CHECK ONCE, CHECK TWICE, AND THEN CHECK AGAIN ANOTHER COUPLE OF TIMES

 A word on always check what others do.  

My mom is her 90s.  Today we took her to the doctor's office for surgery to remove a cancer.  

Mom has 2 cancers.  There was a big one on her forearm and a small one on her cheek.  Per our conversation with the office before I had expected that the larger one on her arm was going to removed today.  When I called and made the appointment I was told that no, this was to remove the small on her check and to consult with the doctor about if the same sort of surgery would be used to removed the larger one or if a different sort of surgery was needed.  

Mom is in a wheelchair and has trouble “transferring” from it to most alternative seating unless they are about the same height.  

Being a nervous person who likes to be prepared I had called the office last week and asked a number of questions and was told that no, this was to remove the small on her cheek and to consult with the doctor about if the same sort of surgery would be used to removed the larger one or if a different sort of surgery was needed.  So going in I now expected them to remove the cancer on her cheek (which is the one which concerns her more as people can easily see it.   At the same time I explained that mom has a lot of trouble transferring from her wheelchair to other seats, especially if they are higher than the wheelchair.   I have been terribly nervous and not doing well at all – not from mom having cancer – but from how this was all going to go.  My sister, who is mom's primary caretaker arranged for an ambulette and  an aide from mom's nursing home to come with her and help us.  This was a great help as it cut about an hour each way of travel as mom live half an hour further from us than the doctor is – so it was an extra half hour to her and then back again to the doctor (reversed on way home).  

When I went into the procedure room with mom apparently no one knew that they “could do the procedure with her in her wheelchair”.  It was finally worked out to do so.  Then the doctor started on her arm – which actually had made sense to me as it was the much larger of the two.  I questioned this and he said it was better to do it first – I agreed – but said that then I should not have been told the opposite.  Two things I did not expect – but yet, that is how crazy things are now.

The last time mom went in for the procedure her aide went with her instead of me.  I had thought there would be another session after wards.  The aide was handed the paperwork with the instructions for care and followup.  Since she needed it for the nursing home to follow, my husband took a good photo of it so we would have it for our records.  When we got home I sent the file to my sisters with my info about what went on.  Later in the evening husband printed out the paperwork for me to file in my records for mom.  He noticed errors.  “Did your mom have a something removed from her nose?”  No – her arm and the other cancer is on her cheek!  Someone else's name had been written on the form, crossed out and mom's info put in.  The appointment listed was for a different time.  Unknown phone number on the form as her phone number.  What!!!?  Just when my stomach was no longer feeling nervous...

I emailed my sisters again and told them all this.  Tomorrow we have to run some errands and now I have to call the doctor's office on Friday to find out what is going on – and then call mom's nursing home to let them about the errors and the resolution with the doctor.

Similarly, but less life threatening – a friend paid off their car lease.  A month later they received a past due notice and they have not been able to correct this matter.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Check, double check and triple check – and then have someone else check – any important papers you receive and are filing away.  Don't trust someone else to have filled them in properly.

MISSED LAST WEEK'S POST TO DUE TO EXAMS AND LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS DECORATING

 I hope that all had a good Christmas.  

Sorry I missed posting last week.  Having managed to get the paperwork (per my last post) to the county for our senior real estate exemption the day I posted last, I started on taking the courses I need to take – and pass tests about – 20 hours of classes and 10 hours of tests done online.  I passed all of them and can continue working in 2022.  I took them over the week and had planned to take the biggest of the tests on last Wednesday (12/22) evening but husband had something that had to be done – so I did not get it to it until last Thursday evening.  

I had managed to work at putting out our indoor Christmas decorations over the several evenings before last Thursday – small items which are put out in our kitchen, dining room, front hall and living room.  I skipped many of the decorations such as hanging (fake) greens along our staircase banister and small items due to time limitations.  I also had brought up all three of our Christmas trees (large living room, small dining room and small studio trees) and set them up earlier in last week – also in the evening.  One problem is that since it all kept in the basement and, in particular the big tree sections, much of it is rather heavy, so I have to carry up one of the 9 tree sections (plus lighter tree pole to hang them on) at a time and rest before going back down for the next section.  Then, of course they have to be arranged on the pole, extension cords setup to bring electricity to the tree (and of course the extension which runs up the tree with outlets in 3 different spots -  decided to fall off this year when I set up the pole and I had to wire that back onto the pole).  I did not get to work on the ornaments until the following day – Christmas Eve– and each of the 4 boxes also has to be carried up from the basement with a rest in between – though at least I can hang ornaments while resting.  Again, for the first time since we were married 40+ years ago, not all of the ornaments went on the tree.  Around the equivalent of a box of “lesser” ornaments (plain balls and such) did not make it onto the tree due to time limitations.  

December 26 (Boxing Day to those of you in the UK, Canada, and related countries) I went to work on my Teddy Bear Village.  Yes, I managed to get it set up.  I did some sections differently than in year's past to spread the bears around the 4 sections of the Village a bit more and leave some “breathing” room for the bears in the main section.  Husband guesses that there are 300 bears – I am pretty sure there are a lot less – maybe I will count them when I put them away.  Yes, that is the problem with having fun decorating – in a couple of weeks I will have to take down the tree and decorations downstairs and store them back in the basement (with many trips down and breaks between them again) and store away the decorations from downstairs.  The Teddy Village will stay set up until into early February and then it's residents also have to be stored away to make way for the Valentine Bears (much, much less of them).  

So, all of this diverted my mind from visiting all of you.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes work comes first – such as my classes and exams.   Sometimes what one enjoys has to take precedence over work which can be postponed.  One has to know the difference between the two.  

As I sit here is it December 29 – I wish a good New Year to all.  Keep in mind that small changes and specific ideas are more likely to continue to be done throughout the coming year, as opposed to making resolutions which are too big or non-specific to be kept.   

WHAT IS NORMALLY DONE OVER 5 MONTHS ALL HAS TO BE DONE AT ONCE INSTEAD THIS YEAR!

 I have been using up my time finishing up the renewals for two organizations I am in.  Normally our reenactment unit renewals are due at the beginning of the year – our national organization needs (wants?) their renewals to them by March 31st and my embroidery chapter renewals are due to our national organization and our local region by May 31st.  Throw in tax season which normally ends on April 15th and there is a lot – but the various parts of what I need to do is spread over 5 months.

This year the national of our reenactment unit decided it was a good time to update their membership system, so their renewals are due – of course – May 31st.  And as any of you in the USA know – tax season was extended to May 17th.  People being how people are – just about everyone puts off renewing and/or filing taxes until the last minute – so late April and May has been overwhelming.  

The taxes were finished and out on time to the clients – except one client asked for an extension – he always does.  But the dues collection and submission have been running behind.  As of today I have heard from 3 of the last 4 people I needed to speak with (combined from both organizations).   So tomorrow I will be able to do the paperwork for one group and hopefully will hear from the last person, so I can do the paperwork for the other group.  

I am treasurer of both groups, and membership chair of our reenactment unit.  I took on the membership chair position as it is easier for me to collect the dues and paperwork than have someone else do so and get it all to me – as the unit is relative quiet with no meetings or events when normally the renewals are taking place.  My embroidery chapter has a membership chair and normally she would be going after members for renewals and collecting the dues – but this year (and last year) due to the pandemic and no face to face meetings it has been easier for me to collect the dues and have them mailed to me – or she would first have to do that after all was mailed to her.  

When I get all the paperwork for both groups and mail it out – slightly late for both – I will be very happy that it is all finished and take a deep breathe.  The client with the tax extension will contact me about actually doing his taxes in late August to early September – as he does every year.  

Of course life does not stop for all of this – I am still doing the housework, checking and paying bills, cooking, laundry, and so on.  And, as I mentioned  last week – we have been getting our RV ready to go out after sitting for almost 2 years (problems with it stopped us mostly from traveling in 2019 also).  

This Friday we are taking the RV to an authorized shop for its generator.  In addition to needing its normal oil change – they have to figure out why it does not start.  They charge US$160 an hour.  We are hoping it is something simple – such as the fuse is out of place or the fuse needs to be replaced – when we go there the bill always seems to be huge.  (Normally we take our RV to our dealer in another state for the oil change as it is much cheaper and they don't add on other things we didn't need and don't put in too much oil so that it does work right.)

But after posting so late last week – I was bound and determined to post on time this week!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
What needs to get done, somehow gets done.   One must figure out how to do so.  Figure out which needs to be done first and do it, even when everything needs to be first!  Then do everything else.

CHANGING ONE ADDRESS FOR MAIL - EVERY TIME I THINK I AM DONE - OOPS

 First, I should mention first that we still have bills, statements, etc. delivered to us in hard copy by USPS mail and we do NOT do anything financial online unless there is no other option – we are old school computer users (back to main frame computer programming) and know that there is NO such thing as a secure connection.  

We have had problems in the past with mail delivery at our house and had transferred almost all of our mail delivery to a USPS box we had for our business at a different local Post Office to deal with it.  We found this worked extremely well – go on a trip, no need to have mail held as it would automatically be held when there was too much in the box, need to have something delivered other than USPS – with street addressing it could go to our box.  

Then along came the corona virus.  We don't want to go out at all, let alone into a crowded Post Office – whether to send mail out or get our incoming mail.  More about that from last March 26 at http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2020/03/   and from last April 16 at http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2020/04/ and I am sure there is more at other post inbetween.

So we started changing our mailing address back to our house address with any and every one we could think of.  Every time I think I am done changing our address back to our house – something else pops up.  

Latest things which popped up -  Our car insurance renews soon and I checked to make sure our house address was the mailing address for same – it is, but that started me thinking about other insurances  and I checked our homeowners' insurance comes to our house but our RV insurance goes to our PO Box.  I telephoned the insurance company and changed the address – would not want to take a chance on the policy renewal being mailed to our box and never finding its way here.

We are members of Costco and a similar warehouse company called BJs.  My excellent computer records for bills reminded me that our Costco dues are due during January – usually paid by now – but no renewal received and the renewal goes to our PO Box.  So today I called Costco and, yes, we should have received the renewal by now.  I changed our mailing address with them and checked the amount due for the dues and the mailing address to which I should send the check – I paid it, as I have paid so many other bills this past 9 months – with a cover letter.   Our BJs  renewal is next month – I called them also and changed our mailing address with them also.  Strangely, the various ad circulars from both of them all come to our home address.

I am well organized, well at least as far as paperwork, especially bills.  I went through all my papers, all our credit cards, etc. and made a list – I contacted each company to change our mailing address to our house – but each time I think I am finished doing so – something else pops up.  Worst of all, some day, soon I hope, I will have to reverse this and change all of the mailing addresses to back to our PO  Box so it does not go astray and we can again go on our little trips with the mail snugly and safely in our little box at the Post Office.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-

We will soon have a new control of our government here in the U.S.A.  I hope that they will be organized and get control of the pandemic so we can all go out again and be with friends and family as we did before (and go to the Post Office again for mail) without fear of getting of getting Covid-19.  

Until then- please be careful and safe and keep yourselves and your families well.

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.

STILL TOO MUCH NEEDING TO BE DONE

That was a short week!  We have taken mom to two doctors in the past week.  One was a happy checkup with the doctor who replaced her pacemaker.  The other was a not as happy appointment with the doctor who did cancer surgery on her.  There is still some cancer and we have to take her to an oncologist.  Treatment recommendation by this doctor was based on mom's age – 90 – and the fact that it is a slow growing cancer.  I should mention after complaining about another doctor's office, both of these were great with helpful staff and no hours of waiting.  We still have to take her back to the doctor about her leg scan (the one with the awful office/staff setup) and then there are about another 4 doctors she needs to go to.

In between these appointments I have been trying to get our senior real estate tax exemption worked on and I should have all or almost all of the paperwork I need.  I will have to check each section's numbers against the paperwork for it and we have to copy all of it and I do so with a page that has our names, the section, block, and lot number of the property and the year the papers apply to written at the top (with the computer).  This page is put behind the items I copy as I do so that so that the finished copy will have this info at the top in case any pages get separate from the others – I am glad I have a heavy duty stapler that staples thick stacks of papers as there will a lot of papers.  I have already done our 1099s & similar and our medical expenses.  I have to mostly deal with our businesses expenses – I will do the joint expenses first (car expenses and some other ones have to be split between our two businesses and also from personal use), then husband's business as it is easier and finally my business. This has to be there before the end of December and I figure the earlier the better.  I was getting all this done quickly and early when I found out that they had added need for proof of business income and expenses. 

I also have to renew my permissions to prepare tax returns from Federal and state governments.  Federal mailed in already and I did the state application online – the only way it can be done.  I still need to finish the required tests for the Federal paperwork.  One test for 1 credit done, 19 more credits to go.  It will be done – it only one test for 6 credits that always concerns me as it has a time limit. 

I have still been heating the paperwork from my family home in small groupings in our PackTite heater (for bedbugs).  I found out that among the papers my sister gave me is my parents income taxes – back to the 1950s as well as the papers related to the purchase of the house back in 1958-9 and my dad's release from the military paperwork.  I commented to husband that I know their old taxes are no longer needed and I should just check through them and shred them – but – dad always told me that one keeps copies of client's taxes as long as they are clients and then at least another 3 years, so by that logic I should keep them.  I have discussed it with husband and will scan them into the computer and shred the originals. 

I got behind with the laundry last week – it was done, but not all was folded or put away, so I had to do same tonight before I started this week's laundry – first load is in washing now, when the ringer in cell phone goes off, I will go down and switch to dryer and put in another load to wash.  Just happened – will be right back – feel free to talk among yourselves until I do.

Back again. 

As I have mentioned in the past year, I have been having a problem keeping track of papers – something I have never had before.  In October our reenactment unit had an event.  I know and remember that the unit commander (club president) had asked me if I had brought the checkbook – which I didn't as it is safer to keep it home. Since he did, I assumed that he had given me a bill for something for the unit to reimburse him for.  ¾ of the way through the day it had started raining and we along with most members had brought their stuff inside our headquarters building and then at the end of the day I had brought our van back to the area where we had been setup and we packed it quickly to avoid getting things wet.  Two days later I started looking for the bill that I had to reimburse the commander for.  I could not find them.  We did not actually bring the stuff in from the van until the end of that week.  I went through everything again and climbed under the seats in the van looking for the bill.  Husband than threw another thought at me – at an event the unit did in September the place wrote the check payable to the commander personally instead of to the unit – and husband said that what I was remembering was probably the commander giving me his check as we had told him to deposit the check and then write the unit a check.  So was I missing the bill to pay him for?  The check he gave me for the that event?  Both?  A week in I had written him an email explaining and apologizing and asking him to let me know how much the unit owed him.  (I did not mention the check he owed the unit.)  He did not get back to me.  I have been “sick” with the idea that I lost a bill to pay, as well as maybe the check he wrote to the unit.  I brought the checkbook to the meeting this past Monday to settle up.  Whew! Nothing was lost.  He had asked me about the checkbook in reference to another matter that did not materialize and he told me that not only does the unit not owe him money, but he owes us the money from the check that he deposited.  It was a wonderful relief to know that I had not been careless and lost neither bill nor check. 

I have to complement and thank my husband.  He has been insisting on helping me with my mom and the doctors.  My mom is well, a 90 year old opinionated woman who does not hear well.  (One of the doctors we still have to go to is for hearing aids – but the other doctors are more urgent).  He has been wonderful with her.  One advantage to having him along is that he speaks “medical” and can talk to the doctors on a different level than mom or I can.  (He was the head of a mental health agency and had doctors working under him.)  He understands what the doctors are saying better than either of us and knows when and how to ask questions.  Part of why he comes is I helped with his mother when she needed same (although his sister handled the medical and I handled the financial), especially since he butted heads a lot with his sister and mother over how things should be handled, so I sort of ran interference by going while he was at work to help her.  Part of it is he does not like being home alone.  Part of it is that he know he can help a lot. 

We still have not really done any planning for (American) Thanksgiving.  Since he has become lactose intolerant (or so it seems) since last year, two of his favorite dishes may not be made for him, especially since I like neither – pumpkin pie and Colonial Williamsburg Sweet Potatoes (no marshmallows, of course).  The former uses evaporated milk and the later uses regular milk –  1/3 of ¼ cup of same (original recipe for 3 lbs sweet potatoes, I make him 1 pound).  We will see.  We are debating if I should make the vegetable soup that I used to make for the family for Thanksgiving dinner – I figured out how to cut it down and make ¼ of the amount of soup I used to make or even 1/8 of same, but it is one that we like and gets better reheated.  (I would make the entire recipe and reheat over the winter, but it has potatoes in it and they do not do well with being frozen, so I need to cut it down to what we can manage to eat without needing to being frozen to keep long enough.)  The alternative is to make a different Pennsylvania Dutch soup called Chicken corn soup.  We will see which he prefers.  Our normal menu was the Vegetable soup (cooked on the day before Thanksgiving as it takes a while to cook), turkey of course, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, the sweet potatoes, and gravy.  I did not cook the turkey as husband liked it better from a commercial oven – he says it is crisper.  When we started (I had never cooked a turkey) we found a local place that cooked turkeys with a hot pick up just about when we needed it – my sister and her family would stop and pick it up on the way here for us.  Three years ago we had run places to go to for Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of as we were no longer having family in for same, and I had to cook the turkey.  I did so and it was fine.  The following year I cooked it from the same place following their directions and it did not cook through, we ended up cutting off pieces and cooking them separately.  I figured out that the packaging had 2 different temperatures and I must have used the higher one first year and the lower one second year.  Last year I used the higher temperature and put the turkey in upside down and turned it over part way through and it was cooked through and I will remember to do so this year again.  In the old days there would have been the pumpkin pie and I would bake an apple pie and Venetians (rainbow cookies).  No need for so much dessert for the two of us, especially since neither of us should be having same at all.  

(And I will have to find time to post the night before while I am generally cooking.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

As it says in the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe” - DON'T PANIC!  Things seem to work out in the end.  We managed to get the appointments we needed to get right away for mom.  The real estate tax exemption will get done and in on time.  The exams will be taken on time.  Laundry will be caught up tonight.  The missing papers were not missing.  Thanksgiving dinner will get a menu and will be cooked. 

RV, VAN AND OLD PAPERS

Another week, another post.  Mom had 2 surgeries within a week and is now back in her apartment at the assisted living facility.  We will taking her Friday back to the doctor who changed her pacemaker for a checkup and I have to make an appointment for same with the doctor who did her cancer surgery as well as with the one involved with her leg scan as it still has not has been discussed with her.  We did squeeze in appointments with our doctor for us last week – dealing with mom, we had forgotten to make same until the doctor refused to renew our prescriptions because we were so late in doing so. 

Friday we drove to Pennsylvania and picked up our RV – the batteries are working and the entire electrical system was checked and was fine.  Husband is concerned about driving such a distance alone (as I probably mentioned when we had to drive it there) and also concerned about driving alone in the dark – the combination of the two, even more so.  We kept calculating when to go and what to do coming home.  We figured out that we had two choices – both involved trying to get the dealer as early as possible, having lunch at Wendys very quickly and starting home.  In one version we would immediately drive home, this way we would miss Philadelphia rush hour and hoping to avoid rush hour from NYC headed towards our home. The other version involved again leaving immediately after lunch to avoid the Philadelphia rush hour and driving to near the Golden Corral in New Jersey that I am sure I have mentioned before.  We would then go to some stores in that area to spend some time, then have dinner at the Golden Corral and then head home. With this version we should avoid the rush hour from NYC to home, but would be driving in the dark home from Golden Corral.  We figured we would decide after we picked the RV and while eating lunch.  The golden morning time to leave home and head off Long Island for us seems to be 8:30 am – we are following at the end of rush hour and are before the construction work on two of the major roads starts.  We we were out at 8:20 -since we were driving only our van, we did not have to waste time backing the RV out of the driveway (a process that involves walkie talkies and me standing in the middle of a 4 lane road road that has traffic that all speeds – which is why it a problem to begin with.)  We had figured we would get to the dealer between noon and 1 pm.  We got there just after 11 am.  We picked up the RV - “schmoozed” a bit, gassed up the RV and the van for the trip back, spent about 15 minutes having lunch and started home – confident that we would miss the rush hour traffic at both cities.  We did fine in PA – no traffic, NJ not bad almost no traffic.  One very quick stop at a rest area for me to use the facilities – so fast, I left my cell phone in the RV and husband waited out there so we did not have to shut everything did – I ran literally both ways and we were off again.  Then we hit Staten Island  (NYC) and there was traffic, but it was not bad – 15 minute part of the trip maybe was 25 minutes.  We then crossed the bridge to Long Island.  The limited access roadway we have to taken home was BAD.  How bad?  The signs on the bridge said not to exit to it, to exit to a local street that allows later connection to the roadway – which we take anyway.  It took us 2.5 hours to the dealer – it took us 5 hours home – and that was with arriving in NYC at 3 pm.  Another day of our lives – gone.

But the RV is home and working properly again – so all is well – right?  Driving home husband found that the brakes were squealing so today they were at our mechanic again.  He said they were okay to use – a problem sometime down the road as there is rust. 

Wait a second, have to run to the basement to switch laundry loads and check the heat in the PackTite.

Back.  Normally I have a load of clothes, a load of towels, and a load of bed linens each week with a load of jeans every few weeks.  With all this going on, I have not changed the bedding in a couple of weeks – no time to do so and saves a wash load (yes, I think ewwww also, but it will done soon).  This week I have a load clothes, a load of sweatshirts and nightgown – I bought 3 new ones and have worn a few of them and they don't fit in the general clothes load, a load of towels, and a load of jeans.  I also have a load of white reenactment clothing (much “small clothes” - undergarments, all of which are white) from our last couple of events and a second load of the rest of our outfits – next time we will need them is December and I want them clean so I don't have to run at the minute to wash them – some of the pieces need ironing also.  Just put the general clothes load into the dryer and the sweatshirt load into the washer. 


At the same time I have been going through the bags of stuff from the family home.  Being a crazy person who had bed bugs. I fill (lightly) our PackTite heater with some of the stuff and heat at it night – mixed with whatever fabric or paper items we have in addition to be heated.  Then the next afternoon I go through the stuff from the house after putting away the stuff from our house that was added in.  Today I went through the papers from our wedding – 40 years ago.  All of the response cards & envelopes – shredded, set up invitation with all the papers which were included and put it in the shoebox that I have as a “memory box” of the stuff I am finding and want to keep from all this, shredded the other invitations, tossed out the other response cards (no names, etc. on them), I kept the blank envelopes for the invitations – can always use larger envelopes, have set aside the unused response envelopes they do have my parents and name and address, but I will see if labels will cover same and decide if we are keeping them or they are being shred, shredded the receipt for the wedding (what a waste of $8,000 – I was right, we should have just gotten married & not bothered with a wedding), and shredded the seating charts and other papers.  I kept the box that it was all in.  Good box.  Apparently there is much more than my stuff in what my sister set aside for me – work papers of my dad's and other financial stuff.  I have a found a certificate given to my other sister when she graduated from high school (she is 55 now).  I scanned it, emailed it to her and asked if she wanted the certificate or what.  I found old bank statements and similar of mom's and even some of dad's (he died in the mid 1990's).  I found a dividend check for $4.50 that was never cashed – I will see if it can cheaply somehow be replaced – but 1994 was a long time ago.  More to do tomorrow after the current load is heated – this load also has some yarn husband bought for weaving project to sell and a new sweatshirt that I bought  - both today. 

At least every year I go through the papers from 10 years before and get rid of almost all of them – 25 years is a long time to keep bank statements and a check.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

So progress is being made on the stuff from mom's house. I am trying to keep up on household chores – dishes washed after dinner and after night snack (only meals we eat home).  Obviously laundry being done.  Towels changed and into the laundry.  (If only I did not hate changing the bedding and folding same after it is washed even more than more than cleaning toilet bowls – I figured it out – my arms are too short to deal with sheets easily.)

Any suggestions for my family and me about dealing with all of the stuff from the house?

YET ANOTHER WEEK OF NOT GETTING ANYTHING DONE

Another week gone by and little to show for it – again.

Husband had planned for us to go to a quilt show in Pennsylvania last Thursday, the first day of the show.  We normally will go to this and other shows from the same company on Thursday as it is less crowded and items are not sold out – not that we normally buy anything there.  While we both have done quilting, we go for something to do and because there are no other sewing or embroidery shows in this part of the country and I do sew and hand embroider.  Since we – and our RV – really need a trip we had planned to stay overnight and go to the farmer's market we like in Lancaster on Friday. 

So, of course it poured on Thursday – here and there.  We changed our trip to just go for the day on Friday to the quilt show, but drove there in the RV so it was driven and would keep the engine and RV batteries working properly. 

Husband's sister has self-published a book and somehow managed to get a local bookstore to give her a reading/signing event on Thursday night.  Since we were home, husband decided to go to the signing – in heavy rain.  We could not figure out where to park – hard to see in the rain – and ended up 3 blocks away.  I am “made of sugar” - when I go out in the rain, I get sick. 

So Friday midday a cold hit me.  Luckily it is a relatively light cold and will soon be gone.  But husband is a hypochondriac and does not like me touching things that he will touch or eat when I am sick.  We ate out as usual on the weekend.  Monday night we had reenactment unit meeting and bought deli sliced turkey for dinner.  But last night, Tuesday, dinner needed to be cooked.  Understand, husband is, or at least was when we cooked more elaborately, a better cook than I am.  But he is out of practice, was worried about the batteries in the RV (which are still not right) and an oil leak under the RV, and I have stand there and step by step tell him how to cook and where things are – so dinner and clean up (done by me with plastic gloves on) took forever. 

In addition our reenactment unit has an event this Saturday that originally husband said we were not going to.  Now not only are we are going, but he found out he can sell the items he has been weaving.  So he (and thereby also I) are involved with getting ready to do so – we have not done a craft show in 10 years and this has to be setup differently and we have never sold items he has woven before so we do not a have setup at all for same, let alone one that will pass for a country fair.  So we are running around trying to put together a setup and also finishing the woven items.  Finishing them consists of washing and drying them and then cutting the start and end threads and doing something with the fringe ends.  Not something that can be quickly done for about a dozen scarves and table runners.

He also decided that we need to be able to take credit cards – something I agree with – so he filled in the required info to be able to take credit cards from Paypal. We have an account with then that we use for online sales that exists for about 10 years, so we are not strangers to them, it should be easy to get a card reader and use with our existing account.  As of today – a week after he filled in the info – we still don't seem to have the account for sales with a card reader and they seem to be sending the wrong card reader.  The day after he originally gave them the info and we saw that there were problems he signed up with Square – who we had never done business with before - and we were able to immediately sign up and pick up a card reader at one of an assortment of stores locally that sell them.  So much for loyalty to customers by Paypal. 

So I have not get anything done as we were away and we have been trying to get everything done for Saturday (which to our minds mean that it will rain Saturday and the event will be canceled or they will have it and we will not go due to the rain). 

In addition I have the cold, plus a couple of weeks ago I started having pains that we think are from my lifting the last analog monitor we got rid of – the pains come and go depending on if I lift something else heavy – and last night I was terribly ill after dinner so I have not been of much help, particularly since husband will not let me lift anything “heavy” which has much lighter threshold than it does for most people.  (I am not sure how we will be able to setup Saturday as he will not let me carry any of the setup or the weaving and we cannot park close to where the reenactment unit is setting up.

I was suppose to take my mom to the doctor this week – but had to speak to her about when she is available to go so I can make an appointment, so I had not done so, plus I did not want to her give her my cold – so I called tonight to check her schedule and will try to make an appointment for next week.

I also have to go to client this week or next. I would greatly have preferred this week as she is in Manhattan and next week the U.N.  will be in town and it will be a travel and security mess, but she is also older woman in her 80s and I did not want to give her my cold either. 

Oh, and the RV battery is not keeping its charge so we were “playing with it” all week and now our car mechanic has it – he fixed the oil leak and will see what he can see about the batteries tomorrow.  (Husband spoke to RV company that installed the new batteries – batteries have warranty, but does not cover labor and we will need to leave the RV there for at least a week – ouch, at $100+ per hour… - plus we will have to drive both RV and car to New Jersey, come home with car, when it is fixed drive car to NJ, pick up the RV and then drive both home – and tolls for each vehicle for each round trip is about $30 – so the tolls alone are almost $100, plus the gas.)

So I have gotten some computer work done I managed to trace and resolve problems in the posting of our Etsy sales and fees – mostly only have fees, few sales – from using their new payment account that handles both fees we pay and sales we make (terrible idea from an accounting point of view).  I did scanning of tax return recently finished for client.  That sort of thing. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes one just has to go with the flow of what is going on.  Great to get stuff done, but when life has other plans – don't go crazy, just go with the flow and catch up when one can.

GOODBYE 2009

In between trying to get rid of ants in the kitchen and the refrigerator needing monitoring to stay in the small temperature range we need to get it to stay in, I had some time in our office to catchup on paperwork a bit - still 2 piles, but the “to do” one is getting shorter.

One job I have not have had a chance to do is store files from 2018 that I need/want to keep.  Before doing this I have to clear out the oldest box saved files - in this case it was 2009 that had to be dealt with.  2009 was an unusual year for us - it was the year that we had bedbugs.

I climbed up and took stuff off the front of the shelf in the office closet - 3 boxes of  computer disks stored up there (installed hardware, to set up the computers, old software that might needed, past years tax software). At the end of 2018 I stored the paid bills in an old manila envelope box (the one the envelopes came in) that I keep for this - that box had to come down also, as were 2 boxes of small manila envelopes.  (Did you know that 6"x 9" or less sized envelopes go at the same US Postage rate as regular #10 envelopes and can hold more in the same 1/4" thickness allowed for same than the #10's?)  Some empty, flattened boxes that I kept was the last of what was blocking access to the 3 boxes of old financial records on the middle of the top shelf of the closet.  There are additional boxes of same (9 in total) on the top of the closet, but the latest and oldest are the two I try to keep in the center stack - as the other stacks require moving the center stack to take out the boxes.  First, I took out the 2017 box and added some papers I had found during the past year from same (I have folder “old years files to add to box” that it has been in. ).  I then took out the 2009 box.

Going through the old box  is a trip down memory lane.  I start taking out papers.  There are bank statements, paid bills, old insurance policies, etc. in the box for us and for our businesses.  I have my paper shredder ready and also have spare garbage bags. 

I take the first item out - what is it?  In this case a stack of telephone bills.  Nothing needed from same.  I go pull the first 4 off the top - checking that nothing else is mixed in - and into the shredder they go.  Little by little more goes into the shredder.  Items such as the phone bills and cable bills which don’t need to be checked if anything should be kept just get fed in and shredded. 

In 2009 we got rid of my 1996 car and bought a new one.  (Which we hated and got rid of 2 years later.)  I pulled out the book (remember when the dealer handed out books with photos and info about the car that you were looking out) and the rest of the papers from the original 1996 purchase of the car that I pulled from the car’s file at the end of 2009 when I pulled files to keep from the year.)  I stuck all of them in the book to go through and added same to my “to do” pile.  I will keep the car registrations as I keep them forever.  (We once received notice that we had not paid 3 parking tickets on one of our cars.  We had never received any tickets nor was it in an area we have been to.  I requested copies of the tickets and it was a different car and a different license plate.  Some of the letters and numbers matched and some did not - but looked the same.  I had to prove what the license plate on the car was  - at the time the ticket was issued - having a different plate on the car when I was fighting this did not count.  I did not keep the registrations - in this area this is a small square of heavy paper that is changed every 2 years when it is renewed.  Each was tossed out after the new one was put in the car or our wallets.  It was a big problem to resolve, so I now keep the car registrations - forever.  I will go through the purchase papers when I get a chance. 

I then looked up in my Quickbooks what income taxes we paid during the year (including final estimate and final payment for 2008 and estimate for 2009.)  I saw that we had only made one payment in April.  I made a note.  I then checked what we had paid for our real estate taxes and made a note of them.  I then opened our corporation in same and checked what and when we had paid for corporation taxes and sales taxes that we had collected and paid.  I also checked for a certain payment we have to pay to the state corporation dept every other year with who is who in our corporation. 

I then started with the corporation bank statements.  I pulled out the statements that should have the checks issued above and pulled those checks out, paper clipped them together and safely set them aside.  I will scan front and back of these checks in my computer - again due to something that has happened in the past with clients - and my dad’s business.  I then started shredding the corporation bank statements, looking as I did for an unusually large amounts on them.  If I had seen any I would checked what it was for.

Next I went through the corporation’s charge card statement.  Again I looked for anything that is a large amount and feed the statements into the shredder.
                       
By now I have had to change the bag in the shredder once.

I now am at our personal bank statements, again I will check for any large amounts.  A lot more of these than for the corporation as we have accounts at multiple banks and each have IRA accounts. Our main checking account has a lot of checks, as well as deposit slips, so I remove the staple(s) holding them to the statement so I can feed them into the shredder in batch sizes that will not jam the shredder and also send the statement through.  As I go through I make sure to pull the checks for our income tax and the four for our real estate taxes.  When I come to July I find the check that paid for the bed bug treatment - gee, it was $2000 more than I thought I was! 

When the bank statements are finished I go through the several credit cards statements.  (All of which were paid in full every month, as is all.)  Again, I have to separate the slips from the statements as there are too many to go through the shredder all at once. 

Suddenly I realize that I am coming to the end of what is in the box.  I have pulled some papers and set them aside to check through - maybe scan into the computer, as I will do with the tax payment checks and receipts for our real estate taxes.  Last thing was I took the “2009" removable label from the box.

2009 is done and gone.  I have done it in 3 sessions of shredding - too much shredded at once and the shredder will overheat and I will have to wait for it to cool off.  I filled 4 kitchen sized bags of shreds.  (I put them in out by putting 2 bags each into a larger black bag and setting those two large black bags out.  The light colored kitchen bags can sort of be seen through and I did not want anyone noticing that the bags had shredded papers in them and it looks more like regular trash than same.)

On to storing 2018.  In my file drawer the files that should be gone through have red edged labels (those that are permanent and should stay are blue edged).  In our corporation’s file drawer the annual files are yellow edged labels and permanent are green edged labels.  I have a folder in our file drawer that holds items I found or received during the year that belongs in the prior year.  So I take anything in it - for 2017 and add it to the 2017 box.

 I pull the first annual folder - bank statements from our main bank - I take out 2018 statements and put into the box.  I do the same with the rest of the bank statements from 2018.  I then come to statements from our medical insurance - all of the 2018 statements are pulled out.  I switched medical insurance companies in 2018.  I go through the blue edged folder for same and pull the papers to keep - I shred the others.  2 empty folders (the annual and the permanent for that insurance company) to be recycled next time I need a folder - put in a sorter on top of the folder holder stack on the side of my desk with other folders waiting a new use.  I do this with all of the annual folders in our file drawer. 

I then do the same with the corporation file drawer.  Paid bills for the corporation are in folders in the file drawer and are pulled out also and fit into the box. 

I then go back and pull the box of paid bills which I mentioned I had put the 2018 bills in.  I then add the paid bills. 

When I am pretty sure that just about everything is in the box I take out my “this year folder”.  I use this folder to throw things in that I don’t know what to do with or do not go with anything and need to be held for short term.  I go through it and shred whatever is no longer needed.  I put in the box anything I want to keep from last year.  One example of what is in this folder - we get a large postcard (sometimes two during the same year) on when and where we are to vote - including our Congressional district, State Senate district, State Assembly district, and County legislator district on it, as well as our “voting district” infos.  I keep the card until we receive the next year’s card.  Since we have the 2019 card, I shredded the 2018 card as it is no longer needed.  (I keep it until the new one comes as 3 years ago we did not get the new card.  While the card is not needed to vote, it helps when the idiots, ummm, the people working at the polls cannot figure out that we belong at the table that we say we belong at.  (No, really, one year the woman at the table we were to vote at told us we were at the wrong polling place as our address was “not on her list”.  We had to show her the card with the info we were to vote there and she had to go and check with one.  Not sure if that is better or worse than the year we went to the primary vote and the man and woman at the table for our location and our party were not able to figure out anything to do and the fellow from the other party came and took care of getting us signed in and gave us our ballots.  If one did not have to be there at 6 am we would go down and work the polls because they need us - and one does get paid.)

When I was pretty sure all of what had to be kept from 2018 was in the box - I put the lid on and climbed up and put it away.  I then put back all the stuff that goes in front of the boxes that I had taken out.  Anything I find now that belongs in the box, I will put in that prior year’s folder for next year.

Something I just noticed in writing this piece - I never made a new label “2018" and stuck it on the box.  I will have to do so or be terribly confused in the future.

I also have a file drawer both for the files I keep for our reenacting unit and for same for my embroidery chapter.  (I am treasurer of both and need to keep files).  I have a metal file drawer divider so the embroidery files are in front of same and the reenacting ones are behind. 

I have not had a chance to go through these files in awhile and move out old years.  I started with our reenacting unit.  I pulled old paid bills from the paid bills folder, ditto the bank statements and insurance policies.  We have some copies of invoices that I sent to organizations that we did events for and they are pulled also if they are 2017 or before.  I then sorted what I had pulled out into stacks by year and put the stacks in folders.  The unit has several filing cabinets and a drawer in one of them holds the old records - more than 3 years ago - and I move the files there - by year - so I don’t have to take up room in our house for older files.  As I pull the older bills I check to make sure that there are not any that I might needs - items we don’t often need to reorder, but if we do, it is helpful to have the last one, so that we know what we ordered last time and from whom.  (This past Monday night these files were taken to our reenactment unit’s meeting and put in the file cabinets.) 

I did not get to the embroidery chapter’s files yet - those I keep 3 years in the drawer (plus the current year) plus another 7 years in box (another of those manila envelope boxes) in the closet - well labeled.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes just short periods of time are best for getting work done.  I could have put all this off, but had a bit of time here and there to shred the papers.  I pulled most of the papers to go in the box for 2018 while the computer was backing up for the day. 

Getting rid of ants and getting the fridge to stay in temperature range - much harder.

BAD WEEK - STARTED AS A SHORT POST

Okay this is one of those weeks. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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

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!

           

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. 

EVEN WHEN ONE USE A PROCESS TO DO THINGS - THINGS CAN GO AWRY

Do you use processes to help you get or stay organized?  If you are not sure what I mean - I mean doing things the same way or on the same day or at the time every time you do them?  I try to.  Lately though, as part of this craziness going on here, things slip through the process and go awry or go missing.

Sometime around December my desk scissors went missing.  I keep them in the drawer over the leg hole of my desk, right in the front.  Husband and I both looked high and low for them over the ensuing couple of months.  He thought he found them in our studio in the “small tool drawer”, where our scissors for the studio are, but that was the duplicate pair I keep there.  I really like these scissors.  He started suggesting that I get new ones.  I am a stubborn person and refused.  Well, last Friday I opened my desk drawer for something and - the scissors were back.  Neither of us has any idea how this happened, I am just glad they are back and I no longer have to use a small knife for things I should be using scissors for.

I have a definite process for credit card receipts.  I collect them in a pocket in my wallet.  I empty the pocket Friday night and Sunday night (we do a lot of our shopping over the weekend). When I take them out of my wallet they go into a basket hanging at the foot of the stairs - the mail and similar go here also - and my next trip upstairs they go upstairs.  I then sort them at my desk and put them into the corresponding pockets in a small loose leaf book.  They then wait snugly there until they are matched with the statement and then will be attached to same when I pay the statement.  So how do they go missing?  One night in January when husband had a cold we stopped between Saturday night dinner and Saturday night movie to buy a box of cold pills for him.  On arriving home we found out we already had a started box of the same medicine.  (Ever happen to you - I am sure it has.)  I put the box and the receipt into a section of the holder for files on my desk to wait until I knew he did not need a second box.  He took the medicine once from the started box and decided it did not work. 

So a couple of weeks later I went to take the medicine back.  The box was there, the receipt was not.  I went crazy looking for it.  I climbed all over the floor in the office.  I disassembled the folder holder so I could look under it (too big, heavy and unwieldy to move as one piece).  I checked where the receipt should be.  Not found.  I finally tried to return it without the receipt - not for medications, so we have a spare box of a medication we don’t really take.  My fault - if the receipt had gone where it belonged in the interim, it would have been there when needed.

Now the latest thing gone astray - and the worst.  I am the treasurer and the membership chair of our reenactment unit.  In mid January I mailed out the renewal forms to members.  It is sort of an odd setup.  Members join in family groups which can be from 1 person to any amount, generally 4 is the largest group.  Members can also just join our unit or also join a national reenactment group that our unit is part of.  I need to keep careful records of which group rejoined, who in the family rejoined, who in the family rejoined or joined the national group also.  I have a spread sheet that I copy over year to year to keep track - I remove anyone who was not in “last year” and add anyone who joined “last year”.  It is all set up to keep track of and total what each group paid and the totals of everyone.  I am suppose to send the renewals and dues of members of the national group by the beginning of March to the national group’s membership chair.  I also list all checks - for this or any other reason - in a notebook.

So last week I emailed out to those members not listed on the spreadsheet a reminder to renew.  I heard back from one member.  Her husband had mailed us the renewal form and check for them and their 2 sons and they had gotten the “if you are receiving this you did not renew yet” email.  I remembered receiving their renewal.  I also remembered, as she mentioned in her email, that her husband had taken care of it and had filled in and paid for the national group also.  Since they were not members of same in the past - and her husband had done the paperwork - I decided to check with them about the renewal and set it aside to contact them.

And that is where the problem comes in. I can’t find their paperwork or check.  I emailed her back right away and told her I remembered receiving it and would get back to her.  I am pretty sure I know which day I received their renewal - it was the day in January I went to my client in Manhattan, husband could not go out food shopping for the upcoming storm due to the van having no brakes, when I came home we ran out food shopping, then back home as I forgotten the items I needed to mail out for us and the client, and while at the post office I picked up the mail.  The date fits and then we did not go out for several days.  I also remember it was the first renewal I received and that my husband was not in the post office when I found it in our box - and he almost always comes in with me - except that day.  I have been thorough all of my briefcases and computer bags - even the ones that were in the closet straight through.  Any folder I could think of.  The desk and file drawers. Under the desks. The car and its hatch.  I cannot find it.  My husband cannot find it.  I have been getting lectures from husband (who cannot find anything without me) about being more careful. 

Today I gave up and humbled myself and sent an email to the member apologizing, explaining, apologizing again... I told her I marked them as renewed.  I suggested that she send a replacement check as the first one was the wrong amount (paid too much) anyway.  I told her when I find the other check, I will return it to her. 

I am kicking myself about what went wrong.  It bothers the heck out of me.  Generally paperwork is the one area that I keep well organized.  I am not suppose to loose things - and not be able to find them - and 3 items in a couple of months is 3 items too many.  I realize that all I can do is keep looking until I find the item or it becomes moot.  I am hoping whichever “fairy” gave me back my scissors will smile on me again and return the missing renewal to me and the missing receipt - but the missing return is more important.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Set up processes to help yourself get organized.  Keep at them and follow what you set up and it should help.  Whether it is keeping track of papers, doing the laundry on the same day each week, changing towels and bed linens on a weekly schedule, or cleaning the house.  I keep the daily (make dinner), weekly, monthly, annual and other odd repeating items in my organizer and Palm - they could also be in a smart phone or paper calendar/appointment book.  This helps to remind to do things at the same time.  On Wednesdays I start doing the laundry (usually takes 2 to 3 evenings between washing, drying, folding, and putting away) at night.  I also write my post to all of you if I have not done so on Tuesday.  (Last week I got it done on Tuesday and then forgot it was Tuesday and posted a day early.)  I also go and “visit” an embroidery group online if I have time.

What can you set up in your calendar to remind you to do every day, week, month, etc.?  Try it, it works well.  A reminder alarm can even be set to remind you. 

Hoping you have a nice Valentine’s Day tomorrow.

ARE YOU CHECKING THE FORMS COMING IN WITH INCOME, ETC. TO DO YOUR INCOME TAXES?

I was reminded yesterday that one should always check the forms that come in with income, etc.at the year end to help you prepare your income taxes.  I am sure you understand what I mean all the W2, assorted 1099s maybe some K1 forms...    NEVER ASSUME THAT EVERYTHING IS OKAY UNTIL YOU CHECK THE NUMBERS!

I thought that I was doing well, doing as I always do.  I use a bookkeeping program all year, so all I have to do is compare the totals for the year as I always do - well maybe.  Husband has an IRA at each of 2 credit unions.  (Credit unions function like banks, but the depositors own it.  Originally they were “affinity” organizations - one had to work for a certain type of company or live in a certain area to “join”; they are now allowed to have people joined who are not members of a limited group.)  We have been making withdrawals as we need to supplement our other income from one of the two credit unions - we like the other one better and the other one has slightly better interest rates. Last year, however I noticed that the IRA money in the other as his account had gone over the insured amount, so we took money from it once last year.  I keep on eye on what we might need and will have husband transfer money from a CD (fixed time saving certificate of deposit) in the IRA into a savings account in the IRA so that we always have some money not in a CD that we can go in and make a withdrawal from that account - we do this as if we withdrew money from a CD not when it renews there would be a bank penalty.

To protect the (not really) “innocent” I will refer to the credit union that we have been withdrawing from over the years as “Union A” and the other one - the one we like and just started withdrawing from - as Union B or none of this will make sense. 

For those of you not in the US - Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) are so that people who work and do not have a pension at work can set aside money for retirement.  I will not go into all of the details of same as you will all have headaches if I do - but basically one must be 59.5 years old or older to take out money without an IRA penalty and one pays income taxes on the money one withdraws.  The IRA can also be used if one had a pension and leaves work by one having the pension money transferred (rolled over) into a IRA (at bank, credit union. stock broker and a variety of other financial institutions).  In our case, husband’s IRAs are the rollover of his pension when he quit his job.  (This is not something called a Roth IRA - which I will not go into explaining as it has no relation to any of this.)

As an accountant I consider myself good at keeping track of our money.  Every bank statement is timely reconciled - including those for the IRAs.  I also have a (very) small IRA at Union B as I had no pension.

When the year end forms showing the income (withdrawals from) from husband’s IRA at Union
 A arrived, I looked at the amount of income (withdrawals) it showed for the year and compared it to the total in my bookkeeping software and it matched.  Remember, through 2017 we had only made withdrawals from the Union A IRA. 

Well, yesterday the paperwork arrived from Union B and I went to check it against the total in my bookkeeping software and I realized something was wrong - MAJOR WRONG.  The Union B form showed that he (we) had withdrawn three times as much as I showed we did.  Then I remembered that the entire amount withdrawn on my software was the same as what was withdrawn from Union A. I pulled out the year end Union A paperwork to figure it out. 

Remember I said that we transfer money within the IRA at Union A and also within the IRA at Union B (each credit union separately - not between the two IRAs)?  Somehow both credit unions had made a mistake in a transfer within the IRA at that credit union.  The paperwork from Union A had looked right as the amount transferred within same (from CD to savings account) happened to be equal to the withdrawal we made at Union B.  The form from Union A actually showed several thousand dollars more than we had actually withdrawn. 

At Union B we had gone in and taken money during the year (as I said, just happened to be the same amount as the transfer at Union A) and at the same time - on separate paperwork - we had transferred money within that IRA into the IRA savings account at that credit union.  So - it was by chance that the paperwork from Union A looked correct when it was not.  At Union B we had transferred twice as much as we had withdrawn - hence, since the same sort of error was made there - the paperwork showed that we had withdrawn 3 times as much as we did.

So today - after a quick “fun” stop at the doctor for followup blood test - we drove to Union A.  We went there first as in general they don’t always seem to know what they are doing and there was no paperwork for the transfer there - only a withdrawal and deposit slip.  As we thought about it and looked at the paperwork I did have, we remembered the problems the day we transferred (or thought we transferred) the money.  We had gone to the branch of Union A we normally go to - a small branch closer to us than the main branch.  There has been a very nice and competent employee there that would we wait for.  She was not there.  The fellow who was there did not have any idea what he was doing and we left and went to the main branch.  In the main branch they were having a “summer beach party” theme event (banking is not suppose to be fun - it is business).  I did not have a business card from the employee - who seemed competent at the time - and had written his name down as he did not have one. I remembered when thinking about it that it had all seemed too quick. 

When we went in today I asked for a manager or supervisor and was questioned at the reception desk as to why I needed one and told that any of the employees can do that - I told the woman at the desk, we preferred to deal with a manager to do this.  An employee came out - based on where she had come from I knew she was not a manager.  When we shook hands I asked what kind of manager she was - she was not and I repeated my request, which again, she tried to talk me out of.  We eventually met with the assistant manager. Luckily she understood and she was able to correct the error.  We are to get new paperwork - both the required paperwork for our income taxes showing the amount he received for the year and we also requested a new “summary statement” as we will need that later in year to apply for the real estate senior deduction (the one seemed not to have arrived at the township back in December).  Hopefully we will have correct copies of both in about a week. 

Oh, this manager said something that no one should every say about their business to a customer.  I had told her that we have not been happy with the credit union in general  -“Really?  How come you have not moved your account elsewhere then?”  Instead of “I am so sorry to hear that - what can we do to make it better for you?”  (Which husband basically told her - employees need better training in IRAs and don’t have event parties.”) She basically suggested to us that we should not bank with her credit union and we should move our money elsewhere!

We then drove to Union B.  I was not as concerned about dealing with the problem at same as the employee ( a very good one that we ask for when we go in) had filled in the form to have this processed correctly - it just had not been done correctly by whoever processed it.  What a difference!  We asked to speak to a manager. Other than being offered someone else to help as the manager was with a customer, there was no question about us speaking with her.  When we speaking she commented (in reference to something said) “Some customers just like to stop in and say hello to me.” 

She corrected the error - and apologized it for it.  She could not get us a replacement summary statement for the year.  She came up with an idea and printed out each account for the year, stamped it with the bank’s rubber stamp and signed it as an alternative.  So much more pleasant and not at all adversarial as the other credit union had been!

Hopefully this all is resolved now other than our receiving the amended forms.  I have now decided that whatever is going on and making us redo things a second time is some sort of curse and I don’t know where it came from or how to get rid of it.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

When you get financial papers - make sure they are correct.  Always reconcile statements.  Do the math to make sure that those W2, 1099, etc  forms to prepare your tax returns are correct - do the math.  We have not had a problem before - but this year we had two problems from 2 separate sources. 

Check things when you receive them.  Some banks will not correct statement errors after the month you receive the statement.  In this case if I had put these papers aside until I was ready to do our taxes - instead of checking right away - in addition to being concerned about getting them corrected, I might be facing a tight deadline to get them corrected to file our return.  Keep the assorted slips and papers you receive when making a deposit, transfer or withdrawal.  The more paperwork you have to back up your side if there is a problem - the better off you are - even if you scan the papers into the computer to keep them there. 

Start now keeping things organized for your 2019 taxes due in April 2020.  No - really - start now as papers come in.  I have a folder in my paid bills accordion holder marked “1099s”. Anything I receive during the year that is a form like this I toss in this folder.  I also have folders for our car and our van (both are partially business expenses) - I put receipts for cash paid for either, plus the invoices from the mechanic, etc for either, in the appropriate folder.  There is also an “accounting” folder for receipts for cash paid for same also - including receipts for parking and for subway fares when I go to clients.  At the end of the year all these folders - except the “1099" are pulled out and put in a holder I have for clients (and us) that holds the papers for taxes.  This lets me start putting in the new year’s receipts (took out 2018 papers, now can use for 2019 papers).  The “1099" folder still holds items for 2018 right now as they are coming in the mail and it is extremely rare to receive any of these forms for the current year this early in the year.