MISSING OUTGOING MAIL - BORROWERS?

We had a busy day today and while out and about I was composing my post for you for tonight's post.  Now it is all gone.  I know that the theme of it was things that are missing, but aren't, so I will go from there.  

I try to be careful not misplace or lose things.  As an accountant (since I was 12 and started helping my dad) I have learned to be extremely careful and organized with work items.  I strive for the same care and organization with personal items also.  I have written previously about “borrowers” - as in the series of children's books about same.  The “borrowers” are tiny people in who live in people's houses and borrow things  - they do not take or steal, they only borrow and then return the items.  

Husband and I say that they have taken things when items are not where one or both of us knows the items were put, and then they reappear exactly where they should have been, but were not.  Okay, we probably missed the items sitting where they should the 10 or so times we – taking turns – looked there for them and they did not disappear and reappear, but it does make us feel that it was not our fault we could not find items which were they belong and where we looked multiple times.  

Our latest occurrence was this past Monday.  Before the pandemic we went to the post office daily as we have a box there and would go to check what was in it.  Mid March 2020 we decided that we did not want to go out or go into the Post Office.  After a long period of time we managed to change the mailing address for any mail that went there to our home address and did not really have a reason to go the Post Office on any sort of regular  (or almost any) basis. We went late night on the last two Sunday nights of that March and were not inside the Post Office again until about two months ago and have been there once since – both times after receiving an email from the Post Office that there was something in our box.  (A wonderful service of the Post Office.)  

We had not been in the Post office while it was open during the day since mid March 2020 until this past Monday.  Husband sold one of craft tools that he no longer was using and we had to go there during open hours to ship it out (would not fit in an outgoing mail box, especially since there is now a slot instead of the pull down opening.  

As long as we had to go into the Post Office anyway, we had been about to renew our passports when everything shut down.  We don't plan to travel out of the country nor have we done so in decades, but it is good to have alternate ID to our driver's licenses, just in case.  In addition to go into IRS if needed for clients I need to either have a special driver's license or a passport – the passport is easier to renew then get the special license (for which I would have to go to into the DMV office and bring alternate ID with me – such as my passport….).   So I filled in the forms to renew our passports, wrote the checks,  and we each signed our renewal form.  I had each set of passport renewal papers in a different envelope  - one for me and one for him – and was mailing them separately.  I also had 3 regular pieces of mail which in a regular week we would have posted late Sunday night either at a local USPS collection box a couple of blocks away or in same outside the Post Office, so instead of making an extra trip Sunday night, we were posting them at the same time as the rest of the items on Monday afternoon.

I have been putting our outgoing mail in a gallon size zip bag to keep it all together.  Sunday night I put the two passport mailings and the three pieces of mail in the bag, counted the number of items in the bag – 2 larger envelopes (the passports) and 3 regular #10 envelopes – just what should be in the bag.  I then went downstairs and put the bag next to the item husband was shipping.  I opened the bag and counted again – 2 +3 is 5.  

Monday afternoon we took the bag (which I did not open and check again) and husband's item and set off the Post Office.  We parked as we normally did every day in the lot of an adjacent park and walked through the park with the bag and husband's box to the Post Office.  Dropped the three regular items to be mailed in one of the boxes in front of the Post Office.  No customers inside and we felt good that the normal huge waiting line was not there.  We handed the clerk husband's item – found out that one no longer fills in the little form for insurance – done through the computer.  No problem.  I went to take out the two passport envelopes and ----- THERE WAS ONLY ONE!!!!  It was husband's.  We paid for it at the clerk (found out that Passport does not sign and return Certified Mail and had to mail by Priority Mail – a lot more expensive – to be able to track it.  

We then started back home – looking carefully as we walked along.  No sign of the envelope with my passport renewal anyway along the way to the car or in the car.  Drove home.  Checked all the way to the house.  Checked in the house to the table in the living room everything had been on.  Checked the floor – nothing (well,  a lot of dust of course, but not what we were looking for).  I went up to our office looking at the floor as I went.  Where would it be in the office?  Not in the outgoing mail basket, not on my desk or under my desk or in the sorter trays on my desk.  Not by my computer or calculator.  Husband has been following me and double checking every place I look and look for alternative places.  If I lost this envelope I cannot renew my passport (at least not easily and by mail) and will be worried about what happened to it and WHO HAS IT?

Husband is thinking and looking around.  “Did you scan the envelope before you dropped in the bag to take it?”  “Yes.”  He lifts the top of the scanner – there it is!!!  How could it be there when it was counted twice in the bag while downstairs?  We have no idea, but at least it was found.  A trip back to the Post Office and it was on it's way also and we were on our way to Wendys for lunch.  

Why would the borrower's want my passport envelope – just to see it?  No idea and it makes no sense at all as so many of these incidents don't.  

The passports have arrived at the government office - “whew” - per the USPS packing.  On the other hand, the package husband shipped still shows only that it was accepted at the Post Office – three days ago!  It is suppose to be delivered by Friday and we are hoping that  it is not sitting in the back of the Post Office and someone will scan it and let us know where it is!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

No matter how many times one checks something – another check is not a bad idea – even better if one gets someone else to check it for them – just to be sure.

MORE INSTRUCTION BOOKS DEALT WITH - WHY ARE ORDERS ARE ALL COMING DAYS LATE THESE DAYS?c

 Well, another week gone by.  I have scanned some more instructions books and just discarded some for items we no longer have.  The last several weeks of books have not been thrown out as I am going to tied them together and put them out when next I put out recycling as I did with the earlier scanned ones when I last put out recycling.

In normal times I out recycling weekly for pickup.  A stack of tied together newspapers, magazines, etc.  and a cardboard box of cans, bottles, and jars.  I recycle the boxes we get into the house this way as some years ago the second plastic box we had from the township for recycling was taken (as was the first one) by the garbage crew as they decided it was too broken to use.  So I keep boxes in our side porch – small ones – for a normal week in normal times and we used 4 soup cans and nothing else to put in.  Big ones for weeks when there is a holiday and I do a lot of cooking with a lot of things to recycle, and medium sized boxes for in between.  These days we can use only one can or two cans in a week.  Combine this with we not are temporarily not getting our newspapers in hard copy, and most weeks if I put the stuff for recycling – it would not be seen.  So I have been putting out the recycling when the carton I use to collect it all in is overfull and I put it in the larger can they gave everyone some years ago – this holds about 2 months worth, maybe more with how many items we are using these days.

So the instructions to be discarded sit in a bag in our office set aside to go out.  

We did go get to go food shopping yesterday – a good sized fill in trip.  Though much more relaxed than the 2 months major shopping we had done through most of the pandemic.  Even used a coupon – we complained about a frozen meal we had bought (main course – lacking in meat) and they apologized and sent a coupon for the next purchase.  I almost forgot not only to use it – but how to do so – husband remembered.  

I ordered 2 pairs of jeans – yes, we ONLY order something if we cannot get it any other way.  I noticed the knee of one of my pairs jeans had a hole – looked in Walmart – they no longer carry these jeans and have no acceptable (to me) alternative.  Husband looked up the jeans company – and we ordered from them.  Jeans were to be delivered today – no, now they may not come for another couple of days, so we even if we wanted to run errands we have to stay home to wait for them now as they are left in front of our house – easy to be seen and taken as we live on a main road.  Add to that bad rain storms over the next couple of days and we could not go out if we wanted to.  Same thing happened with some items husband had to order for his handcrafted business and a different delivery company – also got notice at last minute that not coming on day specified by them.  (Is this a new trend?)  

So more time to scan instruction books and do other housework which needs to be caught up.  Right now, as normal for when I am writing on Wednesday night – our washing machine is washing our clothing.  When same goes into the dryer – the towels go into washer.  When clothes come out will fold in bed while going to sleep tonight and towels will go into dryer.  Towels will be folded tomorrow night while going to sleep.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Lately more things seem to go wrong.  Do you find this to be true?  Just have to go with the flow and take things as they come – and I am not someone who likes that loss of control.

How is your organizing going – anything special which works for you?

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 AND MY FAMILY HOME

We are currently dealing with mom and two cardiologists. For those of you who joined since or have forgotten, mom is 90. Shortly after her 90^th birthday she started having problems (http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/05/sometimes-fate-is-having-fun-with-one.html) and can no longer live at home alone. She went through short term physical rehab at a very nice local facility and since then has moved into their assisted living facility. While they do a great job of helping her and taking care of her – mostly she gets around by herself - they have been doing physical therapy and she can walk with a walker better than she has done in years - and she is back in her full mind again from just the fact of having people around her and things to keep her mind active.

Back in August it was found that she blood clots in her legs and she was given medication. She was also referred to my brother-on-law's cardiologist who is also a vein doctor for followup scan about a week after the clots were discovered. I posted the story of that nightmare - wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/29 Her leg was not scanned. We ended up going back not the 3 weeks later that this doctor wanted, but instead on October 7 as it took until then to get an appointment. The scan was not done then either as the appointment was made by a third party appointment service for someone who does not do scans – understand we drove out to where mom is, got her into the car, took her to the doctor's office and had her medical history taken – and nothing else – TWICE (and of course her medical insurance was billed for 2 office visits). When we left the second time we made an appointment for the scan – for this coming Saturday (remember this is about 2 months after we were told that she needed to have her legs scanned right away and then a week later when her leg was not scanned - we were told it needed to be done in 3 weeks). Despite everything we had been told, the doctor does not do the scan, so after it is done we will first have to return on November for the doctor to interpret the scan.

Next problem – mom has a pacemaker. It was put in 10 years ago. The battery in it is tested every few months and the last test was at the start of October and we were told that the battery had less than 2 months left on it. Soooo, the replacement of the pacemaker was moved into priority. This came up shortly before the second time mom did not have the leg scan and we asked that cardiologist's office (per the doctor – they only do heart “plumbing” and we need someone who does heart “electricity” for this) for a cardiologist who would do this procedure as mom's doctor for same is an hour away where our family home is. We were upset that this doctor would have the same sort of circus for an office as the other, but it is quite the opposite. Mom was seen by this doctor (M) a week after she had been in the other doctor (B)'s office. Yes, she needs to have her pacemaker replaced. I was telephoned the next morning with two appointments – a week later (yesterday) for presurgery exam at hospital and next week she will have the procedure. 2½ weeks and this will be done – the other doctor 21/2 months and still nothing has been done!

In the middle of running with mom (plus all the car problems) I realized that I had to renew one of husband's medications and called the pharmacy. The doctor refused to renew it without an exam. We really cannot fit in a doctor visit for us right now – mom's pacemaker does take precedence, so I telephoned and explained and made appointments for us the first week in November. Ummm, I missed that we are going for blood work in the morning of the day mom is scheduled to have her scans read – and it is election day! Well, we work it out somehow. Doctor renewed prescription for 10 days – when we were not due in for 3 weeks – but we had enough left to work it out.

Then it occurred to me that the scan of her legs would be done between the presurgery testing and the surgery – telephoned the doctor doing the surgery to make sure that this would not be a problem – we did not want to give up the appointment that would, hopefully, finally resolve her leg scans, but the pacemaker is more of an emergency. It is not a problem.

My sister will get mom to the hospital for the pacemaker surgery as it is 9 am. We figured out that between allowing for rush hour traffic (as we do not live near where mom is) and then the hour and a half we need to pick her up, get her in the car, drive her the 20 minute trip (and again – it is rush hour, so need more time) and then get her into the hospital – at 8:30 – would mean that we would have to leave home at 5:30 am. My sister lives near mom and the hospital.

Okay, so 4 doctor appointments for mom, 2 doctor appointments for each of us, I have to go to a client tomorrow, my birthday falls in the middle of all this which is all within a month – and at some point we will be called to go pick up our RV out of state. We also had reenactment event, board meeting, and general meeting – which husband as VP had to run and we had signed up to do a presentation for the meeting – over the past weekend. And on the day between our blood work appointments and our doctor appointments I have my embroidery guild meeting.

That's a lot of stuff – well, we can go for weeks with nothing to do, so it is a lot of stuff for us to do. But that it is not all. We - mostly my sisters - have been working on getting stuff out of the family home so it can be sold. http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/clearing-out-my-old-closet-at-family.html A tag sale company is will hold a sale in the house this coming weekend. My sister had set aside of box of stuff she came across of my stuff. Since the sale starts Friday and I have to work tomorrow – we had to go today and get the stuff. I had hoped it was one or more of the items I told her I wanted – a tablecloth I embroidered in high school which has disappeared and a small book about our family in the old country. I expected a small, office size file box. There was a huge box waiting for me. Some was not mine and I left them for the sale, some we tossed out, most of it I don't really want, but much of it had my name or other info on it and I took it home to shred it. I also now have an embroidery that I made for one of my parents special anniversaries for them.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I was about to write the thought of the week I was going to write about with all this going on I have kept up – I am doing the laundry, the vehicles are taken of…

Then I remembered – we checked the oil in the car today (it has a problem, there is a class action suit, and we hope it will recalled and fixed) and it was down ½ quart – and we forgot to add oil. Normally it would not matter and I make note to add the oil tomorrow, but tomorrow I am driving to almost Manhattan for work and will be driving in stop and go traffic, at least one way. So I texted husband upstairs (yes, I am that lazy) and he came down and we added the oil – in the dark.

Then I remembered – that it had been raining Sunday when we arrived home from the reenactment event and we had not unpacked the van – we had brought 2 folding reproduction stools, only one of our box benches, a flat table top, the legs to the table and a twin sized blanket (it was cold I used it to keep warm until the sun warmed up the air a bit – and then when it rained, it kept me dry.) Husband will be driving the van tomorrow as I will have the car – so we had to unpack the van.

What more can I say for the thought of the week than – it is life, it goes on, one has to do what one can do, when one can do it.

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.

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!

           

2018 SEEMS TO BE CONTINUING INTO 2019

Well, this year seems to be a continuation of last year.  Not only did husband hurt himself again (as I mentioned last week) - although a lot less than he did last year, I am doing things over again.

I still have one client who has an employee - herself.  I have to prepare an IRS W2 form for her each January, along with a covering form named (appropriately) W3.  Then since I don’t use a business name, I also have to prepare a similar form for people one pays that are not employees called 1099-MISC which also needs a covering form named 1096.  Unlike most IRS forms which one can download from their website and fill in, these forms have red markings on the copies which go to IRS and can only be filled in as a preprinted form - available from IRS for free and can also be purchased at stationary stores and online.  One can also buy software to fill in the forms, The alternative to filling in the forms is to do it online free at the IRS website (or various companies that charge to do so).  Most companies have payroll companies which take care of their payroll for them and deal with this for them.

Knowing I will need to do this and knowing that my typing is terrible, even with the word processing typewriter (lets one type a line, check it, and then print it) I have, I always order more forms than I need to have spares.  I do this in December so I will have them in January to fill them in.  I did so last month - in December 2018, ordering forms for the 2018 year.  The forms arrived within the 10 days they are suppose to arrive.  I opened the envelope - remember all the craziness last month - and I checked the form numbers and how many of them had been sent - all okay.  I put them under my desk where I keep the forms to wait for this month.  I am so organized about this since I do it every year.       

Last Thursday I decided to fill in the forms while I had some time.  I know what the client’s payroll is and can do so without having gone to her yet this month.  These forms used to be that the form to the employee/other person had to be given to them by the end of January and mailed to IRS by the end of February.  Due to the increasing number of fraudulent tax forms being filed, as of 2 years ago the IRS copies also have to be filed by the end of January.  So I fill in the forms before I go to my client so I can have her sign them and mail them out.  (I used to bring them to her in February and they were signed and mailed then.) 

It took me all 6 copies of the W2 forms I have, and at least 2-3 of the other forms to get a correctly typed form and over Thursday and Friday.  I breathed a sigh of relief and scanning them into my computer to keep a copy of them on same. I scanned in the W3 and W2 forms.  I then scanned in the 1096 form and was about to scan in the 1099 form when I noticed something and got extremely upset.  I had not received 2018 forms - I was sent 2017 forms and none of the forms I had typed were usable.  Not only that, but since one can no longer pick up forms at local IRS offices, I had to order them again - during the Federal government shut down!

We went looking online.  I can buy the forms - they will run me around $60 for all 4 forms as they sold in much larger quantities than even I with my terrible typing would need to make one form of each.  I also would have to make sure that the forms were attached multiple parts that allow one to type all copies at once (W2 forms are 6 part, the 1099 forms are 4 part and the others are 2 part) as if they are not I would have to type each copy of the form separately.  (The forms have extra copies as there are copies  for IRS, state, employer, and the W2 has 3 copies for the employee - the 1099 has one copy, and the other two have a copy to file with IRS and copy for the employer to keep.) 

I can file them directly online with IRS, but I don’t like the idea of putting the client’s and my Social Security number through the Internet, but if nothing else works, that will be what I have to do.

So, I am waiting to see if I receive the forms from IRS before I go to the client - and then start typing them all over again.  If I don’t received them in time, I will have to file them online.  If I do receive them in time - I have to type them all over again!!

I am not sure why we are in a “place” where it seems that everything we do - from something as simple to as buying a Barbie doll to tax forms that I prepare every year to ordering checks has to be redone. 

On the other hand, I did get the second order of the checks I ordered and this order seems to be correct.  I am currently shredding the incorrect ones.  (I held on to them in case they wanted them back.)  To make sure I did not “muck it up” I stored the second, correct set before starting to shred the first set.  I am shredding them a bit at a time to not overwhelm the shredder.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes when we are in a “bad” time it just goes on and on.  I know that at some point - hopefully soon - this will end and I will be able to go back to doing things once.  One just has to do what needs to be done until there is change in karma.

HOW MANY THINGS CAN NEED TO BE REDONE?

I know I complain a lot.  Life used to be relatively organized.  I would do things and be done with them.  Lately everything seems to be awry.  I do things and they have to be redone.

One of the things I do in November is reserve the meeting room for the following year for my embroidery group.  This was relatively simple at first.  I would receive the paperwork in the mail early in November, fill it in, have my signature notarized and mail it back - and we had room - free - to meet in for another year. 

We had met in a series of churches over decades - back to before I joined the group in the 1990s.  (The group is around 40 years old.)  We would pay for our meeting room. The group used to be over 400 members.    The group would have workshops and interested members would pay for same which would allow the group to pay for a meeting room. Over the years members aged (with the inevitable result) and moved away.  Women were working and could not come to day meetings.  (A new group had broken off from ours and meets at night in the next county - some members belong to both groups.)  Interest in embroidery waned.  We were down to around 20 members.  I figured out (as treasurer) that in 3 years we no longer would have anything in the treasury and the group would be gone.  As I was about to sign the agreement for the next year, I noticed a mailer from the local township.  One of the parks caught my eye.  I called and asked about the use of a room for meetings.  We had just enough percentage of members who were residents of the township for a room - since we are non-profit - it would be free!  We were given space at a park other than the one I saw and we have been there for 5 years now.  The women who work in the park office have been very nice.  The first woman who ran it, however retired.  Since then it has been a bit confused in renewing the room.  Last year I did not get the form until late so I had made a note for November 1 to check with them.

October 31 I received a phone call asking for the group’s email address.  I called back and left it on voice mail.  A week later, nothing had come and I had not heard from anyone.  I called back in case my voice mail had gone astray and was given someone else’s voice mail and left the info again.  Another week - I called and was told that the forms would be out shortly. The next week was Thanksgiving.  I was telephoned the day before same by the woman who used to run the department who again asked for my email - I told her the story and she apologized.  She called back later to check which park we meet in.  Thank goodness it was all finally going to be done with!  On Tuesday the next week I received the paperwork by email.  I filled it in.  Wednesday I went to the bank and had the paperwork notarized and on Thursday mailed it back.  All done, finally, how great.

The following Tuesday I had a telephone message when we got home from errands, basically, sorry. another group meets in that room then.  Hmmm, we meet in that room then, maybe the nice former director had filled us in already on some chart or form?  I called her back the next morning.  No - another group was meeting at an overlapping time to ours - and she had a different location for us to met.  I questioned how this had happened.  The other group got their paperwork in first.  I told her the story of trying to get the paperwork and how unfair that someone else had, apparently gotten their paperwork earlier than us and taken our space.  I also explained that we were a group of “old ladies” - which we are, at 65 I am the youngest - and I was afraid that finding the other park would be too hard for them.  She hmmmed a bit.  Then said that since we only meet once a month and the other group meets more often maybe she could get them to give up the room for the once a month.  She did and we have the room back for next year.

Totally unrelated - and dealing with the county instead of the township - husband and I are entitled to a reduction in our real estate taxes due to our age and income.  I started collecting information for the paperwork in January - well I actually collected some during 2017.  I had to telephone our medical insurance companies for last year (which we had 4 of do to R switching to Medicare partway through the year) and get printouts of the premiums paid to them - listed by month paid.  Of course one only gave a total and I to keep after them for the correct info.  I also had to get listings of what we paid for prescriptions (Walmart pharmacy was the easiest of all the info needed for me to get) and the dentist and doctors from the providers themselves.  I did not bother with the doctors as payments to them were minor.  We have to get statements from who we paid - canceled checks are not accepted.

In late August I received the renewal papers from the county (we had gone through all this last year for the first time).  I filled them in and continued to chase down missing information.  While husband was incapacitated I finished the forms and started making the photocopies I needed to give them - photocopies of income, of the medical expenses, etc.  I wrote a summary of what I was giving them.  I wrote a cover letter.  We mailed it out certified mail (almost $7 postage) on November 27 - and received the information that it had been delivered and signed for on November 29.  We sat back to wait to hear from the county in April - maybe earlier if they wanted some other information.

Monday night we got a robocall from the county executive that we have not yet filled the renewal for our exemption! We panicked.  Tuesday I was taking my mom to her doctor and I called before I left for her house.  I got a voice mail setup and left my information and asked them to PLEASE call back and let me know if they were missing our application - knowing that they would not call back.  Oh, well, this was better than last year.  Last year when I called for information their telephone number was continually answered by voice mail that said, basically, we are too busy to answer the phone - goodby, although after calling for several weeks the message was changed by adding - that there is not enough parking here, so don’t come either.  While mom was in with her doctor I called again.  This time there was a message that people were called who should not have been called and - the message only applied to those over 65 and if one had receipt from them for the paperwork given, they were fine.  It offered a chance to talk to exemptions (overall I was calling the county tax assessor’s office) and I did so - same message as in the morning and I again asked to PLEASE let me know if they have our paperwork - just leave the message on our answering machine, they did not even have to talk to us.

Local news last night talked about the robocall error  - it showed the lines that people were on for 2 hours due to the call - as did the local paper today - 400,000 called instead of something liked 50,000!  But again it was said that as long as one had a receipt from them there was no problem.

Well, we only have the proof of delivery from the post office.  So being crazy people - we copied all the supporting paperwork, reprinted the forms and resigned everything and reassembled it all.  Tomorrow morning we will be going to the county assessor’s office.  Hopefully the crowds will no longer be there having heard on the news or read in the newspaper what the situation is and we will get in fairly quickly - perhaps even told that of course they have the application and paperwork.  But I anticipate a long wait to get in and who knows what has happened to our original paperwork.  Husband will drop me off and try to find a parking space - there are a lot of parking lots (free) but in addition to the county office buildings (at least 3 I know of) there are the courts (at least 2 buildings), general office buildings in the area and the train station which serves 2 train lines, so parking is not easy - which is why we mailed it in the first place.

Does this happen to everyone - or just us?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Always get a receipt.  Always follow up. Always make and keep copies (or give copies if you can and keep the originals).  Never assume that all is going well.  Do this for smaller things also, but especially for big important things.

UPDATE -

Even with all this going on, I managed to take more of my required tax courses and now have finished 14 of the required 20. I have a left a 6 hour (credits) course that has a 3 hour exam.  This exam is timed and has to be completed at one sitting, so I will have to set aside an evening alone in our office to take the exam - I do get 3 chances, but I have not yet (in past years) needed more than one attempt.