Yes, it's been a few weeks since I posted. My apologies. I am sure all of you have gotten into periods of time when too much has TO be done in too short a time – that's where I have been.
I have to do extensive paperwork for us to apply for senior reduction in our real estate taxes. Last year our submission took 126 pages - and when I dropped this office they were NOT surprised at how big the submission was and had clips large enough for it all – I submit it in 2 sections as we don't.
While my part of doing this is bad enough, I had trouble getting the correct printout from our medical insurance company – it took a letter and 4 or 5 phone calls over the period of almost 2 months to finally get the paperwork we needed – and I had sent a copy of last year's printout to show them what we needed with the first request. I have to enclose proof of all incomes (umm, do they think I would include an income we didn't have?). Since I am self-employed I also have to include proof of all my business expenses and the same for husband's business. This year for the first time we also had to get a print of what income IRS has for us. Have I mentioned copies of our Federal AND State income tax returns have to be sent also? One thing which has become easier is that since I am not going out to clients due to Covid I am not taking car expenses so I don't have to copy all of that and include it (submission with same used to be something like 170 pages). I finally got a chance to work on all of this this week – due by January 2 – but who wants to be dealing it with it during the fun of December. We will walk this into the county assessor's office as one year there was confusion and even with mailing it certified mail, we were not sure if they received it in the mail.
I also have to take a series of courses to be able to be able to prepare income tax returns next year – 20 hours of classes plus exams. Luckily I can do at this home online – but it does take a lot of time – actual time is lot more than 20 hours.
So last week I started working on the real estate tax exemption paperwork. I was doing well and then – I got a notice from IRS that we never filed a partnership return for a zero income (for decades) business we have. It was due and filed last March!! So I had to print it all out again. I know that our state received their form as they cashed the check. The IRS form has no check which is why we did not know it was not received. Being in accounting since I was 12 years old and I know how to appeal an accidental problem such as this so that there is no penalty – but the notice came with different instructions and I was not sure what was made by what part of it said. Tried calling the special number for IRS on the form on Monday morning. Now, I know that Monday is the worst day of the week to try calling – well, any business – as they get more calls after the weekend. I also know that later in the day is better than earlier, but husband insisted that I call right away. (An any business with a phone number which is open across the country until later so those on west coast can call – is much better to call later than earlier as, again, fewer people are calling later after business hours on the east coast and same across the county end. ) While I was setting up that evening to go on a Zoom meeting with our reenactment unit I tried calling again – this time I actually got into the waiting que. I texted my husband – he was going to attend the Zoom meeting on his computer upstairs – what was going on and to explain to the other members if I suddenly disappeared. The call was finally taken by someone from IRS and the matter of what to do to resolve it was solved. It was mailed out certified mail on Friday – why did I wait for Friday? I figured (correctly) that the Post Office would be empty the day after Thanksgiving as most everyone would be shopping.
As of last night I had done most of the photocopying/scanning of the paperwork for the real estate tax exemption. BUT – I received in the mail from an accounting client on the other side of the country an IRS notice she received on her income taxes (due last April of course and sent then – they must be way behind in processing returns). I determined that the problem was my fault, though only an omission of a form, and I went to print out the form to send it to IRS. It was missing. I had used husband's computer (with data on my stick data drive) as his computer is newer than mine and the program needs same. So I went to print out the page to send it to IRS. The software was missing from his computer and we had to reinstall it. Got the page printed out, wrote a cover letter and got it ready to mail to IRS by – again, certified mail. I had planned to mail it out today, but the rain was so heavy will mail it tomorrow.
I then went back to working on our real estate (partial) exemption paperwork. I am missing about 10 pages I know I printed out (I have the other 2 pages, so I must have printed all of them) and will have to reprint that tomorrow. Hopefully this will be done by the end of the week and we can bring it to the county assessor's office next week. (I will take it in while husband waits in car – too crowded to park there and they have metered parking.)
That will leave the classes I need to take. I have already picked out which ones I plan to take. Some of the courses are required – a basic income tax class, a special class to meet IRS requirements for being a tax preparer (the longest of the classes), and a class on ethics. The other classes it is up to me which ones to take. This year they have several 1 hour classes and I will take 3 of them. After reading the course text book for each course I have to take (and pass) an online exam.
While I have until the end of the year for these classes I can't put it off. Husband is planning on our going with our reenactment unit for the Candlelight nights at the local restoration village (as volunteers) and he really needs me to be there with him as we are light on member volunteers this year. (Whether it is a good idea to do this or not with Covid about as it is tiny space, I will not discuss with him as he REALLY needs to do the event.)
And, of course, we have not put up any Christmas decorations outside or inside the house – yet! Plus who knows what else will pop up?
Showing posts with label medical insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical insurance. Show all posts
Thursday, December 1, 2022
SORRY NOT TO HAVE POSTED - IT HAS BEEN ONE OF THOSE TIMES - TOO MUCH TO DO AND MORE COMING DAILY!!
Thursday, June 24, 2021
ITS THE LITTLE THINGS.... CONTINUED
Here's another example -
I had renewed our reenacting unit's insurance - did the paperwork, paid for it and paid dues to a group that unit has to belong to get the insurance. I was done for the year!
Or was I?
A couple of weeks ago I realized I had not received the "Certificate of Insurance" which proves we have coverage and what the coverage is. So, I sent an email to the insurance agent and he emailed back the certificates to me. We get a certificate for our unit to prove we have the insurance from them and 3 more certificates as 3 different venues require us to have them added to our policy (in case something happens due to us) and we have to send them their certificates (I keep a copy of each). I mailed out two of these certificates to places where we are actually doing events. The third place I do not mail their certificate until just before the event or they lose it, so I did not mail that one. Done with mailing the certificates out until the fall. Check it off my list - take a breath.
The certificates had the wrong expiration date on them! The policy expired two months before it started according to the certificates!! New ones emailed to me with the correct dates on them and a big apology and I received them over the weekend. I printed out the two which have to go out right away with a cover letter explaining why they were getting a second certificate and I put the envelopes in my outgoing mail basket to go out next Sunday night when we again go out and post outgoing mail.
Well, there is an event this coming weekend and the venue contacted our president - did we get a new certificate for this year? He contacted my husband. I explained to husband that it had been mailed to them, but was wrong and corrected one being mailed out with the mail to go out Sunday. He scanned it into the computer and emailed it to them and we went out late tonight and posted our outgoing mail to date so they would have it sooner (hopefully before the event) - extra trip out and time spent.
AND - we mailed in the renewal of our van's registration over a month ago and have not received the registration yet - we realized this last weekend. I checked with our bank's computer and the check had not cleared the bank. So Monday I telephoned the DMV, the hold was not as long as I thought it would be. Now what is strange is a month before we mailed this registration renewal in, we mailed in the renewal of the registration of our RV - which is basically also a van -that came in 2 weeks. The automated message said that they could not help with registrations mailed in less than 4 weeks ago. Since it was more than 4 weeks I waited put through the computer system to find out what was going on. Nice woman came on and told me that it had been "processed". If it was process why hadn't the check cleared our bank? She did not know. It was processed on June 21, I should call back if I do not have it 14 days. I pointed out to her that the registration would expire before then - what should I do if it is not here before the expiration date - can we drive the van - NO!! So we are waiting to hopefully receive the registration - at least the check is finally clearing the bank as of today. If we don't get the registration before it expires, hopefully our car will not have problems and we won't need to drive the van.
I then had to call our medical insurance as one of my prescriptions was turned down - as past 6 months, need to go to back to the doctor for new prescription? Huh, never had this problem before for self or husband - and why did all of other prescriptions go through. Found out doctor had written the prescription for too long a time and I have to call him to fix it - why did they give the first renewal? Our state passed a terrible law some years ago. In an effort to stop the theft of prescription pads, all prescriptions must go directly through a computer system. In the old days we would get the prescription, make sure they were correct and take whichever ones we needed filled right away to the pharmacy. Now we have no idea if they are correct and if we don't need a medication renewed as we have, still get it anyway - if it is one of the expensive ones, we tell them to put it back and we call when needed - more work for pharmacy staff and time wasted picking up prescriptions.
We need to go food shopping and plan to do so tomorrow. So in addition to writing to all of you nice readers and doing our laundry I took inventory of what food we have and what we need. How nice to do something normal - we may even go out lunch at Wendys first - our third time doing so since mid March 2020.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - Is it the pandemic which is making everything weird and resulting in all of these stupid small problems one after another after another after...?
Are any of you finding you are having this same problem of one stupidity after another?
Thursday, September 24, 2020
WORKING ON PAPEWORK EARLY TO SAVE MONEY ON REAL ESTATE TAXES - OOPS A WEEK LATE
My apologies - this post was written for and I thought I posted it on September 16. While posting my September 23 post, I found this was still marked as draft -
I am working on paperwork for a real estate credit that husband and I are entitled since we are over 65 and have an income on the low side. This paperwork has to be filled in and filed annually. Last year's filing ran something like 125 pages. This is due to change they made last year. We have to provide proof of all our business income and expenses. The paperwork was crazy before this requirement, but with it….
At least this year I knew these extra records would be needed, so before I put away our financial records from 2019 I pulled out and scanned the needed paperwork into the computer – or at least I thought I did all of it. I even made sure that the expenses for our two extremely small businesses added up to the tax return numbers which came from my computer software.
The form to fill in and mail (or drop off) with the papers needed came and I started, slowly putting it all together. I have combined various sections of what is needed with cover pages for each in my computer as pdf files. It should not be hard, I had already scanned in the papers – right?
General proof of income – 1099s and such, no problem. Medical expenses (we can subtract this from our income in the calculation) I had most of them ready – we have to have printouts, they do not accept paid bills or copies of checks that paid them as proof. I had contacted and have this printouts from our medical insurance companies which is most of the expense. In normal years we go into our pharmacy and they hand us printouts and we also bought eyeglasses last year and had planned to do same with the optician. But this is not a normal year. The optician is mailing the copies of our records, I still have to telephone our pharmacy about same.
I had moved on to putting together the information from our businesses. I thought I had it all – I had scanned them into the computer and just needed to finish assembling them. But, neither business' receipts match the computer records of what they should be. They are small amounts, but this process is so crazy – they may disallow the $1.90 here or the $20 there. Hopefully if they do it will not affect the exemption amount by much.
Imagine having to put together all the expenses just from your car and having to make copies of all of them. In this case I have to also give a breakdown of how much is from miles driven for husband's business and how many much for miles driven for mine and apportion the cost of each expense (which was already done for our income taxes). How many small credit card receipts for gas do you end up with in a year?
While the cut off date to file this form and supporting paperwork is January 2, 2021, I don't like to wait until the last minute to deal with it. Last year when we needed to go and bring in the paperwork to the county offices was when husband needed to get teeth added to his upper denture (also includeable as a medical expense for IRS and for this) and we ended up having the impression of his teeth taken and then driving to the county office – where he would have had to wait in the car anyway (no place to park), but in this case did not want to go in within without his teeth also. So, since we are stuck in the house due to the corona virus pandemic anyway, I have been working on putting all this together and filing in the forms since August.
We were discussing how we file the paperwork. We used to mail to the county by certified mail. In 2018 we mailed in the 2017 information for the 2019 taxes (yes, it is terribly confusing) by mail as usual. Then we received a month or so later a robo phone call from the county executive that we had not filed the papers! I tried calling the office - but the answering machine basically said “we are too busy to talk to you, don't bother us” When I called again later in the day added to that message was “and don't try to come in here as there is no parking”. This last part being true and has been decades, which was why husband dropped me off and waited in the car. In a panic we reprinted and assembled everything to bring it to them. In the interim a story on the news was that they were suppose to send the call to a few people who had filed in the past and had not yet filed, but they sent to every property owner in the county. Unsure of if we were in the group whose paperwork had not been received, we drove to the office and I waited in their waiting room. Luckily by the time we went there a couple of days after the call – the lines were no longer 5 hours long as they were the day after the mistaken calls. They did have our paperwork.
Last year we decided we go there (as we did) and turn in the paperwork in person and receive a receipt from them for it and did so. We planned to continue to do so. But we are now trying to decide since we are not going out due to Covid 19 – do we venture into the post office (that we don't go to, even overnight) to pick up our mail or do we go to the county office where I will wait my turn for what might be hours – but we will know for sure that they have our paperwork? (Yes, the difference in what we pay in property taxes, especially the school taxes, with and without the exemption is enough to make it worthwhile.)
Hopefully I will soon be done with the paperwork and we can decide which we will do and when. I am guessing the early in the season for this, the fewer people who will be waiting, so I will try to finish as quickly as I can. I did send an email to the head of the department and asked if they will have drive-up windows for this as they did for people to come in and pay the property taxes. I don't figure they will or even that I will get an answer.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Use the time you are stuck in the house to get work done. I have been catching up all sorts of paperwork and household chores that I have put off, well, for years since I am home. Our shower soon might be even clean enough to actually not worry about getting dirtier when one takes one. :-)
My thoughts and prayers both to those in the United States west where there are terrible fires and those in the southeast who have been going through yet another major hurricane this week.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
COVID 19 #10 PICKING UP MEDICATIONS AT PHARMACY AND ORDERING FOOD ONLINE FOR DELIVERY
To finish up about picking up our prescriptions – I called on Thursday to check that all had been renewed for each of us and all were ready. We get our prescriptions at the pharmacy at a local Walmart – they have been really great and helpful even before the current pandemic. They do not, however deliver. For some reason none of the Walmarts on Long Island deliver anything – ever – or, currently, have pre order and pick up – they will, however, bring prescriptions out to the car. So on Thursday we donned our masks and drove to Walmart. We parked near the exit and I telephoned. A very nice employee brought out our prescriptions and had a remote reader so we could use our credit card to pay for them – it is not usable for anything other than prescriptions – I had asked if they could add 2 tubes of denture adhesive to the order and they could not. She sent me a text with a list of what had been charged. We thanked her and drove home.
We had expected to see based on what we have seen on TV news shows and what I have heard on the various groups I read online that there would be a line to get into the Walmart (and the unrelated supermarket next to it) with one person coming out of the store and one going in, people going in and out of the store wearing masks – spread out and not near each other. As we sat waiting for our medications to be brought out – the Walmart looked more crowded than it does at Christmas!! No spacing of people coming out. Few people (other than employees) wearing masks – we were shocked. The supermarket did not have anyone at the entrance either, though it did seem emptier than the Walmart from outside. It was our first chance to see what was going “the world around here” and it was not what we expected, had seen on TV or heard from others online.
When we arrived home I stopped in the porch. I sprayed alcohol on pieces of paper towels and wiped down the medication bottles and handed them to husband in the kitchen. One medication which we each take was not in a bottle as usual – it was in boxes with strips of punch outs for the individual pills. I pulled the strips out of the boxes and did not wipe the strips, just handed to husband. The boxes, along with the paperwork for each med went into a zip plastic bag to hold for awhile. Husband's box of insulin pens, I should mention, was wiped down and put in the fridge first. As I went along I realized that we were missing two items – husband's blood meter strips (had mine) and one of his blood pressure pills – not the one that we had been told we had to wait for Thursday to get them. We also could not figure out the texted payment statement.
I telephoned the pharmacy – they had forgotten to give his meter strips. They had not been able to renew the bp medication as it was too soon by 2 weeks. I expressed surprise as I had received paperwork from our medical insurance company had said that early renewals were allowed. She went over the charges with me. I then called our insurance company and complained about the no early renewal and questioned what we had been charged for the medication in strips – apparently we had received the name brand version not the usual generic, hence the extra charge – only US$14 extra for the two of us – so not much, just wanted to know why. The other item that was a problem I knew what the problem was and it will work itself out and we get a refund of the overcharge.
So next week – I will call in his strips and his missing medication again and we will have to go there again to get them.
On Monday, husband decided that we needed to order more food. He had a list of what we needed. I had a list of what we needed – no they were not the same, but there were overlaps. He went online and put in an order from Walmart. I had expected what happened with BJs would happen with Walmart – order taken, but then contacted that most things out. No, Walmart listed items were in stock – some even said that were 3 or 5 or whatever low number were left in stock. The first items were to be delivered today, Wednesday. First item came yesterday! 6 boxes came today – 5 more items to come tomorrow – most items are coming sooner than told – that is good. A number of cans were dented (40%), some cardboard box packages were dented. Two bottle of cooking oil had been, we presume, jammed so hard into the box hat the top of them is bent and does not pop back up – maybe they will when they are opened. Husband emailed Walmart. They apologized and refunded the damaged cans. Not happy with the damaged items – but at least they stood behind the deliveries.
Again the boxes went into our side porch. I opened the boxes and wiped down each item with alcohol sprayed paper towel pieces and handed to husband. If we could open a box in the porch and dump the contents into a plastic box of ours- we did and tossed the boxes. After all this I then had to find “homes” for all we bought.
No refrigerated or frozen items. We will have to go out sometime in the next two weeks to buy additional meat items and frozen items – especially vegetables. Husband said so to me – I have been afraid to mention to him and have him go crazy.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When an emergency comes along life changes. Never thought we would ever order food delivered – but we need to avoid going out. One does what needs to do to adjust and live on.
Please make sure that you and your loved ones are safe and continue to be. Wear a mask when you go out – if you don't think you need one - it couldn't hurt could it? Stay away from others when outside – why take a chance? I want you to be reading – or ignoring – me for a long time to come.
For those in the U.S.- have a safe Memorial Day. For those who are veterans – Thank you for your service.
We had expected to see based on what we have seen on TV news shows and what I have heard on the various groups I read online that there would be a line to get into the Walmart (and the unrelated supermarket next to it) with one person coming out of the store and one going in, people going in and out of the store wearing masks – spread out and not near each other. As we sat waiting for our medications to be brought out – the Walmart looked more crowded than it does at Christmas!! No spacing of people coming out. Few people (other than employees) wearing masks – we were shocked. The supermarket did not have anyone at the entrance either, though it did seem emptier than the Walmart from outside. It was our first chance to see what was going “the world around here” and it was not what we expected, had seen on TV or heard from others online.
When we arrived home I stopped in the porch. I sprayed alcohol on pieces of paper towels and wiped down the medication bottles and handed them to husband in the kitchen. One medication which we each take was not in a bottle as usual – it was in boxes with strips of punch outs for the individual pills. I pulled the strips out of the boxes and did not wipe the strips, just handed to husband. The boxes, along with the paperwork for each med went into a zip plastic bag to hold for awhile. Husband's box of insulin pens, I should mention, was wiped down and put in the fridge first. As I went along I realized that we were missing two items – husband's blood meter strips (had mine) and one of his blood pressure pills – not the one that we had been told we had to wait for Thursday to get them. We also could not figure out the texted payment statement.
I telephoned the pharmacy – they had forgotten to give his meter strips. They had not been able to renew the bp medication as it was too soon by 2 weeks. I expressed surprise as I had received paperwork from our medical insurance company had said that early renewals were allowed. She went over the charges with me. I then called our insurance company and complained about the no early renewal and questioned what we had been charged for the medication in strips – apparently we had received the name brand version not the usual generic, hence the extra charge – only US$14 extra for the two of us – so not much, just wanted to know why. The other item that was a problem I knew what the problem was and it will work itself out and we get a refund of the overcharge.
So next week – I will call in his strips and his missing medication again and we will have to go there again to get them.
On Monday, husband decided that we needed to order more food. He had a list of what we needed. I had a list of what we needed – no they were not the same, but there were overlaps. He went online and put in an order from Walmart. I had expected what happened with BJs would happen with Walmart – order taken, but then contacted that most things out. No, Walmart listed items were in stock – some even said that were 3 or 5 or whatever low number were left in stock. The first items were to be delivered today, Wednesday. First item came yesterday! 6 boxes came today – 5 more items to come tomorrow – most items are coming sooner than told – that is good. A number of cans were dented (40%), some cardboard box packages were dented. Two bottle of cooking oil had been, we presume, jammed so hard into the box hat the top of them is bent and does not pop back up – maybe they will when they are opened. Husband emailed Walmart. They apologized and refunded the damaged cans. Not happy with the damaged items – but at least they stood behind the deliveries.
Again the boxes went into our side porch. I opened the boxes and wiped down each item with alcohol sprayed paper towel pieces and handed to husband. If we could open a box in the porch and dump the contents into a plastic box of ours- we did and tossed the boxes. After all this I then had to find “homes” for all we bought.
No refrigerated or frozen items. We will have to go out sometime in the next two weeks to buy additional meat items and frozen items – especially vegetables. Husband said so to me – I have been afraid to mention to him and have him go crazy.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When an emergency comes along life changes. Never thought we would ever order food delivered – but we need to avoid going out. One does what needs to do to adjust and live on.
Please make sure that you and your loved ones are safe and continue to be. Wear a mask when you go out – if you don't think you need one - it couldn't hurt could it? Stay away from others when outside – why take a chance? I want you to be reading – or ignoring – me for a long time to come.
For those in the U.S.- have a safe Memorial Day. For those who are veterans – Thank you for your service.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
COVID 19 #9 PATIENCE WITH ERRORS AND DELAYS
I hope that all and their loved ones continue to be well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
Thursday, December 12, 2019
REAL ESTATE TAX EXEMPTION PAPERWORK AND TEETH FOR HUSBAND
In our state, which has high taxes, being over 65, we are entitled to a senior exemption from part of our real estate taxes (which is a BIG amount) and since our school taxes are a separate real estate tax, we are also entitled to a partial exemption from same from our state. In speaking with friends in other counties this is handled by the local township, village, or city and is a simple process. In our county it is handled by the county and they seem to make it hard in an attempt to make it harder to obtain the exemption.
I understand that they have to make sure that those obtaining these credits are entitled to them but if I was not an accountant I would have a problem with the paperwork in past years and even more so this year.
First year we were entitled to the exemption I put together the info we seemed to need and we went to one of the meetings that the county holds in libraries around the county about the exemption. We need to fill in a form that is actually pretty straight forward. We also need to supply copies of W2s, 1099s etc. to prove our income – okay not too bad from the prior year . If our income was under the maximum amount allowed that would be all we need to do. My mom cannot understand why I scream about this process as she has a 1099 for interest, one for some small dividends and one from Social Security and that is all she needs to make copies of and send with her application form. Have I mentioned that the paperwork needs to be filed annually?
Since our income is higher than the maximum amount allowed, we need to provide our medical costs paid by us to bring our income under the maximum. Sounds easy, right, make copies of the checks or charge slips that paid our medical insurance, doctors, pharmacies, eyeglasses, etc.? No, they will not accept canceled checks or credit card slips as proof. We have to get a printout for the year from each of the medical insurance companies, doctors, etc. that we paid money to during the year. Pharmacy – no problem, the understood what we needed. (Maybe because they are in our state?) Dentist – no problem, he printed our our payments file. Medical Insurance companies – ha, ha, ha. I have now dealt with 3 of them trying to get printouts – and now have done so over multiple years. The first year I only had to get same from the one (ACA) insurance company we had both shared the year before. After several calls I finally had what I needed and I made a note of what they called it to help the following year. Second year I had to get same for us, and husband had switched to Medicare during the prior year – so I had to get printouts from his supplemental policy and his medications (Part D) policy as well. (Actual Medicare paid is shown on the Social Security form and they accept that.) Since this is all done towards the end of the year using information from a year before, when I got the info last year my Medical insurance co had also sent the payments for last year as I had already switched to Medicare and I held onto same for the filing this year. This year I managed to get the printout for our two medication policies on the first try. It took 4 tries – the last by mail with a copy of the printout that they sent last year - to get a copy of same from our supplemental policy company.
As, I mentioned the first year we were applying we went in and met with a person from the assessor''s office about this. https://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/10/dealing-with-county-bureaucracy.html In addition to all the paperwork that was listed and we had with us, they wanted other paperwork. The employee said that our income was too high. I pointed out that we have medical expenses that bring the income down and well into range. “But these have to be medical expenses that YOU pay, not someone else!” Who the heck else is paying our medical costs but us? She took the info we had and I get to get a form from IRS showing the W2s etc that they had on record for us also. (This is a very valuable form that I did not know about before this. A client of mine between moving and losing her husband had not filed her /their income taxes. She filed later ones, but not that one. I pushed her to her file it as she normally has a sizable refund due, but then she could not find the information forms she had been mailed – this form allowed us to get copies of them so her return could be prepared. In addition husband is having a fight with an online payment processor which wants proof of his corporation's “Social Security number” - it does not have one. They need a notice or bill sent within the past 6 months (umm, we pay on time, only if one has not paid would one get either – do they really want to do business with people who don't pay their bills?) showing the Social Security number. I sent away for this form as it shows the Business ID number of the business and will dated within 6 months – I hope that will resolve the matter.)
Last year since I knew what had to be done I collected the papers, made copies and we mailed them – certified mail – to the county over a month and a half in advance of the due date and relaxed waiting for the notice to be sent of the exemption we were entitled to. We received a robocall from the County Executive that we had filed for the program before, but had not filed for “this” (last) year yet. I had to take mom to the doctor and this office cannot be reached by telephone. I tried calling anyway, but got the usual - “We do not have time to speak to anyone. There is extremely limited parking here, so don't bother to come here.” message. (I am not exaggerating – that is how their phone is answered and there is a currently a movement by higher county officials to make them take calls.- the parking part is correct, it is almost impossible to park to go to them.) I tried again later in the day while mom was in with her doctor and there was a message that the call had been in error. Turns out that instead of calling 3000 something seniors, every one of 400,000 plus land owners had been called. Per the information on TV that night if one had a receipt from the assessor's office one was okay. There had been a line 2 hours plus long of people running in with the problem. The next day we made an additional copy of the application and all the attachments and drove there – husband dropped me off and drove about 5 blocks away to a store's parking lot to wait for me. They did have our application. They could not give me a receipt as it had been received by mail, but they did have it. And we did get our partial exemption. We decided that in the future I would walk the application in to them, while husband waited in car.
Knowing I would need all of this I started collecting and requesting the information earlier in the year this time and had it all ready for when we received the application in August. After we did all the rest of the problems that I have posted about with mom happened. I worked a bit on the exemption when I could. I thought that it would easy this third time, but they added to what they need. If one has business income (and we each have a very small professional business – both with losses in 2018 the year we are giving them for the 2020-2021 real estate tax year) one has to provide proof of all income and expenses. This actually turned out to be harder and more time consuming than any IRS or state (of 5 states I have done income taxes for) audit!!
Husband's was fairly straight forward – he gets paid through an online company and the printouts from same show the income and the fee taken from same. (His income was not high enough for a 1099 form last year.) 8 photocopies (he did not get paid every month) took care of the proof of income and of the fees paid to get paid. He had maybe 3 other expenses plus car expense and Internet expenses. I had a 1099 from one client and deposit slips plus copies of checks received from my other clients. I cannot reveal names of same so I blacked out all identifying income of clients. I have a variety of expenses – office supplies, exams I have to take, computer, subway etc plus my share of car expenses and Internet expenses. I had to copy every gas receipt, every repair receipt, car insurance, etc. for the car and also all of our Internet service bills. I then used the copy of the breakdown of the car expenses that I used for our tax return to show same and had to do a breakdown of our Internet service expenses for them. I scanned each page of the entire form and attachments into the computer as I added them to the stack of papers. I also wrote a summary of what was enclosed – that was 6 pages long – and put a title page on each of the sections of papers, plus a cover letter. I know I passed 180 pages!
Then I went to attach the papers to each other – I did not own a clip large enough and even my special “large stack of papers” stapler would not work. I ended up putting the application and main papers in one clipped package and the business income and expense proof in a second one.
I finished this over last weekend and we planned to take it this past Monday to the assessor's office as we wanted their receipt for it (plus it would cost a fortune to mail). So, last Friday husband's front tooth fell out. Our dentist retired and while we had 4 possibilities, we did not know who to go to. We are doing a colonial craft show this coming Saturday and he really needed this tooth replaced. We decided to go with a local office that we pass which has good reviews which has a lab in it and takes walkins. Husband had me call on Friday and the phone kept ringing. I finally called their office in the county west of us and was told that the office near us was closed until Monday. My already panicked husband was in that state all weekend. Remember – we planned to bring the application for the exemption to the county on Monday. Monday morning I started calling the dentist's office at 9:40 and it just rang. I called the other office again and was told that someone would be there by 10 am. I started calling at 10:10 and either the line was busy or it did not connect. I should mention that it was heavily raining. At 10:30 I called the other office again, apologized and explained. She said that she would have them call us. They did – they were having troubles with their lines. Big problem – dentist was away until the following Saturday (still 3 days away as I write this). I explained why we needed to come in. At last a break!!! The technician was in – Monday his only day – and he might be able to add the teeth (there was another one out and ignored while waiting for this front tooth to go) for us – but we would have to come right away. We did. Very nice receptionist and technician. After the inevitable paperwork the tech took a mold and we were told it would be ready by 2 pm – same day!! I went to the desk to pay for the work (much less than we thought it would cost), but due to the telephone lines problem, the credit card would not process. I was trying to figure out if we had enough in checking to cover the cost, when she decided to call the other office – she read the info to the lady there who had been of so much help and the receipt would be waiting for us to sign when returned.
It was just around noon. Husband decided that we should go to the assessors' office and deliver the paperwork. Of course when I was taking same with us as we left for the dentist, he told me to leave it home and we had to go home and get it. I had figured that the assessor's office would be jammed and we decided if I was not done by 1:30 I would leave so we get his teeth. (He has an older set that he was wearing.) I also figured that since it was lunch time it would be even worse as people would come during same and less employees would be working. I went in and there were less than 20 people ahead of me. (Texted husband same.)
At first I was amazed how fast it was going. One of the 3 employees working at this spent the entire time I was there with one woman who apparently had a real mess. One of them was seeing people, collecting paperwork that was right and seeing person after person. The third seemed to be a supervisor. I happened to be seated near him and could hear what was going on. There was a man there delivering papers for some other matter of the assessor's office and he was wasting time – he could not understand to give the employee the needed papers and had to go and make photocopies (they had a free machine in the room) – the employee then took a couple of people dropping off their exemption papers. Then the fellow came back – he kept asking if all the papers were right and the employee kept telling him that it was not his decision. The fellow went to make more copies. I turned to the employee and said “You have great patience.” He smiled back at and nodded. He then took someone again. He was about to take someone else, when the fellow came back. This threw the numbers off. He had been about to see #79 and it had disappeared off the list of numbers to call. He told the other employees to call that number, but they forgot and called #80 – who nicely let 79 go ahead of her. Then when they called 81- 80 went. There was then a discussion between the two regular employees – you take 81, I'll take 82 – me. But someone with something from before came back. I stayed near where they working to make sure that I was next.
The employee asked for the papers and I handed them to her and explained it was too large to put together - not for her – a rubber band around the two and a huge clip on top and it was done. She handed me a computer issued receipt and it was done!
As I was about to text to husband to come back to the building and pick me up – he texted asking if I was going to see someone soon. I texted back. He picked me up and we went back to the dentist.
The teeth were perfect! I signed the copy of the credit card slip, took our copy and we left. Two major problems resolved at the same time! And we now know of a dentist to go to.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When there is a huge problem – do it step by step. Expect that things will go wrong or be different than last you time you did the same thing. Take advantage of down time (in this case I had worked on finishing the exemption form in short bursts over the weekend between shopping for his younger niece's gift, meals out and movie night -plus the run to the assessor's office while waiting for his teeth). Somehow the work always seems to get done. The paperwork was due by January 2, but we wanted it in before the holidays.
I understand that they have to make sure that those obtaining these credits are entitled to them but if I was not an accountant I would have a problem with the paperwork in past years and even more so this year.
First year we were entitled to the exemption I put together the info we seemed to need and we went to one of the meetings that the county holds in libraries around the county about the exemption. We need to fill in a form that is actually pretty straight forward. We also need to supply copies of W2s, 1099s etc. to prove our income – okay not too bad from the prior year . If our income was under the maximum amount allowed that would be all we need to do. My mom cannot understand why I scream about this process as she has a 1099 for interest, one for some small dividends and one from Social Security and that is all she needs to make copies of and send with her application form. Have I mentioned that the paperwork needs to be filed annually?
Since our income is higher than the maximum amount allowed, we need to provide our medical costs paid by us to bring our income under the maximum. Sounds easy, right, make copies of the checks or charge slips that paid our medical insurance, doctors, pharmacies, eyeglasses, etc.? No, they will not accept canceled checks or credit card slips as proof. We have to get a printout for the year from each of the medical insurance companies, doctors, etc. that we paid money to during the year. Pharmacy – no problem, the understood what we needed. (Maybe because they are in our state?) Dentist – no problem, he printed our our payments file. Medical Insurance companies – ha, ha, ha. I have now dealt with 3 of them trying to get printouts – and now have done so over multiple years. The first year I only had to get same from the one (ACA) insurance company we had both shared the year before. After several calls I finally had what I needed and I made a note of what they called it to help the following year. Second year I had to get same for us, and husband had switched to Medicare during the prior year – so I had to get printouts from his supplemental policy and his medications (Part D) policy as well. (Actual Medicare paid is shown on the Social Security form and they accept that.) Since this is all done towards the end of the year using information from a year before, when I got the info last year my Medical insurance co had also sent the payments for last year as I had already switched to Medicare and I held onto same for the filing this year. This year I managed to get the printout for our two medication policies on the first try. It took 4 tries – the last by mail with a copy of the printout that they sent last year - to get a copy of same from our supplemental policy company.
As, I mentioned the first year we were applying we went in and met with a person from the assessor''s office about this. https://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/10/dealing-with-county-bureaucracy.html In addition to all the paperwork that was listed and we had with us, they wanted other paperwork. The employee said that our income was too high. I pointed out that we have medical expenses that bring the income down and well into range. “But these have to be medical expenses that YOU pay, not someone else!” Who the heck else is paying our medical costs but us? She took the info we had and I get to get a form from IRS showing the W2s etc that they had on record for us also. (This is a very valuable form that I did not know about before this. A client of mine between moving and losing her husband had not filed her /their income taxes. She filed later ones, but not that one. I pushed her to her file it as she normally has a sizable refund due, but then she could not find the information forms she had been mailed – this form allowed us to get copies of them so her return could be prepared. In addition husband is having a fight with an online payment processor which wants proof of his corporation's “Social Security number” - it does not have one. They need a notice or bill sent within the past 6 months (umm, we pay on time, only if one has not paid would one get either – do they really want to do business with people who don't pay their bills?) showing the Social Security number. I sent away for this form as it shows the Business ID number of the business and will dated within 6 months – I hope that will resolve the matter.)
Last year since I knew what had to be done I collected the papers, made copies and we mailed them – certified mail – to the county over a month and a half in advance of the due date and relaxed waiting for the notice to be sent of the exemption we were entitled to. We received a robocall from the County Executive that we had filed for the program before, but had not filed for “this” (last) year yet. I had to take mom to the doctor and this office cannot be reached by telephone. I tried calling anyway, but got the usual - “We do not have time to speak to anyone. There is extremely limited parking here, so don't bother to come here.” message. (I am not exaggerating – that is how their phone is answered and there is a currently a movement by higher county officials to make them take calls.- the parking part is correct, it is almost impossible to park to go to them.) I tried again later in the day while mom was in with her doctor and there was a message that the call had been in error. Turns out that instead of calling 3000 something seniors, every one of 400,000 plus land owners had been called. Per the information on TV that night if one had a receipt from the assessor's office one was okay. There had been a line 2 hours plus long of people running in with the problem. The next day we made an additional copy of the application and all the attachments and drove there – husband dropped me off and drove about 5 blocks away to a store's parking lot to wait for me. They did have our application. They could not give me a receipt as it had been received by mail, but they did have it. And we did get our partial exemption. We decided that in the future I would walk the application in to them, while husband waited in car.
Knowing I would need all of this I started collecting and requesting the information earlier in the year this time and had it all ready for when we received the application in August. After we did all the rest of the problems that I have posted about with mom happened. I worked a bit on the exemption when I could. I thought that it would easy this third time, but they added to what they need. If one has business income (and we each have a very small professional business – both with losses in 2018 the year we are giving them for the 2020-2021 real estate tax year) one has to provide proof of all income and expenses. This actually turned out to be harder and more time consuming than any IRS or state (of 5 states I have done income taxes for) audit!!
Husband's was fairly straight forward – he gets paid through an online company and the printouts from same show the income and the fee taken from same. (His income was not high enough for a 1099 form last year.) 8 photocopies (he did not get paid every month) took care of the proof of income and of the fees paid to get paid. He had maybe 3 other expenses plus car expense and Internet expenses. I had a 1099 from one client and deposit slips plus copies of checks received from my other clients. I cannot reveal names of same so I blacked out all identifying income of clients. I have a variety of expenses – office supplies, exams I have to take, computer, subway etc plus my share of car expenses and Internet expenses. I had to copy every gas receipt, every repair receipt, car insurance, etc. for the car and also all of our Internet service bills. I then used the copy of the breakdown of the car expenses that I used for our tax return to show same and had to do a breakdown of our Internet service expenses for them. I scanned each page of the entire form and attachments into the computer as I added them to the stack of papers. I also wrote a summary of what was enclosed – that was 6 pages long – and put a title page on each of the sections of papers, plus a cover letter. I know I passed 180 pages!
Then I went to attach the papers to each other – I did not own a clip large enough and even my special “large stack of papers” stapler would not work. I ended up putting the application and main papers in one clipped package and the business income and expense proof in a second one.
I finished this over last weekend and we planned to take it this past Monday to the assessor's office as we wanted their receipt for it (plus it would cost a fortune to mail). So, last Friday husband's front tooth fell out. Our dentist retired and while we had 4 possibilities, we did not know who to go to. We are doing a colonial craft show this coming Saturday and he really needed this tooth replaced. We decided to go with a local office that we pass which has good reviews which has a lab in it and takes walkins. Husband had me call on Friday and the phone kept ringing. I finally called their office in the county west of us and was told that the office near us was closed until Monday. My already panicked husband was in that state all weekend. Remember – we planned to bring the application for the exemption to the county on Monday. Monday morning I started calling the dentist's office at 9:40 and it just rang. I called the other office again and was told that someone would be there by 10 am. I started calling at 10:10 and either the line was busy or it did not connect. I should mention that it was heavily raining. At 10:30 I called the other office again, apologized and explained. She said that she would have them call us. They did – they were having troubles with their lines. Big problem – dentist was away until the following Saturday (still 3 days away as I write this). I explained why we needed to come in. At last a break!!! The technician was in – Monday his only day – and he might be able to add the teeth (there was another one out and ignored while waiting for this front tooth to go) for us – but we would have to come right away. We did. Very nice receptionist and technician. After the inevitable paperwork the tech took a mold and we were told it would be ready by 2 pm – same day!! I went to the desk to pay for the work (much less than we thought it would cost), but due to the telephone lines problem, the credit card would not process. I was trying to figure out if we had enough in checking to cover the cost, when she decided to call the other office – she read the info to the lady there who had been of so much help and the receipt would be waiting for us to sign when returned.
It was just around noon. Husband decided that we should go to the assessors' office and deliver the paperwork. Of course when I was taking same with us as we left for the dentist, he told me to leave it home and we had to go home and get it. I had figured that the assessor's office would be jammed and we decided if I was not done by 1:30 I would leave so we get his teeth. (He has an older set that he was wearing.) I also figured that since it was lunch time it would be even worse as people would come during same and less employees would be working. I went in and there were less than 20 people ahead of me. (Texted husband same.)
At first I was amazed how fast it was going. One of the 3 employees working at this spent the entire time I was there with one woman who apparently had a real mess. One of them was seeing people, collecting paperwork that was right and seeing person after person. The third seemed to be a supervisor. I happened to be seated near him and could hear what was going on. There was a man there delivering papers for some other matter of the assessor's office and he was wasting time – he could not understand to give the employee the needed papers and had to go and make photocopies (they had a free machine in the room) – the employee then took a couple of people dropping off their exemption papers. Then the fellow came back – he kept asking if all the papers were right and the employee kept telling him that it was not his decision. The fellow went to make more copies. I turned to the employee and said “You have great patience.” He smiled back at and nodded. He then took someone again. He was about to take someone else, when the fellow came back. This threw the numbers off. He had been about to see #79 and it had disappeared off the list of numbers to call. He told the other employees to call that number, but they forgot and called #80 – who nicely let 79 go ahead of her. Then when they called 81- 80 went. There was then a discussion between the two regular employees – you take 81, I'll take 82 – me. But someone with something from before came back. I stayed near where they working to make sure that I was next.
The employee asked for the papers and I handed them to her and explained it was too large to put together - not for her – a rubber band around the two and a huge clip on top and it was done. She handed me a computer issued receipt and it was done!
As I was about to text to husband to come back to the building and pick me up – he texted asking if I was going to see someone soon. I texted back. He picked me up and we went back to the dentist.
The teeth were perfect! I signed the copy of the credit card slip, took our copy and we left. Two major problems resolved at the same time! And we now know of a dentist to go to.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When there is a huge problem – do it step by step. Expect that things will go wrong or be different than last you time you did the same thing. Take advantage of down time (in this case I had worked on finishing the exemption form in short bursts over the weekend between shopping for his younger niece's gift, meals out and movie night -plus the run to the assessor's office while waiting for his teeth). Somehow the work always seems to get done. The paperwork was due by January 2, but we wanted it in before the holidays.
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, May 2, 2019
CATCHING UP A BIT
Yesterday we took mom to the doctor and it worked better than we anticipated. One problem was that the medication she had been placed on is out of stock - everywhere. I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon calling pharmacies. The doctor called the pharmacy he uses. None. But his pharmacy suggested a compounding pharmacy. If you don’t know what this is - it is a pharmacy that mixes medications as needed. For example - a child has to take a liquid medication but won’t take cherry flavor medications - they can mix up the same actual medication with a different flavor. In our case they can mix up and make pills for mom of the medication she can’t get - at a price of course, and insurance not accepted. Worth the extra money for her to have medication - plus they delivered it to her today so we did not have to get it and then travel to her to give it to her. We also have an appointment with a specialist for 2 weeks from now and that doctor will be better able to adjust her medications.
Night before last (Monday night) husband printed up the pictures of samplers that I had found for the talk I gave today. I spent last evening putting the photos into plastic holders and printing up information about them - each one had a paper in the back explaining about the picture - and a number for the order they should be in (in case I dropped them). Some had only a descriptive title and date - others had a full page of information. I then had to write up my treasurer’s report and an agenda as I was not sure if I or the secretary was going to run the meeting since neither president or VP would be there. I also printed up a membership list for the membership chair as it is renewal time for our group.
When I finished the talk this morning - which was very well received - I felt so good. I had gotten through the mess of everything one after another by staying calm and getting each day’s work done and preparing the night before where we could. We have another problem coming up with Sunday, but we have ways of working around the problem - and if we know in advance that it is going to rain on Sunday and where we are to go will be canceled - that would resolve the problem.
On my way back from the meeting today I went to the post office and picked up the mail - only one ad, as we did not get to our box yesterday. I then went to the pharmacy and picked up husband’s prescriptions as one has to be refrigerated and we also had to go and buy food that also needed to be kept cold and did not want to have either sit in the car as we bought the other. I then came home and we went out for lunch and shopping.
I had the rest of this afternoon through Saturday to catch up. I went through one of three piles on my desk - scan, enter into computer, to do. I first worked on the paperwork from some new members in our reenactment unit - two of them also joined our national group and now their paperwork is done and ready to be mailed to national.
I paid some bills for us and worked out what money has to be transferred where to pay them. I did some other small tasks that needed to be done. The to do pile is now down to one thing to do.
I normally put out the garbage from the kitchen on Sunday night for Monday morning pickup but did not have a chance to do so. I put it tonight along with our upstairs garbage which would normally go out on Wednesday night (tonight) for Thursday morning pickup.
Husband is finishing up a weaving project and has had a section of the kitchen in use by him, but he moved it all so I could go down to the basement and put in a load of laundry to wash.
I actually feel with all of this as if I accomplished something!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Tasks in general tend to work out better than one fears in advance. If one goes ahead and does what one needs to do - it is amazing how well it all can go sometimes and then one is done with whatever the original problem was. Go ahead - start the task and see how it goes. Doing nothing is generally not an option and it will probably work out better than you think it will!
Night before last (Monday night) husband printed up the pictures of samplers that I had found for the talk I gave today. I spent last evening putting the photos into plastic holders and printing up information about them - each one had a paper in the back explaining about the picture - and a number for the order they should be in (in case I dropped them). Some had only a descriptive title and date - others had a full page of information. I then had to write up my treasurer’s report and an agenda as I was not sure if I or the secretary was going to run the meeting since neither president or VP would be there. I also printed up a membership list for the membership chair as it is renewal time for our group.
When I finished the talk this morning - which was very well received - I felt so good. I had gotten through the mess of everything one after another by staying calm and getting each day’s work done and preparing the night before where we could. We have another problem coming up with Sunday, but we have ways of working around the problem - and if we know in advance that it is going to rain on Sunday and where we are to go will be canceled - that would resolve the problem.
On my way back from the meeting today I went to the post office and picked up the mail - only one ad, as we did not get to our box yesterday. I then went to the pharmacy and picked up husband’s prescriptions as one has to be refrigerated and we also had to go and buy food that also needed to be kept cold and did not want to have either sit in the car as we bought the other. I then came home and we went out for lunch and shopping.
I had the rest of this afternoon through Saturday to catch up. I went through one of three piles on my desk - scan, enter into computer, to do. I first worked on the paperwork from some new members in our reenactment unit - two of them also joined our national group and now their paperwork is done and ready to be mailed to national.
I paid some bills for us and worked out what money has to be transferred where to pay them. I did some other small tasks that needed to be done. The to do pile is now down to one thing to do.
I normally put out the garbage from the kitchen on Sunday night for Monday morning pickup but did not have a chance to do so. I put it tonight along with our upstairs garbage which would normally go out on Wednesday night (tonight) for Thursday morning pickup.
Husband is finishing up a weaving project and has had a section of the kitchen in use by him, but he moved it all so I could go down to the basement and put in a load of laundry to wash.
I actually feel with all of this as if I accomplished something!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Tasks in general tend to work out better than one fears in advance. If one goes ahead and does what one needs to do - it is amazing how well it all can go sometimes and then one is done with whatever the original problem was. Go ahead - start the task and see how it goes. Doing nothing is generally not an option and it will probably work out better than you think it will!
Thursday, March 14, 2019
INCOME TAXES ARE DUE IN A MONTH
Here in the US it is that time of year again - tax season. This year there is even more pressure due to the changes in the tax law and the resulting changes in tax forms. (If you are here in the US and you have not seen the new forms - they are small, at least for the 2 main pages.) Some of you may find that your taxes are lower - others will find that they are higher - and I don’t mean your refund, I mean your actual taxes. Don’t forget, you have an actual tax amount that is calculated by filling in your tax form, then subtracting from that amount the amount you prepaid during the year - through withholding and/or payment of estimated. So if one’s withholding, say from one’s paycheck - the common thing from which most people have withholding taken - is more than it has been, one will either be overpaid more than usual and get a refund or owe less than usual and pay in less - but one’s actual tax - the total of the amounts withheld, paid as estimates and any amount due (or less any amount withheld) is your actual tax amount. Does that make sense? Due to the changes many people will have had less withheld from their paycheck - so if their tax is the same as last year’s - they will either owe more or receive less as a refund, even though their tax is the same.
Supposedly most people will be paying less in actual tax (the total mentioned above), but many will not. A client of mine is retired and in the past paid no income tax due to high itemized deductions. This year due to the changes I estimate that his poor man will be paying around $600 in taxes. IRS has an online calculator to check one’s withholding and I had used it during 2018 to check all of my clients (and my) taxes with it, and this calculation is done using same.
He is retired. His income is almost entirely Social Security. His deductions should be the same as last year. How come his taxes are higher than before? Well, the information about the changes left out some things - one of them is that is in past years each person was entitled to a personal exemption of (in recent years) just over $4000. They were eliminated in the changes.
What does this mean? If one has always filed using standard deduction then one was entitled the standard deduction plus a personal exemption for themselves plus same for each person they were taking as dependants, plus their spouse (on the same return filing jointly or their own return if filing married separately). So a couple was entitled to exemptions totaling $8000, a family of 4 was entitled to exemption totaling $16,000 and those exemptions no longer exist. If one is taking the new standard deduction and one is single with no dependants than their new standard deduction is more than last year’s standard deduction plus exemption , but if they have any dependants - such as a single mom with a child, it is less than same was. Similarly, a couple with no dependants will find that the new standard deduction for same is more than the old standard deduction plus their 2 personal exemptions totaled, but if they have additional dependants - children and/or elderly parent for example - the new standard deduction will be less than the old one plus their personal exemptions were.
Now, if one has been itemizing deductions they were also entitled to the personal exemptions, and are no longer entitled to same, but since they listed their actual deductible expenses they do not pick up anything additional to replace their lost personal exemptions. In addition a variety of items which were deductible in the past in a category of “other deductions” if the category was more than 2% of their income are no longer deductible. Depending on where they live they may also be losing part of their state income tax/real estate deduction. Now, it is possible that the new standard deductions might be higher than their itemized deductions and they can take same as deduction, but chances are that even if this is the case, it will still be less than they were able to deduct last year as itemized deductions plus personal exemptions - whether they have other dependants or not.
So, this year make sure to gather your related tax papers - W2 forms, assorted 1099 forms, forms from any other income you have - such as K1s and records of other any other income you have to list. Then make sure that you have all of your deductions - medical (insurance premiums, copayments, deductible payments, doctors, prescriptions, etc. ), taxes - real estate, state & local income taxes (still allowed up to $10,000), interest on your mortgage, and charitable contributions. (Medical is still limited to same in excess of a certain amount). Make sure that you check carefully with your tax preparer as to what else you should include this year. Don’t wait until the time to file is about to approach (only just over a month left) in case you have any questions or find that you need to come up with money to pay income taxes that you did not anticipate paying. If you due your own returns - leave extra time to figure out the new forms. There are some programs that will help one prepare their taxes (free) if you need help including one called VITA from IRS that uses volunteers to help people.
Your state income tax forms may have been changed also as a result of the Federal changes. The state I live in has traditionally used the Federal return information as a start and one then made changes to it. This year those changes include allowing some of the items no longer allowed on the Federal return (such as real estate taxes in excess of $10,000) and will have extra forms to fill in for same also.
And this is a good time to decide to do better to have your paperwork organized for next year when tax season comes again.
Past posts on income taxes that may be of interest to you -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-1.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-2.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/04/holidays-and-taxes-unrelated-subjects.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/02/income-taxes-are-here-again.html
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Take the time to put together your tax papers properly and completely now, while there is time to find missing information or get it replaced. If you have someone do your income taxes - contact them soon about having your taxes done. If you do your own - leave extra time this year to figure the changes that have been made and how they affect you.
As you put together the paperwork - think about what you can do to make next year’s taxes either
to do.
Again, this is general information and not tax preparation information related to you. Check with your tax preparer about your specific information needed.
Supposedly most people will be paying less in actual tax (the total mentioned above), but many will not. A client of mine is retired and in the past paid no income tax due to high itemized deductions. This year due to the changes I estimate that his poor man will be paying around $600 in taxes. IRS has an online calculator to check one’s withholding and I had used it during 2018 to check all of my clients (and my) taxes with it, and this calculation is done using same.
He is retired. His income is almost entirely Social Security. His deductions should be the same as last year. How come his taxes are higher than before? Well, the information about the changes left out some things - one of them is that is in past years each person was entitled to a personal exemption of (in recent years) just over $4000. They were eliminated in the changes.
What does this mean? If one has always filed using standard deduction then one was entitled the standard deduction plus a personal exemption for themselves plus same for each person they were taking as dependants, plus their spouse (on the same return filing jointly or their own return if filing married separately). So a couple was entitled to exemptions totaling $8000, a family of 4 was entitled to exemption totaling $16,000 and those exemptions no longer exist. If one is taking the new standard deduction and one is single with no dependants than their new standard deduction is more than last year’s standard deduction plus exemption , but if they have any dependants - such as a single mom with a child, it is less than same was. Similarly, a couple with no dependants will find that the new standard deduction for same is more than the old standard deduction plus their 2 personal exemptions totaled, but if they have additional dependants - children and/or elderly parent for example - the new standard deduction will be less than the old one plus their personal exemptions were.
Now, if one has been itemizing deductions they were also entitled to the personal exemptions, and are no longer entitled to same, but since they listed their actual deductible expenses they do not pick up anything additional to replace their lost personal exemptions. In addition a variety of items which were deductible in the past in a category of “other deductions” if the category was more than 2% of their income are no longer deductible. Depending on where they live they may also be losing part of their state income tax/real estate deduction. Now, it is possible that the new standard deductions might be higher than their itemized deductions and they can take same as deduction, but chances are that even if this is the case, it will still be less than they were able to deduct last year as itemized deductions plus personal exemptions - whether they have other dependants or not.
So, this year make sure to gather your related tax papers - W2 forms, assorted 1099 forms, forms from any other income you have - such as K1s and records of other any other income you have to list. Then make sure that you have all of your deductions - medical (insurance premiums, copayments, deductible payments, doctors, prescriptions, etc. ), taxes - real estate, state & local income taxes (still allowed up to $10,000), interest on your mortgage, and charitable contributions. (Medical is still limited to same in excess of a certain amount). Make sure that you check carefully with your tax preparer as to what else you should include this year. Don’t wait until the time to file is about to approach (only just over a month left) in case you have any questions or find that you need to come up with money to pay income taxes that you did not anticipate paying. If you due your own returns - leave extra time to figure out the new forms. There are some programs that will help one prepare their taxes (free) if you need help including one called VITA from IRS that uses volunteers to help people.
Your state income tax forms may have been changed also as a result of the Federal changes. The state I live in has traditionally used the Federal return information as a start and one then made changes to it. This year those changes include allowing some of the items no longer allowed on the Federal return (such as real estate taxes in excess of $10,000) and will have extra forms to fill in for same also.
And this is a good time to decide to do better to have your paperwork organized for next year when tax season comes again.
Past posts on income taxes that may be of interest to you -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-1.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-2.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/04/holidays-and-taxes-unrelated-subjects.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/02/income-taxes-are-here-again.html
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Take the time to put together your tax papers properly and completely now, while there is time to find missing information or get it replaced. If you have someone do your income taxes - contact them soon about having your taxes done. If you do your own - leave extra time this year to figure the changes that have been made and how they affect you.
As you put together the paperwork - think about what you can do to make next year’s taxes either
to do.
Again, this is general information and not tax preparation information related to you. Check with your tax preparer about your specific information needed.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
1775 CHRISTMAS FOLLOWED BY 2019 NEW YEAR'S
Last week I was talking about getting the Christmas decorations finished, our holiday celebrations, and going “back” to 1775 for a candlelight Christmas event at a restoration village. When we went back this past Thursday we found out that there were 1500 people through the village last Saturday night and 2200 people last Sunday night - and Sunday night they turned people away for lack of parking. Makes one feel popular - even if the people are coming for the overall event - not us specifically. As a result for the second weekend they made arrangements for off site parking and school buses to go back and forth.
Thursday and Saturday this week there were so many people waiting to come into the restoration that they let them come in early - event is suppose to start at 5 pm and they have an opening parade at 5:15, so we don’t get many people before then. Both nights people were coming in at 4:30 pm (and they can not just wander in, they have to be let in). Unfortunately since no one had informed us of this -or even the possibility of this - we were not ready for the public yet when they started to walk in. Talk about looking disorganized! We made our apologies and asked people to come back later. I ended up starting to give the tour at the door as people wandered in as the fellows normally there were not in place yet, and when they were ready, I followed the crowd in to where I needed to be. On Saturday night I needed a last minute trip to what was called in 1775 “the necessary”, even though I had stopped in the ladies room in the visitor’s center before we walked out to the house. I went to the one out in the restoration and noticed other buildings having the same problem - one small house was letting people in, other larger ones (take longer to get setup for the evening) had a person out on the porch - door to the building closed - talking to the people who were waiting. I made note of same and told husband about it in case we have the same problem in the future. We had a huge crowd already in our house and I again had to follow the crowd into the kitchen - while removing my modern winter jacket and trying to scrunch it down small enough that it would not be noticed.. Husband had asked our unit commander to man (“woman”?) the kitchen until I was there and he was doing a good job when I arrived - but was glad to go back to music and singing and talking about “guy” things. We don’t have counts yet for those nights, but I am guessing they were crowded than the week before. They, again, canceled the event for Friday night as, again, there was a huge rain storm.
With the event behind us we realized that we had no plans for New Year’s. Husband decided that we (I) would attempt to make chicken pie from partial things - premade pie shells, chicken purchased cooked and cut in small piece, canned cream of chicken soup for the sauce for New Year’s Eve dinner. Worked relatively well and did not get either of us sick.
New Year’s Day I finally had a chance to work on setting up my teddy village for winter. It is mostly done at this point - I need to fix some mini-Christmas lights whose strand is out and I need to get some button batteries for some of the lights in the village. We went out in the evening for dinner at the Asian buffet we go to on weekends.
Not a big exciting holiday, but as I have posted many times - every day is the start of a new year.
Today was my embroidery chapter meeting. Last night husband - whose arm and shoulder were finally doing well - fell coming down the stairs to wash his hair in the kitchen sink. (Due to a bad cold he did not want to take a shower as the house is drafty.) He scrapped some skin off one leg - a problem as he is Diabetic and also he cannot use normal band aid type bandages on his legs - but I bandaged it up for him. His knee and arm hurts and he keeps worrying that he broke something - they look okay to me - not bruised, not swollen, no bone looks or feels out of place.) So after the meeting I came home and did not have a day out alone - in exchange, as he asked me to do this - he had to join me in my normal errands for this day each month as I don’t want to let the empty soda bottles pile up.
While I was waiting for him to get ready to go out I made some phone calls - I had a bill from medical lab as they must not have had my new medical insurance - I called and the hold wait ran too long. I filled in the info on the form and will mail it to them tomorrow. I then called the company from who I had ordered new checks for our reenactment unit - they spelled the name of the organization wrong and they will send out us new checks - glad I ordered them long before we need the new checks. (Once again, I had to do something twice - what is going on with everyone right now?) I also called our heating oil company. This company gets odder and odder. Last year or the year before our company joined another company and the other company is in charge (I may have mentioned chasing them down to try to get them to do the pre-season cleaning of the furnace, which they did not do last year either - and they cannot come until the end of February when the season is well along and heading for the end in a month or so.) Our original company would leave a receipt when they delivered oil and then send us an invoice. This second company would leave an invoice for us to pay as the receipt. Well, just before Christmas a large oil company in this area delivered oil to us - not either of the ones that we have dealt with. They left an “invoice” that did not say how much we owed them and said that a final invoice would be coming. So I called them today to find out when the invoice would be here. Total confusion - “Didn’t they leave an invoice?” I explained and pointed out that I don’t know who the company who delivered is (I was talking to the second company that we have had). “Well, I guess than they should have mailed an invoice to you.” I held my tongue and did not get sarcastic and reply “You think so?” They are sending me an invoice. If I had any question about changing companies next year - this resolved it.
Hopefully we will have a couple of quiet days to catch up. Husband is again thinking of a trip on Friday to Lancaster, PA - but I know how well his plans for same in the recent past have worked out (not at all). Though if we go with the RV he can buy some food items not available here and maybe he will enjoy dinner a bit more than he does.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
The start of a new year is good time to take stock of where one is and what one wants to do. I make no resolutions as they are never kept (except my last one to never make a resolution again). If you want to change things think about what you want to change and how to do so. It is better to think in this manner, I find, than to make grand resolutions and then find that they cannot or are not kept one feels bad. If it was just one or two specific things - one might actually get them done and if not, it is just a hope to get something done and one does not feel as much as a failure than not keeping a “resolution”. Resolutions are large things - work on small things and the large things will fall into place on their own.
Thursday and Saturday this week there were so many people waiting to come into the restoration that they let them come in early - event is suppose to start at 5 pm and they have an opening parade at 5:15, so we don’t get many people before then. Both nights people were coming in at 4:30 pm (and they can not just wander in, they have to be let in). Unfortunately since no one had informed us of this -or even the possibility of this - we were not ready for the public yet when they started to walk in. Talk about looking disorganized! We made our apologies and asked people to come back later. I ended up starting to give the tour at the door as people wandered in as the fellows normally there were not in place yet, and when they were ready, I followed the crowd in to where I needed to be. On Saturday night I needed a last minute trip to what was called in 1775 “the necessary”, even though I had stopped in the ladies room in the visitor’s center before we walked out to the house. I went to the one out in the restoration and noticed other buildings having the same problem - one small house was letting people in, other larger ones (take longer to get setup for the evening) had a person out on the porch - door to the building closed - talking to the people who were waiting. I made note of same and told husband about it in case we have the same problem in the future. We had a huge crowd already in our house and I again had to follow the crowd into the kitchen - while removing my modern winter jacket and trying to scrunch it down small enough that it would not be noticed.. Husband had asked our unit commander to man (“woman”?) the kitchen until I was there and he was doing a good job when I arrived - but was glad to go back to music and singing and talking about “guy” things. We don’t have counts yet for those nights, but I am guessing they were crowded than the week before. They, again, canceled the event for Friday night as, again, there was a huge rain storm.
With the event behind us we realized that we had no plans for New Year’s. Husband decided that we (I) would attempt to make chicken pie from partial things - premade pie shells, chicken purchased cooked and cut in small piece, canned cream of chicken soup for the sauce for New Year’s Eve dinner. Worked relatively well and did not get either of us sick.
New Year’s Day I finally had a chance to work on setting up my teddy village for winter. It is mostly done at this point - I need to fix some mini-Christmas lights whose strand is out and I need to get some button batteries for some of the lights in the village. We went out in the evening for dinner at the Asian buffet we go to on weekends.
Not a big exciting holiday, but as I have posted many times - every day is the start of a new year.
Today was my embroidery chapter meeting. Last night husband - whose arm and shoulder were finally doing well - fell coming down the stairs to wash his hair in the kitchen sink. (Due to a bad cold he did not want to take a shower as the house is drafty.) He scrapped some skin off one leg - a problem as he is Diabetic and also he cannot use normal band aid type bandages on his legs - but I bandaged it up for him. His knee and arm hurts and he keeps worrying that he broke something - they look okay to me - not bruised, not swollen, no bone looks or feels out of place.) So after the meeting I came home and did not have a day out alone - in exchange, as he asked me to do this - he had to join me in my normal errands for this day each month as I don’t want to let the empty soda bottles pile up.
While I was waiting for him to get ready to go out I made some phone calls - I had a bill from medical lab as they must not have had my new medical insurance - I called and the hold wait ran too long. I filled in the info on the form and will mail it to them tomorrow. I then called the company from who I had ordered new checks for our reenactment unit - they spelled the name of the organization wrong and they will send out us new checks - glad I ordered them long before we need the new checks. (Once again, I had to do something twice - what is going on with everyone right now?) I also called our heating oil company. This company gets odder and odder. Last year or the year before our company joined another company and the other company is in charge (I may have mentioned chasing them down to try to get them to do the pre-season cleaning of the furnace, which they did not do last year either - and they cannot come until the end of February when the season is well along and heading for the end in a month or so.) Our original company would leave a receipt when they delivered oil and then send us an invoice. This second company would leave an invoice for us to pay as the receipt. Well, just before Christmas a large oil company in this area delivered oil to us - not either of the ones that we have dealt with. They left an “invoice” that did not say how much we owed them and said that a final invoice would be coming. So I called them today to find out when the invoice would be here. Total confusion - “Didn’t they leave an invoice?” I explained and pointed out that I don’t know who the company who delivered is (I was talking to the second company that we have had). “Well, I guess than they should have mailed an invoice to you.” I held my tongue and did not get sarcastic and reply “You think so?” They are sending me an invoice. If I had any question about changing companies next year - this resolved it.
Hopefully we will have a couple of quiet days to catch up. Husband is again thinking of a trip on Friday to Lancaster, PA - but I know how well his plans for same in the recent past have worked out (not at all). Though if we go with the RV he can buy some food items not available here and maybe he will enjoy dinner a bit more than he does.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
The start of a new year is good time to take stock of where one is and what one wants to do. I make no resolutions as they are never kept (except my last one to never make a resolution again). If you want to change things think about what you want to change and how to do so. It is better to think in this manner, I find, than to make grand resolutions and then find that they cannot or are not kept one feels bad. If it was just one or two specific things - one might actually get them done and if not, it is just a hope to get something done and one does not feel as much as a failure than not keeping a “resolution”. Resolutions are large things - work on small things and the large things will fall into place on their own.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
PROCRASTINATION
I have been making phone calls that have been sitting waiting to be done as long as we have been in the house.
When we picked up our prescriptions after going to doctor one of mine came up showing I owed $45 on it - it is suppose to be covered in full by my insurance. I had expected a $5 charge as husband had when he picked up this prescription for the first time on this insurance, which was later refunded to us as he did not owe it - but $45? Pharmacist said that I had to talk to the company, so I finally had a chance today. They don’t know why - they have to talk to, yes, the pharmacist about it! So next time we go in I have to tell them to call the insurance company about it. Both husband and I have the same prescription, so I am taking some of his in the meantime (90 day renewal, so there are enough for now until this is resolved).
I also called about the annual service for our furnace. We used to be called by the company each year to have this done - often in the spring or early summer. When I went looking to see when the last service had been done it was done in October 2016! 2 years with no service on the furnace, not only we did pay for the service last year as part of our service contract and did not get what we paid for - one of the things done in the service is to check for carbon monoxide. So I finally called yesterday to find out what was going on and to make an appointment. The cheerful voice on the other end told me that it was no trouble to make the appointment for the service - the next one is February 26! I repeated the date to her with emphasis on the February and she said yes. A conversation then followed about why have they not called us to do the service and I was told that it is my responsibility - never was before - why now? The company was joined into another company and the new company has its own rules, but never told us about the change. We buy our oil and have our furnace contract through membership in a non-profit co-op group and I have written letter complaining to same - after greatly complementing the old company which gave us great service and helped us out with two emergencies over the years, oh wait, I just remembered a 3rd emergency they helped us with. I mentioned that my mother-in-law had a different oil company and the water tank for her furnace fell on it and broke it. Her company told her that they don’t do replacements - too bad. I called ours and within 3 days she had a new furnace installed - and they had a new customer. A couple of years ago I found an oil leak in our oil tank - in our basement - at 1 am on a Friday night. Someone was sent to plug the leak. A huge snow storm was to hit on Monday - over the weekend a new oil tank was installed. The one I forgot was about 15 years ago our hot water heater (which is natural gas not oil and not serviced by this company) died and flooded the basement also on a Friday night. We had plans for Saturday and husband saw our plans gone and us spending the day shopping and making arrangements for a new water heater. I figured I had nothing to lose and called our oil company - by 1pm we had a new water heater installed and we were off to do what we planned to do - late, but with plenty of time. What a difference between the old and new company.
I have to make a call tomorrow - I had been called by the parks department that my embroidery group gets a room from for meetings. I telephoned the woman back, got her voice mail, and left the information she requested - an email address. It is time to do the renewal paperwork for the meeting room for next year and I figured I would be receiving it by email (and the town would save the cost of mailing it), but I have not heard back from her and will try calling her again and ask if she has the information to please either leave a message on my phone or send an email so I know she has it.
On the other hand, I waited too long to call about my eyeglasses. Last year (2017) in June I bought new eyeglasses which change in the sun to sunglasses. I have had glasses like these for decades and never had a problem with them. These did not change. At first I figured they needed some time - this has happened in the past - then suddenly it was this July. I went back to the optician and was told it was past the one year for the warranty. He did try to help me and said that the glasses changed a bit under his lights and I should try putting them in the freezer overnight. I thought this strange, but saw it in articles and tried it. First time the glasses changed to the lightest shade of grey. Tried two more times and nothing happened. He had told me to call him if it did not work. Due to procrastination and life I did not have a chance to call him - until I was stuck in the house with husband - 3 months after I had been in. So, now I have a spare of eyeglasses which do not change color - just stay the lightest bit of yellow and I will have to decide if I want to spend all that money again on a new pair that changes color and make sure it does or go back right away. I figure I will wait until just before spring to decide as I won’t need them during the winter.
I also have to call our eye doctor and make an appointment for both of us to see him. I had planned to call just about when all this happened last month. Appointments for routine eye exams are usually about a month after I call. Now I have a problem. I am not sure if husband can deal with driving out to him - about 45 minutes to an hour - followed by our going to stores slightly further out near the doctor and walking around for a few hours until the eye drops wear off. I hate to make appointments and then have to cancel them - but then again, if wait until January there may be snow and that would be a problem to drive out there in same.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Try not to procrastinate - we all do and I can be the queen of procrastination - believe me. (I have to take 20 hours of online classes for work - this year I made sure to pay for them early so I would not be taking them all in November and December again - still have not taken any and they have to be finished by the end of December - or else.)
Procrastination can result in an oil burner not being serviced and inspected for two years - two and half by the time they come. If I wait to hear back about the meeting room - we might lose it and have no where to meet next year. If I had followed up on the eyeglasses sooner I would have glasses that do what I need them for (or a refund) instead of a unneeded spare pair and having to spend more to get yet another pair. And if I had called the medical insurance right away I would not be going back and having to explain the problem, as I am sure it has been forgotten by now as they are so busy at the pharmacy.
When we picked up our prescriptions after going to doctor one of mine came up showing I owed $45 on it - it is suppose to be covered in full by my insurance. I had expected a $5 charge as husband had when he picked up this prescription for the first time on this insurance, which was later refunded to us as he did not owe it - but $45? Pharmacist said that I had to talk to the company, so I finally had a chance today. They don’t know why - they have to talk to, yes, the pharmacist about it! So next time we go in I have to tell them to call the insurance company about it. Both husband and I have the same prescription, so I am taking some of his in the meantime (90 day renewal, so there are enough for now until this is resolved).
I also called about the annual service for our furnace. We used to be called by the company each year to have this done - often in the spring or early summer. When I went looking to see when the last service had been done it was done in October 2016! 2 years with no service on the furnace, not only we did pay for the service last year as part of our service contract and did not get what we paid for - one of the things done in the service is to check for carbon monoxide. So I finally called yesterday to find out what was going on and to make an appointment. The cheerful voice on the other end told me that it was no trouble to make the appointment for the service - the next one is February 26! I repeated the date to her with emphasis on the February and she said yes. A conversation then followed about why have they not called us to do the service and I was told that it is my responsibility - never was before - why now? The company was joined into another company and the new company has its own rules, but never told us about the change. We buy our oil and have our furnace contract through membership in a non-profit co-op group and I have written letter complaining to same - after greatly complementing the old company which gave us great service and helped us out with two emergencies over the years, oh wait, I just remembered a 3rd emergency they helped us with. I mentioned that my mother-in-law had a different oil company and the water tank for her furnace fell on it and broke it. Her company told her that they don’t do replacements - too bad. I called ours and within 3 days she had a new furnace installed - and they had a new customer. A couple of years ago I found an oil leak in our oil tank - in our basement - at 1 am on a Friday night. Someone was sent to plug the leak. A huge snow storm was to hit on Monday - over the weekend a new oil tank was installed. The one I forgot was about 15 years ago our hot water heater (which is natural gas not oil and not serviced by this company) died and flooded the basement also on a Friday night. We had plans for Saturday and husband saw our plans gone and us spending the day shopping and making arrangements for a new water heater. I figured I had nothing to lose and called our oil company - by 1pm we had a new water heater installed and we were off to do what we planned to do - late, but with plenty of time. What a difference between the old and new company.
I have to make a call tomorrow - I had been called by the parks department that my embroidery group gets a room from for meetings. I telephoned the woman back, got her voice mail, and left the information she requested - an email address. It is time to do the renewal paperwork for the meeting room for next year and I figured I would be receiving it by email (and the town would save the cost of mailing it), but I have not heard back from her and will try calling her again and ask if she has the information to please either leave a message on my phone or send an email so I know she has it.
On the other hand, I waited too long to call about my eyeglasses. Last year (2017) in June I bought new eyeglasses which change in the sun to sunglasses. I have had glasses like these for decades and never had a problem with them. These did not change. At first I figured they needed some time - this has happened in the past - then suddenly it was this July. I went back to the optician and was told it was past the one year for the warranty. He did try to help me and said that the glasses changed a bit under his lights and I should try putting them in the freezer overnight. I thought this strange, but saw it in articles and tried it. First time the glasses changed to the lightest shade of grey. Tried two more times and nothing happened. He had told me to call him if it did not work. Due to procrastination and life I did not have a chance to call him - until I was stuck in the house with husband - 3 months after I had been in. So, now I have a spare of eyeglasses which do not change color - just stay the lightest bit of yellow and I will have to decide if I want to spend all that money again on a new pair that changes color and make sure it does or go back right away. I figure I will wait until just before spring to decide as I won’t need them during the winter.
I also have to call our eye doctor and make an appointment for both of us to see him. I had planned to call just about when all this happened last month. Appointments for routine eye exams are usually about a month after I call. Now I have a problem. I am not sure if husband can deal with driving out to him - about 45 minutes to an hour - followed by our going to stores slightly further out near the doctor and walking around for a few hours until the eye drops wear off. I hate to make appointments and then have to cancel them - but then again, if wait until January there may be snow and that would be a problem to drive out there in same.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Try not to procrastinate - we all do and I can be the queen of procrastination - believe me. (I have to take 20 hours of online classes for work - this year I made sure to pay for them early so I would not be taking them all in November and December again - still have not taken any and they have to be finished by the end of December - or else.)
Procrastination can result in an oil burner not being serviced and inspected for two years - two and half by the time they come. If I wait to hear back about the meeting room - we might lose it and have no where to meet next year. If I had followed up on the eyeglasses sooner I would have glasses that do what I need them for (or a refund) instead of a unneeded spare pair and having to spend more to get yet another pair. And if I had called the medical insurance right away I would not be going back and having to explain the problem, as I am sure it has been forgotten by now as they are so busy at the pharmacy.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
MEDICAL MATTERS TAKE MORE TIME THAN SHOULD
Well, it looks like we are coming out of our “emergency” situation with husband’s shoulder. No, it is not that he is better, but rather that he can mostly deal with it. Last weekend he decided that he should try to get back to his normal routine. We had dinner out on Friday night. We ended up at Wendys and he ordered and carried the tray. When we have gone for lunch, I have had to go up and order and carry the tray - although for the lunches since then, I have been ordering and carrying the tray again. Saturday night we went to Ikea for dinner and then the movies. We have not gone to the movies since he hurt his shoulder - and normally we go every Saturday night. Sunday we even went to one of the Asian buffets we go to for dinner. I can touch his arm again without him screaming in pain. I have pushed him to open doors to different businesses we go to and he can open some, but some are too heavy for his shoulder. Biggest problem continues to be the seat belt sitting on shoulder when he drives.
We missed another reenactment event this past weekend. It was a new event and it all sounded complicated - since we were coming late everything we brought would have to be carried in. No parking for the event and looking at the map - we would be parking on residential streets on the far side of a wide main road, that we would then have to cross back - with our stuff - with no traffic light to help us. We would therefore have to travel very light. No bringing even our smaller box bench as it would be too heavy for me to carry - he certainly could not without much pain and making his shoulder worse. We would have to use the reproduction folding stools we have. (Husband made them.) Not a problem normally, but I knew it would be a problem for him right now. So I had him try one - the look on his face said it all. We got a piece of board from the garage workshop and he tried that across the stool - he said it was maybe okay. In the end we decided not to go. From the report on the event it was not a major loss. It is just that he feels that is he is giving in and weak as does he is not doing things
This has continued to be a week of dealing with medical things. I am hard to get blood from during a blood test. The nurse last week was good - I barely felt the needle. When I took off the bandaid when we got home, I was surprised at the bruising where she had done the test, but knew it would go away. Over the weekend we went to Costco and husband found a new canned soup that he wanted. We bought the 8 pack of soup and a small bottle of vitamins which were in a cart. I hate the Costco carts as they are too tall for me to push comfortably and when we walked out of the store I picked up the soup and handed him the vitamins with him protesting all the way about my carrying the “heavy”soup. The weather has been cold here and I have been wearing a long sleeved sweatshirt over my tee shirt. Sunday night when I suddenly was hot and took of the sweatshirt I saw that rather than healing, the bruise area had gotten larger. Of course husband looked it up and said that it was due to carrying heavy items - “see, you should not have carried the soup”. So I am waiting for my arm to be back to normal.
Wednesday we went to the doctor for our regular appointment. All went well, Doctor checked husband’s shoulder and said maybe another month to 6 weeks and it should be okay or we will “see” what else needs to be done - probably nothing.
Now, our state put in a new law maybe last year. Rather than writing out prescriptions and handing them to us, all prescriptions for people (as opposed to veterinarian ones for animals) have to be sent directly by the doctor to the pharmacy. This may be great for helping prevent and deal with addiction, but has been a nightmare for us in dealing with our prescriptions. I keep our prescriptions organized. We are given them 3 months worth at a time. I keep those bottles in our downstairs bathroom (no shower or bath tub to make it steam). I have smaller bottles in the kitchen cabinet. When I use up all the medications in a kitchen bottle, I count out 30 days worth from the ones in the bathroom into the ones in the kitchen and I make a mark on the lid of the bathroom bottle. It helps me keep track of how much medication we have left.
With the new system of no written prescriptions not only do we not see what has been sent through to make sure it is correct, the pharmacy automatically fills all of the prescriptions . Often we don’t need all of them filled and we have to stand there while one of the pharmacy employee wastes time reversing the ones we don’t need. (I am not upset with the pharmacy or their personnel - they go above and beyond as will be shown.) So this time I told husband that I was just going to take all the refills now - even if we don’t need them yet - except for his insulin. (The insulin has to be refrigerated or is only good for 42 days. We have a mostly full box and did not want a second box in the house in case of hurricane and no refrigerator.)
When we got to the pharmacy I explained this and it was no problem not to fill the insulin. We then walked around the store. Husband for some reason was not having a good day with his arm. I offered for us to go home and I would come back for the prescriptions - or they could wait until the next day (today). He insisted on staying. He settled on the bench near the pharmacy to wait.
The prescriptions were almost ready and we waited. Then we were called and I went up to get them. I had added up in my head that they should cost between $30 and $40 so when it rang up for $57 - I was shocked. I went over to husband and we while he checked that the medications were the correct ones, I looked at the charge card receipt - my medications had been rung up at the rate from my old insurance. I switched insurance as of this month - I used to buy my meds off the old insurance as doing so was cheaper - and had purposely brought the cards in a couple of weeks ago so the change would be on file. It was not. One of the employees researched it and switched it over to the new insurance and it’s lower rate. But to do this she had to take out half the pills in 2 of them as I take a half a pill not a whole pill and the insurance would only allow 45 pills for the 90 days, not the 90 pills I had been getting. Okay, I understand. I really appreciated the attention and time the employee put into this - and she was standing on crutches having been hurt in some way, so I felt really bad. She rebottled the pills and gave me a refund for the overpayment. My credit card slip for the original purchase had gone astray on their end during all of this and the search for it was close to 10 minutes before it was found. I was at the point that I had asked if they could just give me a reprint and employee was about to check - when it was found. I thanked her profusely and we came home - 2 hours gone. When I got home I realized that we were charge for the needles for husband’s insulin three times as much as it has been cost before.
We also get test strips to use in our Diabetes meters. When at the pharmacy yesterday, they told us that the doctor’s office had not included a diagnosis code and that we should call to have it resent to them. I did so this morning. This afternoon we went in and discussed the price of the strips - apparently he had been under billed in the past and this amount was correct. When they ran through my test strips they came up for almost $50. They are suppose to be free. I know from when husband switched to this insurance that the first time they charged him $5 and then when it was processed through, the $5 was refunded - but $50? Also they only had enough to fill one of our prescriptions. I had them fill husband’s prescription and I will have to call our insurance company to find out what is going on with the billing for my strips before I get them. I again thanked the employee (same one as yesterday). This all went much smoother when husband switched his medical insurance last year.
Since husband was doing better - even if he does not think he is - and I knew that he could go out for lunch on his own, I told him that I am going to my client tomorrow as I have work that has to be done there - I did not make it there last month for other reasons and this month is quickly running out. (Plus I would like to get paid - we can use the money.) He was not happy, but understood. I told him that I would take our van so he could have the car as it is easier for him to deal with the door and seatbelt in the car. I know the van can fit in the municipal garage I park in as I have taken it there before. He insisted he would be happier if I had the car and he will deal with the van. So I called the client and I am going to work tomorrow. Something I normally look forward to, but am too tired to do so this month. (Oh, I need an extension cord for this client -and it is a special one as it has a flat plug as the outlet is behind a safe. I could not of course find this cord when packing this afternoon to go to work tomorrow - it is kept in my brief case. I finally found out that “the teddies in my little village had borrowed it”, okay, I had grabbed it to use for them until I got one for the village and forgot about it!)
Laundry is behind as we don’t want me carrying it upstairs and he can’t. I have not changed the bedding since he became ill as he has his pillows as needs them (which changes at times) and we don’t want to move them out of position. So I have gotten a lot of undone paperwork done, but other things are falling behind.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Know what your medical insurance covers and what it costs. Don’t be afraid to make sure that you get what you are entitled to or ask to have something changed to what you are entitled to. In the past we have had a blood pressure medication changed by the doctor at our request as one goes on a formulary and another goes off - they are the same category of medication.
Also if you are picking new medical insurance - and this is the time of year that happens - make sure that any medications or other prescription items that you take are on the formulary (list of covered medications) that the new company has.
We missed another reenactment event this past weekend. It was a new event and it all sounded complicated - since we were coming late everything we brought would have to be carried in. No parking for the event and looking at the map - we would be parking on residential streets on the far side of a wide main road, that we would then have to cross back - with our stuff - with no traffic light to help us. We would therefore have to travel very light. No bringing even our smaller box bench as it would be too heavy for me to carry - he certainly could not without much pain and making his shoulder worse. We would have to use the reproduction folding stools we have. (Husband made them.) Not a problem normally, but I knew it would be a problem for him right now. So I had him try one - the look on his face said it all. We got a piece of board from the garage workshop and he tried that across the stool - he said it was maybe okay. In the end we decided not to go. From the report on the event it was not a major loss. It is just that he feels that is he is giving in and weak as does he is not doing things
This has continued to be a week of dealing with medical things. I am hard to get blood from during a blood test. The nurse last week was good - I barely felt the needle. When I took off the bandaid when we got home, I was surprised at the bruising where she had done the test, but knew it would go away. Over the weekend we went to Costco and husband found a new canned soup that he wanted. We bought the 8 pack of soup and a small bottle of vitamins which were in a cart. I hate the Costco carts as they are too tall for me to push comfortably and when we walked out of the store I picked up the soup and handed him the vitamins with him protesting all the way about my carrying the “heavy”soup. The weather has been cold here and I have been wearing a long sleeved sweatshirt over my tee shirt. Sunday night when I suddenly was hot and took of the sweatshirt I saw that rather than healing, the bruise area had gotten larger. Of course husband looked it up and said that it was due to carrying heavy items - “see, you should not have carried the soup”. So I am waiting for my arm to be back to normal.
Wednesday we went to the doctor for our regular appointment. All went well, Doctor checked husband’s shoulder and said maybe another month to 6 weeks and it should be okay or we will “see” what else needs to be done - probably nothing.
Now, our state put in a new law maybe last year. Rather than writing out prescriptions and handing them to us, all prescriptions for people (as opposed to veterinarian ones for animals) have to be sent directly by the doctor to the pharmacy. This may be great for helping prevent and deal with addiction, but has been a nightmare for us in dealing with our prescriptions. I keep our prescriptions organized. We are given them 3 months worth at a time. I keep those bottles in our downstairs bathroom (no shower or bath tub to make it steam). I have smaller bottles in the kitchen cabinet. When I use up all the medications in a kitchen bottle, I count out 30 days worth from the ones in the bathroom into the ones in the kitchen and I make a mark on the lid of the bathroom bottle. It helps me keep track of how much medication we have left.
With the new system of no written prescriptions not only do we not see what has been sent through to make sure it is correct, the pharmacy automatically fills all of the prescriptions . Often we don’t need all of them filled and we have to stand there while one of the pharmacy employee wastes time reversing the ones we don’t need. (I am not upset with the pharmacy or their personnel - they go above and beyond as will be shown.) So this time I told husband that I was just going to take all the refills now - even if we don’t need them yet - except for his insulin. (The insulin has to be refrigerated or is only good for 42 days. We have a mostly full box and did not want a second box in the house in case of hurricane and no refrigerator.)
When we got to the pharmacy I explained this and it was no problem not to fill the insulin. We then walked around the store. Husband for some reason was not having a good day with his arm. I offered for us to go home and I would come back for the prescriptions - or they could wait until the next day (today). He insisted on staying. He settled on the bench near the pharmacy to wait.
The prescriptions were almost ready and we waited. Then we were called and I went up to get them. I had added up in my head that they should cost between $30 and $40 so when it rang up for $57 - I was shocked. I went over to husband and we while he checked that the medications were the correct ones, I looked at the charge card receipt - my medications had been rung up at the rate from my old insurance. I switched insurance as of this month - I used to buy my meds off the old insurance as doing so was cheaper - and had purposely brought the cards in a couple of weeks ago so the change would be on file. It was not. One of the employees researched it and switched it over to the new insurance and it’s lower rate. But to do this she had to take out half the pills in 2 of them as I take a half a pill not a whole pill and the insurance would only allow 45 pills for the 90 days, not the 90 pills I had been getting. Okay, I understand. I really appreciated the attention and time the employee put into this - and she was standing on crutches having been hurt in some way, so I felt really bad. She rebottled the pills and gave me a refund for the overpayment. My credit card slip for the original purchase had gone astray on their end during all of this and the search for it was close to 10 minutes before it was found. I was at the point that I had asked if they could just give me a reprint and employee was about to check - when it was found. I thanked her profusely and we came home - 2 hours gone. When I got home I realized that we were charge for the needles for husband’s insulin three times as much as it has been cost before.
We also get test strips to use in our Diabetes meters. When at the pharmacy yesterday, they told us that the doctor’s office had not included a diagnosis code and that we should call to have it resent to them. I did so this morning. This afternoon we went in and discussed the price of the strips - apparently he had been under billed in the past and this amount was correct. When they ran through my test strips they came up for almost $50. They are suppose to be free. I know from when husband switched to this insurance that the first time they charged him $5 and then when it was processed through, the $5 was refunded - but $50? Also they only had enough to fill one of our prescriptions. I had them fill husband’s prescription and I will have to call our insurance company to find out what is going on with the billing for my strips before I get them. I again thanked the employee (same one as yesterday). This all went much smoother when husband switched his medical insurance last year.
Since husband was doing better - even if he does not think he is - and I knew that he could go out for lunch on his own, I told him that I am going to my client tomorrow as I have work that has to be done there - I did not make it there last month for other reasons and this month is quickly running out. (Plus I would like to get paid - we can use the money.) He was not happy, but understood. I told him that I would take our van so he could have the car as it is easier for him to deal with the door and seatbelt in the car. I know the van can fit in the municipal garage I park in as I have taken it there before. He insisted he would be happier if I had the car and he will deal with the van. So I called the client and I am going to work tomorrow. Something I normally look forward to, but am too tired to do so this month. (Oh, I need an extension cord for this client -and it is a special one as it has a flat plug as the outlet is behind a safe. I could not of course find this cord when packing this afternoon to go to work tomorrow - it is kept in my brief case. I finally found out that “the teddies in my little village had borrowed it”, okay, I had grabbed it to use for them until I got one for the village and forgot about it!)
Laundry is behind as we don’t want me carrying it upstairs and he can’t. I have not changed the bedding since he became ill as he has his pillows as needs them (which changes at times) and we don’t want to move them out of position. So I have gotten a lot of undone paperwork done, but other things are falling behind.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Know what your medical insurance covers and what it costs. Don’t be afraid to make sure that you get what you are entitled to or ask to have something changed to what you are entitled to. In the past we have had a blood pressure medication changed by the doctor at our request as one goes on a formulary and another goes off - they are the same category of medication.
Also if you are picking new medical insurance - and this is the time of year that happens - make sure that any medications or other prescription items that you take are on the formulary (list of covered medications) that the new company has.
Friday, October 5, 2018
I WAS FINALLY CATCHING UP A BIT AND...
Well, here I am again, posting a day late. Did I forget? Did I play games with my computer again? Was there a blackout? No! But please forgive my late posting - again.
I had a tax return to finish for a client - (USA) deadline for late filing on extension of individual tax returns is October 15. This particular client tends to file on extension every year, but usually I get his information and prepare the return earlier in September. This year he did not contact me until mid September to set up an appointment - which was a week or so later. He lost his wife late last year and has been in and out of the hospital himself - he was going back in the day after he gave me his info. Even now, the return is finished and out to him, but I need to discuss his final estimated tax payment for 2018 which is due in January 2019 before I can fill in and send him that file.
My embroidery guild chapter needed someone to teach some stitches at the October 3 meeting and I got volunteered - I had to do prep for the meeting and try out some stitches to see what I would teach - and have some samples of it for the members to see what they looked like.
I finished same in time for the meeting and was finishing teaching the first stitch when my cell phone rang with my husband’s special ringer. I figured it was a text message - he never calls me as he only has 100 minutes a month (and almost every month ends the month with none of the minutes used) and while they were stitching I opened the message - only to find that it was phone call from husband. I called back (must be important if he called) and he told me that he did not feel well - his arm hurt which pain killer OTC pill should he take. I told him and went back to teaching. In 5 minutes - 10 at the most - he called again, just this side of crying about how bad it was and it was his left arm. That set me panicking. I explained, made my apologies, grabbed as many of my samples as I saw (plus my other stuff, including a piece - the raised work butterfly - that I had brought in for “show and tell” and ran out the door. We live maybe 5 minutes drive from the meeting.
He was upset and in a panic. I looked up the symptoms of a heart attack - yes, pain radiating in the left arm, even without chest pain could be a heart attack. Now, husband and I are the type of people who avoid doctors as much as they can, but we were both worried. Question became which hospital emergency room to go to. We have a large hospital which was owned by the county until it sold it, but it still serves the purpose of the county hospital near us. Further away there is a Catholic Diocese run hospital. I suggested same, despite it being maybe 10 minutes futher away as we had been “happy” with two other hospitals so owned - one for his cataract surgeries and one when his mother had heart surgery - and if he needed same, he would be transferred to that hospital, one of the top in the country, if we went to this hospital, plus our GP is associated with it. Why a question as to which one to go to? Well, his mother died at this hospital and that sticks in his mind. I pointed out that while it was the same building, it was a different hospital now, with new ownership (had been a private hospital owned by doctors before).
He made sure that he had his medical insurance cards (we are both on Medicare - me as of this month, him as of last year) and we were off. He had to drive as he has motion sickness - which is also why an ambulance, which we thought to be overkill any way, was not in question.
When we arrived I remembered a problem with this hospital - most of the parking is at the rear of the building far from the doors - and the emergency room is at the front. We looked in the small lot by the emergency entrance - no spaces. I had him stop the car and get out and I drove it and parked it at the rear of the building - at least the parking was free, at the county hospital they charge - and should not for so many reasons. He actually went in alone without complaining or whimpering. (He does not like to do things alone.) I had figured he would be waiting for me, but he had the good senses to start things going. I parked at the rear of the building, and ran (well as close to running as an overweight, out of shape 65 year old woman can run without having a heart attack herself) around the side of the building, in the entrance (halfway to the front) and started following signs while briskly walking - emergency luckily was a red sign with white writing and easy to spot to see which way to go. I got to the front of the building and it ended? I saw an elevator and pushed the ground floor button and then ran out and followed more signs - arriving at the emergency waiting area just as they were taking him in.
I was impressed with the computers on wheeled stations so that the staff could come to the bed and do the computer work right there. Staff was nice and understanding. While one employee settled him into the bed, the nurse took info from me - she was rather impressed that I had a list of our meds (they only needed his of course) in my cell phone. Based on the errors we made in info while trying to recall things while in panic, I will also enter in additional info, including family history for both of us as we forget when they asked that his mother had heart surgery as well as his cataract surgery and to mention that he is allergic to most raw fruit and many nuts. I did remember that he was allergic to penicillin ,but he insisted no - and that I was allergic to same. He has always said that he was allergic to penicillin to me and I am allergic to sulfa meds. (“Aren’t sulfa meds penicillin” he asked me later when we were discussing this.)
Once he was settled in, it became wait and wait. Staff and the woman accompanying the patient in the curtained area next to husband all were constantly upset that I was standing and tried to get me to sit. I prefer standing as it hurts my bottom to sit for long times (I lost weight there) and we were concerned about -yes - bed bugs. Standing for an afternoon is nothing to me, but it kept bothering everyone - and I was less in the way in the tight quarters of his area standing than sitting and could more easily get out of anyone’s way.
We had explained that he had excruciating pain in his left shoulder radiating down his left arm and that we were concerned if it was a heart attack, as well as what it was if it was not.
They did blood work (something husband fears and it was not done well - there was blood on the sheet). They hooked him up to a machine. A man came and took him to X-ray, not knowing it was around the corner in the same room I asked if I could follow along - husband asked me to stay with him the entire time, which I had expected and planned to do. They did other things in a flurry of tasks. Then it became wait.... wait....wait...
We had arrived around noon. It became 2:30 - our normal lunch time. Neither of us had eaten that day as the 2:30 meal is usually our first of the day. We are both Type 2 Diabetics. I can do passably well not eating, but he needs to eat or his blood sugar drops. He said he was okay. By 3 pm he was heading into trouble. I went to the nurse and explained and asked if they had some orange juice which is what he usually will have if he has a low - and she gave him same and offered turkey sandwich, which they have in a fridge in the unit. So he had a bit of lunch. (I had sort of thought that he could not eat, which is why I asked for the juice, just in case surgery was needed.) I thought of running out and looking for something for me (we have cheese cracker packages in the car - figured some place to eat in the building or at worst, Burger King was 3 buildings over on the road). But I decided I felt okay and waited.
Over the afternoon we were told his blood tests were okay. Later we that he would be moved to an observation section where he would wait until they did a second set of blood tests as they needed to compare them - ok, makes sense. I asked the doctor who told us this, about checking about other reasons for the pain he was in - “We have to rule out a heart attack first and then look at muscular-skeletal reasons.” Okay, makes sense.
It took an hour or so before he was transferred to the observation section. This was a room with larger curtained areas where one could move about (me - not him, he was again hooked up). After he was settled in and we knew that nothing would happen for awhile, I nervously asked him about leaving for about 15 minutes to run back out to car and get cheese crackers to eat. He said it was fine and that I should check for a cafeteria in the hospital. I went back out a little more leisurely and checked the lunchonette type restaurant in the building - $8 for a burger? Did not see if that included fries or something, but would only not want same anyway and $8 a bit high on the budget, so I continued the car. As I had walked through there was a photo exhibit - it reminded me that husband had exhibited his cut paper art works in the hospital (before his mom died) several times. I went out to the car. On a chance, I drove the car around to the front of the building and found an empty space in the small lot in the front near the emergency room to make leaving easier. Problem - only one package of cheese crackers in the car. I guess I did not replace them when we (okay I) ate them in the past.
So I took the package back with me and ate the crackers. They brought him dinner - lunch? at 4 pm - the Diabetic diet - macaroni in tomato sauce, spinach, diet pudding, diet ginger ale, and coffee - artificial sweetener on the side of course. He ate the macaroni and spinach. Eventually they came and took the second blood tests - and had to stick him all over again, I thought the tube they left in his arm would be used, but no they had to stick him again. Those tests came back fine.
So, I started asking what they were going to do next about the pain. No, they were done - he should go to his doctor or an orthopedist about that! So we spent 8.5 hours there and left with a couple of holes in arms, papers, hungry stomachs, and the pain in his arm still there.
He had trouble falling asleep last night - did not do so until 6 am - so when he finally fell asleep I let him sleep since he had not had a full night sleep the night before, hoping when he finally awoke he would feel better. No, it may even be worse. So tomorrow we will go see our regular doctor, who hopefully will be able to help him.
I ran out today and ran the most pressing of the errands I was suppose to do yesterday such as transfer money so I could mail out bill payments due out.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
1 - Be prepared. (Even if you are not a Boy Scout.)
I know what medications we each take, but was getting confused and the list of same in a memo in my cell phone helped. The personal and family histories in the phone would have been of great help.
If I had remembered to replace cheese cracker packages when we (I) ate them, I would have had more of them to eat as a lunch - and not have been shaking with low blood sugar when we got home. (We ended with me going out and picking up Chinese take out for dinner, as it was too late to cook - and we got foods he did not need to cut.)
Have something on your cell phone (or tablet) to keep you busy - without wifi as there was none. I spent the time in the observation area playing cards on my phone. (The TVs did not work in either room.) While in the observation room he spent his time annoying his sister with text messages telling her where he was and why and NO she should not come or send her husband. (I have not mentioned it to my family yet.)
We thought we were prepared, well I thought I was prepared for both of us, but we were not. If I had been the patient, he would have had even more problems.
2 - Simple things can be complicated and one needs to keep thinking and come up with ideas quickly.
He needed his insurance cards and had to juggle it out of his pocket while being hooked up to machines - I took the wallet from him and shoved it in my pocket for the rest of the time we were there and added his cards back to it for him. (He would not give me his cell phone to hold except during the X- rays.)
When he went to eat the turkey sandwich we asked if he could/should take his pill that he would normally take with lunch - nurse checked and the doctor said yes. He tried to wrangle his pill box out and was getting frustrated. We both take that same medication. I told him to stop and pulled out my box and handed him one of mine - I took one back from his supply later. Much easier than him trying to get it out.
Eating the meal they gave him was a bit hard as the tray table was too far from him no matter how I positioned it. He is a sloppy eater and did not want to drop food on himself. I finally figured out to turn the tray 90 degrees so it could stick off the table and still have enough tray on the table not to fall off. This way the tray stuck out so it covered him lap.
3 - Go with the flow
Yes, it is a trite expression, but there was no other choice. We were there - I could not run the errands I intended. The soda bottles and donation items will wait. The visit to our bank vault to exchange this month’s data backups for last month’s - well, last month’s will work until next month’s goes in. Nothing to do to change the situation - just go along with it and be glad that he did not have a heart attack and hope that the doctor can help (easily) with the pain in his shoulder as he is currently pacing the kitchen as he is trying not to take the next OTC pill until closer to bed time. Oh, I forgot to mention that he found one of our old kitchen chairs the most comfortable thing to sit on and has planted himself on it (I brought it over for him from our studio) at our kitchen table in front of the door to the basement and blocking the path to the pantry closet and the downstairs bathroom. This making doing chores very hard to do as I either have to climb over him or ask him to move. Last night’s laundry is being done tonight.
I had a tax return to finish for a client - (USA) deadline for late filing on extension of individual tax returns is October 15. This particular client tends to file on extension every year, but usually I get his information and prepare the return earlier in September. This year he did not contact me until mid September to set up an appointment - which was a week or so later. He lost his wife late last year and has been in and out of the hospital himself - he was going back in the day after he gave me his info. Even now, the return is finished and out to him, but I need to discuss his final estimated tax payment for 2018 which is due in January 2019 before I can fill in and send him that file.
My embroidery guild chapter needed someone to teach some stitches at the October 3 meeting and I got volunteered - I had to do prep for the meeting and try out some stitches to see what I would teach - and have some samples of it for the members to see what they looked like.
I finished same in time for the meeting and was finishing teaching the first stitch when my cell phone rang with my husband’s special ringer. I figured it was a text message - he never calls me as he only has 100 minutes a month (and almost every month ends the month with none of the minutes used) and while they were stitching I opened the message - only to find that it was phone call from husband. I called back (must be important if he called) and he told me that he did not feel well - his arm hurt which pain killer OTC pill should he take. I told him and went back to teaching. In 5 minutes - 10 at the most - he called again, just this side of crying about how bad it was and it was his left arm. That set me panicking. I explained, made my apologies, grabbed as many of my samples as I saw (plus my other stuff, including a piece - the raised work butterfly - that I had brought in for “show and tell” and ran out the door. We live maybe 5 minutes drive from the meeting.
He was upset and in a panic. I looked up the symptoms of a heart attack - yes, pain radiating in the left arm, even without chest pain could be a heart attack. Now, husband and I are the type of people who avoid doctors as much as they can, but we were both worried. Question became which hospital emergency room to go to. We have a large hospital which was owned by the county until it sold it, but it still serves the purpose of the county hospital near us. Further away there is a Catholic Diocese run hospital. I suggested same, despite it being maybe 10 minutes futher away as we had been “happy” with two other hospitals so owned - one for his cataract surgeries and one when his mother had heart surgery - and if he needed same, he would be transferred to that hospital, one of the top in the country, if we went to this hospital, plus our GP is associated with it. Why a question as to which one to go to? Well, his mother died at this hospital and that sticks in his mind. I pointed out that while it was the same building, it was a different hospital now, with new ownership (had been a private hospital owned by doctors before).
He made sure that he had his medical insurance cards (we are both on Medicare - me as of this month, him as of last year) and we were off. He had to drive as he has motion sickness - which is also why an ambulance, which we thought to be overkill any way, was not in question.
When we arrived I remembered a problem with this hospital - most of the parking is at the rear of the building far from the doors - and the emergency room is at the front. We looked in the small lot by the emergency entrance - no spaces. I had him stop the car and get out and I drove it and parked it at the rear of the building - at least the parking was free, at the county hospital they charge - and should not for so many reasons. He actually went in alone without complaining or whimpering. (He does not like to do things alone.) I had figured he would be waiting for me, but he had the good senses to start things going. I parked at the rear of the building, and ran (well as close to running as an overweight, out of shape 65 year old woman can run without having a heart attack herself) around the side of the building, in the entrance (halfway to the front) and started following signs while briskly walking - emergency luckily was a red sign with white writing and easy to spot to see which way to go. I got to the front of the building and it ended? I saw an elevator and pushed the ground floor button and then ran out and followed more signs - arriving at the emergency waiting area just as they were taking him in.
I was impressed with the computers on wheeled stations so that the staff could come to the bed and do the computer work right there. Staff was nice and understanding. While one employee settled him into the bed, the nurse took info from me - she was rather impressed that I had a list of our meds (they only needed his of course) in my cell phone. Based on the errors we made in info while trying to recall things while in panic, I will also enter in additional info, including family history for both of us as we forget when they asked that his mother had heart surgery as well as his cataract surgery and to mention that he is allergic to most raw fruit and many nuts. I did remember that he was allergic to penicillin ,but he insisted no - and that I was allergic to same. He has always said that he was allergic to penicillin to me and I am allergic to sulfa meds. (“Aren’t sulfa meds penicillin” he asked me later when we were discussing this.)
Once he was settled in, it became wait and wait. Staff and the woman accompanying the patient in the curtained area next to husband all were constantly upset that I was standing and tried to get me to sit. I prefer standing as it hurts my bottom to sit for long times (I lost weight there) and we were concerned about -yes - bed bugs. Standing for an afternoon is nothing to me, but it kept bothering everyone - and I was less in the way in the tight quarters of his area standing than sitting and could more easily get out of anyone’s way.
We had explained that he had excruciating pain in his left shoulder radiating down his left arm and that we were concerned if it was a heart attack, as well as what it was if it was not.
They did blood work (something husband fears and it was not done well - there was blood on the sheet). They hooked him up to a machine. A man came and took him to X-ray, not knowing it was around the corner in the same room I asked if I could follow along - husband asked me to stay with him the entire time, which I had expected and planned to do. They did other things in a flurry of tasks. Then it became wait.... wait....wait...
We had arrived around noon. It became 2:30 - our normal lunch time. Neither of us had eaten that day as the 2:30 meal is usually our first of the day. We are both Type 2 Diabetics. I can do passably well not eating, but he needs to eat or his blood sugar drops. He said he was okay. By 3 pm he was heading into trouble. I went to the nurse and explained and asked if they had some orange juice which is what he usually will have if he has a low - and she gave him same and offered turkey sandwich, which they have in a fridge in the unit. So he had a bit of lunch. (I had sort of thought that he could not eat, which is why I asked for the juice, just in case surgery was needed.) I thought of running out and looking for something for me (we have cheese cracker packages in the car - figured some place to eat in the building or at worst, Burger King was 3 buildings over on the road). But I decided I felt okay and waited.
Over the afternoon we were told his blood tests were okay. Later we that he would be moved to an observation section where he would wait until they did a second set of blood tests as they needed to compare them - ok, makes sense. I asked the doctor who told us this, about checking about other reasons for the pain he was in - “We have to rule out a heart attack first and then look at muscular-skeletal reasons.” Okay, makes sense.
It took an hour or so before he was transferred to the observation section. This was a room with larger curtained areas where one could move about (me - not him, he was again hooked up). After he was settled in and we knew that nothing would happen for awhile, I nervously asked him about leaving for about 15 minutes to run back out to car and get cheese crackers to eat. He said it was fine and that I should check for a cafeteria in the hospital. I went back out a little more leisurely and checked the lunchonette type restaurant in the building - $8 for a burger? Did not see if that included fries or something, but would only not want same anyway and $8 a bit high on the budget, so I continued the car. As I had walked through there was a photo exhibit - it reminded me that husband had exhibited his cut paper art works in the hospital (before his mom died) several times. I went out to the car. On a chance, I drove the car around to the front of the building and found an empty space in the small lot in the front near the emergency room to make leaving easier. Problem - only one package of cheese crackers in the car. I guess I did not replace them when we (okay I) ate them in the past.
So I took the package back with me and ate the crackers. They brought him dinner - lunch? at 4 pm - the Diabetic diet - macaroni in tomato sauce, spinach, diet pudding, diet ginger ale, and coffee - artificial sweetener on the side of course. He ate the macaroni and spinach. Eventually they came and took the second blood tests - and had to stick him all over again, I thought the tube they left in his arm would be used, but no they had to stick him again. Those tests came back fine.
So, I started asking what they were going to do next about the pain. No, they were done - he should go to his doctor or an orthopedist about that! So we spent 8.5 hours there and left with a couple of holes in arms, papers, hungry stomachs, and the pain in his arm still there.
He had trouble falling asleep last night - did not do so until 6 am - so when he finally fell asleep I let him sleep since he had not had a full night sleep the night before, hoping when he finally awoke he would feel better. No, it may even be worse. So tomorrow we will go see our regular doctor, who hopefully will be able to help him.
I ran out today and ran the most pressing of the errands I was suppose to do yesterday such as transfer money so I could mail out bill payments due out.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
1 - Be prepared. (Even if you are not a Boy Scout.)
I know what medications we each take, but was getting confused and the list of same in a memo in my cell phone helped. The personal and family histories in the phone would have been of great help.
If I had remembered to replace cheese cracker packages when we (I) ate them, I would have had more of them to eat as a lunch - and not have been shaking with low blood sugar when we got home. (We ended with me going out and picking up Chinese take out for dinner, as it was too late to cook - and we got foods he did not need to cut.)
Have something on your cell phone (or tablet) to keep you busy - without wifi as there was none. I spent the time in the observation area playing cards on my phone. (The TVs did not work in either room.) While in the observation room he spent his time annoying his sister with text messages telling her where he was and why and NO she should not come or send her husband. (I have not mentioned it to my family yet.)
We thought we were prepared, well I thought I was prepared for both of us, but we were not. If I had been the patient, he would have had even more problems.
2 - Simple things can be complicated and one needs to keep thinking and come up with ideas quickly.
He needed his insurance cards and had to juggle it out of his pocket while being hooked up to machines - I took the wallet from him and shoved it in my pocket for the rest of the time we were there and added his cards back to it for him. (He would not give me his cell phone to hold except during the X- rays.)
When he went to eat the turkey sandwich we asked if he could/should take his pill that he would normally take with lunch - nurse checked and the doctor said yes. He tried to wrangle his pill box out and was getting frustrated. We both take that same medication. I told him to stop and pulled out my box and handed him one of mine - I took one back from his supply later. Much easier than him trying to get it out.
Eating the meal they gave him was a bit hard as the tray table was too far from him no matter how I positioned it. He is a sloppy eater and did not want to drop food on himself. I finally figured out to turn the tray 90 degrees so it could stick off the table and still have enough tray on the table not to fall off. This way the tray stuck out so it covered him lap.
3 - Go with the flow
Yes, it is a trite expression, but there was no other choice. We were there - I could not run the errands I intended. The soda bottles and donation items will wait. The visit to our bank vault to exchange this month’s data backups for last month’s - well, last month’s will work until next month’s goes in. Nothing to do to change the situation - just go along with it and be glad that he did not have a heart attack and hope that the doctor can help (easily) with the pain in his shoulder as he is currently pacing the kitchen as he is trying not to take the next OTC pill until closer to bed time. Oh, I forgot to mention that he found one of our old kitchen chairs the most comfortable thing to sit on and has planted himself on it (I brought it over for him from our studio) at our kitchen table in front of the door to the basement and blocking the path to the pantry closet and the downstairs bathroom. This making doing chores very hard to do as I either have to climb over him or ask him to move. Last night’s laundry is being done tonight.
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