COVID 19 #20 - DEALING WITH COMPANIES AND TRYING TO CHANGE ONE'S MAILING ADDRESS WITHOUT GOING OUT

 Do you find days and weeks are flying by since the start of the pandemic – or inching their way along?  I tend towards the former.  When I realized we would be stuck in for quite a while, I figured I would finally get a chance to catch up on organizing and cleaning.  Have I?  Well, it inches along.

When my family home was cleared out (I admit to doing much less than my sisters and their families in this process) I ended up with the assorted family papers – my parents' old income tax returns (back to the 1950s), the papers related to the original purchase and building of the house, my dad's military papers, plus papers of mine – what was left after what I had taken when we were married – from the 25 years plus that I lived in the house.  I have a cardboard file box of the papers in our office, next to my desk blocking easy access to our office supply closet.  On top of the box is 2 old photo/scrap books of mine and several old shoe boxes of childhood correspondence with friends and cousins who had gone to summer camp and others – and shortly after this all came here, the least of the papers were pulled out on a quick go through and shredded (lots of greeting cards – kept those from certain family members, close friends from back then and husband).  

I finally got started on dealing with the papers.  Combined with the fact that one of my fingers has started to hurt – I think from overuse of computer keyboards, husband thinks arthritis – I have been trying to use the computer less this past week than usual.  But scanning, I can do with little typing on the keyboard and using a different finger for the thumb pad I use (instead of a mouse) so I started going through my parents' income tax returns and scanning them.  Why am I scanning them instead of tossing them?  Well I was going to toss them out, but in the back of my head was my dad, the accountant who trained to me to be one - “Always keep copies of clients' income tax returns for the time they are clients plus 10 years.”  Mom is still alive and I guess sort of a client.  But that it a lot of paper to keep.  So, scanning was the way to go. I have scanned in all of clients (and our) old tax returns – keep them and they take up no physical space.  (I now scan the clients returns as soon as the return is done, but keep the most recent year on paper to make it easier to refer to them when doing the next year's return.  As soon as the next year's return is done, the older year is shredded.)  

I have basically always known (well back to at least my early teens) that one's tax returns is a record of one's life.  Marriage, children, divorce, death, buying a house, college for family members, losing a job, getting a new job, etc. all show up on one's income tax returns.  I am seeing it now as I go through and scan my parents return.  I was confused when I noticed that on one of the returns my 2 younger sisters were showing as dependents and I was not.  The middle sister of the 3 of us married before I did – shouldn't there be returns with me as dependent and her not there?  Oh, wait, I had started my full time job that year and was no longer a dependent even though all 3 of us were still living at home.  The returns in the years shortly before my dad died are filed on extended extension with the notation that “taxpayer has a major illness which is delaying him from filing the returns”.  (Extensions were granted of course.)  I know that as I go back further I will see each of the three of us daughters show up on the returns.  Going forward (unless my sister kept the more recent returns) I will see the return change from joint to just mom when I reach the year after he died.  

Also in the file box is various papers I wrote in high school and college.  For some of them I find multiple copies – not sure why.  I have learned that as bad as my hand is, it used to be a LOT better as was my typing  I also seemed to write doom and gloom a lot more.  I will scan in the best copy of each of these papers after I am done with my parents' income tax returns.  

I find that I can scan 2 -3 years of tax returns in an afternoon (while also checking email and other things which have to be done in the office in the closet).  I will keep doing so for now.  If nothing else, the shoe boxes will be fit into the file box at some point.  At least I feel like I am getting something done by doing this.

The other project I have been working on is changing the mailing address for us, our business, our reenactment unit, and my embroidery chapter.  I am guessing I have mentioned that we have a Post Office Box that we use as a mailing address due to problems with mail delivery at our house that developed 10 or so years ago.  This PO Box is at a different Post Office than the one which serves our house – as this Post Office is much closer to our house (as is a third one) than the one which serves our house.  There have been problems with mail forwarded to the house – not sure if problem is the Box Post Office, the house Post Office or something in between.  (These problems predate what is currently going on with cutbacks etc at the Post Office and are not related to same.)

Most of the problem at this time involves statements from the two credit unions we and/or the two clubs I am treasurer of have their bank accounts at.  Last week I telephoned the two credit unions and changed the mailing addresses to our house.  Well, almost all.  For some reason one of the credit unions could change the mailing address on our personal accounts – but I was told not the mailing address for the embroidery chapter – it is a “business”.  I have to go there in person to do so – ummm, there is the Corona virus pandemic going on and we are still are suppose to stay home?  I am missing 3 months 3 months of statements for each account – the other credit union is mailing me copies – free.  This credit unions wants $5 a statements – though there would be no charge if I – yes – came in and asked for them.  The alternative I was told was to open an online account for the chapter – so easy and convenient to do.  I discussed with husband and president of the chapter and went to set up the online account.  First problem I had was that the online form rejected the chapter's Federal ID number (same as a Social Security number for people, this is for businesses).  I tried putting it in the format IRS uses. I tried putting in the numbers with no format.  I even tried putting in the numbers in the format used for Social Security numbers – each several times – and it did not work.  The next day I telephoned the credit union and was told to put the number in with no format – somehow this time (as opposed to the 5 times before) it worked.  I finished the form and “signed” it and sent it off.  Hmmm, now what do I do? No way to sign into the account.  I sent an email – answer was that it would take several days for it to be “approved”.  Okay, why didn't it just say that on the form and I would have known!  Last Saturday when I checked email I had two emails that the online account was approved – yippee.  I copied the username from the first email and then went to copy the password from the second…. Ummm. They sent an email at 8:15 pm on a Friday night which was only good for 30 minutes!!!  Okay, it said I could get a replacement email.  I fill in the form – needs the telephone number associated with the account – I put in my telephone number.  Rejected – not the right phone number.  Try again several times.  I opened this account before cell phones were common and I did not have mine then, also there were no google phone numbers (have one now for the chapter), so what the heck other number could it be?  I tried all of these numbers anyway – also a google phone number we have for ourselves and a VoIP number has for his counseling practice – none of them worked.  I called and left a phone message at the credit union asking for help.  I also sent an email.  Monday – no one called – I called again and sent an email again. The idea started to mill around in my head that I used to have another landline phone number that I used for my accounting practice, but got rid of about 10 years ago – I looked back in my computer files to find something with the number – old letters with number in the letterhead. I tried same – no good.  I understand that businesses are shorthanded – but it has been 3 business days.  Late yesterday I called the credit union for a regular person not someone related to online help.  The man who answered was able to change the mailing account for the credit union when the other employee could not.  He had to verify me and told me that the other employee probably did not want to bother (took all of 5 minutes maximum).  He verified that the phone number on file is our home number – which was rejected.  Today I had an email from the bank finally – giving me the phone number for the account – again, our home number which was the first tried and rejected multiple times.  I do have to wonder if they wanted the phone number to prove who I am – why they would email it me.  This credit union used to be great.  They have been changing since the end of last year and not sure that any of the accounts will be staying there after Covid-19 is dealt with and we can safely and easily go out.  They changed their bank statements.  As an accountant I have dealt with thousands of bank statements from banks in about dozen US states plus from 3 other countries – and have never had a problem figuring out something as simple as their bank statements.  

So little by little I am trying to get things done which have been sitting or have arisen from the current situation – I did manage to rearrange my empty plastic containers which are out to use right now and stored some in my kitchen closet on a shelf in case they are needed.  (So much work to pull out the plastic boxes the spares are kept in, in the bottom of the same closet.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One has to deal with emergencies first.  Then one can slowly work at other problems.  Scanning and shredding 2 or 3 years' worth of maybe 50 years worth of income tax returns is not much – but that is 2 or 3 less to deal with.  One step at a time – same applies to calling up and changing the mailing address on everything that has our Post Office box address on it to our home address.

THE CRAZINESS CONTINUES ON

Another week already? For those of you who have been/will be in Dorian's path - I hope that you and yours come through safely.  To say that it is a horrible storm is to greatly understate the situation.

Things are still hinky here - I called the insurance company for our reenactment unit again to try to resolve the problem of the paperwork not being right.  What the employee and I did manage to figure out is that it is not a paperwork problem - the changes to the policy do not seem to be right when we discussed them.  She was to check with their underwriters and the files to see what happened and then call me back.  I waited a week and then called her again - last Friday.  The agency was closed for a four day Labor Day weekend.  I called her again today, Wednesday.  She was not in - working from home (I got the impression she was not well).  She called back while we were out - which is why I said I would call back instead of her calling me, and left a message to talk to someone else at the agency - I will call them tomorrow.  I have been trying to resolve this since June - policy renewed in late May.  At this point we only have 3 events left before the insurance will renew again next year. I have now requested a printout of our payments to our medical insurance company in 2018 three times - hope this time they send the correct papers and not a summary of what we owed - what we owed and what we paid could be totally different amounts (although not in this case) and the county will not accept what we owed - they want a list from the insurance company of what we actually paid.  That and one other set of papers is the last of what we need to file for our senior real estate tax exemption.  Then I can assemble the "tome" of papers that have to go to them for this exemption.  We learned our lesson last year.  This year we will not mail the paperwork to them (and we had mailed it by certified mail and had a record of when they received it).  We will drive to the real estate tax assessor's office and I will walk it in and get a receipt from them that they have everything.  Husband will sit in the car as parking is just about non-existent.  Newspaper article recently said that our new County Executive is going to make this department actually answer their phones and help people.  When one calls the message on their end is basically - "We don't have time to take calls."  and sometimes also "And we don't have any parking for you to come here."  Public servants.

I have managed to do a bit of house cleaning this past week - I admit it, I am sooo off schedule as I just have not had a chance to get to anything.

I have been tasked by my sister to find sources to sell items from our family home - a library of books, a collection of records (LPs, 45s and CDs), china and glass - useful and decorative, dad had a number of clients who were artists and they have pieces from some of the clients and other pieces that purchased - only a maybe ten to twenty, but some of them may be valuable.  We need to get as much as we can for items which can be sold as we need it to keep mom in the assisted living program she is in and likes.  Time is also of the essence as mom has a reverse mortgage on her house and every month more interes accrues. The sooner we get rid of the stuff in the house the sooner we can sell it - the less money that goes to interest and the more that goes to mom. I emailed a client that I have still have whose husband is one of the artists and asked if either of them knows of a gallery or auction house to contact.  I know the husband's work still sells from time to time and figured that they must still know who to contact.  Problem, of course, is that we need to not just find someone to buy (or take on consignment) the stuff we need to get rid of, but need someone honest who will not buy stuff for considerably less than it is worth.  I just found a site that was recommended by a seniors organization for pricing items.  I will have to look at it.  Quite frankly it was this part of clearing out the house that intimidated me.  My sister had talked as if she had an idea of who to call about all this and I had felt better about it, now I am overwhelmed again - and quite honestly, my sister is handling most of everything. Anyone with ideas about getting rid of all this stuff without getting "taken" - please let me know, it will be gratefully appreciated.

I had the first meeting of my embroidery chapter today.  I was not sure that I would that I would get to the meeting as husband is desperate to go away for a few days - both for sanity and because we have spent a lot on the RV to keep it in good shape, we do not use it, and it needs to be used - especially driven - to keep in it in good condition.  Due to rain storms today where we were to go, we dropped the plans - bad for husband as he is upset, but good for me as I had my first non-work day without him since June.  I did come home after running a couple of quick errands after the meeting and did not take the entire afternoon for myself as I normally do, as husband is sure that the Dorian will turn and hit Long Island and we will lose our electricity, so I did not want to leave him moping and in a panic all day by himself.  We are learning a new stitch that I had wanted to learn and it was such a pleasant time at the meeting.  I really need to find another group to join also - I have tried to get husband to join a group without me, but he is not interested and finds an excuse not to join any group that is related to his interests when I find them.

I normally write my post using a word processing program that I like and then copy it to the site.  Tonight for some reason it would not work - it opens, but does not work, so I used good, old Notepad to write - any spelling errors or oddities in appearance of the post are due to that.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Well, one has to go on and do what one can.  Having my embroidery chapter keeps me sane - what keeps you sane when it is all piling up?

A WEEKEND IN THE 18 CENTURY, A LUNCHEON, AND OTHER TIME CONSUMERS

Another week already?

Friday we spent the afternoon with our reenactment unit setting up for a relatively large scale event.  It is one that we started last year.  We invite other units to join us.  We have the use of the restoration village I have spoken about before.  We set up near the building that we interpret at Christmas time a “British army camp - with officers in the building.  In the same general area the “American civilians” (us) are located.  At another restored house that happens to be behind this house on top of a rise, is the “American army”.  To visitors this other house is a quite a distance away on the road, but for our convenience it can be reached by walking through the woods between the two, while not being seen from where we are.  While we are not setting up at the other house, it still takes quite awhile to set up.

Saturday and Sunday was the event - so the entire day - both days - was taken up with the event.  Saturday night we got home and I threw the cups we used during the day (period looking cups are used and we each have/bring our own - ditto dishes, and tablewear, but we had not brought anything other than cups with us Saturday as we were not staying for dinner at night) into the sink and went upstairs to change in modern clothes.  When I got back downstairs the kitchen sink and the counter on either side of it was covered in ants!  I managed to get rid of the ones I saw and washed the cups - as husband’s cup was also covered.  After we had dinner we found more ants.  I had just put the kitchen back together from a prior attack of ants!  So, again, I checked and washed off each item around the sink - such as the dishrack - and stored them on the one small section of counter that is on the other side of the kitchen.  Husband went looking online for what is food safe to get rid of ants.  He found out that one can spray a 3/1 vinegar/water mixtures, let it dry for 30 minutes, blot puddles, and let the rest air dry.  Seems to be working so far.  I have moved items back to the counter top, but still am not using the space.  When I wash dishes I wash and rinse an item, dry it and put it away immediately and then on to the next piece.  It is exhausting.  Oh, and I am using paper towels for washing instead of a sponge or steel wool pad, as I can toss them out after each session of washing.  Sunday not only did we have the event - everything had to be packed afterwards.

I was looking forward to tomorrow, Thursday, when I had nothing to do and could breathe - ha ha!

Monday afternoon, husband decided that we had to get gas for our car, as we had not done so on Sunday as we normally would, and also had to check the oil in the car.  So we drove out to where we go for both, which took most of the afternoon.  When we got home we went through the stuff we brought back from the reenactment and I had put in closed plastic bags and checked it for ants - only found one. 

Tuesday we ran some home errands - shopping and such and also bought some deli turkey for me to make light sandwiches to bring today to my embroidery chapter for our annual luncheon meeting.  Everyone makes some sort of salad, I can’t eat salad unless I know that I am going home right after, so I bring the sandwiches so I have something to eat.  We discuss what we want to do next year (September to June) at our meetings and any regular business.  I had planned to run a lot errands as I won’t have a day out alone again until September.  I realized on my way back from the meeting today, Wednesday, I had forgotten to bring the soda bottles to put in for recycling - 5 months worth!  Oh, well.  I did our banking and the banking for the embroidery chapter. 

Oh, I also had forgotten that I did have to send a list of members to our region and had planned to do it Thursday (tomorrow) when I would have a chance to breathe - but....  my sister contacted me and needs me to go to my mom on Thursday as she cannot go then.  She has been visiting mom just about every day even when the rest of us are going also, so I could not say no.  I managed to get the list out by email yesterday. 

Monday night after husband fell asleep I heard a chirping - I presumed it was the downstairs smoke detector (upstairs is a 10 year detector) and figured they usually chirp for a couple of days so we would take care of it Tuesday.  I heard it again Tuesday morning, but then it stopped.  Husband went crazy trying to figure out which device was beeping as they all tested fine.  He decided it was a telephone in the office and we bought a new one - but that one still works fine.  (New one will be returned.)  This morning I heard the chirping again and Robert heard it also.  While I was out today he figured out that it was the smoke detector downstairs and replaced the battery. 

Oh, and Friday he is planning a trip to Pennsylvania - if it finally does not rain on a Friday this week.  (Well, last Friday it did not rain, but we did have the event to set up.)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
                   
Again, one must take life a day at a time.  I know that at some point this craziness will stop and I will be able to catch up - okay, in the back of my head I realize life may remain this crazy for ever, but I sure hope not!

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who continue to get this horrible weather and are in much worse a situation that we are.

BAD WEEK - STARTED AS A SHORT POST

Okay this is one of those weeks. 

I had to call our reenacting unit’s insurance company - again - as it has been 3 weeks and we have not received the renewal of our insurance policy - and I paid them 4 weeks ago when I called to find out where the policy was. 

I also had to redo their emergency list as we had a new member join and he had to be added, okay, I did not redo the entire list, just add him, but then I had to email out the list out to the board members - again, and print a new list for us and to keep in our HQ - again.

Worst of all this week is suddenly the computers were not working right.  Emails did not go out.  We had trouble printing.  We had trouble scanning.  Husband traced it to the Internet equipment.  We have a modem from our cable co ($10 + taxes per month) and we have our own router.  Husband decided that since the modem was replaced (due to problems) less than 2 years ago it must be our router. 

Last Sunday we bought a new router at Costco.  It looks like a space ship - no really, it looks like a space ship from Star Wars or something. 

Monday we spent the day setting it up.  Since it was so large it involved moving almost everything on the work area of husband’s desk.  (He has a work table as part of it covered in papers and stuff - that luckily was not affected.)  To do this I had to clear off my desk and throw the 2 piles (do and scan) into one pile on the floor on top of a pile of folders waiting to go to our reenactment HQ for storage in the file cabinets there. 

Have you ever seen the wires from a computer twisted around each due to them being added into as time went along?  Well, I have a computer, husband has two, we each have a laser printer (why two of them - one is color and the other scans) plus a couple of ink jet printers he has and a tape machine that can be printed with the computer.  I spent a good deal of time under the desks pulling wires loose for this project.  We even had to move husband’s computer - it is under his work table and I managed to disconnect something when I did this.  I then had wires going over my desk in an attempt to get all the wires separated. We managed to get it all set up and fit all of husband’s stuff back onto the working part of his desk.

We went to activate the router.  The instructions consisted of a card that said we needed to sign in using wi-fi to the company’s website to set up an account with them to start.  Quite frankly at this point I thought, “hmmm, an account with them, stupid instructions, bring it back”, but not husband.  We had to figure this out as with no router set up, we had no wi-fi (and without wi-fi we could not set up, yes, the router).  We really don’t like to have things like this on our cell phones, but he managed to connect to the wi-fi from our cable co in the street using his phone.  We managed to get through all the steps - until it told us that we had to print something from the cell phone by wi-fi - how?  We don’t print with our cell phones.  I wrote down the info instead.  Huge space ship of a router, stupid sign up - I knew this was a mistake (an expensive mistake). 

But then it was all set up and he was using it.  After dinner I was down here on my laptop.  The entire system was just as bad and just as slow.  So - maybe it was the modem.  Before going to bed we packed it up and I pulled the latest cable bill.  Tuesday we went to our cable co - on our way out, the new cable bill arrived - of course.  Luckily they are still at their location and the employee did not try to push their new system on us.  We stopped for lunch and the daily trip to the post office to pick up mail at our box and then home to set up the modem.

The set up went fairly quickly - we have set this up several times, but when we were done the lights were not flashing in the correct colors and manner.  So I got to sit on hold until a man answered - I don’t know if it is was their phone service (we don’t have phone service through them) or what, I had trouble understanding him.  He looked up our connection and said that all was correct.  Husband tried it and it seemed to be working better and quicker. 

We decided that since the problem seemed to be the modem, we would return the router.  We packed it up and did so on Wednesday and then we went to a computer store and bought a different router which was on sale - husband decided that a newer, more powerful router was a good idea.  On the way home from the computer store we stopped in Walmart for some unrelated items we needed - the same router we had just purchased was $40 cheaper there - husband had looked online and the Walmart site had none other than from third parties.  So, we bought it again.

I have to put out the newsletter for my embroidery chapter on the last Wednesday of the month. I had actually worked on it a bit on Tuesday - normally I do it all on the day it is due out - not much to do - I use last month’s meeting info to thank people who did stuff then in the thank you for last month section, I put in this month’s meeting info, I put the small blurb from the chapter president on the front page in the spot for it - most months I remember to change the month on the front page, I update info from our Region in the page(s) for same and ditto our National in the page(s) for same, and remove events and exhibitions that are past date and add any new ones which have come my way.  After it is done I attach it to an email along with any other needed attachments (info about classes from Region or National, how to sign into new National website, etc.) and email it to the members. I then email a copy of it to other newsletter editors in our Region and to some others from National/Region who need a copy.  Lastly I send a copy to the chapter’s email address with blind copies to an assortment of people who said they were interested in joining and members who have quit the chapter.  (No really, it takes maybe an hour or two most months.  Of course this month there are all sorts of things that went awry - including the chapter president writing a full page message as it is the end of her presidency.  After working on it in advance I finished it about midnight last night.

Then I realized that I had to have the annual renewals (with checks for dues) for the chapter out to National and Region by May 31 - Saturday.  Normally this is not that hard.  Normally there is a list from National of the members they have - no list, no form to send to them with the payment.  So, my solution normally would be to go to the members list in a database, sort it for the renewed members and print out the list of same.  Problem - as of 2 months ago the database no longer sorts and I have to copy it over - item by item/person by person - to a new data base of some other sort (this one is very old software that I liked).  But I don’t have time to do that NOW.  So I sat and made up a list of renewing members by copying each item separately - member number, first name, last name of each person to a word processing program page.  I then filled in a renewing page for a rejoined member as National  needed all her info again.  Then I filled in a new member form for a new member with her info.  Then I calculated and wrote a check for their dues and wrote a cover letter for all this.  (And I scan all checks written and the bill/supporting paper for them into the computer so I did that too.)  I have a blank copy of the form to send to them with the calculation of the amount due and copied and used it.  It asks for the name of “the current president” - uh, oh.  We will be having a vote next week at our meeting and will have a new president - I put the woman who is the president now.  I listed our new membership chair as same (and listed me as treasurer).  In my letter I mentioned the changes and that the information about same would be sent after next week’s meeting and the election of the new president.

Onto the Region renewals - at least I don’t have to list everyone.  I had a copy of the Region’s form, calculated what was due on it.  There was a place for the membership chair’s info and I put in the info of the new chair.  Wrote a check (scanned again) and a cover letter and I was done - 2 am.  And I then realized that not only I had not posted to all of you, but I never did the laundry either!

Today we returned the router we bought at the computer store and set up the one from Walmart.  For about 10 minutes it did not seem to work, but then husband figured out the problem and it is now working.  Of course I had to climb under the desks again and sort all of those !!%%$ wires again.                 

I received an email from one of my fellow embroiders - the newsletter said that we are having an election - who is the candidate and who is the new membership chair?  DARN!  I knew I forgot something from the newsletter - I sent out an addition to it with who is running and the info on the new membership chair.  (I had apologized in the email with the newsletter for any errors or omissions due to the craziness.)

As I write this the second load of laundry finished washing - first load should be dry - and I will when I finish writing this I will go down and switch loads before posting. 

We have a 2 day event reenactment event this weekend - with setup on Friday afternoon, so I will fall even further behind.

I have to remember that we are expecting a copy of the insurance policy for the unit and  - oh, I forgot - I received a new ATM card last week as mine is expiring, guess what?  Yes, there was a problem and I had to go in to get a new one (they couldn’t do it by telephone).  It was the wrong kind - the kind that rich people get.  So I have to hope that shows up in the mail soon.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Yes, there are weeks like this and one just has to drop everything else and get stuff done, even if it means that one posts a day late.  What else can one do?

SOMETIMES FATE IS HAVING FUN WITH ONE

Last week I said that I was finally catching up a bit.  I should not have said so “out loud”.  Fate had more in store for us.

Thursday morning my mom - 90 years old, still living alone, and having problems recently - telephoned me. She needed something she had in her garage and could not carry it into the house as it was too heavy.  Could we stop by later in the day and bring it in for her.  “Sure.”  Oh, and could we bring her a burger to eat as she did not have food (which I took to mean in her house).  “Sure”.  We went to Wendys for our usual lunch and planned to buy a burger for her before leaving and bring it to her.  I told husband I was going to pick up some groceries on the way to her house to hold her over.  I knew that on Saturday she was going to my sister’s house for the weekend to go have and have her hearing tested and for Mother’s Day.  I telephoned her and said that we would also bring some deli turkey, what kind of bread would she like and what else could we bring.  “I have plenty of food in the refrigerator.”  Huh?  “Mom you said that you had no food!”  “Oh, that is up here in my bedroom.  I am too frightened to walk down the stairs.”  OH BOY!  We bought the burger and drove to her house.

Mom was upstairs.  I went up and walked down her down the stairs step by step.  She sat in the kitchen and talked to my husband while she ate the burger.  She thought it was wonderful.  (She had never been to Wendys before she went there with us a couple of months ago and had been surprised at how good their burgers were - this is not an ad for Wendys.)  I looked around her kitchen.  We had been there on Monday and while her house always has stuff around - don’t we all - the kitchen had been clean and neat.  This time - only 3 days later - there were dirty dishes and the like all over and food out and rotting.  I washed the dishes, etc and tossed the garbage. 

I then suggested to her that she go to my sister’s house early (based on conversations with my sister I knew this was okay) and she would mostly not have to deal any stairs while she was there.  She agreed.  We then started packing clothing for her - she told me which drawer to get clothes to pack - “why are you bringing so much, I am only going for 2 days?’  “No mom, it is at least 4 days.”  She has started sending her laundry out to be done and there was a sealed package of it which had been returned clean to her.  I took that package also - despite the towels and bed linens also in it - the more the better.  We took her medications - complete bottles and weekly box.  We took both of her walkers and her cane - none of which she has been using, but has started to.  All was thrown in plastic bags.

My sister met us and we got mom in.  Our thoughts were that she can no longer live alone and we would keep her at sister’s house bit by bit until we managed to get her to agree to stay.  That night we had call from my sister.  Mom could not get up the sofa - even with help - and kept falling asleep so they were at the hospital near my sister.  Mom was there for at least the weekend.  There was a decision that one of her meds was too large a dosage and it was cut back - it was making her too groggy.  She had been scheduled to go to a psychiatrist on this past Monday to deal with the meds,   I called and canceled it as the hospital had dealt with them and if she was going to be living a county away, she should have a doctor out there.  I also called her regular doctor and canceled an upcoming appointment, explaining the situation and saying that we would tell the doctor handling it out there to call him about it.

We spent Mother’s Day at the hospital.  (All three of us daughters, our husbands, and her grandchildren were there at varying times  - even without planning it.)  I joked to someone yesterday - maybe this was her way of making sure everyone visited her for Mother’s Day.  She was transferred to a rehab facility on Monday and they are working with getting her walking better.  We still have to figure out where she will be going on a permanent basis.  We have not talked to her about it.  (No, she doesn’t even know I have a blog - so she does not read it so she will not know about any of this.)

Yesterday I had to go my client in NYC - what a mess - somehow she had bounced checks - from customers and then as a resort her checks which had paid bills - and had several situations with customers credit card payments and cancellations.  (Client is not much younger than mom.)  I was ready to scream between what had gone on with mom and what was happening at client.  I work at client on a desk maybe 2 feet wide and 18 inches deep and it filled with all sorts of stuff around the edges - so I couldn’t spread stuff out to work.  Her vault is behind the chair I sit and she seemed to need to open it  - and open the door more fully than normal and was constantly hitting the back of my chair.  Oh, and I had left earlier in the morning to go to her to deal better with the overcrowded parking garage - and it still took almost 2 hours after I got there to get a space (and I really had to go to the bathroom when I pulled into the garage and had to wait) so I had about an hour less than I planned and needed to do all of this.  I actually took photocopies of many things to go over them again here at home. 

In the middle of all of this, I heard husband’s ring on my cell phone - in my brief case on the floor in a plastic bag (concerned about bed bugs in the place)  beside me. I was about to scream, but knew if he was contacting me it was IMPORTANT. He had gone out for lunch in our van and after lunch at (yes) Wendys, it would not start.  He called the auto club and they got it started and he drove to our mechanic to be looked at.  Our RV was already at our mechanic for the annual state inspection.  The RV was finished so he drove it home and left the van.  He had texted me to bitch about all this.  My response “Much the same here.”  I got an apology from him.

I have made arrangements to forward her mail to my sister.  In the interim until that starts we are going to her house and picking up her mail. Today I said to husband that the weather was nice (rain tomorrow as it is most days lately) so I wanted to drive to mom’s house and pick up the mail and make sure that there were no packages of stuff she had ordered before all of this there.  He was not happy about the time it would take, but agreed.  Only junk mail of course, but lots of it.  I think my mom gets more mail in a week than we get in a month - lots of catalogs and strange magazine offers.  On the way home we stopped to gas up the car as I had used up a lot yesterday and we are thinking of a day trip to PA on Friday. 

As we drove home from the gas station (closer to mom than us), which we have used before, the car started acting funny when we were stopped at lights.  Sooooo, we picked up the van and left the car!  There is a new fellow working for our mechanic (I met him once, husband met him twice as he was there yesterday) and we went in and explained.  I also told him that we do not normally have serial car work done. :-)  So far the costs for the vehicles have not been bad, hope this one is not expensive.

In between all of this I have managed to catch up a bit more - the “to do” pile is getting noticeably shorter.  The “to scan” has gotten slightly taller though. I have managed to get an email out to a friend who husband told me had posted on FB that she needed a source for food trucks for an event - told her about a large event in that area and they must know who comes to their event.  I also scanned in the “who is bringing what to the June luncheon meeting” of my embroidery chapter - both because I intended to send it to the membership and because one of the members who had not been at the last meeting to sign up had asked.  Scanned and emailed out to the members.  Hopefully there are more of us coming and I am not the only one bringing something other than some sort of salad.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

We never know what is going to come our way.  Unfortunately it tends to be problems more than solutions.  Each item has to be dealt with - to overlook it will make bigger problems down the road.  When I am ready to scream about everything I think about all of those with much larger problems.  Mom is aging and needs more help - but she is still with us.  My client is driving me crazy, but she is a nice person and I do like working for her - most of the time (and we need the money).  The vehicles are driving us crazy at this particular point in time - but they normally run fine and don’t end up costing a lot of money for repairs.  New rule - van will be driven at least every Wednesday as if it had been driven more often than twice a month or so, it might not be having problems lately.  I am not a “Mary Sunshine” but I know that the problems we are having are not as bad as others have and we can deal with them.  And they give me something to write about.  What do you think are the chances we will go to PA this Friday?















       

STARTING TO SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Since I “spoke” to all of you last I have actually made progress catching up what fell behind the last couple of months. 

I have all the bank recs done.  I have posted all the checks I had written before.  Papers are filed away. The leak under the kitchen sink has not returned - even when husband used it to wash his hair again. 

Today we installed the new propane monitor.  It involved screwing a piece of wood over the hold the old one left and then drilling a hole for the wires for the new monitor and installing it. It works correctly.  The old one must be returned to the manufacturer - at our postage cost - but since we don’t trust it, we are just glad to return it.  The carbon monoxide monitor is still not replaced, but we have replaced that one before and the new one is a duplicate of the old ones.

Today I just finished backing up my computers - a monthly backup and a quarterly backup since no monthly backup was made last month.  This computer which I am working on was the last to be done.  It is the least important and is very slow and needs a good deal of time to backup.

We managed to find a new insurance policy for our reenactment unit - almost all the board agreed and today the application and check were mailed out.

I did get pushed back a bit today and ended up putting some items into the folder that had held the unfinished items for lack of time today.  I hope to be done with them by Monday.

My embroidery chapter has to send the dues collected from members to our region and our national by the end of the month - and I am sure that you can guess who does this - yes, me.  I will have it done in time.  I also have the June newsletter for the chapter due out next Wednesday.  Thanks to a reminder in my computer calendar, an email went out today to the rest of the board to see what they want to include.  Since we are having our annual end of program year meeting of a luncheon, I specifically asked the member in charge of the luncheon to let me know what people promised to bring so I could list same in the newsletter.  One slight problem I might have is that we have been planning on and off to go away next week for a delayed Memorial Day trip (if we go on the actual holiday the areas which is heavily tourist based, is just too busy for us, if we go during the week before or after - it is much nicer) and I will need to send the newsletter out in the middle of the week.  My plan is to write it before I leave and copy the membership’s addresses before I go away - or if I have all the info I need, it will go out early.

Tomorrow I am going to my client for my monthly trip there.  I have paid the bills to be mailed out on Friday so if I get home late tomorrow it they are ready to go.  It was good that I asked to come on tomorrow (Thursday) as today in the President is in this area - and a relatively short distance away our state Democratic party is having their convention - with the losing Presidental candidate from our last election as their speaker.  All of the roads into and out of New York City in all directions were backed up this afternoon.  Tomorrow should be (at least a little bit) a better drive.  My client does not use the Internet or a computer.  Last month her business telephone company installed a router for her.  I read up on the default passwords during the month as I want to change them for her for general security purposes.  I have an email address which I set up to use for her for assorted business matters.  Since I could not use at her business I never set it up in my business laptop.  I went to do so today.  I have no problem signing in on my home computer - but the sign in screen on my laptop keeps coming up with new problems so I may not be able to use it to sign in on my computer at her place until next month.  My attempts to get the email address set up on the laptop took about 45 minutes of wasted time.

But, I feel as if I am getting back to normal for me.  Little step by little step - or sometimes big jump by big jump I am catching up.

If we do go away next week, there will be a good deal of preparation of the RV before we go away. The RV will need to have the bed made up - as I have mentioned before this is about an hour’s process as the bed goes wall to wall sideways and headboard to kitchen/toilet at the foot with only the head of the aisle at the foot of the bed (less than 2 feet wide) and one basically has to be in the bed to make it up.  The usual fill the water tanks, pack snack foods, pack clothes and such - I will have to remember what packs where.  It really is a lot more complicated than organizing a house - what is in your house does not have to be packed so as not to shift or bounce while moving - the “stuff” in the RV has to be.  And remember, this is not a one of those huge RVs you see on TV (and the road)  - it is a Chevy van converted to an RV - while the roof was lifted and part of the floor was dropped slightly, the square footage is the original van so there is rather limited storage.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Slow and steady wins the race.  Working when one can on a back up of stuff to do will get it done.  Maybe not as quickly as one would want, but eventually. 

To those in the U.S .- a good Memorial Day. 

I HAVE LOST MOST ORGANIZATION IN THE HOUSE NOW!

Okay I admit it.  Between tax season, warping the loom with husband, dealing with our RV, etc. I have lost my organization.  I have bank statements from a month ago which have not been reconciled (I did our main ones, but not the smaller ones).  I have managed to keep current - barely on paying bills and just realized “How much?” we need to pay the end of the month bills - WOW!  I am behind on things I need to get done as treasurer of both clubs.  Just when I think we are done with all the other stuff we have to do - something else will pop up.

We managed to get the propane detector installed in the RV - but it does not give the signal that it is checking that it is working that the old one did and this one (same company, same model) says it should - manufacturer says that it does not do it as much as people complained of the noise.  We did test it - twice - with the gas from a cigarette lighter and it does go off. 

The carbon monoxide detector was sent back yesterday to the company we bought it from.  It is not only, not the one we were told it was, it also was not the one pictured online and does not work in an RV.  We had to find it elsewhere and order it again and are waiting for the new one to come - again, we can’t go anywhere until it is in the RV and is working.

Now that the weather is nice husband announced it was time to dewinterize the RV.  This is two processes.  First we dewinterize it - we fill both water tanks and run water through the water taps - hot and cold - sink, shower and outdoor taps, as well as into the RV until the water runs clear so that the non-toxic antifreeze is no longer in the lines.  We did this last Friday.  This is a fairly quick straight forward thing to do.  Since we had planned a trip in December which we did not take, I did not bring the bedding in (sheets and pillowcases were washed as I do them all season)  to wash.  I pulled one set of bedding (in a laundry bag in a plastic bag) and brought it in when we were done.

We knew we needed bleach for the next step - but since I don’t use bleach for laundry, we decided to check how fresh the bleach we had was - it was not fresh enough to use as it did not smell like bleach.  Husband was at full crazy panic mode in general over all this, so I could not bring myself to tell him that when I took the bleach out from under the sink - a place I go several times a week - there was water on the floor of the cabinet.  I wiped it up while he was out of the room.  I then traced it and it seemed to be coming from the outgoing pipe - I put down paper towels and tied one around where the leak seemed to be - where two pipes joined.  I had in my mind that he had washed his hair in the sink the night before - perhaps something happened?

Saturday afternoon we packed our van with the items we would need for a reenactment event with our unit on Sunday.  We have a rain date for this event, but the scheduled day for the event is the same day as two other events in the same community - one across the street from where we will be - which brings people to the area and we have more guests than otherwise.  Reports were for rain - maybe in the morning, maybe afternoon, maybe all day - maybe light, maybe heavy... So we packed so that if the event was moved inside our headquarters we could bring much less with us than for a regular event, but had the rest of the stuff with us just in case it is nice.  (In case you are wondering - we have two wooden boxes with rope handles which are storage for our stuff and also seating for us.  We packed what we would need no matter what all in one of the boxes.  Husband portrays a person who is printing and selling period publications so we have his inventory and a table setup - that would not be needed if raining.  Members of the unit eat the cooking demonstration so we each bring period looking tableware.  I bring my embroidery setup - I had just what I needed in the box we would take and the backup stuff in the other)  Sunday it was dreary but dry and the idea of setting up a bit outside and planning to run inside if it rained was decided on.  We brought just the one box.  Luckily the day stayed passable with just some passing showers.  At one point during the day - I was sitting outside stitching and talking to people - husband and our unit commander came to me and asked me to move inside.  Why?  There is a staircase - really a ladder on an angle - which goes to the attic.  We keep it tied off unless we have members (generally two young men who are brothers) upstairs for safety in many ways. Well, apparently people were not keeping track of their children and the children were walking up the stairs.  So I was relocated to sit in the front of the stairs and block them with my box.  I ended up doing tours of the room and house also while there - with the box left to block the stairs.  Oh, I could not find the reproduction cap I bring to events to wear.  I keep an older one that is a bit youthful for me in one of our boxes - in case I forget.  So I brought a new, unworn one that I did not want to use, just in case, but found the old spare one to wear.  Later at home I was talking about the cap I normally wear with husband and he mentioned that the last time I wore it was December when we did the Candlelight Nights event.  I went and checked my older winter jacket that I had worn to those events - safe and snug in the pocket was my missing cap!

Monday we started the second step of the dewinterizing process - we need to sanitize the tanks and system - in case anything grew in anything during the winter.  Again, this is a fairly easy thing to do - fill the tanks with water, add a small amount of bleach to each and then drive the RV up and down the driveway with short stops to mix together.  Normally we would have done this after the what we did on Friday on the same day.  We then run the water through the same taps as we Friday (but not the toilet bowl - bleach cannot go in it) until we smell the bleach in the water coming out of them.  Husband decided to replace the water that had been used from the rear tank (front tank full as the rear tank runs into the front tank).  We normally have a problem with the rear tank after this process as some sort of bubble forms and we cannot put water in it when the tanks are emptied after this bleach process and he thought this might resolve the problem as there would be a full tank in the rear.  Well, the problem was already there and we needed the setup he had made to deal with it - it is a bunch of plumbing parts put together so we can put a long, thin tube (think fish tank tubing) on the end of the hose and feed the tube all the way into the tank and fill it from the bottom/inside of the tank.  He took it out to use.  It was so cold this past winter that parts of the assembly burst.  So off to the home stores for replacement parts.  We went to the “orange” company’s store - no one to help us and no parts that we needed.  We went to the “blue and white” company’s store and the man in the department tried hard to help us - he found where the part should be, but was out.  We walked around and husband came up with an alternate assembly and we bought what we needed.  In the confusion of all this, we forgot to take the insulin (which needs to be kept cold) we picked up at the pharmacy from the car - in just under 80F weather - at least it was in a cold bag, so hope it is okay - this is something I never would have let happen if not for all this craziness taking over my mind.

Tuesday we let the water out of the RV (This involves unscrewing a small cap from underneath the RV - guess who gets to do this.)  We then refilled the tanks - and again ran the water through the lines.  We repeated filling, emptying and letting the water through the lines.  We needed the special setup for the back tank all but the last refill. I brought in the other bag of bedding to wash.

Today we let the water out for the last time and now the water system is ready to be used.

We also received on Tuesday a notice that our reenactment company’s insurance will not be renewed as they are no longer writing the policies in our state - so now I am looking for a new policy for them.  Husband searched online for coverage - all listed the company we had the insurance with.  Today I called our personal insurance broker and asked if they can help - they had me fax the info to them - but of course the fax machine (an all in one with printer, scanner and copier) decided that there phone number was “restricted” and we could not fax to them.  We have never heard of this.  After about 40 minutes online husband fixed the problem - we hope.  In the meanwhile I emailed the information to the broker.  In scanning in the paperwork, I managed to get ink on the scanning unit - all pages had a line down them - and we then spent about an hour finding and cleaning the ink off the scanner - of course the instructions were not in the manual and he had to find them online.  I also sent an email to our national reenactment unit - located in the same state as us - asking them about the insurance they have.

For good measure I burned my hand in steam while cooking dinner last night - and in recoiling from the steam, put a bad cramp in my side.  While my hand is not badly burned, it does still hurt (last night I could only type on the computer with my left hand - not as easy I would figure to do).  Today while we were taking apart the RV electric plug in system that we plugged in to make things easier, I dropped a large and heavyish circuit breaker box on my foot - the opposite side - so now my hand and my foot hurt.

I did tell husband about the leak under the stove last night.  The other night I fit a plastic container under the pipe and since then it has been dry.  We will keep monitoring the box for water. 

Hopefully tomorrow I will be have time to do the bank recs.  Time to email reminders to embroidery chapter members who have not renewed to do so - I have to have them in the mail by May 31.  Send out a check owed to a reenactment unit member who overpaid the family’s dues.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Sometimes it all just gets away from one.   One can go crazy - as my husband does - or try to keep calm and know that somehow and sometime (hopefully soon) the craziness will end and one will be able to start over and catch up.  Laundry is being done - but some of last week’s was still in the dryer.  Bills are paid.  Garbage and recycling has gone out.  (While we were in the garage during all this I found a good sized cardboard box for next week’s recycling - I need to have a big enough box to include the empty and rinses out old bleach bottle.)  My hand is better, but not perfect today and will recover.  My foot has a small bruise but will recover.  The biggest concern left is finding replacement insurance in the just over a month we have to do so - but hopefully it will be resolved in time and not for much more than we used to pay. 

Does this ever happen to you?

FINALLY STARTING TO CATCH UP

Husband gave up on his weaving project this past Monday - someday he will try to do this type of weaving again, but not now. 

I have been working on catching up and getting the house and chores back up to date. 

I have stored away the several pairs of boots each of us had out for snow this past winter.  We have a sort of charm that we believe in (which did not work this winter) - once a pair of boots comes out for the snow, it is bad luck to put them away before the winter is over and will result in even more snow.  Yeah, it is stupid and certainly did not work this winter, but we leave them out anyway.  Since my teeth are in their seasonal ache period (spring and fall) and I have my seasonal stiff neck (ditto) I am pretty sure the weather will actually stay warm now.  So I put the boots away.  Our setup for the boots is 2 good sized plastic boxes with lids at the bottom of the front closet.  The bottom box holds the boots for more severe weather - the actual snow boots, a pair each of rubber (plastic?) covered shoe boots and such.  The upper box holds the boots that might also be worn in rainy weather - the leather ones - and a pair of my old sneakers which slip on.  The latter has nothing to do with boots or bad weather.  If I have to run out of the house - take out the garbage, recycling, forgot something in the car - they are easy and quick to slip on instead of stopping to put on shoes with laces to go out.  They sit at the front and top of the top box so they can be quickly and easily reached.  The lid of the upper box becomes a boot tray when we have the boots out - it is placed next to the front door and wet boots are left on it to dry and await their next wearing.  I washed and dried the top of it well before putting it back on the box in the closet.

While I managed to fit in the bank reconciliations for our main bank accounts and those of the clubs of which I am treasurer, I did not get to the other accounts - personal savings accounts and a couple of small checking accounts that are used for money transfers, as well as since it was the quarterly statements, the statements for our IRAs.  At this point the new statements will be here next week - so I will do the two months of statements together as that is quicker than doing one set now and one set next week.  I did find time today to go back and post the purchases and credits on our main credit card statement from last month.  I had matched the slips to the statement and paid the bill - in full of course - but had not had a chance to post it to my computer records - so today I did so.  Providence must have been helping me as the items for this statement rarely comes out even (posts done with what was billed and paid) on the first try - sometimes it takes lots of tries - but this was one of the time that it worked out on the first try.

Right now I am doing my Wednesday night laundry.  Forgot that I had done a load of jeans last week and it was left in the dryer to dry - so I had to bring them upstairs to be able to use the dryer.  I also have 2 extra loads I need to do this week.  I change the bed’s “underwear” once a month.  While I bought new pillow undercovers during the month (as the ones I had were really icky when I saw them - stained and such) I need to wash the mattress pad I took off.  We sleep in winter with two blankets.  Since it is now in the 70s during the days husband suggested that we only need one blanket now for the warmer weather.  I only made the bed with the green blanket and the blue one is waiting to be washed and put on the bed next week.  Why do we have two different color blankets?  When we needed a new blanket after we had the bed bugs we bought the blue one.  Later when it got colder we decided we needed a second one and the store only had the green ones in the correct size.  Since I like blue, I wash the blue one first when we are switching to one blanket and leave the green one on the bed to use while the blue one is washed.  Then I will put the clean blue blanket on the bed and wash the green blanket.  The green blanket will be put in a clear plastic bag when it is clean and after squeezing as much air as I can, the bag will be sealed.  The green blanket will then be store in the bedroom in a piece of furniture (a plastic end table with a shelf under it and a closed cabinet area below that - it used to be in our living room in our apartment). In the fall I will put the green blanket on the bed and again wash and dry the blue one.

Today was my embroidery chapter meeting.  Due to illnesses somehow not only was I the treasurer, but the secretary asked me during the week to take minutes for her and then this morning the membership chair called and said she was ill and asked me to take care of the renewals (our national group sets the membership year as June through the following May, so everyone has to renew right now), getting a sign in list of members, etc. for her. Plus the VP is out of state and she asked me to get the list of who will bring what to her house for our annual party next month. 

After the meeting - which was the first one I went to since January (February and March meetings were canceled for weather and husband’s birthday meant that I could not go to the April meeting).  I ran errands which have been waiting since late January to be done. 

I had packed some items to donate.  Many of them were old computer disk storage items, some were household serving pieces and others were clothes.  The bags have been sitting in front of the office closet door since they were packed in late January - each time I thought it would only be a month before they were taken to Goodwill.  So if I needed our business checkbook, new paper for the printer, my other laptop bag (I have one for travel and one for work - they hold different things) or the box of 2017 paid bills that I temporarily stuck in the top of the office closet until I clear out the 2008 box from the top of the closet and pack the 2017 papers (bills, statements and anything else) in it and put it in the top of the closet I had to move all the bags, open the closet door, take out what I need (or put away what I no longer needed) and then put all the bags back.  So nice to be able to just open the closet. 

Similarly I had not been able to bring back our recyclable plastic (soda) bottles for refund of their deposit since early January.  I managed to get rid of one small bag (10 bottles, 50 cents) when I suggested to husband that we get rid of a small bag of bottles easily and quickly in the interim, but I kept forgetting to bring another small bag and get rid of them. There still is about half a month’s bottles in the porch - if all goes as it should, they will be returned next month along with any bottles between now and then. 

I even managed to fit in a quick trip to the bank branch where we have a safe deposit box and switch an updated offsite data stick drive for the one in the box - also not done since January and intended as a monthly thing to do.  I also ordered new checks as I am down to one book while I was there. 

So catching up is progressing.  I even fit in one of our VERY long telephone conversations with mom. 

I mentioned late last year that we had accumulated and submitted a variety of paperwork to our local township for us to receive a senior real estate tax exemption, which is income based.  I am happy to say that I received the paperwork saying that we have been given the exemption.  This will cut our property taxes for the school year 2018-2019 and our other real estate taxes for 2019.  We have to reapply later this year for the following year - at least now we know what to do and what we will need.  I have already started collecting the papers as some of them come in without us having to request them.  I start contacting the places I will need additional paperwork from either late this month or the beginning of next month - it is all due by the end of the year, so there is time to get it done easily and they will not send out the forms until late August.

For a bit of extra fun, we need to put a new carbon monoxide monitor alarm and a new propane monitor alarm in our RV.  We have actually replaced the carbon monoxide monitor before and did not anticipate any problems with it.  We have not needed to replace the propane monitor before, but the instructions seemed pretty straight forward.  We had to order both monitors.  The propane monitor had to be ordered from Canada.  Husband found the carbon monoxide monitor listed for sale online, but the one he found said “marine” across it and is intended for a boat.  He emailed the company selling it and was assured that it was it the same one - same model number and all. 

The carbon monoxide monitor arrived first at our PO Box.  When opened it did say “marine” across it.  It also has not only different specifications than the one we have, but also they are different than those in the listing it was purchased from.  Husband emailed the company about this on Friday.  On Tuesday he telephoned as he had not heard back.  The employee had him leave a message for the person he needed to talk to and he was assured he would be called back later in the day - today (Wednesday) he called again, spoke to the same employee and was told the same thing and he was a bit less pleasant and she told him that he had written to the wrong email address (the one in their listings) and gave him her email to send the info to - hopefully this will get resolved.

Husband went to take out the old propane monitor - should be easy - push two pieces of plastic on the front together and pull.  Apparently the wire was too short for it to pull out.  While we need the wire to attach the new one, we had to squeeze in a small wire cutter and cut the wires to get the old one off.  We have attempted to remove the piece of floor in this section to get to where the wire connects - but it won’t lift out even after the screws were removed. 

Hopefully both of these will soon work out and be installed or we cannot travel in the RV.  Next we will progress to dewinterizing the RV - a messy job over 2 days to drain the antifreeze in the pipes and tanks out, add a vinegar and water mixture, run it through the pipes and shake it around the tanks by driving forward and backwards (I mean backwards or forwards or there will be a hole in the garage door) and stopping quickly.  Then the vinegar and water mixture is drained out and plain water put in the tanks - then run out through the pipes and taps (3 pairs of taps and toilet) and then the plain water put in again and run out. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - If the work that needs to be done seems immense, do it little by little.                                     

Figure out what is most important to be done and do that work. 

Take what can be set aside “for now” and do so - but put all of the items set aside as same together. 

Then do the next the thing which needs to be done and so on.

It is amazing what will get done this way and you will get closer to catching up, if not caught up completely.

NO MATTER WHAT ONE DOES - IT CAN GO WRONG

This week was to be a busy one for me.  I was suppose to give a talk at my embroidery chapter meeting - today, Wednesday, and I also had to go to the same client again as she will going out of town and I have to do her books for February.  And we had to go and take money from husband’s IRA to pay bills.
       
I spent the evenings the past week working on the talk about the history of embroidery samplers.  I made an outline of what I wanted to say, both so I would not forget anything and would not wander - I tend to wander even more when I speak than I do when I write.  I checked information that I knew, just to make sure I remembered it correctly.  I searched for photos of samplers online to download and print out to show and pass around at the meeting, both to explain what I was saying, and because I knew the ladies in my group would love to see them - probably even more than listen to me talk. 

I had started working on the research a week or so later than I planned to do so, but as of Monday night, my notes were finished (well, okay, I remembered something afterwards to add) and I had photos of samplers I liked and which went with talk.  My husband was going to print the sampler photos for me on Tuesday afternoon and evening.  He was bit miffed that I was not using any of the photos he has taken over the years of samplers at exhibitions, but polite about it.  (I only was not using them as I have seen his photo organization - everything has the original number assigned to it and is a folder by year of every photo he took that year.)  I was going to bring a reproduction of a 1700s sampler I had stitched - and I had a photo of the original.  I planned to bring about 3 or 4 of the books I have with photos and info about samplers.  Yes, for once I was organized and not going to have to work in a panic at the last minute - I am a major procrastinator.  The weather since last week had said it would rain today - I figured out how to pack what I was bringing (especially the reproduction sampler and books) so it would not get wet. 

Yesterday we went to the banks and dealt with moving money around.  I had been unsure if I should go to the client yesterday or tomorrow and tomorrow was suppose to be the better weather day and it gave me more time to prepare for the talk.  Everything was going great.

Then yesterday the weather report changed!  The rain today changed to snow - not too much in this area, but it would be coming down while everyone was driving to the meeting and some members come from the county to the east and others from the county to the west - and let’s face it - we are a bunch of, literally, old ladies.  Heck, I live around the corner and up the block from where we meet and I was concerned about driving to the meeting.  I kept figuring I would hear from the chapter president to talk about the weather, but I did not.  Finally I telephoned her - good thing, she had not heard about the weather.  So, we split the membership list to call and tell them the meeting was canceled (not a big group and there are members who are friends and/or come to meetings together so we can call one and have them let the other know). 

So, now I have a lot of time as I will not be giving the talk until May.  I will not get complacent and will make sure husband has time to leisurely print the photos and he will time to look for a few photos he took for me.  (I like to make him happy as much as he likes to make me happy.)

So I planned to call my client and ask if I could come tomorrow - but the weather is to be below freezing and it is still raining on and off, so ice is a good possibility.  She is not always in on Fridays, but luckily this week she is, so I will go then when it was to be a tiny bit warmer and dry.  Of course once I made the appointment there was suddenly a 20% chance of snow on Friday!  But the local news covers parts of 3 states and the sections north and west of us tend to be the more likely to have snow, so I am hoping I will not get stuck driving in snow. 

Spent the afternoon catching up on things on the computer as I had not expected to be home.  Found some items online I promised to email to my mom and did so.  A few bank statements had come in, so I did the bank recs on them, so they are done with for the month.  I scanned magazine articles for my husband - in case the idea is forgotten - he had a number of issues of a reenacting magazine that for some years he no longer subscribes to.  I suggested he go through the magazines, mark the articles he is interested in and I would scan the articles so he would have them if needed or wanted (and they could be magnified easily so he could read them easier) and then get rid of the magazines. Oh, and the file can also be searched if he is looking for info on a specific topic.  I do this “between” other things.  Today I got rid of 3 more issues.    I also went through the work from last year for this client so that if I have any questions about anything I can look it up Friday to correct it.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

“The best laid plans of mice and men...”  There are going to be times when what one plans goes awry - much more often than one expects.  One just has to go with it.  If you end up with time planned for one thing and then not doing that one thing, figure out what else to use the time for.  I am now ahead on other things that I would have to do anyway and I am ready - except for printing the photos - for when I give the talk in May and I will be much more relaxed as I will not have had to rush to put together the talk then.  Maybe I will even find some source for some things I know and cannot remember where I read them.