still leave mail in one's home mail box for the postal delivery person to pickup when they deliver your mail. So, our bill payments are sitting in the clip on the small door through which our mail is delivered for it to be (hopefully) picked up tomorrow. The clip is there for this purpose and we have the flag up on the box. Unfortunately this only works with regular #10 envelope sized mail with our box. We have two items that are in 6 inch by 9 inch envelopes which do not fit in the clip, so at some point we will have to go to at least a mail box to mail them. They are not bills and not as urgent, so we are okay with waiting to send them out. The funny thing is that I used these two envelopes for these items as I was afraid that they would be too thick in a regular envelope to fit in the new thin deposit slits in the mail boxes.
Tonight my husband went downstairs for something. He noticed a plastic box on the shelves in the basement with food cans in it – our old emergency food supplies. He said he hoped I had not let the food go past date. I went downstairs afterward to look – I knew it all had to be past date as I had not bought new drinking water since I stopped cooking for our reenctment unit. (I had to buy bottle water for them also, so I would rotate ours into what I used for them and put the new water bought for them, in as our supply just to keep ours from getting old which I why I say this.)
I managed to get the box off the shelf and out – it was heavy and I was afraid of dropping of it, but did not. I put it on a table in the basement and opened it. Apparently it has been over 15 years since we bought emergency food supplies and stored it – a couple of years old and I would be using them – but 15 years?!. Perfectly good looking cans – but much too old to even think of eating – what a waste. If you have similar emergency food supplies be sure to check them and rotate them before they are too old to eat.
I know a lot of you are going through a lot right now. How are YOU handling all everything to keep your home and family running? Any suggestions or tips for the rest of us?
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
I want to wish you a Happy Easter and/or a Happy Passover – the holidays might be very different than usual this year – but they are still are special. In future years these holidays will be looked back on and remembered for how you and yours managed to get through it. For some they might not be happy memories, perhaps even tragic, for others the memories will be better – even funny. All of the memories though will remind us of what can we can do when we need to and that we can survive.
My best wishes for all of you and your families.
Husband has become terrified of going to the Post Office to mail out items – work I have done and has to go to clients, paid bills, etc. - as the community where the Post Office is located has one of the higher COVID 19 counts in the county - even though I would only be only throwing it in the mail collection box in front of it. I telephoned our local Post Office (I think I have explained that the Post Office which serves our home is considerably further away than 2 others – one of which is where we have our box) and asked and, yes, one can still leave mail in one's home mail box for the postal delivery person to pickup when they deliver your mail. So, our bill payments are sitting in the clip on the small door through which our mail is delivered for it to be (hopefully) picked up tomorrow. The clip is there for this purpose and we have the flag up on the box. Unfortunately this only works with regular #10 envelope sized mail with our box. We have two items that are in 6 inch by 9 inch envelopes which do not fit in the clip, so at some point we will have to go to at least a mail box to mail them. They are not bills and not as urgent, so we are okay with waiting to send them out. The funny thing is that I used these two envelopes for these items as I was afraid that they would be too thick in a regular envelope to fit in the new thin deposit slits in the mail boxes.
Tonight my husband went downstairs for something. He noticed a plastic box on the shelves in the basement with food cans in it – our old emergency food supplies. He said he hoped I had not let the food go past date. I went downstairs afterward to look – I knew it all had to be past date as I had not bought new drinking water since I stopped cooking for our reenctment unit. (I had to buy bottle water for them also, so I would rotate ours into what I used for them and put the new water bought for them, in as our supply just to keep ours from getting old which I why I say this.)
I managed to get the box off the shelf and out – it was heavy and I was afraid of dropping of it, but did not. I put it on a table in the basement and opened it. Apparently it has been over 15 years since we bought emergency food supplies and stored it – a couple of years old and I would be using them – but 15 years?!. Perfectly good looking cans – but much too old to even think of eating – what a waste. If you have similar emergency food supplies be sure to check them and rotate them before they are too old to eat.
I know a lot of you are going through a lot right now. How are YOU handling all everything to keep your home and family running? Any suggestions or tips for the rest of us?
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
I want to wish you a Happy Easter and/or a Happy Passover – the holidays might be very different than usual this year – but they are still are special. In future years these holidays will be looked back on and remembered for how you and yours managed to get through it. For some they might not be happy memories, perhaps even tragic, for others the memories will be better – even funny. All of the memories though will remind us of what can we can do when we need to and that we can survive.
My best wishes for all of you and your families.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
COVID 19 #3 - GETTING BILLS PAID IN NEW WAYS
I have mentioned that I am in an embroidery club. We meet the first Wednesday of the month except in summer. I reserve for the group the room at a local park in which we meet. This is done in November for the coming year. When I saw that the April meeting would be today – April Fools Day – I wondered what might happen. I never dreamed that we would not be meeting due to a pandemic – or even just an epidemic. I hope that all of you and your families continue to stay safe and well.
We are learning bit by bit about how to deal with the threat of COVID 19 as I am sure most to all of you are also. Every time I touch something to use it – my husband gets upset that we will use up all of whatever it is I go to touch so I have been figuring out how to do more with less and alternatives for consumable items that I normally use without thinking about it.
Luckily we did manage to buy an extra huge package of toilet paper just as the emergency was becoming obvious – husband, as I have said panics easily – so he has not started rationing same.
We have a lot of paper towels - but did not think to buy extra when we could. We have started packages of both full and half sheet paper towels. (And as I always mention to him – a started and a full roll out in our RV – we have spares of most household items there – including at least 2 started and 2 full rolls of TP.) But he did not like that I was using a half sized sheet each meal to wash the dishes – this quickly became one half sheet for the day's dishes. I offered to go back to using a sponge to wash the dishes (we had stopped same last summer when we had ants) but he did not like that either and told me to stay with one half sheet a day. Then looking in the cabinet under my kitchen sink I had an idea. I keep several old kitchen towels there to use for things like wiping up a mess, covering the front of the sink/counter when husband washes his hair in the sink, etc. I took one of them – actually a rag by now – and thought about it. I pulled out a pair of shears and cut it in 6 pieces (smaller would be too small). I now have a small dish rag to wash the dishes , etc – as well as wipe up spills - I change it every day and throw the piece from the day before in the towel laundry bag in the kitchen. They actually work pretty well – they are “bumpy” so they scrub a bit. I cut 2 more pieces off another towel, leaving the rest of it intact – for now.
I normally do laundry on Wednesday night (while writing to you) and sometimes more than one night is needed so Thursday sometimes also. The downstairs laundry bag almost always holds nothing but towels (sometimes a sock wet from the rain or similar might end up in there also). My upstairs laundry bag holds clothes, bedding and towels to be washed. I put a second bag upstairs for just towels. I normally change all the towels on Monday, the hand towels in the 2 bathrooms again on Thursday, so each time they are used for about half a week, and the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and on Friday. Now all towels are changed every other day – so the towel laundry is now done on a day that changes as I do so every 3 changes of towels – hence the need for a special bag for them upstairs.
Last weekend I went online and signed up to have our mail forwarded from our Post Office Box to our house. No more late Sunday night runs there to get the mail – I forgot which hand was for touching mail items and doors and which was never suppose to do either once too often for husband and was annoyed at having to do so – and we wore plastic gloves on both hands. Our only trips there now will be at night to mail out items that have to go out – and they will go in the mail boxes outside the Post Office. I only take in the mail at our house 3 times a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The mail goes into a sealable plastic bag and I spray Lysol into it – the bag then sits until the matching day of the next week – once our mail starts coming here on the forwarding, it will not sit that long as it will already be 7 -10 days additional time in the mail – and bills cannot wait that long. These procedures are to make husband less terrified – not recommended by anyone.
Bills – I thought we would be okay. We are both on Social Security and most of our income comes from same. Our payments are deposited in our checking account and ready for use. Luckily within the past year I had changed our Social Security to go into our checking account instead of our savings account where it used to go. Well, we ran into two problems with our bills.
First, I realized last week that we had to pay our electric bill – and did not have the money to do so in our checking account. In normal times we would have gone and transferred money from somewhere – perhaps some extra cash that we ended up with in the house after one of our few trips would be deposited back in the bank or we would transfer it from savings – but we are not going out and not going to the bank to do so. I realized that we could pay the electric bill with a credit card – we never do this, but since we pay all of our credit card bills in full in monthly, there is no interest that will do on same.
We use one credit card for rare online, mail, phone order purchases or recurring items that have to be credited to a credit card – it has only has $1000 line of credit due to what it is used for – did not want to tie up that line with an amount equal to the electric bill. So I decided to put the electric bill on one of the cards that we do not normally use at all – I use it once a year to keep it active for, generally, an under $5 purchase. I was concerned that using it pay of a couple of hundred dollars of electric bill all of a sudden might get rejected. So I figured that I would call the credit company in advance and let them know. I started calling Monday early afternoon. I would be told by their computer that they have an unusually large number of calls and to please be patient. I understood this and was prepared to be patient. The computer kept trying to get me to use their website instead – I don't do financial things online unless there is ABSOLUTELY no other way to do it. I started to wait. I was then told to call back later and the computer hung up on me. I called again and tried to use the computer – same thing. I tried several times during the afternoon (no where to go anyway) and again in the evening. No luck. I waited until 12:05 (the next day) and then called, figuring how much “later” could one call and also that it was night it in the most US and that hopefully there were different offices to handle customers in other countries – after all on the back of my credit card it said that it was “24 hour number”. It seemed to work. This time I was told to hold – and I did – I was prepared to hold as long as needed. At 1:05 am a message came on telling me the office was now closed and I should call back – yes, - later. Now how can a 24 hour office be closed? I thought about this and applying some logic – perhaps they switched to the next office in the time line and if I called again I could be hold with that office. So I called again. To my shock the call was transferred almost immediately after I spoke to the computer to a LIVE PERSON!! I managed to make the arrangements with her to have no problem with paying my electric bill with their credit card. Now as annoyed as I was, I knew that these are rare circumstances, though I was a bit po'd at the treatment that I had received – but thought that all the credit companies might be like this. Yesterday, I called the electric company and paid the bill with the credit card – by the time the credit card bill comes in – our Social Security will have done so also.
I keep our bills organized with Quickbooks – the repeating bills (even for credit cards that we do not normally use) come up in the QB calendar two weeks before they are normally due – a week to remind me to pay in a week and I pay them and mail them a week before they are do. Normally I am in our Quickbook files almost daily. But since we don't want to go out more often than we need to, I have been paying bills in advance of when they are due if we have the money in the account, so I am not in QB that often. Today I decided to go into the file and take a look. GOOD THING! Our cable/Internet bill has not come and is due next week – and suffers from the same problem as our electric bill! I tried calling our cable company today – they are taking no calls – we are to do everything through the website as the telephone system is overrun also. I need a week delay from them to pay the bill and knew that under the current conditions it would be given. Husband signed into the cable company's website and tried to get to “chat” to talk to someone about this. The chat must have been jammed – it would not even all the way! So, again, knowing that there is someone there 24 hours a day (to help in case Internet or TV goes down – they tell one to pull the electric cord and plug it back – as if we have not that already) I waited until after dinner. I then signed into their website again. In the interim while I cooked dinner husband had played around and found a COVID 19 part of the site with a chat. I had to wait about 10 minutes but a very nice fellow came on the chat – I explained that we needed an extension to pay until April 15 and he told me that there is automatic 60 day extensions on all payments – matter resolved.
In the middle of sitting and making these long extended time phone calls and website connections, yesterday was my mom's 91st birthday. Of course we cannot visit her. My sister who is younger than me and lives near the assisted living residence mom is in, went and left a cake and flowers for mom on a car the residence has outside for items to be left to be given to one's family in the residence. I tried telephoning my mom – I called her 7 times, She is barely and rarely allowed out of her room these days due to COVID 19. I even tried yelling a message when her answering machine picked up – she does not check for messages, but I hoped she would hear me and pick up (and I had proof that I tried to call her). How could she not be in her room? I later contacted my sister and she told me mom had a bad stomach and did not feel well and went to bed early.
When I did not reach mom the first time I called her yesterday I called a client and friend as I had sent her email about the need to file her 2016 tax return or she would lose her refund (no one says the deadline before same goes is lost has changed) – so I also spent time on the phone with her.
So instead of getting lots things done for work and in the house - I am spending time on the phone and online dealing with problems! But I do get to go outside to the front of the house and take in mail tomorrow and then I get to open last week's bag of mail – yippee!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – This too shall pass as all things do. The important thing is for all to stay well – stay home if you can and be careful if you have to go out. I only have a few followers on this group – I can't afford to lose any you!
We are learning bit by bit about how to deal with the threat of COVID 19 as I am sure most to all of you are also. Every time I touch something to use it – my husband gets upset that we will use up all of whatever it is I go to touch so I have been figuring out how to do more with less and alternatives for consumable items that I normally use without thinking about it.
Luckily we did manage to buy an extra huge package of toilet paper just as the emergency was becoming obvious – husband, as I have said panics easily – so he has not started rationing same.
We have a lot of paper towels - but did not think to buy extra when we could. We have started packages of both full and half sheet paper towels. (And as I always mention to him – a started and a full roll out in our RV – we have spares of most household items there – including at least 2 started and 2 full rolls of TP.) But he did not like that I was using a half sized sheet each meal to wash the dishes – this quickly became one half sheet for the day's dishes. I offered to go back to using a sponge to wash the dishes (we had stopped same last summer when we had ants) but he did not like that either and told me to stay with one half sheet a day. Then looking in the cabinet under my kitchen sink I had an idea. I keep several old kitchen towels there to use for things like wiping up a mess, covering the front of the sink/counter when husband washes his hair in the sink, etc. I took one of them – actually a rag by now – and thought about it. I pulled out a pair of shears and cut it in 6 pieces (smaller would be too small). I now have a small dish rag to wash the dishes , etc – as well as wipe up spills - I change it every day and throw the piece from the day before in the towel laundry bag in the kitchen. They actually work pretty well – they are “bumpy” so they scrub a bit. I cut 2 more pieces off another towel, leaving the rest of it intact – for now.
I normally do laundry on Wednesday night (while writing to you) and sometimes more than one night is needed so Thursday sometimes also. The downstairs laundry bag almost always holds nothing but towels (sometimes a sock wet from the rain or similar might end up in there also). My upstairs laundry bag holds clothes, bedding and towels to be washed. I put a second bag upstairs for just towels. I normally change all the towels on Monday, the hand towels in the 2 bathrooms again on Thursday, so each time they are used for about half a week, and the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and on Friday. Now all towels are changed every other day – so the towel laundry is now done on a day that changes as I do so every 3 changes of towels – hence the need for a special bag for them upstairs.
Last weekend I went online and signed up to have our mail forwarded from our Post Office Box to our house. No more late Sunday night runs there to get the mail – I forgot which hand was for touching mail items and doors and which was never suppose to do either once too often for husband and was annoyed at having to do so – and we wore plastic gloves on both hands. Our only trips there now will be at night to mail out items that have to go out – and they will go in the mail boxes outside the Post Office. I only take in the mail at our house 3 times a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The mail goes into a sealable plastic bag and I spray Lysol into it – the bag then sits until the matching day of the next week – once our mail starts coming here on the forwarding, it will not sit that long as it will already be 7 -10 days additional time in the mail – and bills cannot wait that long. These procedures are to make husband less terrified – not recommended by anyone.
Bills – I thought we would be okay. We are both on Social Security and most of our income comes from same. Our payments are deposited in our checking account and ready for use. Luckily within the past year I had changed our Social Security to go into our checking account instead of our savings account where it used to go. Well, we ran into two problems with our bills.
First, I realized last week that we had to pay our electric bill – and did not have the money to do so in our checking account. In normal times we would have gone and transferred money from somewhere – perhaps some extra cash that we ended up with in the house after one of our few trips would be deposited back in the bank or we would transfer it from savings – but we are not going out and not going to the bank to do so. I realized that we could pay the electric bill with a credit card – we never do this, but since we pay all of our credit card bills in full in monthly, there is no interest that will do on same.
We use one credit card for rare online, mail, phone order purchases or recurring items that have to be credited to a credit card – it has only has $1000 line of credit due to what it is used for – did not want to tie up that line with an amount equal to the electric bill. So I decided to put the electric bill on one of the cards that we do not normally use at all – I use it once a year to keep it active for, generally, an under $5 purchase. I was concerned that using it pay of a couple of hundred dollars of electric bill all of a sudden might get rejected. So I figured that I would call the credit company in advance and let them know. I started calling Monday early afternoon. I would be told by their computer that they have an unusually large number of calls and to please be patient. I understood this and was prepared to be patient. The computer kept trying to get me to use their website instead – I don't do financial things online unless there is ABSOLUTELY no other way to do it. I started to wait. I was then told to call back later and the computer hung up on me. I called again and tried to use the computer – same thing. I tried several times during the afternoon (no where to go anyway) and again in the evening. No luck. I waited until 12:05 (the next day) and then called, figuring how much “later” could one call and also that it was night it in the most US and that hopefully there were different offices to handle customers in other countries – after all on the back of my credit card it said that it was “24 hour number”. It seemed to work. This time I was told to hold – and I did – I was prepared to hold as long as needed. At 1:05 am a message came on telling me the office was now closed and I should call back – yes, - later. Now how can a 24 hour office be closed? I thought about this and applying some logic – perhaps they switched to the next office in the time line and if I called again I could be hold with that office. So I called again. To my shock the call was transferred almost immediately after I spoke to the computer to a LIVE PERSON!! I managed to make the arrangements with her to have no problem with paying my electric bill with their credit card. Now as annoyed as I was, I knew that these are rare circumstances, though I was a bit po'd at the treatment that I had received – but thought that all the credit companies might be like this. Yesterday, I called the electric company and paid the bill with the credit card – by the time the credit card bill comes in – our Social Security will have done so also.
I keep our bills organized with Quickbooks – the repeating bills (even for credit cards that we do not normally use) come up in the QB calendar two weeks before they are normally due – a week to remind me to pay in a week and I pay them and mail them a week before they are do. Normally I am in our Quickbook files almost daily. But since we don't want to go out more often than we need to, I have been paying bills in advance of when they are due if we have the money in the account, so I am not in QB that often. Today I decided to go into the file and take a look. GOOD THING! Our cable/Internet bill has not come and is due next week – and suffers from the same problem as our electric bill! I tried calling our cable company today – they are taking no calls – we are to do everything through the website as the telephone system is overrun also. I need a week delay from them to pay the bill and knew that under the current conditions it would be given. Husband signed into the cable company's website and tried to get to “chat” to talk to someone about this. The chat must have been jammed – it would not even all the way! So, again, knowing that there is someone there 24 hours a day (to help in case Internet or TV goes down – they tell one to pull the electric cord and plug it back – as if we have not that already) I waited until after dinner. I then signed into their website again. In the interim while I cooked dinner husband had played around and found a COVID 19 part of the site with a chat. I had to wait about 10 minutes but a very nice fellow came on the chat – I explained that we needed an extension to pay until April 15 and he told me that there is automatic 60 day extensions on all payments – matter resolved.
In the middle of sitting and making these long extended time phone calls and website connections, yesterday was my mom's 91st birthday. Of course we cannot visit her. My sister who is younger than me and lives near the assisted living residence mom is in, went and left a cake and flowers for mom on a car the residence has outside for items to be left to be given to one's family in the residence. I tried telephoning my mom – I called her 7 times, She is barely and rarely allowed out of her room these days due to COVID 19. I even tried yelling a message when her answering machine picked up – she does not check for messages, but I hoped she would hear me and pick up (and I had proof that I tried to call her). How could she not be in her room? I later contacted my sister and she told me mom had a bad stomach and did not feel well and went to bed early.
When I did not reach mom the first time I called her yesterday I called a client and friend as I had sent her email about the need to file her 2016 tax return or she would lose her refund (no one says the deadline before same goes is lost has changed) – so I also spent time on the phone with her.
So instead of getting lots things done for work and in the house - I am spending time on the phone and online dealing with problems! But I do get to go outside to the front of the house and take in mail tomorrow and then I get to open last week's bag of mail – yippee!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – This too shall pass as all things do. The important thing is for all to stay well – stay home if you can and be careful if you have to go out. I only have a few followers on this group – I can't afford to lose any you!
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