WHEN ONE'S SCHEDULE GOES AWRY - BE PREPARED FOR CHANGE

Something we don't really think about planning for – but should.  Yesterday I pulled a muscle in the back of my left shin – OW!  I have done this before and it goes away so I (and my poor husband) are just putting up with it for now.  

I figured out the least painful – and safest – way for me to go up and down the stairs.  It happened on the steps outside our back door on our trip out for lunch – so I was walking about in stores for awhile before I had to deal with the steps again.  I need to keep my left leg straight as much as possible to avoid pain.  I never realized that there are so many things I do which I never think of as I do them.  

Apparently my left leg cannot be higher than my right leg – by which I mean – on the stairs I have to step up with my right leg and then pull the left one up to the same step -repeat.  Coming down the stairs I have to step down with my left leg and then with my right leg.  Basically if my legs are different steps my right leg has to be the one higher up.  When I forget – I am quickly reminded by the pain.  

When sitting in the house I put my left leg up on something – in the kitchen I use the single step that I keep under the table so I can climb up and reach the higher shelves in the  top cabinets (meaning anything above the bottom shelf).  Convenient to rest my left leg on – and since the step is at back end of the table (a couple of feet from where I am sitting) when I put my foot on it my leg is more or less straight on a slight downward angle – perfect for my leg.  (I am at the table as I write.)  When at my desk I have a file box stored under under it which serves the same purpose.  That leaves the car and our lunch out today as the problems – I tried to keep my leg in the air as much as I could.  

But how does this relate to organizing?

Well, it is laundry night.  Main laundry has to come down 2 flights of stairs to the basement from the hall closet outside of our bedroom.  I always tie the laundry bag closed and give them a shove down these stairs – so that was relatively easy.  I cannot do this with our basement stairs as there is a display of electric trains cars across from the foot of the steps – maybe 2 feet from the bottom step – and I don't want to damage them.  I was planning to ask my husband to carry the bag down for me – but being the nice person he is he figured out the problem and offered to carry the bag downstairs.  The bag for our downstairs laundry (towels from kitchen and downstairs bathroom only – unless we use a tablecloth or fabric napkins due to a holiday and that I could carry down the stairs and did.  

First load of laundry (clothing) is now in the dryer and second load (towels and laundry bags) is in the washer.  Later when he comes downstairs for late night/pre-bed snack I will ask him to carry the laundry basket down for me.  I will empty the dryer into the laundry basket and throw the second load in the dryer – it will stay there until tomorrow anyway  after it finishes running and hopefully I will be better by then.  I fold the laundry in bed while he is getting ready for bed (and usually a bit after in the dark by the light of the TV) so that is not a problem.  

I know that I often read about how important it is to have one's family throw the laundry in “the hamper”.  I don't use a hamper – I hang our big laundry bag at the bottom of the closet – 3 hooks in the closet and 3 rings on the laundry bag which line up with them and hold the bag up and open.  This holds dirty clothes, towels, bedding and anything else. When time for laundry take the rings off the hooks, pull the bag closed  - go to top of staircase to ground floor of house and  -  - push !  Gravity takes the bag down the stairs.  Any laundry which goes into closet before the bag is replaced, I just pick up and toss in when I put the bag back.  Downstairs I have a smaller laundry bag hanging on a hook on the basement side of the door to the basement.  Just take it down and carry the relatively light bag when I go down to put the first load in the dryer and start this load.  Laundry bags both go in the second load.  

Sheets and pillowcases are their own load when I wash them, as are blankets.  Some weeks I need to wash reenacting clothing also – and they can be one or two loads depending on if I only need to the “small clothes” - that is the period undergarments, socks, neck cloths and cap, depending on if all need washing or if there are main clothing items which also need to be laundered.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes things happen – whether an injury, an illness, not being able to do a chore on the day it is normally done (such as being away or involved in a problem which arises), or a myriad of other things which throws one work schedule off or makes it harder to deal with or equipment needed dies.  One should have some idea of alternatives (do the laundry the next day or have someone else do it if you can, get help and so on) that can be used in these situations.  Or one has to learn to think quickly on their feet to deal with things.

LIFE IS TOO OVERWHELMING THIS WEEK TO TALK JUST ABOUT CLUTTER AND ORGANIZER

 As I sit here tonight writing this post I am having a problem getting my brain around what is going on simultaneously here in the United States.  I grew up in post World War II United States of America. Never in my life have so many major problems being affecting our country at one time.  We have the 11pm news on and the news rolls on and on.

Our problems that accumulated from centuries of not treating all people in our country (and in the colonies before them) have come to a head.  Our population is separating in one of the most divided and angry elections we have had in recent memory to the point where I fear the violence if the candidate I don't support coming to office as well its result, while also fearing what will happen if the candidate I do support comes to office and the violence that may result from that also, with whichever side loses the election not accepting same and rousing up their supporters.  

We have an illness that is overwhelming to our population, medical systems and further splitting the people of the country apart between those who appreciate the danger of the illness and try to keep from catching it or passing it along to others and those who think it is “just the flu” and not serious and do nothing to prevent it being passed along. (And by the way, the flu is not “just the flu” either and can be lethal.)  

Our weather has also been a problem this a year.  As mentioned in prior posts, our area of the U.S. went through what should not have been a bad tropical storm passing through.  Due to our local utilities it took over 2 weeks to get almost all of those who lost electricity back on line – electric utility claims all back, but some people apparently still do not have their electricity back.  There are a substantial number of people still do not have telephone, Internet service and cable TV service back – some weeks after the storm.  Our electric utility has figured out how to deal with the fact that most people with outages could not reach them during and after the storm for future storms – they will not take any calls, emails, texts, etc. in future storms as they “will know” where the outages are due to their “smart meters”.  This despite the fact that less than half of their customers have smart meters and they did not know during this storm and in its aftermath who did not have electricity.  

And now what has pushed me to write this post.  There is a hurricane bearing down on the south-east portion of the U.S. - with Louisiana and Texas to bear the brunt of it.   Luckily the second hurricane that was traveling more or less the same path as this one, has fallen apart or those in these areas would be facing a one, two punch of horrendous storms.  I am hearing that some areas will have sustained winds of over 120 miles per hour for over 3 hours – can anything stand up to that?  Hopefully the populace will listen to what they are being told and get out of there for other states to their north and west as the storm will heading turning in a large curve to the east after wards.  (Expected here on Saturday and I am concerned for friends in the Carolinas, Virginia and Delaware as it passes through their areas.)  Of course the need to social distance is adding to the problems of this storm as fewer people can ride on each of the buses intended to move them to safer areas, fear of riding for an extensive time with other on buses will lead to more people driving their own vehicles – which make more traffic and slow the process of moving people away from the danger, down even more.  Plus the shelters which are set up for those who have no place else to go when they evacuate the area can hold many fewer people than they normally would due to the need to space the beds, etc. further apart from normal.  

Life is starting to seem more and more like a biblical tale, in this, wrought by nature.  

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

My prayers, fears and thoughts are with those about to hit by Laura.  I can think of little at this time.  I hope that the storm breaks apart somehow or travels through must faster so it causes less damage.  If you are in the affected areas – please make sure that you leave and stay as far away from the path of Laura as you can.  Your life and those of those around you are much important than anything else.

COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS

 First a couple of updates on my last two posts -

In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”.  (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.)  I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out –  I could not take them not being there.  I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them.  Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”.  It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year.  My brain started whirring.  I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there?  I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it.  YES!!  The missing bears.  See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored!  Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them.  Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.  

In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area.  I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening.  Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity.  Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday.  I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back.    In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas.  (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water.  We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.)  Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet.  The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting.  Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous.  One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so!  And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy!   I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.  

Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick.  This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it.  Problem was it was dated 2017!  We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either.  In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick.  My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same.  I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it.  While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back.  I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet.  I found we have more sugar than we thought.  Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally).  Part of a bottle of vinegar.  Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of).  I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are.  Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to.  Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it.  When one thing after another hits us  - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it.  We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.  

I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias. 

COVID-19 #12 - DEALING WITH INCOMING MAIL WHEN ONE CAN'T GO TO POST OFFICE TO GET IT

So how is everyone holding up?  Is your area coming out of having to stay home?  Stores, parks, beaches, barber shops, beauty parlors, restaurants starting to open where you are? 

If your area is opening up – are you going to be running out to go everywhere?  Or do you feel it is not safe enough yet and maybe you should stay home awhile longer? 

We tend towards the second choice.  Since he bought all the food we have plenty to eat in the house – maybe for the rest of the year or longer.  Okay, we have been thinking of looking for sales on Diet Coke 2 liter – presuming the store actually has some when they advertise it – as we are down to 3 full bottles and one almost empty one and have been drinking diet orange drink and diet grape drink alternating which one I mix – and he has iced tea for lunch.  He likes the orange better and I like the grape better.  Yes, we have lots of good water from our tap and drank water only for the first month – I finally had the idea to fill 2 quart plastic bottles and keep them in our refrigerator to keep the water cold for drinking(which are used for same in our RV when traveling so water cold on a hot day and water to drink is from home – as is the water in our water tanks in the RV).  We have been drinking the Diet Coke very sparingly – not at all until I pointed out to him in early May that the best by date was May 18 – so we would not drink it so we did not finish it off – or we could drink it slowly before it got too old and the taste is gone. 

One big problem we have had is mail – coming in and going out.  In the late 1980s or early 1990s we opened up a box at a USPS office for our craft business.  We lived in an apartment back then and did not want mail addressed to a business coming to our apartment.  There was a Post Office about a block and a half from our apartment – but no boxes were available, so we went to the next nearest Post Office and opened the box there – where it still is.  Our home is in close to where our apartment was, but is in a third community which shares a Post Office (and zip code) a different community and that Post Office is far from our house – further than the one near our old apartment (which is in fairly easy walking distance) and than the one where our businesses' box was.  We started having problems with mail delivery to our house maybe 7 or 10 years ago and have changed  the address on most of our personal mail which used to come to our house to the box, as well as the mail that I receive as Treasurer of both my embroidery club and our reenactment unit.  In normal times we basically went to the Post Office where our box is every day Monday to Friday to check for incoming mail and mail outgoing mail.  If we went on a trip we could put a hold on the mail in the box.  If we needed something delivered – it has been sent to the box and was inside the Post Office and safe.  This system worked great.  Today I am talking about the problem with the mail coming in to us.

The last two Sundays in March we went to the Post Office late Sunday night (forgive me if I repeating myself here) and picked up the mail for the entire week and mailed the outgoing mail for the week.  I had figured out that since this Post Office closed on Saturdays at 1pm and was not open on Sundays – there were the fewest people in it for the longest time at that point and would have the least chance of us catching the corona virus then.  Unfortunately our local paper started publishing the number of people who were ill by community and the community that Post Office and the Wendys we normally went to for daily lunch – are in had rather a high count of people who were ill and husband decided we should not go there for some time.

So – all our mail was nice and safe in our Post Office box – but we had no access to it!  Aha!!  Have the mail what I called forwarded and the Post Office calls “Temporary change of address”.  I went online and set the mail up to be sent to us – since I did it online it cost $1.05 by credit card for verification that we are the box owners.  We were only able to enter the name of our craft business – the name the box is in - as it is a “business” box.  The wording implied that all mail would be sent to us and we were then responsible to forward it to those who it was addressed to  - great, they are all us. 

We waited for the forwarded mail to come.  I had called and checked the second day of the forwarding to make sure that the Post Office had received the paperwork and they had.  We kept waiting – it should take 7-10 days for each item to reach us from the Post Office – after 2 weeks of no mail I called.  Since it is a “business” box only mail in the name of the business can be forwarded (okay, most months a bank statement and a credit card statement – and we are not currently using the latter).  The woman I spoke with was very nice and offered to mail the accumulated mail in an envelope to us to give us a chance to figure it out.  I had hoped we would be going again in a week or two and thanked her profusely.  I did go online and change the mailing address for the two main magazines I get to come straight here.  I also emailed the members of my embroidery group and told them to only mail things – such as the dues I was collecting in April and May for end of May annual renewal – to me at home and not at the box and did the same with my accounting clients for anything they would need to mail to me.  Husband did the same with the members of our reenacting unit. 

Two weeks later – same problem. I called again and offered to pay for the mail be mailed to us again – she said she would do so at no charge.  I made a third call – this time waiting over 3 weeks and again she was able to mail us the mail.  Then it was 3 weeks again – this time I asked her if there was some way to  - without having to go into the Post Office – there was some way to close the box in the business name and reopen it immediately in one of our names – even if we had pay the annual fee again.  This started a multi-day discussion involving her, two other employees at the Post Office and the Postmaster.  What they finally worked out is for them to change the name on the box and change it from business to personal.  It would take a couple of weeks – at that point – 2 weeks no problem.  They have mailed us our mail twice since then.  I was suppose to call yesterday and check how it was coming – but ran out of time.  Today I was going to call – but I was called and it suppose to all be changed and all the mail set up to be forwarded – we will know for sure in about in a week – and the accumulated mail is again being mailed to us.


Since I use a Quicken to keep track of our finances I had the advantage of having all the bills we pay being memorized with the day of the month I normally sent out the payment (such as a bill due 30th of the month – would be dated to be written on 23rd of the month) and it repeats monthly, quarterly, or annually – bi-monthly I have to adjust myself and have bills due same set as monthly as change the date due – I knew I would not miss paying any bills.  I also figured that bank statements can always be reconciled after the fact.  It was the unexpected item that I was concerned about – luckily there have not been any surprises.  When a bill will be do I call and, generally by computer on their end, check the balance due – if any – and due date.  If I do not have the bill I write a cover letter giving the name on the account, account number, amount I am paying and the check number and letting them know that I am doing this as I can't get to the Post Office to pick up mail. 

Hopefully we will be getting the mail forwarded and all will even off – of course we are depending on the same Post Office that we were having trouble with to deliver the mail from the box to us when it is forwarded, but the mail carrier has been doing well so far with the mail when it comes from the the Box, as well mail which does come here.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes what seems like the perfect thing to do – is no longer good at all when the situation changes.  One has to figure out what to do, to make things work as needed.  It sometimes takes a bit of creative thinking to do this. 

Plus – we should be grateful for our Post Office employees who are doing their best to help us keep getting our mail despite the health risks to them (next time you lick an envelope to seal it – remembering people will be touching that envelope and many others and risk getting ill from them.  They are making sure we have bills so we can timely pay them, checks so we have the money to pay the bills, plus the cards, photos and letters (yes, people still mail send same) that are sent to us by loved ones and friends.  (I just found out that my mom does not have to go out of her apartment and downstairs to the mail boxes to get her mail – it is being brought to her – I am going to mail her some “cute” photos of my Teddy bear village under the stay home at order – the summer setup also when I get it set up later this month – I hope the photos make her smile.)

Please all stay well and return next week for the problems sending mail out we have had.

LIVING WITH THREAT OF COVID-19

Well  - it has gotten much more serious dealing with the Corona Virus or COVID-19 as it is now being called.  I certainly hope that all of you and your loved ones are well and stay so. 

Last week I called and canceled a follow up doctor visit for mom as she should NOT go out – she will be 91 the end of this month.  Doctor's office was very nice and told me the  - very good  - results for mom.  I have not made appointments with two other doctors she needs to go to – they can wait until it is safe for her to go out. 

During this past week our lives changed.  We had changed to going to the post office, lunch at Wendys, an attempt to find comfort items for my husband – more hand sanitizer, more hand soap, more alcohol, and/or more food – did get some more hand soap in small bottles and a bit more food.  Shelves remain empty day to day, though I did point out to husband that we do go late in the day and that may be the problem.  One of the local supermarket chains is opening early – 6 am to 7:30 am – special for only senior citizens – we just qualify for same, but 6 am?  I fall asleep at 5 am.  We may go if they continue to do this and we continue not to find things.  We are not in danger of running out of anything for a few weeks – but my husband is from a very nervous family and panics easily.  I keep reminding how much of these things we have, which always ends with “and we have more in the RV”.  We then would go home without going to other kinds of stores to walk around.  Last Sunday we did not go out to our usual Costco, BJ s , big Walmart as we normally do for fun, but it was the same as the other days. 

This week we went to the Post Office once to mail out paid bill payments,  still daily to Wendys for lunch – but, of course, we can no longer eat in Wendys – just home and eat at home.  One day went back out to supermarket – still the same. 

Last Saturday night we took in Chinese food (no dinners out any longer and that was before they ordered to only have to go/delivered orders) for dinner.  We did not go to the movies.  The theater we go to is an independent and they had sent out an email that they were going to spread the showings out further and clean/sanitize between shows – especially the seats and arm rests, bathrooms and food counters, but we still decided not to go.  We stayed in a watched a movie on TV. 

Now, everyone has been making fun of people running to buy toilet paper right?  In the middle of the movie we each received a text message.  MY sister texted me to see how my husband was doing as she knows he panics. HIS sister texted him as she never knows what is going on in the world and – yes – she suddenly found that there is toilet paper available and she is out of same for her family, let alone the news is also, but we would never be that on toilet paper ever, and she needed her big brother to help her find some.  (Eventually her husband found someone selling toilet paper at a 7-11 and bought for who knows how much money.)

Well, I have our food organized  - cans all in rows, lists of what is in the basement freezer on the refrigerator, - and we are eating less than normal at dinner.  Husband said that he would stop going to Wendys and picking up lunch – but each meal we do same, leaves more food in the house.  I am no longer using paper towels to wash the dishes – but husband did not want me to go back to using a sponge – it swirled around in my head – then I remembered – I have my old kitchen towels that are raggedy and  use for cleaning up in the kitchen – I cut up one and I have 6 pieces to use – one a day – to wash the dishes and then they will be washed. 

I normally put out clean towels on Monday and on Wednesday and Friday do so again in the kitchen and on Thursday do so in the two bathrooms.  I am now changing the towels every other day. 

My hands are raw from washing them – the cuts on them from same worry me – but what else can I do. 

Oh, today husband had a text from his sister – do we know where she can buy fish – she suddenly claims she can only fish or she gets sick (in the past it was because it was less fattening) – I guess she will be getting sick often as one will have to eat what is available.  Then again, I had expected him to hear from her upset that they could no longer eat out (every meal) and her gym (she goes daily) was closed. 

On the other hand – being in the house all the time, I am getting work done – on client's taxes and  household clearing up. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Please stay safe – listen to what the instructions are for where YOU live and follow them.  Stay away from those outside your home as much as you can and far enough away for safety.  If we are all careful there should be fewer people ill or worse.  One day this will all be over and we will be able to put our lives back together again. 

Oh, and for something to relieve the stress – do a search for penguins at Chicago aquarium .  Since there were to be no visitors they were allowed out to walk around the building  - they look like tourists seeing the other exhibits!

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?

THE SIDE PORCH

I actually got something done this week - last Saturday when we got home I ended up dealing with the porch.  We have a small enclosed entryway to our kitchen door which in the most technical sense is our “porch”.  It is aluminum with screens on the top half of the walls.  It has a shelving unit with cabinet doors on the bottom of it on the wall between the door to the outside (facing the street) and the door to the kitchen.  On the back wall there is my husband’s boyhood work bench.  This has a shelf under it the top which holds a box for recycling of cans and bottles - just stick my hand out the kitchen door and toss in and I stack the newspapers on top of it for same.  There is a small garbage pail between the house wall and the table where I toss the soda bottles for return for deposit.  It also has some other storage items.  The rest of the porch is filled with stuff.  There is a narrow pathway from the door to door. 

What is in it which takes up so much more of the space?  Well, I tossed the plastic chair which was in the far corner years ago so that’s gone. I admit that much of this mess is mine.  I keep empty cardboard boxes to use to put out the recycling.  Our township gave out special green  plastic square boxes to put the recycling in (cans and bottles) when the program first started.  When we bought the house the box came with it.  I would dutifully put it out with our cans and bottles weekly and put the newspapers, tied in a stack (sometimes two stacks or more if I had been clearing out papers or it had been raining heavily or snowing the week before) either next to it or in it every week.  If we have a lot of snow it is a problem putting it out as where it goes cannot be reached if there is mounds of snow - sometimes I will leave it in our driveway cut, sometimes I hold onto it for the next week.  Nice and easy.

I am pretty sure that I mentioned that we live on a main, 4 lane road.  The sanitation workers did not neatly place the box back where it belonged on our property, they would drop it in the road.  Cars would hit it.  Eventually it was in pretty bad shape - even taped back together and it disappeared - my assumption being that the sanitation workers took it.  I called the department and they told me to come and pick up a new one.  So I drove down - about half an hour each way - to get a new box.  In the interim they had made the box larger.  The new box did not fit in the work bench.  Big problem - it did not fit anywhere usable and we could not figure out what to do with it.  Shortly after my sister-in-law was selling her late mother’s house and I had an idea.  My in-laws never believed in recycling so they had their box as originally given to them sitting in the garage.  I took my large one and exchanged it for their smaller one.  Worked well for us and the people in the house would probably have children and need the larger box anyway.  Well at some time since this box also was destroyed by being thrown in the street and disappeared I had to come up with a new idea.  (In the interim the sanitation department had dropped off the new, even larger, full garbage can sized recycling can which sits tossed behind the garage ever since as it would hold 2 months of our cans and bottles.  What really annoyed me about them leaving this can was it was left on the driveway, in front of the house - if only they did that with the boxes when I was using them - at the start of July that year - when people like us are away and it stands there as beacon that the house is empty.)

My solution has been to use cardboard boxes that come into the house to hold the recycling.  The box itself is recyclable so they just take it all.  To do this I hold onto cardboard boxes as we get them - small ones such as cereal boxes are good when I just have 4 soup cans and so on up to larger size boxes which can take a couple (few?) weeks worth when I have not have not been able to put out the recycling. (Really big ones can be cut in half to use for 2 weeks.)  They were all just  tossed and a mess.

I have not had a chance to return soda bottles and cans since doing so at the start of December.  Weather, things that needed to be done, etc. after my embroidery guild meeting had stopped me from me from doing so.  I had 3 large clear garbage bags with same floating about the porch. 

There are also several large spray bottles for poison ivy, killing weeds, etc. floating on the floor of the porch.  A couple of them are empty - but we were not sure how to dispose of them as they are “hazardous substances” and cannot go in the garbage.  (Since clearing the porch out a bit last weekend I have checked and they can only be returned at “STOP” events (stop throwing out poisons).  So we have to make a note and get out early enough to get to one - hopefully the July one as the June one is not near us and the July one is. 

Using a small plastic bag I was going to throw out I moved these into the far corner of the porch after I cleared out a full large garbage bag that was sitting there, I then put the plastic bags of soda bottles behind the bottles so both are out of the way.  The cardboard boxes which were kept were put on top of the same bags.  We had a large garbage bag in the middle of the porch to toss, well, garbage into.  That was moved further into this corner. 

We have a short office paper sized garbage pail in the porch.  I put our spare, sealed bag of snow salt in it and then put the started bag on top of it.  (The other spare bags are in the snow blower shed outside this porch.) 

We have a kitchen sized garbage pail in the porch which holds some of the assorted, brooms and shovels in the porch - I added some more of the lighter weight ones into it.  The three snow shovels should go into that same shed until next winter. 

Well, the porch is not really cleared out (I did not go through the large shelving unit, but much, if not all, of what is on the open shelf areas is needed and I did fell like going into the doored section - especially since I had not intended to do any of this) but it is so much better.  We can easily walk through it. 

The garbage bags were put out by the garbage pail that actually holds garbage outside the house - next to the snowblower shed.  Garbage pick up would be Monday and it could not go out to the curb before Sunday night.  I had 2 large black bags of garbage and a smaller white kitchen can sized one also.  I also had two relatively small filled bags with pieces of our driveway in them.  (One area of our driveway is falling apart and we can keep picking up the pieces as we are afraid that in winter if we use the snow blower it will send the pieces flying.) So I put those two bags out also.  Sunday night when I put all this at the curb I also added the usual kitchen garbage bag.

I am also taking smaller bags of the soda bottles - one put in the car as one bag of bottles is returned to get them rid of them in small amounts.  Husband hates the entire process (see the comment about his family not recycling in the body of this post) and I had been saving them up to take monthly.  This has become a problem this year and I would not have a chance to do so again until September.  I plan to get rid of the bottles a small bag at a time.  Once we are caught up the same bag or less will be returned weekly.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Sometimes when one never has time to do something, it suddenly becomes “oh carp, we have to do this NOW.”  If that happens do what needs to be done.  If you can prevent yourself from reaching that point - do it before it reaches that point.  Oh, and of course, the snow shovels still have not been put into the snow blower shed.






                               

ILLUMINATING LIGHTS, BUT ALMOST NO WORK- WORK, DONE

Well another week gone  - and nothing much done of what I planned to do.  Husband had plans. 

We have a solar outdoor light fixture that we bought at least a year ago - if not two years ago - at Costco to put up in the backyard.  We have electricity back there and at one time husband put up a light, but he cannot deal with heights - could not back when put the put the light up (nor can I deal well with heights) - but it is worse now.  The fact that we are both on the short side and have to climb up higher to reach what others can reach adds to the problem.  The light he had put up has not worked in a long while and we did not want to climb as high as the old light to replace it.   So our logic was that we would buy a solar fixture and replace it by putting the solar fixture lower down the wired fixture.  The fixture has been sitting in our dining room since we bought it waiting to be put up. 

When we had our garage finished we had electricity added.  You know the idea of ask around and find someone friends recommend?  We hired a contractor who had done work several times for husband at his job and were extremely happy with.  Our garage - not so much.  To leave out the extensive details, the (supposedly) licensed electrician the contractor had hired did the wiring rather oddly.  The outlet boxes inside the garage move as they are not attached to the studs. He put in 2 circuits - but rather than put half the outlets on one and half and half the lights on one and the other half on the other - all the outlets are on one circuit and the lights he put in were all on the same circuit.  The air conditioner - which we added later is also on one of the circuits.  (The ac installer said he never put one in a garage before.)  Oh that reminds me - the garage is husband’s wood workshop.  We did have the electrician put in a light next to the side door into the garage (something added when we had this work done - before there was only the large front garage door) which has a switch and a front spot light which has its own switch.  We have replaced the front spot light a few times - high up, but not as high as the light on the back of the house - when the motion detectors have gone bad.  Well, in the garage there are work lights - the two long flourescent bulbs type.  The front two are hung from the inside of the roof - one of them, for unknown reason, much further towards the center of the garage and therefore much higher up.  This fixture has been flashing and not really coming on, also for about a year.  We had a box with 2 of the LED replacement bulbs for this particular type of feature, but could not reach the fixture to replace them. 

The latest problem was that the light next to the side garage door stopped working completely.  Husband decided that something had to be done as he could not see in the backyard at night to go in and out of the garage, there was no light there for security, and he was getting a headache working in the garage. 

So while I am planning to work on tax returns for clients and for us, he was planning to work on lights.  He bought a fixture to replace the one next to the side garage door.  He then turned to the question of being able to reach things high up without fear of falling off a ladder.  He found a ladder of about the right height that had platforms for the two stop steps and we set out to buy one.  We had to go to one of major home store chain stores and then three of the other home store chain to find and buy one.  It was really worth the cost - but it did take a lot of time over 2 days. 

He was able to put the new light next to the side garage door.  He then figured he could reach the bulbs in the fixture inside the garage and was going to buy a pair of LED ones - I surprised him with a box of them that was in the basement and it was done (and I don’t have to worry about breaking them when I move the Christmas boxes around). 

That left the solar fixture that has been here for years. Problem is that where we planned to put it he decided after research, was not the place to put it.  He finally figured out where to put it - reachable, facing the sun, and lighting up the backyard.  So yesterday we put it up.  The light fixture first and then the solar panel.  Biggest problem was that where he put the light is where our TV antenna stands in the backyard.  I was in constant fear that he would lean back or fall back and the long metal prong of the antenna would be through his head.  He managed to avoid it and it is all in place.  It apparently needs to charge a few days before we can test it.

Tonight - after dinner - I finally got to start the first return.  It went easier than I thought with the new forms.  It is not finished yet, but done enough that I am not worried about it.  (Client lives on the other side of the country and I want to mail it out to her Monday if I can.)  Meanwhile I have heard from a client who normally gets an extension - same this year as he is away until after April 15.  Another client, a friend, contacted me last week - she has a return from 2015 that needs to be done or she will lose her refund from same.  Problem is that she has no access to her house as there is a problem with a support wall and the ground may fall away.  Luckily I have enough of her 2015 info (from when we filed the extension) to do a fairly correct return - but I sent her a form that will have IRS mail me copies of the forms sent to her by banks, etc.  from that year’s return just to make sure.  I am still waiting for other clients to mail their info to me.  I keep wondering if I will hear from the client who disappeared to do her taxes.  I really worry about her.                     

I have kept up on laundry - clothing load in the washer as I write and will go in the dryer as soon as my - yes - cell phone rings to tell me that the wash load should be done.  I also need to do a load of towels afterwards.

Husband is again hoping and planning to go away Friday for the day - but it looks like rain again.  We need a gift for my mom for her birthday on Sunday - she will be 90 and my sister is having a dinner for her.  No ideas of what to get for her.  I was going to embroider something, but husband talked me out of it.  He doesn’t like the idea of giving her gift cards for the supermarket she goes to either (I don’t normally give gift cards, but I am stuck for ideas.)  I had actually hoped we will go away as we maybe we can find a PA Dutch food item to bring her back as a gift. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One cannot always do what wants/needs to do when one plans - especially if there are others involved in one’s life.  One can only do the best one can and not go crazy about it.

The timer in the cell phone just went off.  So I will copy and post this when I come back up from switching loads.  Okay laundry switched - now I can post.

INCOME TAXES ARE DUE IN A MONTH

Here in the US it is that time of year again - tax season.  This year there is even more pressure due to the changes in the tax law and the resulting changes in tax forms.  (If you are here in the US and you have not seen the new forms - they are small, at least for the 2 main pages.)   Some of you may find that your taxes are lower - others will find that they are higher - and I don’t mean your refund, I mean your actual taxes.  Don’t forget, you have an actual tax amount that is calculated by filling in your tax form, then subtracting from that amount the amount you prepaid during the year - through withholding and/or payment of estimated.  So if one’s withholding, say from one’s paycheck - the common thing from which most people have withholding taken - is more than it has been, one will either be overpaid more than usual and get a refund or owe less than usual and pay in less - but one’s actual tax - the total of the amounts withheld, paid as estimates and any amount due (or less any amount withheld) is your actual tax amount.  Does that make sense?  Due to the changes many people will have had less withheld from their paycheck  - so if their tax is the same as last year’s - they will either owe more or receive less as a refund, even though their tax is the same.

Supposedly most people will be paying less in actual tax (the total mentioned above), but many will not.  A client of mine is retired and in the past paid no income tax due to high itemized deductions.  This year due to the changes I estimate that his poor man will be paying around $600 in taxes.  IRS has an online calculator to check one’s withholding and I had used it during 2018 to check all of my clients (and my) taxes with it, and this calculation is done using same. 

He is retired.  His income is almost entirely Social Security.  His deductions should be the same as last year.  How come his taxes are higher than before?  Well, the information about the changes left out some things - one of them is that is in past years each person was entitled to a personal exemption of (in recent years) just over $4000.  They were eliminated in the changes.

What does this mean?  If one has always filed using standard deduction then one was entitled the standard deduction plus a personal exemption for themselves plus same for each person they were taking as dependants, plus their spouse (on the same return filing jointly or their own return if filing married separately).  So a couple was entitled to exemptions totaling $8000, a family of 4 was entitled to exemption totaling $16,000 and those exemptions no longer exist.  If one is taking the new standard deduction and one is single with no dependants than their new standard deduction is more than last year’s standard deduction plus exemption , but if they have any dependants - such as a single mom with a child, it is less than same was.  Similarly, a couple with no dependants will find that the new standard deduction for same is more than the old standard deduction plus their 2 personal exemptions totaled, but if they have additional dependants - children and/or elderly parent for example - the new standard deduction will be less than the old one plus their personal exemptions were.

Now, if one has been itemizing deductions they were also entitled to the personal exemptions, and are no longer entitled to same, but since they listed their actual deductible expenses they do not pick up anything additional to replace their lost personal exemptions.  In addition a variety of items which were deductible in the past in a category of “other deductions” if the category was more than 2% of their income are no longer deductible.  Depending on where they live they may also be losing part of their state income tax/real estate deduction.  Now, it is possible that the new standard deductions might be higher than their itemized deductions and they can take same as deduction, but chances are that even if this is the case, it will still be less than they were able to deduct last year as itemized deductions plus personal exemptions  - whether they have other dependants or not. 

So, this year make sure to gather your related tax papers - W2 forms, assorted 1099 forms, forms from any other income you have - such as K1s and records of other any other income you have to list.  Then make sure that you have all of your deductions - medical (insurance premiums, copayments, deductible payments, doctors, prescriptions, etc. ), taxes - real estate, state & local income taxes (still allowed up to $10,000), interest on your mortgage, and charitable contributions.  (Medical is still limited to same in excess of a certain amount).  Make sure that you check carefully with your tax preparer as to what else you should include this year.  Don’t wait until the time to file is about to approach (only just over a month left) in case you have any questions or find that you need to come up with money to pay income taxes that you did not anticipate paying.  If you due your own returns - leave extra time to figure out the new forms.  There are some programs that will help one prepare their taxes (free) if you need help including one called VITA from IRS that uses volunteers to help people.

Your state income tax forms may have been changed also as a result of the Federal changes.  The state I live in has traditionally used the Federal return information as a start and one then made changes to it.  This year those changes include allowing some of the items no longer allowed on the Federal return (such as real estate taxes in excess of $10,000) and will have extra forms to fill in for same also. 

And this is a good time to decide to do better to have your paperwork organized for next year when tax season comes again.


Past posts on income taxes that may be of interest to you -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-1.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-2.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/04/holidays-and-taxes-unrelated-subjects.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/02/income-taxes-are-here-again.html

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Take the time to put together your tax papers properly and completely now, while there is time to find missing information or get it replaced.  If you have someone do your income taxes - contact them soon about having your taxes done.  If you do your own - leave extra time this year to figure the changes that have been made and how they affect you. 

As you put together the paperwork - think about what you can do to make next year’s taxes either
 to do.

Again, this is general information and not tax preparation information related to you.  Check with your tax preparer about your specific information needed. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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

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

Hoping you have a nice Valentine’s Day tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

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

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

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

STILL HAVING TO REDO THINGS, BUT ACTUALLY GETTING SOME THINGS DONE

This is no longer funny.  I still am doing things and needing to do them over again. 

I have to file a form with IRS for our reenacting unit (since I am treasurer and also an accountant, it is my job).  This is an annual form for small tax-exempt, not for profits organizations and can only be filed online - no paper copy.  It takes less than 15 minutes and consists of how to contact the group, who is charge of it, what is its website (if it has one) and is its income and assets each under $25,000 for the year.  I actually have to do 2 of these forms as the unit was not a corporation when we joined and over the years some other members and us decided it should be, so we incorporated, but we have never shut down the original organization, so both have to file the form.  If we don’t file it we lose our tax exempt/not for profit status.  I have now tried to file the form three times.  It is not due until May, but I like to get it done with so I don’t forget.  Each time I get a message after I sign in that there is maintenance going on - sorry - and it refers me to another page that will explain - which it does not and has nothing to do with same.  At this point I have decided that this site is not working due to the government shut down and put this aside until late next month - or I hear the government has reopened.  I hope this does not mean that I will not get the forms I ordered for client - should be here tomorrow as that is 10 days - I am guessing that at the least it will take longer.

We get for Christmas every year a general gift card from a family member of in-law, We tell her not to give it to us.  She is extremely short on money and cannot afford to give it to us.  We don’t reciprocate as we hope this makes her stop.  We always have problems using gift cards - something goes wrong.  We appreciate the thought, but just a card would be more appropriate.  To make it easier to use the card ($25) and not need to keep track of how much is left on it and not buy something that we later need to return and have tossed out the empty card, we use it for prescriptions.  So, we had to renew an expensive prescription (due to it being pay the deductible time of year) and when we picked up the prescription I handed the pharmacy employee the gift card to use first - it got rejected!  Now I do this every year, I hand the gift card, it gets processed and subtracted from what we owe for the prescriptions and I pay the difference on our credit cards and it works every year.  When we got home I telephoned the gift card company and sat on hold.  While on same I heard about how now they were set up for split purchases and just use the card first and then pay the difference afterwards as most companies will accept it.  When I finally reached an employee she told me that I had done this wrong (remember the message I had heard 4 times told me I had done it right).  I have to pay the rest of the purchase amount and THEN have them process the card or it will not go through!!  So next month when husband needs another expensive medication, since he still has more of his deductible, I will have to do it that it way!  Oh, and she wastes another $5 buying the card as that is what she is charged to do so.

And - You may remember in December 2017 we bought husband’s niece (then 7 years old, now 8) a gift card for Best Buy for her to use for a computer game.  I misplaced the card and it took until I set up the Christmas trees this year to find it.  We gave her cash instead.  We found out then how bad her computer game habit is. She plays constantly and if she loses she hits herself in the head with the game (a handheld).  We decided that we would not give her anything towards the games again as she is an addict and it is the same as buying a bottle of liquor for an alcoholic.  So we were stuck with the Best Buy card as we don’t really shop there.  I need a software program to use for taxes and normally buy it at Walmart.  I looked and Best Buy had it for the same price, so I figured I would buy it there instead and use up the blankety- blank card.  We went in a week ago - after just about every employee on the floor in the Best Buy store had spoken to each other on their earphones - they still did not know if they carried it or if it was in stock.  We left.  The following weekend I checked and their website said they had it, so I printed same and went in to get it.  (So this is my second trip in for the program.)  I found it.  We walked around a bit just because we were there and then I went to pay for it.  I handed the cashier the card and the $25 was applied to the cost and I paid the balance.  The cashier handed me the bag and the receipt and I turned to walk away.  The cashier said “Wait!  This says I am suppose to give you a $5 gift card.”  So, now I have another card in my wallet and it will probably be there until next year’s software!

Yes, I know it is very nice of the in-law to give us something - but she REALLY needs the money herself.  It is nice that we got the $5 card from Best Buy - but when one does not shop there, it is a problem.

On to what actually got done.  (Laundry always done of course.)  I packed up our every day Christmas season dishes and glasses and put them away in the basement until next year.  I have started putting needed software in my new - new laptop (as I did with the original new laptop).  At some time I will get around to transferring my word processing software to it and will no longer be using my old s - l - o - w laptop to write and post my posts to you. 

I have to fill in a form with the income and expenses and bank accounts (also other assets if we had any) for my embroidery chapter to send to our national office so they can do their tax return which includes us.  (Remember back in the second paragraph I said I do a form for our reenactment unit - well instead of filing that form for our chapter, we are included in the return of the national organization due to a different setup.  BUT - every year we (I) receive a notice that we have not filed that  - same as our reenactment unit files - form, although we are not suppose to, and end up filling in a longer paper form explaining why we don’t need to fill the form - another repeat of work.)  So I filed in the form for national - all the numbers worked as I set up the file in my accounting software to match what national wants/needs and I just have to copy each item to national’s form.  I added up the numbers on the form - best way to make sure I copied them correctly - and then filled in the other form - how many primary members other than officers volunteer for the chapter?  That is the hard form to fill in. We have 2 committee chairs - that’s 2.  We had some members teach stitching so they are volunteers - but 3 of them were officers, so they don’t get counted again, one is a committee chair - ditto, and one is a plural member - that means she belongs to national through a different chapter and also belongs to our chapter so I guess she is counted as volunteering for the other chapter.  I had to go through all of last year’s newsletters to figure this out.  I emailed out the form and they will let me know if there any problems - I am guessing there will not be.

I have cleared all the walkways through the house as we are expecting 2 snow storms over the next few days.  I have explained before that 18th century homes were “put to rest” with the furniture against the wall when a room was not being used (and the furniture needed was put out in the middle to use when it was needed).  This allowed people to walk around in dim light without needing a candle to avoid tripping over or walking into things.  I started long ago making sure that we could walk around the house the same way when there was a possibility of a black  out so we can safely walk around.  I am currently doing the laundry.  As long as it is all washed and dried I don’t have to worry, again, if there is a black out.  I can always fold it without electricity.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-

Frustrations will eventually end - I know I will reach point when I only have to things once - again.  Being prepared in advance makes life easier if there is black out - and it doesn’t hurt if one is lucky and there isn’t one.  I hope that any of you in the path of any storms from the past week or upcoming week make it through as easily as possible.

Non-political statement - If you work for the U.S. Federal government, I hope that you are working and getting paid.  If not I hope that you are able to get by until this mess is over and that ends quickly.  If you are in the U.S. and are not in this position - if you can, please give to one of the drives which are helping those who working and not being paid or not working at all due to the mess.

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.

WHAT EATS UP MY TIME THESE DAYS?

Do you have control over your time?  How much of you time is governed by other people who need you or make plans which involve you - and are not the king of people you can say no to?

When my husband worked full time at his job all of my time during the day on weekdays was my own.  Yes, I had to go to work and I went to my embroidery meetings, but I could easily plan what I was doing when back then. 

Husband and I were in what is called a rotational art exhibit - okay, we were each in two of them.  In this type of exhibition (run by two different township park departments) the artist, after having his/her work reviewed and approved, goes to a showcase.  Different venues - town offices, libraries, local businesses... sign up with the program also and come to the showcase.  They select which artist’s works they would like to have in their venue and they and the artist agree on which month (or two month period) the exhibition will be for. There would be months when we had 3 shows at 3 different venues (he had work in 2 different media in the show).  Since he was working full time I was allowed to represent both of us - I also set up and took down the exhibitions.  I could schedule the exhibitions, set them up and then take them down.  When husband quit his job and worked part time from home we would do all of this together and there was always a problem with him as to when we were doing it, why we were doing it (we only sold 3 small pieces over the time he exhibited, my work was not for sale, so I did not sell any).  It amazed me how much easier it was when I did this all alone, then when we did it together.  Due to the fact that one of libraries may be where we got bedbugs, we stopped doing the shows - and it was relief to stop - although before he started coming along, this would not have been true.

When he first quit his job we had an agreement that we would each go our own way during the day - and we did for awhile.  Then gasoline prices went up and up and up and husband pointed out that we were wasting money at the high price of gas for me to drive to the supermarket and him to drive separately to the Home Depot in the same parking lot and we started sort of car pooling for errands like this.  Before I knew it, we were together all day, every day (except the days I went out to work and the days I went to my embroidery meeting). 

Clients of mine, older senior citizens, had to shut down their business due to the economy and gradually I ended up with only one monthly business client. I used to go out to clients at least 8 days a month - some days to multiple clients - and had no problem scheduling them - now the 1 client is a problem to schedule. 

I am not the world’s best house cleaner.  I had a schedule - on Wednesdays I would clean - First Wednesday of the month I would dust, vacuum & wash floors, and clean the toilet upstairs.  Second Wednesday of the month I would do the same downstairs.  Third week I would do the upstairs - except the toilet - again.  Fourth week I would do the same as the second, but would clean the kitchen instead of the bathroom.  On the occasional fifth Wednesday I would do another chore that had not been done and needed doing.  Now - forget it!  It is hard to clean toilets or wash floors when as soon as one is mid cleaning one’s husband appears and says “I have to go in NOW.”  And there is always a reason that the other bathroom is not where he wants to be.  It has gotten so bad that I ended waiting until he fell asleep at night and then cleaned the upstairs bathroom - at 3 in the morning!

This comes up right now as the past 2 weeks I feel like screaming!  Last week on Tuesday he decided it was time to put up the Christmas lights, and then looked at the bushes and the piles of fallen leaves and said “We can’t put up the lights with all these leaves here - there will be a fire.”  Okay, so we are going to suddenly clear up the leaves.  He found online at a home store near us a rack to hold the garbage bags and it was in stock at the store.  We go there  - I really don’t think we need the rack - without even knowing what it was.  The store does not have any, even though the company website says that they do - and, while it is still November at that time, they don’t have it because it is a “fall” item and the main office therefore took all of them back! Oh, and according to them the website saying they have something does not mean anything - good thing husband did not buy it online and go to pick it up at the store.  We lost an hour and a half of limited sunlight (remember we get started late and had already run errands) on that fool’s errand.  We come home and we start clearing the leaves.  Over the years husband has come up with a variety of methods to do this - vacuum them, shred them with a vacuum, and I don’t know what else - my system is a snow shovel  - yes, a snow shovel.  First I quickly rake the leaves out from between the bushes onto the driveway in a line of leaves.  I shovel them into the garbage bag in the garbage pail, stop periodically to tamp them down with the shovel, then when the bag is full (probably overfull) I close the bad with a bag tie, drag the garbage can to by the curb, lay the pail down on it’s side, stand it up again with the open end down, pull the can off the bag and there it is - a bag of leaves where it needs to be for pickup.  I am doing the work due to the pain that is still healing in his left arm and shoulder.  He has to help (you know, like small children have to help).  He wants to hold the rake for me to push the leaves against when shoveling, this is not needed as there is a line of leaves to push against and at the end I use the pail.  Then he decides that too many leaves are falling and puts the rake over the leaves - resulting in almost all of the leaves falling off.  I convince him to go and get more bags and bag ties to keep him busy.  We eventually end up with about a dozen or more bags sitting at the curb - they were picked the next day as Wednesday is yard pickup.  Wednesday we run errands and then go to clear the last of the leaves - these are leaves around the driveway where he is worried that mice will nest - he is shocked that new leaves are where we cleared the day before!  Now, if I was involved in planning this ahead of time - we would not have had errands to run - I would make sure they were otherwise scheduled - and we would have eaten a quick lunch at home to give us enough time, instead of our daily half hour plus leisurely lunch at Wendys.

We had checked the light strands ahead of time, as we had not had a chance to check them when we took them down (I made a reminder in my cell phone for the middle of October about this, as well as about the 2 strands that went out while out last year and had purchased replacement lights.  We had to wait after clearing the leaves for a day that was not below freezing and it was not raining.  Over the weekend we put out the lights.  I am, again, doing the work.  We did a little bit different setup as he had some ideas, All was going well.  We have a holly tree and the lights have to be (literally) thrown onto the upper part of it as neither of us likes to go on a ladder.  I was trying to figure out how to put the higher lights on it - figuring a ladder will be needed - and he grabs the strand and throws it - and then is reminded of his shoulder and arm - and was back in pain like a few weeks ago!  (Yes, the lights are up, look nice - one of his ideas I thought was terrible works very well.)

We spent yesterday evening taking apart his computer as it had stopped working - believe it or not it as the battery that keeps the time and such going as this is his desktop computer.  So the time I would have spent washing dishes - I was lifting his computer (because even before he threw the light strand he should not have lifted it) as well as clearing off my desk for him to work on.  I did some of my magic - “It needs a CR2032 battery, I guess we will have to buy one.”  I go to our bag of button batteries (travels with us on trips) and find one, still sealed in the package.  Then I did the dishes after we changed the battery, put the computer back on his side of the office on the floor and he had restarted the computer.

I have to take 20 hours of classes to do tax returns next year - I took 2 hours of them the other evening and I should have much more of them done by now - only 26 days to go - 6 days of which we will be involved in reenacting, two days of which will be Christmas Eve and Day, that leaves 18 days left!  And Christmas decorations, shopping for one of his nieces (other is  finished) and regular housework is left - oh, and he is still trying to fit in a one day trip to Lancaster, PA.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is hard to make our time our own to be able to schedule what work needs to be done, but we have to do it.  This time of year, especially, we have to make time for what we need to do as well as what we have to do.