MOM MOVED TO A NEW RESIDENCE - AND WE HAD PROBLEMS TAKING HER OUT TO THE DOCTOR

 I am guessing that I have mentioned before that I have an older mom – 93 now. She has been living in a very nice assisted living residence which is run by a non-profit organization of our faith. I mention the last part of that sentence as due to same it has been a very comfortable atmosphere for her – the rabbi's wife comes in late Fridays to light the Sabbath candles, the rabbi comes by for holiday services – they have a synagogue for same, the seats are fold up chairs so the space can be used as multipurpose room – including setting up tables and chairs for a New Year's party. Each floor has on the wall 2 Sedar plates (ceremonial plates used for Passover) framed and hanging on the wall – a comforting thing to see and helps one remember at which floor to get off the elevator. Familiar traditional foods for holidays and in general are served. While the residence is non-sectarian (I had a friend who was Roman Catholic who lived there for some time before she passed away and when I would talk to her – she would talk about how nice it was (and feeling uncomfortable due to her religion to go inside she would sit outside the synagogue to hear and see the services), it is very comforting to older Jewish people to have this atmosphere of their life as it had been around them.

Unfortunately it is also rather expensive and mom (being 93) has come to the point where she no longer can afford to live there, as well as reaching the point where she needs more care. The organization also has a rehabilitation and nursing home building on the site (and are currently building apartment buildings for those who are not in the need of either type of facility, but are looking to live with some help available to them). The nursing home does not have any vacancies – but the non-profit just took over another nursing home at a different location and it did have vacancies – so last Friday my sister and her family moved mom to this nursing home.

Two months ago I had made an appointment for mom to go yesterday (Tuesday) to a doctor (the one husband and I cannot stand their disorganization). I may have mentioned that husband and I are the “mom shleppers” we take mom to her doctor appointments (except during most of the pandemic as we are limited in going out due to same, but we had to start doing so again to help out my sister). Over the past two months mom has gone for tests at this doctor's office but now she was finally going to see the doctor himself. I checked with my sister when she told me that mom was being moved as to mom continuing to see her doctors and my sister told me that it was not a problem – “you just go and pick her up – same as before”. Well, yesterday we found out – not so much.

My sister told me over the weekend that we had to be “certified” to take mom out in our car. She has spoken with mom's caseworker and it would not a be a problem – she would do it when we came to pick up mom. (Implies that she knows we are taking mom out and when?)

I called the nursing home on Monday (first business day after mom moved in) to talk to mom's caseworker – voicemail that she would call back the next day, left a message. I called again and spoke with the front desk and was put through – another caseworker, then nursing director, then nursing supervisor – all went to voicemail with same message. Then I was put through to the physical therapy department (as they would do the certification) and spoke with a woman there – who said that they, not the caseworker do the certifications. I was concerned as we had been told it was a 15 minute process – and we would be on a very tight schedule. Mom is now living a half an hour further away from us – and from this doctor, along with allowing for getting mom into the car we were leaving at 2:30 for her 4pm appointment – we added another half hour for certification instead of 15 minutes – just in case.

Sounds organized – right?

Quite literally as we pulled off our driveway into the street my cell phone rang. It was the caseworker telling me that I could not take mom out as no arrangements had been made in advance to take her out and who was this doctor anyway – they know nothing about him – arrangements have to made 72 hours (3 days) in advance! I explained to her that this appointment had been 2 months ago, “yesterday” (Monday) was the first business day since mom had moved there, etc. I gave her the doctor's name and where he was located for her to talk to and we continued on our trip.

We were using GPS to find the location of the nursing home. Our timing was about to right to get there – but husband got confused about the GPS directions when we got off the main road (despite my figuring out where it would be located and explaining same in advance – so we had to make 2 U-turns (went wrong way, then passed turn on way back) and he hates to make U-turns. The location is on the service road of the main road – limited access highway – on the Island. As we drove we passed a senior residence from another company – just before it the GPS told us to stay right and then turn right – the road ahead of us split to the right and to the left was the entry back onto the highway in the direction we had come from, so we stayed right – boy, oh boy was that an error! It took us another 15 minutes to get back to the expressway service road. Go figure, below the sign for the other senior residence was a sign for mom's. There at last!

When we went in the entrance and I said mom's name the woman at the desk said “Oh, yes!”. She knew why we were there and who to call. Someone showed up in a couple minutes with mom (the caseworker I found out) and two people showed up to certify us to take mom out. (This did impress me a lot.)

I was given papers to sign and papers to keep and a large envelope to give to the doctor's staff for info from them about mom's visit. The certifying us to take her in car was just watching us help her get in the car – and mostly they did so. And we were off!

The doctor's visit was annoying as always – and I will skip the details other one of the two us had to leave when the doctor came (room too small, my fanny we have been both together with her in that room before) and I left husband as he better understands what doctors are saying (from years running a medical facility he speaks “doctor”).

We then brought mom back to her new home. It was rush hour and we were traveling in the direction that most of the rush hour travels so it took awhile. When we arrived back at her nursing home we wheeled her in – very impressed with them again – my error, I left mom's “pass” out in the car and ran out and got it for them. I explained that mom had not had dinner as when I made the appointment and she was at the old location her dinner was 6:15 and I had timed it out for her to be home for same, now that her dinner is 5 pm, I will try to make future appointments to take same into account. In normal times we would have taken her out for dinner (would solve our dinner problem also), but due to Covid we did not want to do so. No problem, they would make sure she had something to eat.

We then started our trek home in rush hour.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Always find out in advance about what needs to be done when going somewhere for the first time. Per the paperwork from the certification they need to know 72 hours in advance if mom will be going out to okay it with her doctor and they have to know at least that far in advance about any medical appointments.

I made the mistake of relying on my sister and not calling when she first said that mom would be moving here to find out about taking mom out and so on.

An aside – I did finish the paperwork for the real estate tax exemption over this past weekend and we drove today to the County building and I delivered it to the County Assessor's office and received a receipt for it. This office is normally jammed out the door, especially this time of year. There was one person in there talking to an employee, when they left, I was next and when I was leaving one other person walked in. When I commented on this to the employee who helped me he said “You should have been here an hour ago – the line was huge.” I guess going places late in the day has an advantage.

NOT FINISHED YET WITH THE TAX PAPERWORK AND ERRANDS TO RUN ALSO

 Have spent two more days working on the tax exemption paperwork – though to be honest, “a day” around here runs 3-5 hours and is really just an afternoon.  

When I left off the first day all was basically done except the hard part – getting copies of all the bills for my accounting practice – some of which are split bills with personal, club, etc expenses.  Some expenses even need to be split several ways.  When I left off at end of this first day I was missing several bills for car expenses – I actually went to a client once last year and also drove the car to post mail to clients, to pick up same from our USPS PO box and for some needed supplies.  As I panicked over the missing bills – one was found and I felt better.

Today I found and made copies of the missing bills – except one which remains missing. It is for less then $30 and I will not go crazy looking for it.  

Tomorrow we plan to go to the bank to make deposits.  In addition we used to go weekly and would replenish the cash which we had used during the week – since we collect checks to deposit and go less than a once a month (don't get a lot of checks these days) we have not been going to the bank a regular basis and he has used the cash he had.  We don't like to be cashless in general and he needs singles to leave a tip for Friday night dinner at an Asian buffet.  

I plan to work Friday on finishing the paperwork for the exemption.  I needed to write covers for some section as well as summary explanation of what I have for them.  And the form – I still have to fill in the actual form.  I wait until the last to do so to make sure that numbers on it are correct and match the paperwork.  Then we can go next week to drop it off and get a receipt from them for it.  

Then back to work on taking exams so I can prepare tax returns next year.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Small steps planned out make a big job easier to do.  

MISSED ANOTHER POST LAST WEEK - SORRY, BUT SO OVERWHELMED ALL OF A SUDDEN

 My apologies for missing last week's post – seems to be happening more and more.  Amazing how staying home a lot more (almost all the time) results in not getting things done in the house.  Always thought if we stayed home more (instead of going out daily for lunch at Wendys and wasting time walking around in stores for no particular purpose other than for husband to get out of the house) I would get so much more done – ha ha!

I was caught up last week in preparing for Thanksgiving,  For about 30 years I made Thanksgiving dinner for our two families.  Then when we stopped having our families (or anyone else) in our house due to having had bedbugs (and not wanting to EVER have them again) I made  Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us for 8 years with no problems.  Last year and this year husband has helped me with dinner – which for some reason leads to problems making the meal and finishing it on time – and a much bigger mess in the kitchen.  

Never buy a turkey bigger than one's baking pan – go smaller, not larger.  Husband has a particular market chain (two locations in our greater area) that he likes to buy the turkey from as we can get a fresh turkey instead of frozen – less figuring out the logistics of turkey cooking if one does not have to deal with defrosting.  Normally they have several categories of turkey sizes – this year they had two – 12 lbs and 20 lbs.  I had checked my notebook of past holiday dinners and knew we should buy 14-26 lbs (and even that I a lot for 2 people) and suggested a 12 lb turkey.  “NO NO!  That will be all bones and not meat!” I was told.  Rather than get into an argument in the store – we bought a 20 lb turkey, though I knew it was too big to deal with.  Somehow it all worked out though the turkey stuck over the end of the pan and its weight collapsed the rack it was on.  His solution - “We need to buy a big roasting pan and not use your baking pan.”  Oven floor is a bit of a mess and needs a cleaning from the drips.

In addition over the past several weeks we have taken my mom to the doctor 3 times (with another trip tomorrow).  This is the doctor with the office I call “the office from hell” as nothing ever goes right on their end (yes, I would take her elsewhere, but my sister insists on this doctor, who is her husband's doctor).  Though these 3 visits the office was not overcrowded and we did see the staff person we were seeing in a very reasonable time instead of multiple hours of waiting we experienced before the pandemic.   We also visited our doctor twice – once for blood work (before Thanksgiving of course) and our annual checkup this past week.  

At the same time I have my usual 2 year end urgent projects to deal with. I have to take courses (online) to be able to prepare tax returns in 2022 and I also have to complete the paperwork for a senior partial exemption of our real estate taxes.  These courses have to be completed by December 31.  Real estate taxes here are rather higher than elsewhere as same is just about the only taxes collected for our township and our county and costs are high here.  In other counties in the state each township handles this exemption with a minimum of paperwork.  Our county handles the exemption paperwork and determination of exemption.  I usually end up dropping off the application in two stacks of paper as I cannot figure out how to attach it all together  - over 100 pages.  This paperwork has to be completed by and at the county assessor's office by January 2 – which means by December 31, especially since January 2, 2022 is on a Saturday.  We drop the exemption papers off in person as one year there was a great deal of confusion, in general, about whether or not exemption papers had been received from people, so basically these papers have to be filed, in person, before December 24.

I have finished in advance a good part of copying the items I need for the tax exemption and have only the proof of expenses and income for our 2 businesses (which each make next to nothing) to finish copying and then I have to assemble all of the papers and add my summaries to it.  So, I started working on taking the exams online.  I have 2 of them finished – 5 credits of 20 required.  

It suddenly dawned on me that I HAVE to get the exemption papers done much sooner than I was thinking – as I said before December 24 if we are going to drop them off in person – and I have to switch to getting same done and prepared to start finishing it up do so today – but a new situation popped up.  I had to write and email out the newsletter/meeting notice for my embroidery chapter – and that took preference – and all 3 versions of it are out (members, prospective members, region newsletter editors).  

I also have an unusually large load of laundry to get done – normally one load of general clothes, this week 2 loads, plus a load of jeans.  Not sure why so many clothes – we did not dress any differently than we normally do or for more days.  

But yet – I have stopped to make sure I do not go 2 weeks before posting to all of you.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When overwhelmed – stop, step back, figure the order things have to be done by and pick the one with the closest deadline.  

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.

Mom's house and doctors plus stored away Christmas

Mom is taking much of everyone's time again.  Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch once said of his mother - “One mother can take care of 6 children, but 6 children cannot take care of one mother”.  It is true.  I have 2 sisters, we each have a husband, but there is a niece and nephew – that is 8 adults to divide up taking care of mom.

The family house is cleared out – mostly due to my sisters, brother-in-laws, and niblings.  ( I had invented a genderless word for nieces and nephews combined as there should be one – niblings.  When I posted this on some group that I am on, someone replied that someone before me had come up with a word for nieces and nephews combined – guess what it was – yes, they also came up with niblings.  I am now spreading the word in hope that this long missing word becomes common. Now I need a common word for aunts and uncles – any ideas out there?)  There is a broker showing the house now.  So, new problems come up. 

The family house is in the county and township as husband and I live in. The county (and included townships and a city) has had for decades ongoing problems with the local real estate taxes and how properly the houses are assessed for the value to be taxed,  In attempting to fix one problem an entirely new one arose.  One can “grieve” their assessment (value of the house to be used for the real estate tax calculations) which means that one files with the county and says that the amount they say the house is worth is wrong and it should be less.  There is no downside to this – they cannot raise your assessment, only lower it if they agree with you.  One can do this one's self or one can use one of several companies which do the paperwork and deal with the county for you.  Husband and I have done this for a long time with a company and our house value has always been lowered.  Mom has not done in the past until last year (which is for next year's taxes) as she was afraid of losing her senior  partial exemption from part of the school tax (part of the real estate taxes), though I had assured her it would not.   

Two problems arose with the sale of the house related to the real estate taxes.  First one is that since mom has this senior exemption she amount she pays for real estate taxes is probably less than someone buying her house will pay (it based on income and being over 65 plus one cannot have children in school).  The second is that the broker told my sister that mom's taxes are terribly high – higher than the neighbor next door with the same model house, with additions that mom does not have.  So yesterday my sister emailed me for help with same – since I am in the same county/township and know the system.  First thing I did was take the copies of mom's tax bills that my sister emailed to me and add up what the tax would be without the senior exemption – took a little time as I had to add up all the lines of taxes – once I had the total percentage of the taxes that are charged all I had to do was multiply the assessed value (a small percentage of the actual value of the property/house) by this total percent of taxes and there it was.  Even with both the school and other real estate taxes added together it was much less than the broker said it was.  Also I telephoned the company which is handling the appeal and they said that due to the county revaluing all the properties in an attempt to even off the assessments mom's assessment will go down as she had not appealed her taxes while other had.  I emailed all this to my sister and mentioned that the broker should be able to figure out what the full real estate taxes on a property is. 

Well, a thought occurred to me today  - there is another house in the county, in a different township, which has the same address.  We found this out one year a couple of decades ago when mom's check to pay her real estate taxes was returned to her marked that the taxes had already been paid by someone else.  I was going to check on same, but found an email from my sister that she had already thought of this and the huge high taxes (the taxes on this house are so high compared to other houses on the street that it does not make sense at all and there will be problems selling the house) and checked – the taxes the broker has is about $6,000 a year more than per mom's bill or on line and is actually the real estate taxes for the other house with the same address.  My sister will tell this to the broker, as well as pointing out that the value of the house for the next year's taxes (starts in September) will be lower as value of the house is lower and I will get a letter from a the company handling the grieving of the assessment saying that same is being done.  (Based on mail I receive from them for our house this should not be hard and mom should actually have had this paperwork at home – but her records were lacking as well as the letters might be in the stacks of papers I still have here to go through.)

At the same time I was relaxing from taking mom to the various doctors and thinking “Good, we have time now and can get her to a plastic surgeon for the possible cancer growths on her face and get to Costco for hearing aids .  Oh, well,  It is about 3 months since we last took her to the oncologist, the surgeon for her cancer and the cardiologist who put in her replacement pacemaker.  Guess what – they all either wanted her back in 3 months or wanted blood work done.  So I have an appointment set up with her surgeon.  I asked doctor's staff if mom needed blood work and they had to check with the doctor and get back to me – did so today and I have to call back and give them the info for the “wellness” office at her residence as they will do the blood work there.  I already gave that info to her oncologist – I had given the wellness office two sets of paperwork for blood work in November, they did the first one and apparently lost the second one to be done now.  Hopefully the two sets of tests will be done together so poor mom does not have to be stuck twice for blood.  We have an appointment for to have her pacemaker battery tested at the doctor's office, but they were suppose to set up for when one of their staff goes to mom's residence (lots of heart patients there – not surprising) to do test the pacemaker there.  Have not heard back so I have to make sure they are set up to do that and then cancel the appointment.  So, we are back on the doctors-go-round, luckily the doctor from heck does not need to be seen for a couple of months.

And it is about to be my work busy season – income tax season!

I did manage to take down and store away our small Christmas tree and Christmas stuffed dolls, pillows, and stockings – a small assortment of what I normally put out.  I switched out a set of bear figurines that I keep in the living room and change by month to keep it seasonal and went from Christmas – the bears for same were only half put out on display – to February (Valentine's Day and bear “dressed” as cherry pie for Geo Washington's birthday).  The Christmas ones are all stored away in their boxes.  My Teddy Bear Christmas village never actually was finished and will be partially taken down soon, with some bears added and others rearranged for Valentine's Day.  One can only do what one can do – and this Christmas season was not one that had time to get everything done. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Mom's doctors, blood work and related comes first – health over all other things.  

REAL ESTATE TAX EXEMPTION PAPERWORK AND TEETH FOR HUSBAND

In our state, which has high taxes, being over 65, we are entitled to a senior exemption from part of our real estate taxes (which is a BIG amount) and since our school taxes are a separate real estate tax, we are also entitled to a partial exemption from same from our state.  In speaking with friends in other counties this is handled by the local township, village, or city and is a simple process.  In our county it is handled by the county and they seem to make it hard in an attempt to make it harder to obtain the exemption.

I understand that they have to make sure that those obtaining these credits are entitled to them but if I was not an accountant I would have a problem with the paperwork in past years and even more so this year. 

First year we were entitled to the exemption I put together the info we seemed to need and we went to one of the meetings that the county holds in libraries around the county about the exemption.  We need to fill in a form that is actually pretty straight forward.  We also need to supply copies of W2s, 1099s etc. to prove our income – okay not too bad from the prior year .  If our income was under the maximum amount allowed that would be all we need to do.  My mom cannot understand why I scream about this process as she has a 1099 for interest, one for some small dividends and one from Social Security and that is all she needs to make copies of and send with her application form.  Have I mentioned that the paperwork needs to be filed annually?

Since our income is higher than the maximum amount allowed, we need to provide our medical costs paid by us to bring our income under the maximum.  Sounds easy, right, make copies of the checks or charge slips that paid our medical insurance, doctors, pharmacies, eyeglasses, etc.?  No, they will not accept canceled checks or credit card slips as proof.  We have to get a printout for the year from each of the medical insurance companies, doctors, etc. that we paid money to during the year.  Pharmacy – no problem, the understood what we needed.  (Maybe because they are in our state?)  Dentist – no problem, he printed our our payments file.  Medical Insurance companies – ha, ha, ha.  I have now dealt with 3 of them trying to get printouts – and now have done so over multiple years.  The first year I only had to get same from the one (ACA) insurance company we had both shared the year before.  After several calls I finally had what I needed and I made a note of what they called it to help the following year.  Second year I had to get same for us, and husband had switched to Medicare during the prior year – so I had to get printouts from his supplemental policy and his medications (Part D) policy as well.  (Actual Medicare paid is shown on the Social Security form and they accept that.)  Since this is all done towards the end of the year using information from a year before, when I got the info last year my Medical insurance co had also sent the payments for last year as I had already switched to Medicare and I held onto same for the filing this year.  This year I managed to get the printout for our two medication policies on the first try.  It took 4 tries – the last by mail with a copy of the printout that they sent last year  - to get a copy of same from our supplemental policy company.

As, I mentioned the first year we were applying we went in and met with a person from the assessor''s office about this.  https://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/10/dealing-with-county-bureaucracy.html  In addition to all the paperwork that was listed and we had with us, they wanted other paperwork.  The employee said that our income was too high.  I pointed out that we have medical expenses that bring the income down and well into range.  “But these have to be medical expenses that YOU pay, not someone else!”  Who the heck else is paying our medical costs but us?   She took the info we had and I get to get a form from IRS showing the W2s etc that they had on record for us also.  (This is a very valuable form that I did not know about before this.  A client of mine between moving and losing her husband had not filed her /their income taxes.  She filed later ones, but not that one.  I pushed her to her file it as she normally has a sizable refund due, but then she could not find the information forms she had been mailed – this form allowed us to get copies of them so her return could be prepared.  In addition husband is having a fight with an online payment processor which wants proof of his corporation's “Social Security number” - it does not have one.  They need a notice or bill sent within the past 6 months (umm, we pay on time, only if one has not paid would one get either – do they really want to do business with people who don't pay their bills?) showing the Social Security number.  I sent away for this form as it shows the Business ID number of the business and will dated within 6 months – I hope that will resolve the matter.)

Last year since I knew what had to be done I collected the papers, made copies and we mailed them – certified mail – to the county over a month and a half in advance of the due date and relaxed waiting for the notice to be sent of the exemption we were entitled to.  We received a robocall from the County Executive that we had filed for the program before, but had not filed for “this” (last) year yet.  I had to take mom to the doctor and this office cannot be reached by telephone.  I tried calling anyway, but got the usual - “We do not have time to speak to anyone.  There is extremely limited parking here, so don't bother to come here.” message. (I am not exaggerating – that is how their phone is answered and there is a currently a movement by higher county officials to make them take calls.- the parking part is correct, it is almost impossible to park to go to them.)  I tried again later in the day while mom was in with her doctor and there was a message that the call had been in error.  Turns out that instead of calling 3000 something seniors, every one of 400,000 plus land owners had been called.  Per the information on TV that night if one had a receipt from the assessor's office one was okay.  There had been a line 2 hours plus long of people running in with the problem.  The next day we made an additional copy of the application and all the attachments and drove there – husband dropped me off and drove about 5 blocks away to a store's parking lot to wait for me.  They did have our application.  They could not give me a receipt as it had been received by mail, but they did have it.  And we did get our partial exemption.  We decided that in the future I would walk the application in to them, while husband waited in car. 

Knowing I would need all of this I started collecting and requesting the information earlier in the year this time and had it all ready for when we received the application in August.  After we did all the rest of the problems that I have posted about with mom happened.  I worked a bit on the exemption when I could.  I thought that it would easy this third time, but they added to what they need.  If one has business income (and we each have a very small professional business – both with losses in 2018 the year we are giving them for the 2020-2021 real estate tax year) one has to provide proof of all income and expenses.  This actually turned out to be harder and more time consuming than any IRS or state (of 5 states I have done income taxes for) audit!!

Husband's was fairly straight forward – he gets paid through an online company and the printouts from same show the income and the fee taken from same.  (His income was not high enough for a 1099 form last year.)  8 photocopies (he did not get paid every month) took care of the proof of income and of the fees paid to get paid.  He had maybe 3 other expenses plus car expense and Internet expenses.  I had a 1099 from one client and deposit slips plus copies of checks received from my other clients.  I cannot reveal names of same so I blacked out all identifying income of clients.  I have a variety of expenses – office supplies, exams I have to take, computer, subway etc plus my share of car expenses and Internet expenses.  I had to copy every gas receipt, every repair receipt, car insurance, etc. for the car and also all of our Internet service bills.  I then used the copy of the breakdown of the car expenses that I used for our tax return to show same and had to do a breakdown of our Internet service expenses for them.  I scanned each page of the entire form and attachments into the computer as I added them to the stack of papers.  I also wrote a summary of what was enclosed – that was 6 pages long – and put a title page on each of the sections of  papers, plus a cover letter.  I know I passed 180 pages! 

Then I went to attach the papers to each other – I did not own a clip large enough and even my  special “large stack of papers” stapler would not work.  I ended up putting the application and main papers in one clipped package and the business income and expense proof in a second one. 

I finished this over last weekend and we planned to take it this past Monday to the assessor's office as we wanted their receipt for it (plus it would cost a fortune to mail).  So, last Friday husband's front tooth fell out.  Our dentist retired and while we had 4 possibilities, we did not know who to go to.  We are doing a colonial craft show this coming Saturday and he really needed this tooth replaced.  We decided to go with a local office that we pass which has good reviews which has a lab in it and takes walkins.  Husband had me call on Friday and the phone kept ringing.  I finally called their office in the county west of us and was told that the office near us was closed until Monday.  My already panicked husband was in that state all weekend.  Remember – we planned to bring the application for the exemption to the county on Monday.  Monday morning I started calling the dentist's office at 9:40 and it just rang.  I called the other office again and was told that someone would be there by 10 am.  I started calling at 10:10 and either the line was busy or it did not connect.  I should mention that it was heavily raining.  At 10:30 I called the other office again, apologized and explained.  She said that she would have them call us.  They did – they were having troubles with their lines. Big problem – dentist was away until the following Saturday (still 3 days away as I write this).  I explained why we needed to come in.  At last a break!!!  The technician was in – Monday his only day – and he might be able to add the teeth (there was another one out and ignored while waiting for this front tooth to go) for us – but we would have to come right away.  We did.  Very nice receptionist and technician.  After the inevitable paperwork the tech took a mold and we were told it would be ready by 2 pm – same day!!  I went to the desk to pay for the work (much less than we thought it would cost), but due to the telephone lines problem, the credit card would not process.  I was trying to figure out if we had enough in checking to cover the cost, when she decided to call the other office – she read the info to the lady there who had been of so much help and the receipt would be waiting for us to sign when returned. 

It was just around noon.  Husband decided that we should go to the assessors' office and deliver the paperwork.  Of course when I was taking same with us as we left for the dentist, he told me to leave it home and we had to go home and get it.  I had figured that the assessor's office would be jammed and we decided if I was not done by 1:30 I would leave so we get his teeth.  (He has an older set that he was wearing.)  I also figured that since it was lunch time it would be even worse as people would come during same and less employees would be working.  I went in and there were less than 20 people ahead of me.  (Texted husband same.) 

At first I was amazed how fast it was going.  One of the 3 employees working at this spent the entire time I was there with one woman who apparently had a real mess.  One of them was seeing people, collecting paperwork that was right and seeing person after person.  The third seemed to be a supervisor.  I happened to be seated near him and could hear what was going on.  There was a man there delivering papers for some other matter of the assessor's office and he was wasting time – he could not understand to give the employee the needed papers and had to go and make photocopies (they had a free machine in the room) – the employee then took a couple of people dropping off their exemption papers.  Then the fellow came back – he kept asking if all the papers were right and the employee kept telling him that it was not his decision.  The fellow went to make more copies.  I turned to the employee and said “You have great patience.”  He smiled back at and nodded.  He then took someone again.  He was about to take someone else, when the fellow came back.  This threw the numbers off.  He had been about to see #79 and it had disappeared off the list of numbers to call.  He told the other employees to call that number, but they forgot and called #80 – who nicely let 79 go ahead of her.  Then when they called 81- 80 went.  There was then a discussion between the two regular employees – you take 81, I'll take 82 – me.  But someone with something from before came back.  I stayed near where they working to make sure that I was next. 

The employee asked for the papers and I handed them to her and explained it was too large to put together  - not for her – a rubber band around the two and a huge clip on top and it was done.  She handed me a computer issued receipt and it was done! 

As I was about to text to husband to come back to the building and pick me up – he texted asking if I was going to see someone soon.  I texted back.  He picked me up and we went back to the dentist.

The teeth were perfect!  I signed the copy of the credit card slip, took our copy and we left.  Two major problems resolved at the same time!  And we now know of a dentist to go to.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When there is a huge problem – do it step by step.  Expect that things will go wrong or be different than last you time you did the same thing.  Take advantage of down time (in this case I had worked on finishing the exemption form in short bursts over the weekend between shopping for his younger niece's gift, meals out and movie night -plus the run to the assessor's office while waiting for his teeth).  Somehow the work always seems to get done.  The paperwork was due by January 2, but we wanted it in before the holidays. 

THE CRAZINESS CONTINUES ON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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