That was a short week! We have taken mom to two doctors in the past week. One was a happy checkup with the doctor who replaced her pacemaker. The other was a not as happy appointment with the doctor who did cancer surgery on her. There is still some cancer and we have to take her to an oncologist. Treatment recommendation by this doctor was based on mom's age – 90 – and the fact that it is a slow growing cancer. I should mention after complaining about another doctor's office, both of these were great with helpful staff and no hours of waiting. We still have to take her back to the doctor about her leg scan (the one with the awful office/staff setup) and then there are about another 4 doctors she needs to go to.
In between these appointments I have been trying to get our senior real estate tax exemption worked on and I should have all or almost all of the paperwork I need. I will have to check each section's numbers against the paperwork for it and we have to copy all of it and I do so with a page that has our names, the section, block, and lot number of the property and the year the papers apply to written at the top (with the computer). This page is put behind the items I copy as I do so that so that the finished copy will have this info at the top in case any pages get separate from the others – I am glad I have a heavy duty stapler that staples thick stacks of papers as there will a lot of papers. I have already done our 1099s & similar and our medical expenses. I have to mostly deal with our businesses expenses – I will do the joint expenses first (car expenses and some other ones have to be split between our two businesses and also from personal use), then husband's business as it is easier and finally my business. This has to be there before the end of December and I figure the earlier the better. I was getting all this done quickly and early when I found out that they had added need for proof of business income and expenses.
I also have to renew my permissions to prepare tax returns from Federal and state governments. Federal mailed in already and I did the state application online – the only way it can be done. I still need to finish the required tests for the Federal paperwork. One test for 1 credit done, 19 more credits to go. It will be done – it only one test for 6 credits that always concerns me as it has a time limit.
I have still been heating the paperwork from my family home in small groupings in our PackTite heater (for bedbugs). I found out that among the papers my sister gave me is my parents income taxes – back to the 1950s as well as the papers related to the purchase of the house back in 1958-9 and my dad's release from the military paperwork. I commented to husband that I know their old taxes are no longer needed and I should just check through them and shred them – but – dad always told me that one keeps copies of client's taxes as long as they are clients and then at least another 3 years, so by that logic I should keep them. I have discussed it with husband and will scan them into the computer and shred the originals.
I got behind with the laundry last week – it was done, but not all was folded or put away, so I had to do same tonight before I started this week's laundry – first load is in washing now, when the ringer in cell phone goes off, I will go down and switch to dryer and put in another load to wash. Just happened – will be right back – feel free to talk among yourselves until I do.
Back again.
As I have mentioned in the past year, I have been having a problem keeping track of papers – something I have never had before. In October our reenactment unit had an event. I know and remember that the unit commander (club president) had asked me if I had brought the checkbook – which I didn't as it is safer to keep it home. Since he did, I assumed that he had given me a bill for something for the unit to reimburse him for. ¾ of the way through the day it had started raining and we along with most members had brought their stuff inside our headquarters building and then at the end of the day I had brought our van back to the area where we had been setup and we packed it quickly to avoid getting things wet. Two days later I started looking for the bill that I had to reimburse the commander for. I could not find them. We did not actually bring the stuff in from the van until the end of that week. I went through everything again and climbed under the seats in the van looking for the bill. Husband than threw another thought at me – at an event the unit did in September the place wrote the check payable to the commander personally instead of to the unit – and husband said that what I was remembering was probably the commander giving me his check as we had told him to deposit the check and then write the unit a check. So was I missing the bill to pay him for? The check he gave me for the that event? Both? A week in I had written him an email explaining and apologizing and asking him to let me know how much the unit owed him. (I did not mention the check he owed the unit.) He did not get back to me. I have been “sick” with the idea that I lost a bill to pay, as well as maybe the check he wrote to the unit. I brought the checkbook to the meeting this past Monday to settle up. Whew! Nothing was lost. He had asked me about the checkbook in reference to another matter that did not materialize and he told me that not only does the unit not owe him money, but he owes us the money from the check that he deposited. It was a wonderful relief to know that I had not been careless and lost neither bill nor check.
I have to complement and thank my husband. He has been insisting on helping me with my mom and the doctors. My mom is well, a 90 year old opinionated woman who does not hear well. (One of the doctors we still have to go to is for hearing aids – but the other doctors are more urgent). He has been wonderful with her. One advantage to having him along is that he speaks “medical” and can talk to the doctors on a different level than mom or I can. (He was the head of a mental health agency and had doctors working under him.) He understands what the doctors are saying better than either of us and knows when and how to ask questions. Part of why he comes is I helped with his mother when she needed same (although his sister handled the medical and I handled the financial), especially since he butted heads a lot with his sister and mother over how things should be handled, so I sort of ran interference by going while he was at work to help her. Part of it is he does not like being home alone. Part of it is that he know he can help a lot.
We still have not really done any planning for (American) Thanksgiving. Since he has become lactose intolerant (or so it seems) since last year, two of his favorite dishes may not be made for him, especially since I like neither – pumpkin pie and Colonial Williamsburg Sweet Potatoes (no marshmallows, of course). The former uses evaporated milk and the later uses regular milk – 1/3 of ¼ cup of same (original recipe for 3 lbs sweet potatoes, I make him 1 pound). We will see. We are debating if I should make the vegetable soup that I used to make for the family for Thanksgiving dinner – I figured out how to cut it down and make ¼ of the amount of soup I used to make or even 1/8 of same, but it is one that we like and gets better reheated. (I would make the entire recipe and reheat over the winter, but it has potatoes in it and they do not do well with being frozen, so I need to cut it down to what we can manage to eat without needing to being frozen to keep long enough.) The alternative is to make a different Pennsylvania Dutch soup called Chicken corn soup. We will see which he prefers. Our normal menu was the Vegetable soup (cooked on the day before Thanksgiving as it takes a while to cook), turkey of course, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, the sweet potatoes, and gravy. I did not cook the turkey as husband liked it better from a commercial oven – he says it is crisper. When we started (I had never cooked a turkey) we found a local place that cooked turkeys with a hot pick up just about when we needed it – my sister and her family would stop and pick it up on the way here for us. Three years ago we had run places to go to for Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of as we were no longer having family in for same, and I had to cook the turkey. I did so and it was fine. The following year I cooked it from the same place following their directions and it did not cook through, we ended up cutting off pieces and cooking them separately. I figured out that the packaging had 2 different temperatures and I must have used the higher one first year and the lower one second year. Last year I used the higher temperature and put the turkey in upside down and turned it over part way through and it was cooked through and I will remember to do so this year again. In the old days there would have been the pumpkin pie and I would bake an apple pie and Venetians (rainbow cookies). No need for so much dessert for the two of us, especially since neither of us should be having same at all.
(And I will have to find time to post the night before while I am generally cooking.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
As it says in the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe” - DON'T PANIC! Things seem to work out in the end. We managed to get the appointments we needed to get right away for mom. The real estate tax exemption will get done and in on time. The exams will be taken on time. Laundry will be caught up tonight. The missing papers were not missing. Thanksgiving dinner will get a menu and will be cooked.
No comments:
Post a Comment