OOPS! Somehow I lost Wednesday - and Thursday - this week.
I finally finished doing tax returns this week – except for a client who wanted an extension, so I finally had time to devote to my embroidery chapter and our reenactment unit.
In normal times I would be working with the membership chair of my embroidery chapter on renewals as the national group for same has renewals due by May 31.
Normally the reenactment unit has its membership renewal period at the start of the year as our national group wants its renewals and dues by March 1 and the unit renewals are done at the same time. BUT this year – our chapter is rolling over dues from last year as the unit did almost nothing last year due to Covid-19, so that part is easy, but our national group pushed their renewal period back to now – also due in May – as they were redoing their membership records system. So I have to get the members of both groups to renew at the same time. I had emailed to members from my embroidery chapter an those members of our reenactment unit who belong to the national group (not all unit members belong to same) to renew. I have received some renewals from each group and all week have been intending to send a second email to those who still have to renew in each group. (Yes, personally my dues/our dues have already been paid to both groups.)
Throw into this mix that week was the monthly Zoom for the embroidery chapter and a last minute Zoom board meeting was called for the reenactment unit. I was so confused that I thought they were both the same day – embroidery in the morning and the board meeting at night. I was working at my computer late in the day – long after the embroidery meeting – and suddenly realized that the meeting had already started. I yelled to my husband to come up and sign in (he is also on the board) as I started my laptop (no camera or microphone on my desktop computer) to quickly sign into the meeting. Husband yelled back that the board meeting was the next day- phew!!
Now add into this the embroidery chapter has its face to face meetings (when we used to have and will in the future) in a town park's community room. The one we have been using is much too small to be able to social distance (January 2020 I did not go to the meeting as I had a cold and could not figure where I could sit and not pass along the cold.) We have been in talks with the town to use a different meeting room for the rest of this year – if and when it is opens up – and we had to change our meeting date to do so. A vote had been taken by the members as to which day to meet instead. I suddenly realized the day before the meeting that we had not setup the meeting dates with the town. I double checked with the chapter President and telephoned the town parks department – call went to voicemail. I left a message. Next day I was called back – we took too long, the room was already assigned. I grabbed the alternative they still had – the same meeting room we had before on a different day – in the interim. Chapter President said the room was too small even before Covid, and to call again.
So I have been in a panic most of the week – a large IRS refund due to a client which has not come yet and does not show on IRS records, plus the 2 sets of renewals, plus the two meetings, plus the we lost the meeting room we wanted. Little by little over the week things started to resolve – the client's refund is finally showing up on the IRS website, the board meeting for the reenactment unit went much better than I thought it would and the unit is not disbanding, and today I received a call from someone else at town parks, that we can have the room we were asking for on the days we wanted it. (We are hoping that later this year we can meet in person.) Breathe a big sigh of relief!
Now add into all of this – husband and I have been working on cleaning up in the garage. Late last week I had been using my leg to measure how tall the small trash pails he uses to hold smaller pieces of wood are, as one broke and we needed to replace it, and I leaned forward to see how tall it was against my leg and smashed my head into the end of husband's lathe – OUCH! As of now it still hurts if I touch it. And on Tuesday my right thumb started to hurt. I don't think it is computer or cell phone related as I tend to use my fingers much more than my thumbs on both.
All of this has been in my head and Wednesday slipped past me and then Thursday slipped past me. Now I can get back to the renewals for both groups, hopefully my head and thumb will feel better and maybe tonight I will be able to sleep and remember what day it is!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Even when everything is hitting at once, try to deal with the various problems one at a time with the most urgent one first – and in today's pandemic world – try to remember which day it is – all day!
Showing posts with label client. Show all posts
Showing posts with label client. Show all posts
Saturday, May 8, 2021
WHEN EVERYTHING GOES ON AND DOWNHILL AT ONCE...
Thursday, January 30, 2020
ARE YOUR FINANCES - CHECKING ACCOUNT - UNDER CONTROL?
Boy has my financial juggling gone astray today! We live on limited income from a variety of sources and sometimes we have a timing problem (bills due out this week, money coming coming in next week type of thing). As an accountant I am pretty good at this juggling.
I had it all planned out. We have dividends coming in on Monday which would cover almost all of our bills due out in the next week – except our RV payment and that is due out this week. I knew that later in February we would need to take money out of husband's IRA to cover our car insurance, but had time until same.
Well, the money to cover the RV payment was to come from the monthly client I have and she pays me quarterly when I go and do her books, etc. and I was due for a check in January. I tried to go to her last week, but when I called on Monday she was going to the doctor on Tuesday and did not expect to come into her place of business on Wednesday or Thursday either – maybe Friday she suggested? Friday it actually was suppose to be nice weather here and in Pennsylvania and husband was ready to go to Pennsylvania for the day and I could not disappoint him – who knows when the weather would be right in both places again as it has been so long since they were.
So I said that I would be in this week. I telephoned her on Monday to go yesterday, Tuesday, but she still was not feeling well so today, Wednesday it had to be. In addition to needing to do her bank rec, payroll taxes have to be filed by the end of January so I had to go there now! I was glad that weather stayed nice and no snow or rain.
I planned last night to deal with my problem – I wrote out a deposit slip for her check. I checked where branches of our bank are near her. I checked where a post office was near her. My plan was that when I finished doing her books I would take the check from her, deposit and mail out the RV payment.
When I got there she had a bad month and not only could not pay me, she could not pay her rent either. I did her books. I had her sign her payroll tax forms. I dealt with a couple of problems she had which are not related to what I am suppose to do, but I do things for her – she is in her 80s.
Well, I have my check – but cannot deposit it until she calls and says okay. I need to get that RV check out tomorrow, so we will have to go and take the money out of husband's IRA now and hope that she says I can cash check when the bills that were to be paid later in February with the IRA money come due. Just when I think I have it all taken care of….
I am sure that all of you have had similar problems. The important thing to do is keep track of it all – accurately so that nothing bounces – and if there is that rare occasion that something goes wrong and it does bounce – both the bank and who you paid will look at your records and say “hey, this never happens with you – of course we understand and will waive the fees for the bounced check/late payment”. (Yes, I did mess up badly once a few years ago and the fees were waived by both by the bank for the bounced check and by the company I had paid with the check as our record was so good that they could excuse the one error.)
To help keep my records accurate I use a software program to help me – Quickbooks (Quicken it's non- business alternative is good also). I keep my checkbook by hand and also in the program – and the two of them better agree or I have a problem to look for. The software lets me memorize the payments and when they are do and will remind me when I open it what bills need to be paid and what money should be coming in. It also lets me keep my personal expenses separate from our various businesses and each of them separate from the others. Lets me set up accounts for our tax related expenses and income to keep track of them for the taxes when they filed the following year.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Now is the time to get started so that next tax season will easier for you to deal with your income taxes (presuming that you are in the US and need to do so). It is also a good time to start keeping better financial records in general as we all need to do same and it is easier to start with the start of a year than in the middle of it.
I had it all planned out. We have dividends coming in on Monday which would cover almost all of our bills due out in the next week – except our RV payment and that is due out this week. I knew that later in February we would need to take money out of husband's IRA to cover our car insurance, but had time until same.
Well, the money to cover the RV payment was to come from the monthly client I have and she pays me quarterly when I go and do her books, etc. and I was due for a check in January. I tried to go to her last week, but when I called on Monday she was going to the doctor on Tuesday and did not expect to come into her place of business on Wednesday or Thursday either – maybe Friday she suggested? Friday it actually was suppose to be nice weather here and in Pennsylvania and husband was ready to go to Pennsylvania for the day and I could not disappoint him – who knows when the weather would be right in both places again as it has been so long since they were.
So I said that I would be in this week. I telephoned her on Monday to go yesterday, Tuesday, but she still was not feeling well so today, Wednesday it had to be. In addition to needing to do her bank rec, payroll taxes have to be filed by the end of January so I had to go there now! I was glad that weather stayed nice and no snow or rain.
I planned last night to deal with my problem – I wrote out a deposit slip for her check. I checked where branches of our bank are near her. I checked where a post office was near her. My plan was that when I finished doing her books I would take the check from her, deposit and mail out the RV payment.
When I got there she had a bad month and not only could not pay me, she could not pay her rent either. I did her books. I had her sign her payroll tax forms. I dealt with a couple of problems she had which are not related to what I am suppose to do, but I do things for her – she is in her 80s.
Well, I have my check – but cannot deposit it until she calls and says okay. I need to get that RV check out tomorrow, so we will have to go and take the money out of husband's IRA now and hope that she says I can cash check when the bills that were to be paid later in February with the IRA money come due. Just when I think I have it all taken care of….
I am sure that all of you have had similar problems. The important thing to do is keep track of it all – accurately so that nothing bounces – and if there is that rare occasion that something goes wrong and it does bounce – both the bank and who you paid will look at your records and say “hey, this never happens with you – of course we understand and will waive the fees for the bounced check/late payment”. (Yes, I did mess up badly once a few years ago and the fees were waived by both by the bank for the bounced check and by the company I had paid with the check as our record was so good that they could excuse the one error.)
To help keep my records accurate I use a software program to help me – Quickbooks (Quicken it's non- business alternative is good also). I keep my checkbook by hand and also in the program – and the two of them better agree or I have a problem to look for. The software lets me memorize the payments and when they are do and will remind me when I open it what bills need to be paid and what money should be coming in. It also lets me keep my personal expenses separate from our various businesses and each of them separate from the others. Lets me set up accounts for our tax related expenses and income to keep track of them for the taxes when they filed the following year.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Now is the time to get started so that next tax season will easier for you to deal with your income taxes (presuming that you are in the US and need to do so). It is also a good time to start keeping better financial records in general as we all need to do same and it is easier to start with the start of a year than in the middle of it.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
YET ANOTHER WEEK OF NOT GETTING ANYTHING DONE
Another week gone by and little to show for it – again.
Husband had planned for us to go to a quilt show in Pennsylvania last Thursday, the first day of the show. We normally will go to this and other shows from the same company on Thursday as it is less crowded and items are not sold out – not that we normally buy anything there. While we both have done quilting, we go for something to do and because there are no other sewing or embroidery shows in this part of the country and I do sew and hand embroider. Since we – and our RV – really need a trip we had planned to stay overnight and go to the farmer's market we like in Lancaster on Friday.
So, of course it poured on Thursday – here and there. We changed our trip to just go for the day on Friday to the quilt show, but drove there in the RV so it was driven and would keep the engine and RV batteries working properly.
Husband's sister has self-published a book and somehow managed to get a local bookstore to give her a reading/signing event on Thursday night. Since we were home, husband decided to go to the signing – in heavy rain. We could not figure out where to park – hard to see in the rain – and ended up 3 blocks away. I am “made of sugar” - when I go out in the rain, I get sick.
So Friday midday a cold hit me. Luckily it is a relatively light cold and will soon be gone. But husband is a hypochondriac and does not like me touching things that he will touch or eat when I am sick. We ate out as usual on the weekend. Monday night we had reenactment unit meeting and bought deli sliced turkey for dinner. But last night, Tuesday, dinner needed to be cooked. Understand, husband is, or at least was when we cooked more elaborately, a better cook than I am. But he is out of practice, was worried about the batteries in the RV (which are still not right) and an oil leak under the RV, and I have stand there and step by step tell him how to cook and where things are – so dinner and clean up (done by me with plastic gloves on) took forever.
In addition our reenactment unit has an event this Saturday that originally husband said we were not going to. Now not only are we are going, but he found out he can sell the items he has been weaving. So he (and thereby also I) are involved with getting ready to do so – we have not done a craft show in 10 years and this has to be setup differently and we have never sold items he has woven before so we do not a have setup at all for same, let alone one that will pass for a country fair. So we are running around trying to put together a setup and also finishing the woven items. Finishing them consists of washing and drying them and then cutting the start and end threads and doing something with the fringe ends. Not something that can be quickly done for about a dozen scarves and table runners.
He also decided that we need to be able to take credit cards – something I agree with – so he filled in the required info to be able to take credit cards from Paypal. We have an account with then that we use for online sales that exists for about 10 years, so we are not strangers to them, it should be easy to get a card reader and use with our existing account. As of today – a week after he filled in the info – we still don't seem to have the account for sales with a card reader and they seem to be sending the wrong card reader. The day after he originally gave them the info and we saw that there were problems he signed up with Square – who we had never done business with before - and we were able to immediately sign up and pick up a card reader at one of an assortment of stores locally that sell them. So much for loyalty to customers by Paypal.
So I have not get anything done as we were away and we have been trying to get everything done for Saturday (which to our minds mean that it will rain Saturday and the event will be canceled or they will have it and we will not go due to the rain).
In addition I have the cold, plus a couple of weeks ago I started having pains that we think are from my lifting the last analog monitor we got rid of – the pains come and go depending on if I lift something else heavy – and last night I was terribly ill after dinner so I have not been of much help, particularly since husband will not let me lift anything “heavy” which has much lighter threshold than it does for most people. (I am not sure how we will be able to setup Saturday as he will not let me carry any of the setup or the weaving and we cannot park close to where the reenactment unit is setting up.
I was suppose to take my mom to the doctor this week – but had to speak to her about when she is available to go so I can make an appointment, so I had not done so, plus I did not want to her give her my cold – so I called tonight to check her schedule and will try to make an appointment for next week.
I also have to go to client this week or next. I would greatly have preferred this week as she is in Manhattan and next week the U.N. will be in town and it will be a travel and security mess, but she is also older woman in her 80s and I did not want to give her my cold either.
Oh, and the RV battery is not keeping its charge so we were “playing with it” all week and now our car mechanic has it – he fixed the oil leak and will see what he can see about the batteries tomorrow. (Husband spoke to RV company that installed the new batteries – batteries have warranty, but does not cover labor and we will need to leave the RV there for at least a week – ouch, at $100+ per hour… - plus we will have to drive both RV and car to New Jersey, come home with car, when it is fixed drive car to NJ, pick up the RV and then drive both home – and tolls for each vehicle for each round trip is about $30 – so the tolls alone are almost $100, plus the gas.)
So I have gotten some computer work done I managed to trace and resolve problems in the posting of our Etsy sales and fees – mostly only have fees, few sales – from using their new payment account that handles both fees we pay and sales we make (terrible idea from an accounting point of view). I did scanning of tax return recently finished for client. That sort of thing.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes one just has to go with the flow of what is going on. Great to get stuff done, but when life has other plans – don't go crazy, just go with the flow and catch up when one can.
Husband had planned for us to go to a quilt show in Pennsylvania last Thursday, the first day of the show. We normally will go to this and other shows from the same company on Thursday as it is less crowded and items are not sold out – not that we normally buy anything there. While we both have done quilting, we go for something to do and because there are no other sewing or embroidery shows in this part of the country and I do sew and hand embroider. Since we – and our RV – really need a trip we had planned to stay overnight and go to the farmer's market we like in Lancaster on Friday.
So, of course it poured on Thursday – here and there. We changed our trip to just go for the day on Friday to the quilt show, but drove there in the RV so it was driven and would keep the engine and RV batteries working properly.
Husband's sister has self-published a book and somehow managed to get a local bookstore to give her a reading/signing event on Thursday night. Since we were home, husband decided to go to the signing – in heavy rain. We could not figure out where to park – hard to see in the rain – and ended up 3 blocks away. I am “made of sugar” - when I go out in the rain, I get sick.
So Friday midday a cold hit me. Luckily it is a relatively light cold and will soon be gone. But husband is a hypochondriac and does not like me touching things that he will touch or eat when I am sick. We ate out as usual on the weekend. Monday night we had reenactment unit meeting and bought deli sliced turkey for dinner. But last night, Tuesday, dinner needed to be cooked. Understand, husband is, or at least was when we cooked more elaborately, a better cook than I am. But he is out of practice, was worried about the batteries in the RV (which are still not right) and an oil leak under the RV, and I have stand there and step by step tell him how to cook and where things are – so dinner and clean up (done by me with plastic gloves on) took forever.
In addition our reenactment unit has an event this Saturday that originally husband said we were not going to. Now not only are we are going, but he found out he can sell the items he has been weaving. So he (and thereby also I) are involved with getting ready to do so – we have not done a craft show in 10 years and this has to be setup differently and we have never sold items he has woven before so we do not a have setup at all for same, let alone one that will pass for a country fair. So we are running around trying to put together a setup and also finishing the woven items. Finishing them consists of washing and drying them and then cutting the start and end threads and doing something with the fringe ends. Not something that can be quickly done for about a dozen scarves and table runners.
He also decided that we need to be able to take credit cards – something I agree with – so he filled in the required info to be able to take credit cards from Paypal. We have an account with then that we use for online sales that exists for about 10 years, so we are not strangers to them, it should be easy to get a card reader and use with our existing account. As of today – a week after he filled in the info – we still don't seem to have the account for sales with a card reader and they seem to be sending the wrong card reader. The day after he originally gave them the info and we saw that there were problems he signed up with Square – who we had never done business with before - and we were able to immediately sign up and pick up a card reader at one of an assortment of stores locally that sell them. So much for loyalty to customers by Paypal.
So I have not get anything done as we were away and we have been trying to get everything done for Saturday (which to our minds mean that it will rain Saturday and the event will be canceled or they will have it and we will not go due to the rain).
In addition I have the cold, plus a couple of weeks ago I started having pains that we think are from my lifting the last analog monitor we got rid of – the pains come and go depending on if I lift something else heavy – and last night I was terribly ill after dinner so I have not been of much help, particularly since husband will not let me lift anything “heavy” which has much lighter threshold than it does for most people. (I am not sure how we will be able to setup Saturday as he will not let me carry any of the setup or the weaving and we cannot park close to where the reenactment unit is setting up.
I was suppose to take my mom to the doctor this week – but had to speak to her about when she is available to go so I can make an appointment, so I had not done so, plus I did not want to her give her my cold – so I called tonight to check her schedule and will try to make an appointment for next week.
I also have to go to client this week or next. I would greatly have preferred this week as she is in Manhattan and next week the U.N. will be in town and it will be a travel and security mess, but she is also older woman in her 80s and I did not want to give her my cold either.
Oh, and the RV battery is not keeping its charge so we were “playing with it” all week and now our car mechanic has it – he fixed the oil leak and will see what he can see about the batteries tomorrow. (Husband spoke to RV company that installed the new batteries – batteries have warranty, but does not cover labor and we will need to leave the RV there for at least a week – ouch, at $100+ per hour… - plus we will have to drive both RV and car to New Jersey, come home with car, when it is fixed drive car to NJ, pick up the RV and then drive both home – and tolls for each vehicle for each round trip is about $30 – so the tolls alone are almost $100, plus the gas.)
So I have gotten some computer work done I managed to trace and resolve problems in the posting of our Etsy sales and fees – mostly only have fees, few sales – from using their new payment account that handles both fees we pay and sales we make (terrible idea from an accounting point of view). I did scanning of tax return recently finished for client. That sort of thing.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes one just has to go with the flow of what is going on. Great to get stuff done, but when life has other plans – don't go crazy, just go with the flow and catch up when one can.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
WORK, FAMILY, CLUBS - ALL ARE TAKING UP MY ATTENTION
Okay, so now I have to work on getting things done - not all house things - mostly work, family, financial, and club things. I got a fortune cookie today that said that my problems are behind me - if only I believe it.
Work - I went to the client that I go to monthly. She was charged a large amount for fees by her credit card processor and she had no sales. I telephoned her processing company and they gave me a breakdown that sort of made sense, but did not. What I was told the fees were for do not match what I have been told in the past about the annual fee she has to pay (due to low sales and this being a crooked company that she says she will switch from, but does not). A friend of hers (she is in an indoor, open market area and this is one of the other vendors) came by and said that she has to fill in a form with the processing company (and Mr. Expert does not use the same company) and then they will get rid of one the larger fee. I called the company again and they then said that I had to call the sales office for more info. Her salesman who should be who she talks to about questions disappeared in 2016 about two months after she signed up this company. So I am trying to reach their sales office - either no answer at the extension I need or it keeps ringing. I looked up the company name on line that answered and not only is not the company she signed up - it seems to be a “use an electronic device for card processing” company not one that uses the card reader she has. I will keep trying.
Mom - since I have been less helpful with going through mom’s house, I have been put in charge of taking her to 4 doctors she has to go to. Husband insisted her wheelchair will not fit in our car (and she cannot climb into the van). I pointed out to him that if I went without him, it would fit as I could drop the back seat down for more room behind it. In the meanwhile, my sister explained that the wheelchair comes apart to fit in a car. I have been waiting for husband to set on when we are going on a trip - still a short one and probably to PA again - so I can make appointments for mom. Today my sister called - mom had to go to the emergency room due to leg muscle spasms. Now she will have an aide 24/7 for 3 days due to the medication - so I am putting off calling about the appointments until next week (or the week after if we go away next week) so I know where we are with her going out. I called her Medicare supplement plan to see if they would cover the aide, only if Medicare does - so, no, they don’t
Work, again - I have a tax client who has me put his tax return on extension as he goes south for the winter. Normally he will contact me the start of September to set up an appointment to do his return. He sent an email - can we meet Monday? Have to find out from husband if we are going away next week or not - he seems to be leaning towards not as it is suppose to, yes, rain.
Family, again - husband this time - husband has been having problems for several years finding the clothes he likes. As a result he is low on presentable clothing. Now that RV is finally working correctly, he needed something else to obsess about. Underwear - it seems that it cut with a lower waistband and is too low for his to be comfortable in and falls down. Then again, his old underwear falls down also - I am going to have start sewing new elastic in the waists. Some of his shirts are so worn out that he can be seen through them. When he complained a week or so ago, I made him go to the outlet of the company whose shirts he likes - they are short sleeved which I figured would make it easy - but he found most of them to be “too heavy”. He got 3 shirts - which have to be washed so he can wear them. We also have been going to various Walmarts as he found shirts in another fabric he liked, looking for what colors it comes in. He also bought some tee shirts to try - only $2 each at Walmart closeout. He didn’t like them, but they are fine are spares for me - especially at that price. Jeans - he had 2 spare pairs that he bought when the ones he likes was discontinued. I washed them. I went to pin them to shorten - but the waists are so tight that he would pass out if he wore them. (They were 2 of 3 identical pairs he bought together - the other is tight, but not like this and the next size up falls off him.) We went out looking for jeans. He found 3 pairs - all going back are they are not right. I did convince to buy a waistband extender which moves the button/button hole 1 or 2 inches apart and he is using same. More jeans shopping to come. (Okay, I can be as bad, just have been lucky - my only problem is socks and I have taught myself to darn so I can fix them when they get holes.)
Clubs - I have to get paperwork out to an upcoming event for our reenactment unit. We raised the unit’s insurance coverage and I have been trying - by telephone and mail - to get a copy of the increased coverages from them since May!
Clubs - I managed out to get out the summer newsletter for my embroidery chapter. Now I have to get the year book (upcoming year’s meeting programs) out. The newsletter is email; the yearbook has to be printed and mailed - and husband is planning a trip - sometime.
Financial - I have to print out, sign, and mail by certified mail two letters for credit cards that we have to “opt out” of changes they are making. I paid all our bills today until the end of next week in case he decides that we are going away same.
THOUGHTs OF THE WEEK -
First thought is - I don’t have time to write and post this!
When one does not know when one will do something - one cannot plan when one will do something else and has to juggle to deal with it all. It will all work out in the end - either work out well or badly, but it will work out and new problems will come along to be solved.
Work - I went to the client that I go to monthly. She was charged a large amount for fees by her credit card processor and she had no sales. I telephoned her processing company and they gave me a breakdown that sort of made sense, but did not. What I was told the fees were for do not match what I have been told in the past about the annual fee she has to pay (due to low sales and this being a crooked company that she says she will switch from, but does not). A friend of hers (she is in an indoor, open market area and this is one of the other vendors) came by and said that she has to fill in a form with the processing company (and Mr. Expert does not use the same company) and then they will get rid of one the larger fee. I called the company again and they then said that I had to call the sales office for more info. Her salesman who should be who she talks to about questions disappeared in 2016 about two months after she signed up this company. So I am trying to reach their sales office - either no answer at the extension I need or it keeps ringing. I looked up the company name on line that answered and not only is not the company she signed up - it seems to be a “use an electronic device for card processing” company not one that uses the card reader she has. I will keep trying.
Mom - since I have been less helpful with going through mom’s house, I have been put in charge of taking her to 4 doctors she has to go to. Husband insisted her wheelchair will not fit in our car (and she cannot climb into the van). I pointed out to him that if I went without him, it would fit as I could drop the back seat down for more room behind it. In the meanwhile, my sister explained that the wheelchair comes apart to fit in a car. I have been waiting for husband to set on when we are going on a trip - still a short one and probably to PA again - so I can make appointments for mom. Today my sister called - mom had to go to the emergency room due to leg muscle spasms. Now she will have an aide 24/7 for 3 days due to the medication - so I am putting off calling about the appointments until next week (or the week after if we go away next week) so I know where we are with her going out. I called her Medicare supplement plan to see if they would cover the aide, only if Medicare does - so, no, they don’t
Work, again - I have a tax client who has me put his tax return on extension as he goes south for the winter. Normally he will contact me the start of September to set up an appointment to do his return. He sent an email - can we meet Monday? Have to find out from husband if we are going away next week or not - he seems to be leaning towards not as it is suppose to, yes, rain.
Family, again - husband this time - husband has been having problems for several years finding the clothes he likes. As a result he is low on presentable clothing. Now that RV is finally working correctly, he needed something else to obsess about. Underwear - it seems that it cut with a lower waistband and is too low for his to be comfortable in and falls down. Then again, his old underwear falls down also - I am going to have start sewing new elastic in the waists. Some of his shirts are so worn out that he can be seen through them. When he complained a week or so ago, I made him go to the outlet of the company whose shirts he likes - they are short sleeved which I figured would make it easy - but he found most of them to be “too heavy”. He got 3 shirts - which have to be washed so he can wear them. We also have been going to various Walmarts as he found shirts in another fabric he liked, looking for what colors it comes in. He also bought some tee shirts to try - only $2 each at Walmart closeout. He didn’t like them, but they are fine are spares for me - especially at that price. Jeans - he had 2 spare pairs that he bought when the ones he likes was discontinued. I washed them. I went to pin them to shorten - but the waists are so tight that he would pass out if he wore them. (They were 2 of 3 identical pairs he bought together - the other is tight, but not like this and the next size up falls off him.) We went out looking for jeans. He found 3 pairs - all going back are they are not right. I did convince to buy a waistband extender which moves the button/button hole 1 or 2 inches apart and he is using same. More jeans shopping to come. (Okay, I can be as bad, just have been lucky - my only problem is socks and I have taught myself to darn so I can fix them when they get holes.)
Clubs - I have to get paperwork out to an upcoming event for our reenactment unit. We raised the unit’s insurance coverage and I have been trying - by telephone and mail - to get a copy of the increased coverages from them since May!
Clubs - I managed out to get out the summer newsletter for my embroidery chapter. Now I have to get the year book (upcoming year’s meeting programs) out. The newsletter is email; the yearbook has to be printed and mailed - and husband is planning a trip - sometime.
Financial - I have to print out, sign, and mail by certified mail two letters for credit cards that we have to “opt out” of changes they are making. I paid all our bills today until the end of next week in case he decides that we are going away same.
THOUGHTs OF THE WEEK -
First thought is - I don’t have time to write and post this!
When one does not know when one will do something - one cannot plan when one will do something else and has to juggle to deal with it all. It will all work out in the end - either work out well or badly, but it will work out and new problems will come along to be solved.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
A CHORE LEADS TO A TIME FOR SOME REST
Well we now both have working computers - yay!
The fridge seems to be working - bigger yay! Husband found out that the drawers at the bottom of fridge keep a more even temperature than the rest of the fridge. After testing the temperature in same, we decided that the best place for his insulin in one of the drawers as the temperature in same seems to always be 36F or higher so that problem is resolved too.
Missed working with my sisters and their husbands at mom’s house again last weekend. We had terribly hot weather here and I was “under” it. My sister told me that they have gone through all but 3 rooms and 6 closets - not sure if that includes the room I have to go through as I left a lot of “stuff” in my old room. I found out that the other day that “we” will having a tag sale. Hmmm, I guess if I found stuff to donate it might be worth leaving it for the tag sale and maybe I will add some of the stuff we need to get rid of in our house and the money from same when (if?) it sells can go towards mom’s living expenses while not costing us anything that we don’t have to give her.
I has been HOT here - over 100F one day and almost the same the day before. Monday night there were major rain storms around the area - over several states. Husband was again demonstrating to me how wonderful having Roku is and that we can see every episode of “Midsummer Murders” from the start (we- mostly I - have only seen about 3 seasons as that is when I found the show) and we don’t have to watch it 3-5 am when it is on PBS we can see it any time. Last week when he ran the second episode (had run the first one previously) it kept going out of sync and needing to be restarted. Monday the hottest of the days and at night was the huge thunderstorm. We were watching episode 3 when it froze. He kept trying to get it going. Then something dawned on me - I turned on my cell phone and turned on the house wifi - nothing. I switched the TV to the cable - nothing. We had lost our Internet service - no cable, no computer Internet. (We still have copper wire telephone service from old telephone company so same still worked.) Husband was having a fit over no TV and no Internet. I knew that at least we had electricity. The TV came back gradually over several hours. At first the broadcast channels were back. Then the non-premium channels. The cable company’s local news channel was not there - but husband found it on their local weather channel - how the heck can one channel from their studio work and not the other? And shouldn’t their news channel at some point have mentioned - hey, we are on this other channel do an outage of our service - sorry - here is what is going on and which problems are where? They did not even do so after the service was restored. When the first channels were back, I went on my cell phone to see what had happened - just lots of people complaining that they had called to report the outage and find out what they could and got the message I did - “We are experiencing a large call volume. Please contact us through our website.” No website working of course!!
Today we went on a little trip. (Oh, no, another of her nightmare trips.) Our RV has two batteries (the type that are used in golf carts) which charge from the RV being driven, running the RV generator and/or plugging in the RV to electricity at home or at campground. As I am pretty sure I mentioned our two had reached beyond the end of their lives. We found a company in New Jersey that could order the batteries that husband had been told were the best to get for our RV and could install them. We ordered the batteries last week - paying for the batteries themselves at that time by charge card over the phone. They came in and we made an appointment to go to have them put in - for this past Monday - the day of the storm. On last Friday husband looked at the weather and saw the huge storms expected and told me to call and change the appointment to today (Wednesday). Blew out my week - I had planned to go to my client this week either Tuesday or Thursday and could not wake up that early two days in a row. I did so. Good thing we did. The area where the company is located was hit hard by the storm. Parts of the area were still out today and the company was running on two generators.
We (I) cleared out stuff where they might need to work - both halves of the bed were stacked on the base for husband’s side of the bed on each other. (His side is longer than my side and they might have needed to access the cabinet under my bed.) We figured out what we needed to bring. Not having been to this place before and having looked at online maps and there was no place for lunch near by, we bought sliced deli turkey and made sandwiches last night and bagged them in a cold bag made for lunch with two cans of diet soda and plastic ice. I emptied out my travel backpack. (I use it when we go somewhere where we will not have easy access back to the RV or car if we use same instead during the day. I put in what we might need based on where we go and what we do.) I put the cold bag with our lunch in it. I also added a package of saltine crackers as they work well for husband if he has a blood sugar low. In our other cold bag I put some bottles of a sugar drink he uses if his blood sugar goes too low and I put that bag in the RV fridge - which we did not put on. We had no idea if there was a place for us to wait while the work was done inside the building or if we would be sitting outside (in lesser, but still heat) on a curb waiting for it. We were also not sure how long it would take for the work to be done as we knew that there was no way we would be there by 8:30 am as we just cannot get up early enough to get ready and drive at least 2 hours and be there by then.
We got out this morning just ahead of our planned leaving time (okay - it was the same 8:30 am that it had been suggested we be there) and when husband went to back the RV out into the busy main street we live on it was actually empty on our side of the street long enough to pull out without waiting. (I stand in the street with a walkie talkie and tell him when he can pull out - he pulls up next to the curb and I jump in and we go.) As mentioned in past posts, what used to be a 45 minute drive to the bridge off the huge island we live on, can take 2 hours now. We have found that leaving the house at 8:30 am seems to be the best time for us to leave - we are driving at the rear end of rush hour and by the time we reach the construction areas - they are just short of starting work.
Drive was going pretty well and then the news announced that there had been a car fire on the bridge we had to take off the Island and traffic was bad. OH (expletive deleted)!! We figured we were in a mess for sure. Husband asked me about alternatives. I started thinking. We are on the south end of the Island and therefore also the south end of Manhattan Island. To get to “the main land” - mostly New Jersey we can take a bridge to Staten Island and then another bridge from there to New Jersey. We can drive through one of several bridges or two tunnels into Manhattan and then go across same and go out through one of two tunnels to New Jersey - this would involve driving the large van that is our RV in crowded Manhattan streets and we cannot take a tunnel due to having propane in a tank in the RV. So, we could get into Manhattan from where we were, but we would have to drive most of the length (south to north) of it to get to the George Washington Bridge. We could go north on our Island on one road that we can go on (we are too tall for many limited access roads here) just at the start of the next (Queens) county/NYC line drive north to the Bronx - over a bridge - and then across the Bronx on a road that I have never seen or heard of not being stopped by traffic - and then into Manhattan (on a bridge) and then over the same George Washington Bridge to New Jersey. An additional problem was the road we needed to use in New Jersey was only open to vehicles like ours for part of the way - no problem if we go by State Island, but if we go by the George Washington Bridge we have to figure an alternate way to drive south until we are near where we would get on the road if we went through Staten Island. We decided to keep on the way we normally go as it was so much simpler and it would probably take more time to go north and then come back south again than deal with the delay. The car that had been on fire was in the opposite direction from the one we were going. And the GPS traffic was not showing any drastic problems.
We figured that we would monitor the reports on the radio news channel we listen to as we went along and that, along with the traffic we hit would make our decision. But - today was the day that Robert Mueller was testifying at Congress and the radio station decided to run same instead of news and weather. The road was not as bad as usual. The bridge barely had a slow down. At 9:30 am I called the company and told them that we were on way and would be there in about an hour.
When we got there we were very pleasantly surprised. The building was large. The employees very friendly and nice. Robert had some info that the guys putting in the batteries needed to know and he gave it to the nice woman who wrote up the work order. I took my back pack - with lunch and some paperwork (about the ordering of the batteries) I had in case we needed it out of the RV. She wrote up the work order and then showed us what she called their “living room”. There were sofas, a huge TV showing - of course - Robert Mueller testifying. There was a man already there waiting for them to work on his car. I sat down - backpack on an end table - and husband walked around their small shop area of stuff for RV s. The man was very nice and we talked thorough out the time we were waiting. (Found out that there was a TV remote and he had chosen the show - fine with us.) I played solitaire on my cell phone. I had also brought my old Palm Centro as it had different games I like to play in case I got bored with the solitaire I play. The poor fellow was going to be there most of the day and have a huge bill when he was done. (Not that our bill between the parts paid for and the work to be done was small.) At one point the employee came out and asked him if he wanted to see local food place menus to order lunch as he would be there so long. (Very nice of her to think of this.) He offered it to us also, but I pointed at the backpack and we explained that we had brought lunch when we saw there was nothing near by. Of course I needed a trip to the ladies room. Very nice compared to most and especially to what I thought it might be based on other RV places.
Our work was done by 1:30 pm and we paid for it and were off - with our lunch still uneaten. We found out that the place still had not had their electricity restored and were running on 2 generators. We had not even noticed a problem with same. We were glad that they had been able to do the work under these conditions.
We have been in the general area before and had planned to hang around, have dinner in the area and then drive home - both because there is a chain buffet restaurant husband likes near there and to avoid being stuck in rush hour - which we would hit by the time we got back to Long Island. We decided to go to a shopping mall and walk around - and we figured to eat lunch in their food court area. As we were driving there we noticed soooo many stores that were dark and no cars in their parking lots as well as utility crews working. I suggested to husband that since we would pass it, we should check that the buffet was open after the storm instead of spending time and then finding ourselves with a dinner problem. Few cars outside it, but the lights were on and we saw people at tables.
Went to the mall and had lunch and walked around for over an hour. Then we went to Barnes and Nobles and walked around. Then we drove to a Walmart we knew about - closer to the restaurant then the other two - and went there for a while. Then dinner and home. Coming home the upper level of the bridge was closed - we presume based on what we saw that they were still clearing the bridge from the accident or making repairs due to same. It was the most traffic we had the entire trip.
Although much of the day was wasted time as we did not want to come home and got stuck in traffic (and he REALLY likes that buffet) I don’t feel like we had a wasted day. We had a lot of down time and actually I feel as if I had a chance for an enforced rest period today. (He, on the other hand, was in a constant state of concern.) Now that the batteries are replaced and new - he is worrying that the alternator is going bad or the “separator” is going bad. (The same alternator charges both the car battery under the hood that most if not all cars have and the RV batteries. The separator - surprise - keeps the RV and car batteries separated when same is going on - one is charged than when it is finished, the other is.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes things work out better than one thinks they will - but always make sure to plan for the problems that may arise. Sometimes a chore that wastes a lot of time can bring some needed rest to you.
The fridge seems to be working - bigger yay! Husband found out that the drawers at the bottom of fridge keep a more even temperature than the rest of the fridge. After testing the temperature in same, we decided that the best place for his insulin in one of the drawers as the temperature in same seems to always be 36F or higher so that problem is resolved too.
Missed working with my sisters and their husbands at mom’s house again last weekend. We had terribly hot weather here and I was “under” it. My sister told me that they have gone through all but 3 rooms and 6 closets - not sure if that includes the room I have to go through as I left a lot of “stuff” in my old room. I found out that the other day that “we” will having a tag sale. Hmmm, I guess if I found stuff to donate it might be worth leaving it for the tag sale and maybe I will add some of the stuff we need to get rid of in our house and the money from same when (if?) it sells can go towards mom’s living expenses while not costing us anything that we don’t have to give her.
I has been HOT here - over 100F one day and almost the same the day before. Monday night there were major rain storms around the area - over several states. Husband was again demonstrating to me how wonderful having Roku is and that we can see every episode of “Midsummer Murders” from the start (we- mostly I - have only seen about 3 seasons as that is when I found the show) and we don’t have to watch it 3-5 am when it is on PBS we can see it any time. Last week when he ran the second episode (had run the first one previously) it kept going out of sync and needing to be restarted. Monday the hottest of the days and at night was the huge thunderstorm. We were watching episode 3 when it froze. He kept trying to get it going. Then something dawned on me - I turned on my cell phone and turned on the house wifi - nothing. I switched the TV to the cable - nothing. We had lost our Internet service - no cable, no computer Internet. (We still have copper wire telephone service from old telephone company so same still worked.) Husband was having a fit over no TV and no Internet. I knew that at least we had electricity. The TV came back gradually over several hours. At first the broadcast channels were back. Then the non-premium channels. The cable company’s local news channel was not there - but husband found it on their local weather channel - how the heck can one channel from their studio work and not the other? And shouldn’t their news channel at some point have mentioned - hey, we are on this other channel do an outage of our service - sorry - here is what is going on and which problems are where? They did not even do so after the service was restored. When the first channels were back, I went on my cell phone to see what had happened - just lots of people complaining that they had called to report the outage and find out what they could and got the message I did - “We are experiencing a large call volume. Please contact us through our website.” No website working of course!!
Today we went on a little trip. (Oh, no, another of her nightmare trips.) Our RV has two batteries (the type that are used in golf carts) which charge from the RV being driven, running the RV generator and/or plugging in the RV to electricity at home or at campground. As I am pretty sure I mentioned our two had reached beyond the end of their lives. We found a company in New Jersey that could order the batteries that husband had been told were the best to get for our RV and could install them. We ordered the batteries last week - paying for the batteries themselves at that time by charge card over the phone. They came in and we made an appointment to go to have them put in - for this past Monday - the day of the storm. On last Friday husband looked at the weather and saw the huge storms expected and told me to call and change the appointment to today (Wednesday). Blew out my week - I had planned to go to my client this week either Tuesday or Thursday and could not wake up that early two days in a row. I did so. Good thing we did. The area where the company is located was hit hard by the storm. Parts of the area were still out today and the company was running on two generators.
We (I) cleared out stuff where they might need to work - both halves of the bed were stacked on the base for husband’s side of the bed on each other. (His side is longer than my side and they might have needed to access the cabinet under my bed.) We figured out what we needed to bring. Not having been to this place before and having looked at online maps and there was no place for lunch near by, we bought sliced deli turkey and made sandwiches last night and bagged them in a cold bag made for lunch with two cans of diet soda and plastic ice. I emptied out my travel backpack. (I use it when we go somewhere where we will not have easy access back to the RV or car if we use same instead during the day. I put in what we might need based on where we go and what we do.) I put the cold bag with our lunch in it. I also added a package of saltine crackers as they work well for husband if he has a blood sugar low. In our other cold bag I put some bottles of a sugar drink he uses if his blood sugar goes too low and I put that bag in the RV fridge - which we did not put on. We had no idea if there was a place for us to wait while the work was done inside the building or if we would be sitting outside (in lesser, but still heat) on a curb waiting for it. We were also not sure how long it would take for the work to be done as we knew that there was no way we would be there by 8:30 am as we just cannot get up early enough to get ready and drive at least 2 hours and be there by then.
We got out this morning just ahead of our planned leaving time (okay - it was the same 8:30 am that it had been suggested we be there) and when husband went to back the RV out into the busy main street we live on it was actually empty on our side of the street long enough to pull out without waiting. (I stand in the street with a walkie talkie and tell him when he can pull out - he pulls up next to the curb and I jump in and we go.) As mentioned in past posts, what used to be a 45 minute drive to the bridge off the huge island we live on, can take 2 hours now. We have found that leaving the house at 8:30 am seems to be the best time for us to leave - we are driving at the rear end of rush hour and by the time we reach the construction areas - they are just short of starting work.
Drive was going pretty well and then the news announced that there had been a car fire on the bridge we had to take off the Island and traffic was bad. OH (expletive deleted)!! We figured we were in a mess for sure. Husband asked me about alternatives. I started thinking. We are on the south end of the Island and therefore also the south end of Manhattan Island. To get to “the main land” - mostly New Jersey we can take a bridge to Staten Island and then another bridge from there to New Jersey. We can drive through one of several bridges or two tunnels into Manhattan and then go across same and go out through one of two tunnels to New Jersey - this would involve driving the large van that is our RV in crowded Manhattan streets and we cannot take a tunnel due to having propane in a tank in the RV. So, we could get into Manhattan from where we were, but we would have to drive most of the length (south to north) of it to get to the George Washington Bridge. We could go north on our Island on one road that we can go on (we are too tall for many limited access roads here) just at the start of the next (Queens) county/NYC line drive north to the Bronx - over a bridge - and then across the Bronx on a road that I have never seen or heard of not being stopped by traffic - and then into Manhattan (on a bridge) and then over the same George Washington Bridge to New Jersey. An additional problem was the road we needed to use in New Jersey was only open to vehicles like ours for part of the way - no problem if we go by State Island, but if we go by the George Washington Bridge we have to figure an alternate way to drive south until we are near where we would get on the road if we went through Staten Island. We decided to keep on the way we normally go as it was so much simpler and it would probably take more time to go north and then come back south again than deal with the delay. The car that had been on fire was in the opposite direction from the one we were going. And the GPS traffic was not showing any drastic problems.
We figured that we would monitor the reports on the radio news channel we listen to as we went along and that, along with the traffic we hit would make our decision. But - today was the day that Robert Mueller was testifying at Congress and the radio station decided to run same instead of news and weather. The road was not as bad as usual. The bridge barely had a slow down. At 9:30 am I called the company and told them that we were on way and would be there in about an hour.
When we got there we were very pleasantly surprised. The building was large. The employees very friendly and nice. Robert had some info that the guys putting in the batteries needed to know and he gave it to the nice woman who wrote up the work order. I took my back pack - with lunch and some paperwork (about the ordering of the batteries) I had in case we needed it out of the RV. She wrote up the work order and then showed us what she called their “living room”. There were sofas, a huge TV showing - of course - Robert Mueller testifying. There was a man already there waiting for them to work on his car. I sat down - backpack on an end table - and husband walked around their small shop area of stuff for RV s. The man was very nice and we talked thorough out the time we were waiting. (Found out that there was a TV remote and he had chosen the show - fine with us.) I played solitaire on my cell phone. I had also brought my old Palm Centro as it had different games I like to play in case I got bored with the solitaire I play. The poor fellow was going to be there most of the day and have a huge bill when he was done. (Not that our bill between the parts paid for and the work to be done was small.) At one point the employee came out and asked him if he wanted to see local food place menus to order lunch as he would be there so long. (Very nice of her to think of this.) He offered it to us also, but I pointed at the backpack and we explained that we had brought lunch when we saw there was nothing near by. Of course I needed a trip to the ladies room. Very nice compared to most and especially to what I thought it might be based on other RV places.
Our work was done by 1:30 pm and we paid for it and were off - with our lunch still uneaten. We found out that the place still had not had their electricity restored and were running on 2 generators. We had not even noticed a problem with same. We were glad that they had been able to do the work under these conditions.
We have been in the general area before and had planned to hang around, have dinner in the area and then drive home - both because there is a chain buffet restaurant husband likes near there and to avoid being stuck in rush hour - which we would hit by the time we got back to Long Island. We decided to go to a shopping mall and walk around - and we figured to eat lunch in their food court area. As we were driving there we noticed soooo many stores that were dark and no cars in their parking lots as well as utility crews working. I suggested to husband that since we would pass it, we should check that the buffet was open after the storm instead of spending time and then finding ourselves with a dinner problem. Few cars outside it, but the lights were on and we saw people at tables.
Went to the mall and had lunch and walked around for over an hour. Then we went to Barnes and Nobles and walked around. Then we drove to a Walmart we knew about - closer to the restaurant then the other two - and went there for a while. Then dinner and home. Coming home the upper level of the bridge was closed - we presume based on what we saw that they were still clearing the bridge from the accident or making repairs due to same. It was the most traffic we had the entire trip.
Although much of the day was wasted time as we did not want to come home and got stuck in traffic (and he REALLY likes that buffet) I don’t feel like we had a wasted day. We had a lot of down time and actually I feel as if I had a chance for an enforced rest period today. (He, on the other hand, was in a constant state of concern.) Now that the batteries are replaced and new - he is worrying that the alternator is going bad or the “separator” is going bad. (The same alternator charges both the car battery under the hood that most if not all cars have and the RV batteries. The separator - surprise - keeps the RV and car batteries separated when same is going on - one is charged than when it is finished, the other is.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes things work out better than one thinks they will - but always make sure to plan for the problems that may arise. Sometimes a chore that wastes a lot of time can bring some needed rest to you.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
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?
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?
Thursday, April 4, 2019
COMING TO THE END OF TAX SEASON - HOW DO I KEEP IT ALL ORGANIZED AND GET IT ALL DONE?
Last weekend I suddenly realized - I have 2 weeks to the end of tax season - and none of the returns which are due by April 15 are done, most not even started - and only 1 was almost finished. Panic was about to set in - then I looked at my list. I have a dying accounting practice - literally, my clients were from my dad or from my boss and are older than me with a couple of exceptions.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
ILLUMINATING LIGHTS, BUT ALMOST NO WORK- WORK, DONE
Well another week gone - and nothing much done of what I planned to do. Husband had plans.
We have a solar outdoor light fixture that we bought at least a year ago - if not two years ago - at Costco to put up in the backyard. We have electricity back there and at one time husband put up a light, but he cannot deal with heights - could not back when put the put the light up (nor can I deal well with heights) - but it is worse now. The fact that we are both on the short side and have to climb up higher to reach what others can reach adds to the problem. The light he had put up has not worked in a long while and we did not want to climb as high as the old light to replace it. So our logic was that we would buy a solar fixture and replace it by putting the solar fixture lower down the wired fixture. The fixture has been sitting in our dining room since we bought it waiting to be put up.
When we had our garage finished we had electricity added. You know the idea of ask around and find someone friends recommend? We hired a contractor who had done work several times for husband at his job and were extremely happy with. Our garage - not so much. To leave out the extensive details, the (supposedly) licensed electrician the contractor had hired did the wiring rather oddly. The outlet boxes inside the garage move as they are not attached to the studs. He put in 2 circuits - but rather than put half the outlets on one and half and half the lights on one and the other half on the other - all the outlets are on one circuit and the lights he put in were all on the same circuit. The air conditioner - which we added later is also on one of the circuits. (The ac installer said he never put one in a garage before.) Oh that reminds me - the garage is husband’s wood workshop. We did have the electrician put in a light next to the side door into the garage (something added when we had this work done - before there was only the large front garage door) which has a switch and a front spot light which has its own switch. We have replaced the front spot light a few times - high up, but not as high as the light on the back of the house - when the motion detectors have gone bad. Well, in the garage there are work lights - the two long flourescent bulbs type. The front two are hung from the inside of the roof - one of them, for unknown reason, much further towards the center of the garage and therefore much higher up. This fixture has been flashing and not really coming on, also for about a year. We had a box with 2 of the LED replacement bulbs for this particular type of feature, but could not reach the fixture to replace them.
The latest problem was that the light next to the side garage door stopped working completely. Husband decided that something had to be done as he could not see in the backyard at night to go in and out of the garage, there was no light there for security, and he was getting a headache working in the garage.
So while I am planning to work on tax returns for clients and for us, he was planning to work on lights. He bought a fixture to replace the one next to the side garage door. He then turned to the question of being able to reach things high up without fear of falling off a ladder. He found a ladder of about the right height that had platforms for the two stop steps and we set out to buy one. We had to go to one of major home store chain stores and then three of the other home store chain to find and buy one. It was really worth the cost - but it did take a lot of time over 2 days.
He was able to put the new light next to the side garage door. He then figured he could reach the bulbs in the fixture inside the garage and was going to buy a pair of LED ones - I surprised him with a box of them that was in the basement and it was done (and I don’t have to worry about breaking them when I move the Christmas boxes around).
That left the solar fixture that has been here for years. Problem is that where we planned to put it he decided after research, was not the place to put it. He finally figured out where to put it - reachable, facing the sun, and lighting up the backyard. So yesterday we put it up. The light fixture first and then the solar panel. Biggest problem was that where he put the light is where our TV antenna stands in the backyard. I was in constant fear that he would lean back or fall back and the long metal prong of the antenna would be through his head. He managed to avoid it and it is all in place. It apparently needs to charge a few days before we can test it.
Tonight - after dinner - I finally got to start the first return. It went easier than I thought with the new forms. It is not finished yet, but done enough that I am not worried about it. (Client lives on the other side of the country and I want to mail it out to her Monday if I can.) Meanwhile I have heard from a client who normally gets an extension - same this year as he is away until after April 15. Another client, a friend, contacted me last week - she has a return from 2015 that needs to be done or she will lose her refund from same. Problem is that she has no access to her house as there is a problem with a support wall and the ground may fall away. Luckily I have enough of her 2015 info (from when we filed the extension) to do a fairly correct return - but I sent her a form that will have IRS mail me copies of the forms sent to her by banks, etc. from that year’s return just to make sure. I am still waiting for other clients to mail their info to me. I keep wondering if I will hear from the client who disappeared to do her taxes. I really worry about her.
I have kept up on laundry - clothing load in the washer as I write and will go in the dryer as soon as my - yes - cell phone rings to tell me that the wash load should be done. I also need to do a load of towels afterwards.
Husband is again hoping and planning to go away Friday for the day - but it looks like rain again. We need a gift for my mom for her birthday on Sunday - she will be 90 and my sister is having a dinner for her. No ideas of what to get for her. I was going to embroider something, but husband talked me out of it. He doesn’t like the idea of giving her gift cards for the supermarket she goes to either (I don’t normally give gift cards, but I am stuck for ideas.) I had actually hoped we will go away as we maybe we can find a PA Dutch food item to bring her back as a gift.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One cannot always do what wants/needs to do when one plans - especially if there are others involved in one’s life. One can only do the best one can and not go crazy about it.
The timer in the cell phone just went off. So I will copy and post this when I come back up from switching loads. Okay laundry switched - now I can post.
We have a solar outdoor light fixture that we bought at least a year ago - if not two years ago - at Costco to put up in the backyard. We have electricity back there and at one time husband put up a light, but he cannot deal with heights - could not back when put the put the light up (nor can I deal well with heights) - but it is worse now. The fact that we are both on the short side and have to climb up higher to reach what others can reach adds to the problem. The light he had put up has not worked in a long while and we did not want to climb as high as the old light to replace it. So our logic was that we would buy a solar fixture and replace it by putting the solar fixture lower down the wired fixture. The fixture has been sitting in our dining room since we bought it waiting to be put up.
When we had our garage finished we had electricity added. You know the idea of ask around and find someone friends recommend? We hired a contractor who had done work several times for husband at his job and were extremely happy with. Our garage - not so much. To leave out the extensive details, the (supposedly) licensed electrician the contractor had hired did the wiring rather oddly. The outlet boxes inside the garage move as they are not attached to the studs. He put in 2 circuits - but rather than put half the outlets on one and half and half the lights on one and the other half on the other - all the outlets are on one circuit and the lights he put in were all on the same circuit. The air conditioner - which we added later is also on one of the circuits. (The ac installer said he never put one in a garage before.) Oh that reminds me - the garage is husband’s wood workshop. We did have the electrician put in a light next to the side door into the garage (something added when we had this work done - before there was only the large front garage door) which has a switch and a front spot light which has its own switch. We have replaced the front spot light a few times - high up, but not as high as the light on the back of the house - when the motion detectors have gone bad. Well, in the garage there are work lights - the two long flourescent bulbs type. The front two are hung from the inside of the roof - one of them, for unknown reason, much further towards the center of the garage and therefore much higher up. This fixture has been flashing and not really coming on, also for about a year. We had a box with 2 of the LED replacement bulbs for this particular type of feature, but could not reach the fixture to replace them.
The latest problem was that the light next to the side garage door stopped working completely. Husband decided that something had to be done as he could not see in the backyard at night to go in and out of the garage, there was no light there for security, and he was getting a headache working in the garage.
So while I am planning to work on tax returns for clients and for us, he was planning to work on lights. He bought a fixture to replace the one next to the side garage door. He then turned to the question of being able to reach things high up without fear of falling off a ladder. He found a ladder of about the right height that had platforms for the two stop steps and we set out to buy one. We had to go to one of major home store chain stores and then three of the other home store chain to find and buy one. It was really worth the cost - but it did take a lot of time over 2 days.
He was able to put the new light next to the side garage door. He then figured he could reach the bulbs in the fixture inside the garage and was going to buy a pair of LED ones - I surprised him with a box of them that was in the basement and it was done (and I don’t have to worry about breaking them when I move the Christmas boxes around).
That left the solar fixture that has been here for years. Problem is that where we planned to put it he decided after research, was not the place to put it. He finally figured out where to put it - reachable, facing the sun, and lighting up the backyard. So yesterday we put it up. The light fixture first and then the solar panel. Biggest problem was that where he put the light is where our TV antenna stands in the backyard. I was in constant fear that he would lean back or fall back and the long metal prong of the antenna would be through his head. He managed to avoid it and it is all in place. It apparently needs to charge a few days before we can test it.
Tonight - after dinner - I finally got to start the first return. It went easier than I thought with the new forms. It is not finished yet, but done enough that I am not worried about it. (Client lives on the other side of the country and I want to mail it out to her Monday if I can.) Meanwhile I have heard from a client who normally gets an extension - same this year as he is away until after April 15. Another client, a friend, contacted me last week - she has a return from 2015 that needs to be done or she will lose her refund from same. Problem is that she has no access to her house as there is a problem with a support wall and the ground may fall away. Luckily I have enough of her 2015 info (from when we filed the extension) to do a fairly correct return - but I sent her a form that will have IRS mail me copies of the forms sent to her by banks, etc. from that year’s return just to make sure. I am still waiting for other clients to mail their info to me. I keep wondering if I will hear from the client who disappeared to do her taxes. I really worry about her.
I have kept up on laundry - clothing load in the washer as I write and will go in the dryer as soon as my - yes - cell phone rings to tell me that the wash load should be done. I also need to do a load of towels afterwards.
Husband is again hoping and planning to go away Friday for the day - but it looks like rain again. We need a gift for my mom for her birthday on Sunday - she will be 90 and my sister is having a dinner for her. No ideas of what to get for her. I was going to embroider something, but husband talked me out of it. He doesn’t like the idea of giving her gift cards for the supermarket she goes to either (I don’t normally give gift cards, but I am stuck for ideas.) I had actually hoped we will go away as we maybe we can find a PA Dutch food item to bring her back as a gift.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One cannot always do what wants/needs to do when one plans - especially if there are others involved in one’s life. One can only do the best one can and not go crazy about it.
The timer in the cell phone just went off. So I will copy and post this when I come back up from switching loads. Okay laundry switched - now I can post.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
USE YOUR CELL PHONE AND COMPUTER TO HELP STAY ORGANIZED
Yesterday I had an idea for this post. Between then and now I forgot. That seems to happen a lot these days. I will admit to being in my mid 60s. As a child people said that I had memory of an elephant. I still do for some things - my husband can tell you that I remember things from decades ago that he has forgotten (or remembers totally wrong), but from one minute to another I might not remember. Not sure if it is aging and an actual memory problem or lack of interest in remembering something - although I am sure that is not why I forgot what I was going to write about. So I will write about remembering things to help get organized (unless the other idea comes back to me.)
One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when. For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going. I used to have a paper list on the fridge. If we were running low on something I would put it on the list. Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did. Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why? Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays! We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married. So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days before we even started to use most of it.
I switched my food shopping to Mondays. In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock. I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping. He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.) I invited him to the supermarket with me. We left with nothing. Why? “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.” Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it. We don’t have to eat it tonight.” So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend. My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap). My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”. Saturday and Sunday was our time together. This worked very well.
Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week. For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions. This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in. Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations. The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months. The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down. Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us. I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area. Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do. But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me. I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years. Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces. Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases. Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there. I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for. I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when. I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)
Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there. At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone. Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes. I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there. Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier. I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses.
Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries. I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail. All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days. Now it is all in computer calendar and automatically is there every year.
I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner. (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.) Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event. I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information. The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy. Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it. (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.) I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips. I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them. Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where. Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting. You get the idea.
THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -
If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything.
Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when. For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going. I used to have a paper list on the fridge. If we were running low on something I would put it on the list. Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did. Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why? Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays! We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married. So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days before we even started to use most of it.
I switched my food shopping to Mondays. In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock. I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping. He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.) I invited him to the supermarket with me. We left with nothing. Why? “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.” Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it. We don’t have to eat it tonight.” So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend. My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap). My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”. Saturday and Sunday was our time together. This worked very well.
Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week. For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions. This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in. Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations. The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months. The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down. Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us. I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area. Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do. But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me. I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years. Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces. Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases. Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there. I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for. I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when. I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)
Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there. At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone. Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes. I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there. Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier. I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses.
Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries. I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail. All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days. Now it is all in computer calendar and automatically is there every year.
I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner. (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.) Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event. I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information. The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy. Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it. (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.) I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips. I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them. Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where. Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting. You get the idea.
THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -
If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything.
Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
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