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.

COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS

 First a couple of updates on my last two posts -

In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”.  (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.)  I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out –  I could not take them not being there.  I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them.  Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”.  It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year.  My brain started whirring.  I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there?  I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it.  YES!!  The missing bears.  See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored!  Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them.  Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.  

In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area.  I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening.  Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity.  Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday.  I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back.    In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas.  (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water.  We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.)  Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet.  The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting.  Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous.  One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so!  And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy!   I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.  

Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick.  This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it.  Problem was it was dated 2017!  We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either.  In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick.  My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same.  I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it.  While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back.  I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet.  I found we have more sugar than we thought.  Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally).  Part of a bottle of vinegar.  Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of).  I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are.  Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to.  Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it.  When one thing after another hits us  - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it.  We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.  

I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias. 

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?

THIRD TIME'S A CHARM - I HOPE

This post is 2 days late.  We have been on a short trip.  I wrote the post on Wednesday night the normal time for me to do so.  Wednesday night was also the first night of our trip.  We have been at this campground many times.  For some reason there were Internet problems this trip (and totally unrelated we could not get TV with our antenna either) and while I could do some things, the Internet connection did not like gmail so I was able to check some email - but only one email out on one night, other than that I could not post and this was my second item to post.  (First was to tell my family we were away as I had forgotten to do so.) 

So I could not post the first night - or the second.  Now we are back home and I am hoping that this post goes through on the “lucky” third night of trying -

A quick post this week as we finally made it away for a trip - only 2 nights, not the 5 nights we started with planning - and 2 weeks late, but we are away.

Anyone going on a trip has to plan in advance - Where will we go?  When will we go?  Where will we stay? and  - most importantly - What do we need to bring?

I have a check list in my computer that I print out each time we are going away to make sure we bring everything.  Now, remember we are traveling in an RV so what we need to bring is different than someone going to a hotel.  Remember that this is not a huge RV as you see on TV - next time you see a Chevy van - think of me.   The check list is divided into sections -

What to do ahead of time - check the tires for air, make sure that items we keep in the RV are there and ones that get used up are replenished - soap, disposable dishes and cups, hand soap, dish soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, tissues, paper towels and such.  Are there clean hand and dish towels in the RV?  I generally have to make up the bed - which involves assembling it as I put on the mattress cover, sheets and blankets. If we are away for a very short time - as we are now - I may not strip the bed afterwards and will leave the bed made up. 

Then as we get close to the trip (day or two before) I have other items to do - I do the clothing laundry 2 days before we go away so we have clothes for the trip and clothes for when we get home.  This way I can pack them the day before we go.  Since we are traveling in an RV I use laundry bags to carry the clothes out to same and then store them in the “closet” This is a small cabinet that is called the closet.  It will hold maybe a dozen hangers.  We put in one of those sweater shelves things that hang in a closet and instead of hanging clothes in it, we each get 2 shelves for our clothes - yes, 2 of those tiny shelves for our clothes.  I can fit up to a week’s worth of clothes for each of us shirts, underwear, socks and spare pair of jeans in those tiny sections.  The rare times we go away longer - for 2 weeks - the second week’s clothing will be in a laundry bag in a section under the bed - at the start of the second week I will climb under the bed and get out the laundry bag and put the clothing in the shelves.  As we use the clothes we put the dirty clothes back in a laundry bag - so if we are way for more than a week, the dirty clothes will go back where the clean clothes were.  We do carry more than a set of clothes for each day “just in case”.  We bring extra of everything.  We fit in sweaters and jackets in various places in the RV. Spare shoes go into a cubby over the bed. 

We fill the water tanks which hold 25 gallons of water.

I have a list of food items to bring - we have a “dorm size” fridge in the RV.  The list is inclusive fo what we might want/need to bring - so not all items are brought on every trip.  I bring water in bottles that I have filled and put it in the fridge.  The water in the tanks will get warm (sitting under a “tin can” in plastic tanks) and this way we have cold water to drink.  Food items are put in plastic boxes that “lock” seal closed.  Generally all we are bringing is snacks with us.  On longer trips I may bring canned soup, peanut butter and bread.  So far we have had only one occasion while traveling in which we came close to cooking and eating in the RV - but then the rain storm ended and we were able to go for lunch.

Medications have to come.  I have to bring eyeglasses - several different pairs for each of us.  And of course, electronics.  We each bring laptops with us.  Maybe a camera.  And cell phones and cords for them.  We actually keep duplicate cords in the RV for convenience. 

When items are stored they must be stored in such a way that they will not shift around and make noise or break anything.  Everything has an assigned place so we know where it will be and it will be safe.  We use plastic shopping bags around items to keep them from shifting - and then they are used for garbage or shopping, etc.

What amazes me is that when we were buying this RV we kept wondering how we would get everything we need into it.  I have pulled out items never used when I realize that we will not need them and now have too much empty space that needs to be packed with the bags mentioned to fill the space so things do not shift.  Well, I did keep the small vacuum cleaner, We may not have used it in the 7 years we have had the RV, but I know some day we will really, really need it.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Think about if you had one room 20 ft by 6 ft to live in and had to fit everything you needed in it.  The bed takes up about 1/3 of the room, but you do have 3 cubbies over the bed. There are people who live in this type of RV full time - think about having to get your possessions to down to a space this small.
       

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. 

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. 

DEALING WITH COUNTY BUREAUCRACY

Last Thursday we went to an event to help us with applying for two exemptions of our real estate tax.  Real estate tax here is high - we pay around $8,000 a year for our real estate taxes and we pay rather low real estate taxes.  People easily pay $15,000 to over $20,000 for a subdevelopment house - more of course for fancy houses.  To help “older” people stay in their houses and in recognition that they probably don’t have children in the schools, there are two kinds of exemptions that one can receive if one is over 65, has income below certain levels and the property is one’s primary residence.  Since husband turned 65, we are now entitled to these exemptions.

I should also explain that our real estate taxes has two different components (well actually a lot more than two, but two sets of billing for them).  One type is the “general levy”.  This is billed annually in January and is paid in January and July.  It consists of the county assessments, the township assessments, the fire department assessments, the police department assessments (police is one, the police stations is another...), the garbage district assessments, assessments for water pipes (we also pay for water usage monthly), sewer assessments (pipes ar one, sewage plant is another) and so on.  The other type is the school taxes which also includes the library district assessment and is billed in October (yes, we got the new one today) and is payable in October and April.  (So we pay each tax twice a year, but pay real estate taxes quarterly as they alternate quarters.)   

Being an accountant I downloaded the forms and filled them in.  I am pretty good with forms - and it seems to me that I have helped clients with them in the past.  I have been unable to reach anyone with some questions I had.  I thought that I posted about this, but can not find it - when I call the County Assessors office I get a message that there is no one there to take my call (not that they are busy, there is no one there) and I should call back.  No matter what day of the week or time I called I received this message continually.  After some days of trying there was an additional part to the message - it gave their address and told one that parking is “extremely” limited, which to be honest, is true as it is the County office building - but basically they are saying “No one is here to talk to you by phone and don’t come here either”.  So we went to one of their help sessions for this paperwork.  It was much emptier than a thought and one was able to meet individually with employees about one’s forms. 

Looking over the employees I noticed the attitude of one, compared to the others and knew that I did not want her.  So, of course, we got her.  She looks at our general levy exemption paperwork.   and says to us “Your income on this one item is too high - you are not eligible!”  I point out to her that we have medical expenses which can be subtracted from the income by their rules, which bring us down under the income amount.  “It has to be out of pocket expenses!”  (Each of these comments was said as a challenge.)  Just our medical insurance premiums alone almost bring us down enough - add the prescription costs and I did not even bother get print outs from our doctors.  Understand, canceled checks or other receipts is not proof of the medical expenses, one must get a print out for the year from who the money went to.   “Oh! Okay”.  Now I had filled in the form on their website.  “This is the wrong form!  It is the form from the website!  We don’t use that form!” Huh?  I did not ask her why then the form is on the website and one is told to download it and use it, then again, there is a link to the state to submit income information to it for the other exemption and not only does it not work, when I telephoned the state, I was told that they don’t do that - all income goes to the county - if I complained, who knows how bad this would get.  She then takes the copy of our state tax return I brought with us for the other exemption, which is suppose to require it.  “IT’S HANDWRITTEN!!!! We can’t accept this!”  Huh?  I do our own return.  She then goes to someone else and comes back with our return and a page of information.  I have to contact IRS and get copies of all our 1099, W2, etc forms.  The page has the local number to call to get this.  “You will have to take this home and wait until you get the papers from them and then send it in to us altogether with the correct form!”  Okay. 

Now she goes to other exemption’s paperwork.  In our state we have a general exemption from part of the school taxes if one owns their home and it is their primary residence.  This is called a STAR exemption. (It means school something or other I am sure.)  The money for this one comes from the State, not the County.  Some years it was subtracted from what one pays, other years it has come as a check back to us after we pay the taxes, basically so we “see” that the our “wonderful” state senators and representatives are “giving” us a break on our school taxes.  If one qualifies for same, is over 65 (or one spouse is), has no children in school, and has income under a much higher limit than the first tax has one has their school taxes lowered much more.  I prepared for another set of arguments.  “Why are there three forms?”  I had the County form and the State form, and another form from the State which will automatically renew this exemption.   She throws the State form back at me.  “You don’t need this!”  I tell her the State office told me to fill it in.  “No, it is unneeded!”  She then looks at the form to renew it automatically.  “What this!!!”  She reads it, turns it over, then reads it again.  “Oh you want it to renew automatically?”  Well, hmmm, do I want to go through this every year for both exemptions, or would I rather get it one of them automatically.  I reply, “yes”.  Again, she does not ask for any of the paperwork - birth certificates, deeds, etc,that the paperwork’s instructions said to bring.  She looks it over and stamps the form.  Makes a copy (yes, they had copy machines and every thing - and I had brought a copy and even a stapler, just in case) and stamps the copy and hands it to me.  Hopefully we really did not need the other form.

So we went home.  I called the IRS number.  It actually has a choice to get the printout requested.  I put in my info.  “There is no available information for this person.”  Huh?  I try husband’s info and I am able to pick which one of two printouts I want - his income tax info or adjustments made.  I pick the former figuring that will give us - or at least him - the 1099, etc. copies printed out.  I try again for me - again I am not available.  I then see that there is also a form to request the info.  I go to the IRS website and download the form and fill in a copy for me and one for husband.  On this form I see a choice for the 1099 forms to be sent.  Hmmm, does that mean we are not getting them from the telephone call as that item is listed separately?  I don’t know, but the forms went to IRS the next day.  Hopefully one way or the other we will get the information.

We have until December 31 to fill these papers.  (This is an early date - most places in the state have until next March.)  I am so glad that I did not wait for the last minute.  If the information from IRS arrives in time there are additional sessions around the county until October 19 and we can go in again, if not we will have to either mail it in or husband will drive there and circle while I go in and deal with it. 

This process is so much worse than dealing with IRS or our State about any type of taxes.  Then again, perhaps despite their holding sessions to help people deal with the paperwork, they don’t want people to get the exemptions as, lets face it, it cuts down on the amount of taxes they will collect and they have to come up with the money elsewhere - including maybe raising the taxes.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - When dealing with the government one has to have everything they want - even if they won’t want it - plus anything else one can think with.  Even then something will be missing or go wrong.  Never yell at the government employee or things will not come out well for you.  (Sorry if any readers are government employees - but at least I am telling people not to yell at you.)

ELECTRONICS CAN HELP YOU BE ORGANIZED OR PLUNGE YOU INTO HELL

Well, here I am.  In our little RV on a little trip - going to a quilt show (quilting supplies and exhibitions of quilts) tomorrow and then on Friday go to a fiber show (wool and related items for sale) which we have never been to before. 

Well, that’s where I am suppose to be, but I am not.  While I use electronics - computer, cell phone, old cell phone as a PDA - to help keep me organized (even weekly reminders to write and post to this blog - along with every other day “make pudding” for snack, daily time to stop and “make dinner” and other reminders in addition to normal appointments to keep organized, sometimes something goes blooey and stops it all.
       
We were debating whether or not to go on this 3 day trip.  It is nice to have something different as a diversion, but it is a lot of money (for us) in terms of tolls, RV park, and admission to the quilt show (fiber show is free) and dinner runs a bit more than dinner out normally does for us. 

So, we were unsure what to do.  We filled the RV tanks with water and decided to decide at the last minute.  I packed up the snacks and related that we would need (including medications) and put them in the cloth supermarket shopping bags we use for same - one has blue handle - anything for the fridge goes in same, so I know to pull same and put it in the fridge in the RV right away when we start the trip.  (Why blue handle?  Well, 2 bags have beige handles and one has a blue handle so the blue handle is the odd “handle”out and easy to spot.)  Clothing is taken out to the RV in laundry bags, so to toss same in the laundry bags and throw the clothing and non-refrigerator bags in the RV and unpack them when settled in is not a big a deal. 

We were leaning towards going as of when we returned home from running errands yesterday.  Then the electronics crashed.

Husband goes online - on his computer - when he gets up for the day and then we both go online - on our computers - after we go out and run our errands for the day.  Yesterday he had no trouble in the morning.  When we returned I tried to download my email accounts to see the new emails and I could not connect to the Internet.  I tried going online - same thing.  Husband came up and with the usual “really, you can’t connect to the Internet - what did you do wrong” attitude, tried to connect his computer to the Internet.  No Internet.

We tried everything we knew - we rebooted the modem.  The lights on same went on and off in an odd assortment and would then start again - searching for the Internet over and over. We tried reaching the wifi from our cable co.  (While the cable co. insists this is impossible, we get their wifi in our house - according to them it only exists in the street - and when there is a black out that is how we get wifi for the laptops.)  No luck.  Finally we gave up and called the cable co - knowing exactly the conversation which would occur. We had the same conversation a week ago when our TV service went out.  “Unplug the modem.”  We did that already. “Do it again.”  Then a discussion follows on our wiring and splitters.  Our house was wired - by the cable co.’s private contractor - and I have to explain that our wiring is odd and splits on the outside of the house not inside the house.  (Each room with cable has its own line coming into it from outside.)  Finally - “We have to make an appointment for someone to come there.”  We asked if exchanging the modem might help and it was agreed that we would do that.    We remembered that we have two “drops” (we have 2 lines from the cable co.’s line into our house - each serves half the small house as they did not have enough signal coming through when the house was wired by them originally).  We take the modem to a line coming in on the other drop and try it there - it does not  work there either.  This says to us that this is something beyond the wiring to our house.  Logic would say that other people should be complaining, but in today’s world no one else on our street might have service through the cable co. 

Husband who before was not sure if we should go away, now is disappointed.  It is decided that we will get up early (well, early for us) and exchange the box and if this corrected the problem, we would then go on the trip. 

Now we were each looking for something to do so that our time was not wasted.  Husband started playing with a wifi dongle in his computer to see if he could use the wifi in the street.  Problems with the dongle.  He tried using his laptop - wifi from the street was very intermittent.  I did various things I needed to catch up on - bank reconciliations and such - which did not need Internet access.  Then again, every other thing I thought of doing needed the Internet.  Remember I still need to get contact information into my new cell phone - what a great time to do it.... Oh, I need to be on the Internet to do that.  And so on. 

By the way, we would have been able to do much less if we used “the cloud” (aka a cloud server) as we would not be able to access data and possibly even software (apps) as we had no Internet access.  Remember this if you are someone who is very gung ho about using the cloud - you could loss access to your data and/or software if you have no Internet access.

After dinner I figured I would use this laptop to check a few of my email accounts - family, reenacting unit, embroidery chapter, and accounting email accounts - the ones with possible important emails.  I tried signing into the first account using the wifi from the street.  In just connecting and seeing that there was no email in the account (and again in each successive one of the four accounts) it took 3 or 4 attempts to get into the account and open the email “in box”.  No new emails.  I gave up trying to do anything else on the Internet and played solitaire until it was time to have snack and go to bed.

Today we went to the cable co.’s “store” and exchanged the modem.  Husband told the employee that last time we exchanged the modem, and got the one we are returning, when we were given the box it was not “registered” and it was several days and an employee visit to our house for several hours to find out that when the modem was given to us it was not registered to our account first.  She told us that we have to register it when it starts and we should see the instructions on installing the modem and registering it on page 10 in the instructions.  We took the modem package and the instruction package and went home.

The instructions turned out to be of no value as they were for a router not a modem.  Of course, setting up the modem is not hard - plug it into the electric, plug in the incoming cable line, and plug in the outgoing Internet cable.  It started right up - doing the same as it did before. Lights went on and off in the same pattern as last night on the old modem and then started over.  Husband turned on his computer just in case it was waiting for him to do something.  No connection.

I called the cable co again.  The employee said that she would try to register it from her end.  She could not as there was no return signal.  We would need - a visit from a service tech.  First appointment is Friday  - No Internet from Tuesday night to Friday morning - if they can get it working then.  Oh, and if the problem is in the house - in the cable wires which the cable company originally installed or in the modem, which we just exchanged or anything else in the house, there is an $80 fee. 

The trip is of course, off at this point as we have to be here on Friday morning.

Now, we have noticed something odd about our cable company.  We call up with a problem.  We go through the hoops they want us to go through - which we have already done, not being stupid to try to resolve the problem without calling them.  (By the way, while on hold there was actually a recording saying that if one is having a problem with their cable box remote - check that the batteries do not need changing.  Really?  People are too stupid to think of this on their own?)  We are then told that we need to exchange equipment or have a service tech come to work at the house.  We agree to exchange the equipment.  Within a half hour later - by magic - the problem resolves itself.  (We thought we would have Internet this morning based on this “magic”.)  

So as we are sitting there upset at no Internet until Friday - don’t forget husband does counseling online so he is not able to work until this is resolved nor can we deal with orders which might come in for our handcrafted gifts business, husband notices that suddenly there is a window on his computer to register the new modem.  We put in the information and  voilà, we have Internet again! What happened?  Did they send the service appointment in to the repair department and someone look and realize a switch was off?  Magic?  Why does this always happen?                                     
Just to be on the safe side we are not calling and canceling the appointment for the service tech until tomorrow - a day before they are due to come, but a chance to make sure that the service does not disappear again.        

It was too late by then to go on the trip, so here we are.  I did have a chance to transfer all the contact information for my embroidery group to the new mobile phone, as well as get a start on transferring the remaining contacts which were not “critical” to transfer.  Oh yeah, the cable company phone number had not been transferred yet - I had to find it in my old cell phone to call the cable co. - during the various calls, it was transferred in.           

I guess you knew that we got our Internet back - didn’t you?  How else could I have posted this?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-
If you must use “the cloud” have the information (data) you store in the cloud available to you on your computer, tablet etc. or in hard copy also.  This way when you have no access to the Internet, you still have the information to work with. 

Imagine if my checking and savings information only existed in the cloud and I had planned to write checks yesterday - I would not have known how much money I had to spend nor how much I could transfer to help cover checks.  This could have been a major problem - especially if the service really had been out until Friday - no access to information in the cloud for 3 days!

(And never forget - the cloud is not mysterious - it is only someone else’s hard drive - why not keep your information on your own hard drive or a flash drive.)