SETTING UP A NEW COMPUTER AND UPDATING AN OLD COMPUTER - OYYY!

 Computers – can't live without them and can't live with them!!

And they DO need to be kept organized!

Computers are important to keep organized also.  In addition to each having a desktop computer, we each have laptop computers (and I keep my old ones so I have 2 Windows XP latptop computers, a Windows 7 desktop computer, and my latest – a Windows 10 laptop.  (I am using the latter as I post.)  My Win 7 and my Win 10 computers each have a virtual Windows XP machine in them.  (This allows me to run old XP software in them – mostly my Lotus Organizer.)

My husband I do not keep our data on our hard drives.  We keep them on thumb drives (originally on 5.25” floppy drives, followed by3.5 inch floppy drives, then zip drives, and in the years since – thumb drives (aka stick drives).  This does several things  - most importantly if our hard drives die we still have our data and it is easy to move the data from one computer to another.  We also each frequently back up our hard drives to external hard drives to prevent loss of data on same.  

This all comes to mind as my husband has just bought a new laptop computer.  He has vision problems from when he had cataracts despite having had surgery for same – mostly problems seeing to read small print.  He has been struggling more recently to read items on his laptop as it is a small one, so we discussed it and he bought a 17.5 inch laptop.

He bought it Monday.  Yesterday (Tuesday) he took it out of the box and started setting it up.  First, of course getting rid of some of the newer features which he did not want and finding features which no longer come with them which he DOES want.  

In doing of all this (so far) he noticed that the hard drive on our network did not show up on his new laptop – he checked my laptop and it was missing there also.  So tonight he dealt with this problem and got the hard drive to show on his laptop.  He then moved to my laptop to fix it also.  Why?  Because he needs to do so, so mine will be able to access that hard drive.  Have I used it?  Maybe – once – or twice.  

In fixing this on my laptop the computer decided that “Whoopee! She is letting me do things!”  “I am going to update – whether she likes it or not!”  So I lost over half an hour of my “me time” on my laptop (which I get in the evening as opposed to using using my computers for work related work or house related work).  

Understand – I am not against computers.  My first use of a computer was a main frame IBM computer back when programing and answers were by punch card (programming in Fortran) in high school.  That was followed by a main frame computer which used various stations around our college campus to enter things (programming in Basic).  But each version of the software to run current computers seems to make more and more problems.  And they do help to keep one organized and cut down on paper clutter.

ANOTHER WEEK AND AT LEAST WHAT HAS TO BE DONE IS ......DONE!

 Goodness – another week again – seems like I just posted yesterday!!

Have you found that time moves differently since Covid started? I find this. I think I did something a couple of weeks ago and when checking on something about it in my computer organizer – I see that it has been a month and a half!! Things I do by rote, suddenly I forget to do. File on my computer drive are not in the order they should be.

I am trying hard right now to get everything back to where it belongs and how it should be. One problem is that husband was miserable staying home all the time and is now trying to make up for it – I pray for rain so we will stay in the house and I will get things done. Even as I writing and posting this (at 1:30 am) I have just moved the first load of laundry to the dryer and put the second load in to wash.

REALLY need to clean the house. Husband had started vacuuming the floors out of boredom – but no longer does. (I prefer to “Swiffer” them, sound of a vacuum has scared me since I was a child.

Four things I have extremely cautious to do on time – clients tax returns, pay our bills, the laundry, and cook meals/wash the dishes.

Does anyone else use the toe of their “fuzzy” slippers (while wearing them) to gather dust bunnies together and then pick them up and throw them out with their hand?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I try to keep doing the little things which HAVE to be done to help me keep going. We are fed. We have clean clothing and towels/bed linens. We have our medications and take them as we should.

What do you ALWAYS do as it so important to be done?

TAX SEASON IS HERE - THE FUN OF FILING OF INCOME TAXES THIS YEAR

 Got some tax returns out to clients.  It has not been easy this year.  In addition to the usual problems – missing papers that clients have to get to me after the sending the rest of the papers, etc.  I have been having unusual problems this year.

A business client was ill and needed surgery – so had to get an extension for her business as the returns for same were due March 15.  Then sales tax was due March 20 – luckily she was back at work part time by then and was able to mail me (she does not use a computer at all) a list of her sales so that was out on time.  

I keep a copy of last year's returns for clients on paper and scan all returns (and many other papers) into the computer to be able to store them in much less space and it is much easier to find and access what is needed.  I have been using 2 different software programs which make pdf files to do this.  We had to get a new “all in one” (printer, scanner, fax) during the past year – this is the second one we have bought – returned the first one due to scanner peculiarities and bought this one, a different unit from a different manufacture, which seemed to work fine.  But it has developed peculiarities also – I cannot add pages to a saved pdf file.  So I was making different files and copying the pages into the older one from the newer one.  Did that on a return recently and suddenly – all the pages are there, but I can only print the pages from the original file.  Husband found software to combine files – it took over my computer making itself the default not only for scanning, but also for printing (and we did not even know it printed.  Husband took it out today, but it still seems to be default for scanning and printing – I will have to have him reset the default programs for me.  (Yes, I could do it myself – in college he would copy my computer programs, but it gives him something to do and if anything goes awry, at least I will not get blamed while he repairs the problem.)
    

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Tax time is here (in the USA) – don't forget to file on time or get an extension.  Don't give Uncle Sam (or his friends the states) a reason to charge you penalties and interest – you KNOW you pay them too much to begin with.  Only 19 days left to file (due April 18 this year Federally and in most states).

CATCHING UP FROM CHRISTMAS AND LEARNING NOT TO ASSUME ALL CLEANING PRODUCTS FOR A PURPOSE ARE THE SAME - WHAT AN ODOR!

 Ah, the swift passage of time.  Three weeks have passed since I last posted.  So much for doing better in the new year.  

Well, I did get all of the reenacting clothing washed and stored away – though I still have his neck cloth which needs to ironed – it is sitting on the dining room table as reminder to do so.

On Monday, the sixteenth, I set my desktop computer to start its monthly backup and I went to start taking down the ornaments from our Christmas trees. Our agreement is that husband gets the room to use for weaving (called his “loom room”) from mid January to mid December and I get it for Christmas for the other month.  He was at his desk and I told him what I was about to do.  “NO, NO! I am not ready yet for Christmas to be over and packed away!”  So our indoor Christmas decorations are still in place.  (We did take down the outside lights that weekend so neighbors would not think us crazy.)  

We have figured out how to deal with the window candle lights I like for Christmas (goes well with the house which is colonial in style) for the future.  I figured out that if we pulled the hope chest shaped DVD chest out from under the TV table I could carefully climb under and reach the windowsill as well as the electric outlet under the window and we can use the plug in candle lights we have from years ago  (in recent years before the current one we had switched to battery operated ones).  If I do this once next year and plug them into a timer which can be controlled from a cellphone, we can leave the lights in place permanently and husband can turn them off after Christmas.  We can continue to use the battery lights upstairs and turn them off after the holiday by hand.  

I am not the best at cleaning to begin with – and since Covid and being in the house most of the time, even worse. (So bad, husband has started helping me, though he says he does out of boredom.) Last Saturday night I was in the kitchen and decided to clean the bathroom immediately next to the kitchen – and I do mean immediately next to.  As I sit here at our kitchen table the wall in front of me is the shared wall with the bathroom which is a small “cozy room” and the kitchen wraps around it – the door to the bathroom is on the side of it and faces the “pantry” closet in the kitchen.  This was while I was waiting for husband to be ready to order take out for dinner our “Saturday night substitute for date night dinner out”  

BIG MISTAKE!  I had not been able to find my normal toilet bowl cleaner and the one we had bought had a LOT of bleach in it.  The kitchen reeked of bleach – especially by the kitchen table where we would eat dinner.  I closed the bathroom door to keep the smell in it, figuring that later when we were in the living room watching a movie (for Saturday night date night movie substitute) I would open the door and let the odor dissipate.  First thing husband does when he comes down to go out and pick up dinner as I say “NO, DON'T!” is open the bathroom door and let the bleach odor overwhelm us.  The odor did dissipate later that night.  And, yes, while out on a shopping run this past week I bought a bottle of the non-bleach toilet bowl cleaner I normally use – though it seemed to be the last and the company has changed it – but time enough to worry about that in the future.  

At the same time, while the cleaner had sat in the toilet bowl, I also “Swiffered” the kitchen floor – which I had done in the bathroom as well as I could (bathroom is too tight to easily use the Swiffer, a broom or mop in it) – the floors really NEED a washing – but we are always here and using the kitchen so washing it and letting it dry is not easy.  I also cleaned the sink in the bathroom.  

One semi clean place in the house.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Two of them really, first, watch what your cleaning products have in them and second, it is not THAT hard to find a small amount of time to do something about cleaning.

BACKING UP YOUR DATA IS IMPORTANT

 

Husband is currently working on installing new backup software on his computer and having problems. Which leads me to ask – do you back up your computer? Often?

We are not comfortable backing up our software or keeping any data, etc in “the Cloud”. We back up on additional drives which are in our house. Leaving aside that we don't feel comfortable keeping personal information on what is basically someone else's hard drive, by keeping the backups here – we can access it even if we do not Internet access for some reason – or for a limited amount time, we can access it on our laptop computers if we do not have same. (When a big storm is coming and we may lose our electricity we plug in all of our laptops - even the old Win XP ones - so we have them to use during a black out.

We keep our data on USB flash drives – the little stick drives not on our computers – makes it easier to switch between computers or when, in normal times, we travel we can bring the data with us. In my case I have one for most data. Another one for the one accounting business client I still have (when I go to her to do her books I can bring just her data), I have one for my photos, another down here in the kitchen which I use for personal browsing at night on my laptop. And so on. I probably have about 10 different of these stick drives with my data on them – and they are not large memory drives.

This past year I added a drive with scans of almost all of the instruction and warranty books we have – much easier to find the instructions when we need them – yes, we do have to have a computer turned on – or turn one on – but before I had to go through paper folders in the bottom drawer (of two) in one of our file cabinets and since I was bending over and looking down, my eyeglasses would swing forward away from my eyes and possibly fall off. The (hanging) folders were so full that they could barely move in the file drawer. Do we need a computer which is on to look at the papers – yes, but chances are pretty good that one or the other of us (or both) have a computer on – and if not, it takes less time to turn one on and have it boot than sit and go through all the folders looking for something.

In addition to instructions and warranties the drawer had files for travel items – maps, handouts we had picked up on where to go “next time”, places we had liked and wanted to return to, tour books on different areas, etc. I got rid of all of the out of date brochures, tour books, etc. also. We kept a handful of local maps to places we go to often (you know, the ones they hand out free to the tourists of tourist locations), and of some places we have been to in the past (such as nice, inexpensive restaurant in one of the places we visit less often). Down from 3 overstuffed hanging folders to one fairly empty one. I did not copy larger, books of instructions and have kept them in the drawer. I also copied those instructions for our RV to a separate stick drive so we can bring it with us on trips. I have since copied the main warranty/instructions stick drive to a folder on our home net so husband does not even have to look for my stick drive if he needs info.

I now have 5 fairly empty hanging folders in the drawer. One holds instruction books which are tomes and too big to scan (plus they have actual book binding which would break). The other 4 holds those small warranty papers which one needs for a couple of years or so – you know, they come with a fancy pen, or they are on the back of the package. These 4 folders are marked with a year – currently 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. I drop these small papers/packaging into the year they will expire. Something with a 6 mo warranty that was bought now would go into the 2023 folder, something with a 2 year warranty I would put into the 2024 folder. Chances are none of them have a warranty beyond 3 years. At the end of the years I will look through each folder and toss the warranties past their life. When I am done with the 2022 folder it will become the 2026 folder and so on. I am also dropping all of the paperwork for new items which I am concerned we may decide to return into the folder for the following year so we have the original paperwork also.

Now, backing up – the original theme of this piece. I have 2 of these stick drives, marked A and B. At the end of a work session I back up my main data stick drive – plus any of the other data stick drives I have used – onto either the A or B stick drives alternating each day. At the end of the week I do the same with two different stick drives (called 1 and 2) so I have a backup from the past week and the week before. I also have 2 external hard drives. Around the 15^th of the month I back up all the data stick drives to the two external hard drives, alternating by month between the two. I also run a back up of each of my two main computers (desktop and laptop) and make a restore point on each.

When my husband was still working full time, once a month I would give him a back up all of data for him to keep in his desk at work and he would bring home the backup from the month before. When he quit his job I did the same with our bank box until the pandemic started. This way if something happened to our house – there would be a set of data away from home (off site).

All without needing to store any data on “someone's else's hard drive”.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Do you back up your computer data and computer itself? One never knows what happen and putting information back together may impossible.

WELL I THOUGHT MY EMAIL PROBLEMS WOULD BE BEHIND NOW - BUT NO, NOW I HAVE TO DELETE SOMEWHERE AROUND 90% OF WHAT HAS COME INTO MY COMPUTER

 Sorry about missing last week.   My main computer and email are still not completely back up and running from the email software problems I have been having. I really depend on my computer(s) to stay organized.  

What do YOU do with your email to read and keep track of it?

We did have to delete the software and do a clean install of the new software.  By doing this we then had to do a new setup of all my email accounts.  Okay – you have one or two or three email accounts – but as part of my organizing I have somewhere around 15 accounts.  15 accounts – why?  

Well I have my basic account – my family, husband's family and maybe 3 or 4 close friends have this email address – this way I can respond to the most important people in our lives quickly.  

I have an account for my accounting practice for my clients to contact me.  

One of my business clients – a woman in her 80s who still owns, runs and goes to work at her business every day – does not use a computer.  Her alarm company only bills by email.  So I opened up an account for her business to deal with this.  Before the pandemic when I was going in every month I would print out the bills when they came in, bring them with me to her and write the check for her to pay the company.  Since the pandemic I print the bills and mail them to her to pay as I have not being going to her – she mails me copies of the info I need.  

I have an account for the craft business which husband and I have for matters related to the business.

I have an account for my cell phone so it works.

I have an account for my embroidery club – it is used for things related to the club and me.  I have a second account for this club – but this account I have as the treasurer of the club – when I am no longer treasurer the new treasurer will get this account and have records of what the old treasurer (me) sent out, received, and did.  

I have an account for our reenactment unit – it used, for things related to the unit and me.  I also, again, have a second account for the unit as I am, again, treasurer of it.  (When one is an accountant one always ends up being the treasurer.)  This is used for business of the unit and will, again, be passed along to the next treasurer at some point.

I have an email account for this blog – any of you who want to me contact – feel free to do using the blog's email address.

I have 2 email accounts which I use when doing things online – such as various online groups/sites I belong to.  

I have 2 email accounts which were used with other clubs I used to belong to and I have kept for when I send an email and not be known.  

I also have one email account which has a different start to it as when I give the email address by telephone (something I used to do often when making hotel reservations back at the end of 20th century) my normal format has an “f” in it which people hear when talk as “s”, so when I need to give my email address by telephone I use this address as it does not have that problem.

My poor husband sat for 2 days entering all of these accounts into the new software and making sure they work properly.
Biggest problem is that when we talked about wiping out the old program and installing the new I asked him if this would result in just the unread emails being brought into the computer or all of the ones in the accounts.  He assured that only the unread emails would be brought into my computer/the software.  Wrong guess – one email address brought in something like 32,000 emails!!  (And that is one of my junk accounts.) While I might like to have them in my computer I don't NEED emails from 2018 – or more importantly don't even WANT emails from 2008!  

So I spend a good part of every day going through the email accounts in the software and deleting old emails – by the single email or more generally by the page.  I also have to sort some of the ones I am keeping into special folders to be able some emails more easily (such as the emails from USPS telling me what mail was to be delivered to me each day – if you haven't signed up for this service, it is very good to have).  When deleting emails – even single ones – they take quite awhile to be deleted which is annoying and slows the process down.  I figure this could take a month or two or more to finish doing.

I have also found that some – not a lot, but some – emails came through scrambled or unformatted and in at least one case the name in the list does not match the text in the email – it being one of the ones from USPS by title, but not the text in it.  

In addition we made the changeover just before I was due to email out the monthly newsletter for my embroidery club.  I had finished the newsletter just before husband started dealing with all of this – it was written and saved in a text processing program so what I had written was not affected by all of this.  I went to last month's newsletter and copied the list of who it was sent to and pasted that into the email for this newsletter.  Instead of showing the showing the emails it only showed the member's names!  I could not send it out using the information from last month's newsletter.  I hate to push my work off onto someone else – but had to as it serves as the meeting reminder and I wanted it out a month before the meeting – so I sent it the club president (who knew I was having email problems) and asked her to send it out for me.  I send out 2 other copies – one to those who asked about our club and one to certain people in the region management who I am required to send it to.   Those went out a couple of days after I hand copied their information into new address books in the new program.  I have been told that there was problem with this – attached files (including the newsletter) cannot be opened as before – they have to be copied first.  

Throw into all of this – husband set up the program to automatically download emails when I sign on.  At some point I have this changed to wait until I check for emails as if I sign after having checked emails for the day earlier in the day – it will download any new ones when I do not generally want them as if I am back in the account it generally means I need information from something I have already read.  The other problem with this is if I do need to check for email again in ONE account – all of them are downloading any email which has come in.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
This will be an ongoing project for some time.  There is nothing else I can do to get it all cleaned up.  I am trying to do it logical way – in my case I started with the first email account in the list – not the most important one.  I figure if I have all my emails from the start of 2022 in my computer I can always refer to older ones in my online account if needed.  Only somewhere around 40,000 emails left to sort through!

What do YOU do with your email to read and keep track of it – no really, I am curious what other people do?

COMPUTER PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO PLAGUE US - HAVE YOU UPDATED EVERYTHING FOR THE NEW SECURITY STANDARDS?

 This is my computer problem which has been set aside for the past couple of weeks since it started as husband's computer was much more important than mine.  

I use a software program to check my email – but like most to all of the programs I use, I have not updated it.   I hate adjusting to the assorted changes to programs which invariably come with the update and will put off updating unless necessary for the program to run.  

At the same time husband had the problems with our Win 10 computer the recent security changes to online caught up with me.  I could not use my email program to check my email as I did not meet the new requirements.  Normally I would have had husband deal with the changes – but he was still dealing with the computer problems he had.  So I did what I had to – I started checking email by signing into each email account separately and checking email that way.  I have a number of emails accounts – my general one for family and friends, a couple for when I don't want to be known and may need to drop the account if it gets hacked, one for groups I go to online, one for me for my embroidery guild, another one I use as treasurer of my chapter of same – which I consider to be an email of the chapter and I can pass along to the next treasurer to use, one for me for our reenactment unit, a similar email address for the treasurer of the unit – again, can be passed along to the next treasurer, one for a client – she does not use a computer and her business's alarm company only bills by email – so I set up an email account for her and I monitor it for her, an email for this site, an email address for me for the craft business husband and I have, and about 5 or 6 more for various purposes – some of which are gone and I have the kept the address for junk use.  

I knew I could not sign in and out of all of these accounts daily. I picked the ones most important to check daily and I do so.  The remaining ones I am checking once a week.  Unfortunately for some reason my computer does not like me signing in and out and in and out… one after another.  So around the 4th email address – it gets hung up and I end up having to reboot the computer, same after a few more email checks – I am not talking a lot of emails here – most have none, others might have 3 or 4 at most – but the computer is not happy.  So checking email has become an extended chore.  

Yesterday I asked husband if all was okay with his computer and it was running as before and as needed and it was.  So I asked him to help me setup my email accounts to meet the new requirements.  We spent 3 hours today trying to do so.  It has not happened – not even with one account – and worst of all -  I did not get to check ANY email accounts today – though I am sure I did not miss anything.   We set up an account and then it is rejected when we try to check email.  Latest idea is that we delete the email program and start all over with a new copy and enter each account as it needs to be for the new standards.  

Well – at least we have something to do.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Don't be like me – keep your programs updated to avoid problems – and don't wait for the last minute to make needed changes.

MISSING OUTGOING MAIL - BORROWERS?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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

APOLOGIES FOR MISSED LAST WEEK'S POST AND FILING/SCANNING PAPERS

 OOPS!!!  When I sat down to write tonight's post I realized I never posted last week.  My apologies.  Have you found that your sense of time passing has been negatively affected by staying home during the pandemic?  Mine has.  Something seems to me that it occurred last week and when I look in my calendar/items done list – it was months ago.  Since we cannot change the past, on to this week's post.

In between keeping up with normal daily and weekly stuff to do, I have scanned and saved, then put into the pile of paper to recycle more of those warranty papers and instruction books.  I have finished the ones for stuff in our office (furniture and other stuff), the ones for our computer stuff, and I am working on our telephones and related items (such as answering machines).  

Today I got in two quick scans as I was finishing up with other work for the day – account reconciliations for statements from the credit unions.  

 I pulled out the first telephone instruction manual to scan – a cordless phone - and looked at the picture on the cover.  Hmmm, it should be over there on husband's office work table  - it isn't?  I know the phone in question is white, I can see it sitting on husband's table – but the one there is … red?  I put the book aside until husband finished what he was working on.   I pulled another “book” out of the pile – the phone on the wall next to my side of our bed.  It is not actually book.  This leads me to mention - “Who the heck designs this instructions?”  Many of them are not books, but rather a large piece of paper folded into sections – the sections as they appear on the paper do not actually always make sense.  In this case at the front of the folds is the title “page”.  After that I was not sure what order the “pages” were intended to be.  I scanned what was there and if the order is wrong – so be it, it is still usable.  I realize the manufacturers do not intend the instructions to be scanned or copied – but!!!!!  Sometimes the pages fit as a letter sized scan, sometimes as a legal sized scan – this one had one set of instructions which started on one “page” continued on the next and then partially onto a third one.  The first two “pages” could be scanned (side by side pages) as a legal sized page, but then the other piece was hanging there with the next section of the instructions!  Another similar large paper consisting of “pages” at one point had the sections numbered in a clockwise direction and then one had to go the next “pages next to them and figure out how they fit into the instructions!    

How do YOU keep track of your various instructions and warranty papers in case they are needed again?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Filing papers (of any type) may seem to be boring and useless – but one day everyone finds that they need some paper of theirs and cannot find it.  Filing in a logical way helps one keep track of papers that one may or will need some day.  Filing does not have be alphabetical – files can be labeled and used for certain types of papers – as long as papers in files and the files are arranged in some way which makes sense to you – that is what you need.  (In my scanning I have put the same instruction file in more than one folder when not sure  where to put it.  For instance – office telephone instructions scan is in both the telephone and the office files on the drive.)

BOY MY MIND IS FRIED THIS TAX SEASON - WHAT WILL HIT NEXT?

 Okay, as I just added to last week's post which apparently – though I remember posting it – was never posted and has been sitting as draft.  

For some reason I seem to be getting hit a lot lately with crazy things.  As I have mentioned I am an accountant and it is, of course, “tax season”.  As the daughter of two accountants I grew up with tax season so I am accustomed to dealing with same.  I was helping my father making photocopies when same was relatively new in the 1960s – to give an idea of what I mean – First the original and the paper to be copied were run through a slot in the copier where the original was copied onto the paper.  Then the 2 papers came out of the machine.  The copy (and, yes, sometimes we ran the original through by mistake and that was a mess) was then inserted into a different slot in the copier where it was run through the chemicals to make the printing appear on it and fix same to it.  The copies came out wet and had to be hung up to dry – and it all smelled terrible.

I am down to a handful of clients who I prepare individual tax returns for and even less business clients (and two of those are my husband).  The clients I have are mostly my dad's clients, (dad having passed on some decades ago) some started with him in the 1960s or 1970s. The returns are fairly straight forward as they are all retired long ago – nothing to tease my brain.  So while preparing the tax returns takes time and I have to make sure that I have all the info from each client, it is not a brain busting matter to prepare the returns (add instructions, etc.)  

I belong to an embroidery chapter of a national embroidery club.  I serve as Treasurer of same.  The renewals for this organization are due by the end of May, so every year renewals overlap tax season – but I am used to this by now.

So far, so good.

I am also the Treasurer of our reenactment unit. This is not normally any sort of problem or situation during the main part of tax season as dues to our national organization from members,, as well as the dues to our unit, are collected in January and February and the dues to the national organization must be mailed by me to them by March 1.  This year, however, the national organization decided as long as things were quiet due to the pandemic – it was the time to redo their membership records and how they are managed on their end.  As a result they pushed back renewals into later in the year – yes, they are also due the end of May.  But to make things a bit easier, since our unit basically did nothing, the board voted to roll over paid dues from 2020 into 2021.  So only those members who did not renew with unit in 2020 have to renew now with the unit and only those members of the unit who belong to our national organization (and we do not require members to belong, so only about half of our members do) have to renew now.  

I have been working on tax returns – have all done except one friend who always files late (years late) and one client who always asks for an extension – and our return, of course, though our return is actually almost finished – I need the mileage on our car odometer to calculate business use of the car last year and we will get our car back on Friday.  

Forgot to throw that in – our car has been at our mechanic for over 2 months.  He actually gave up early week and husband went looking online and found the same odd problem we have and what people did – so the mechanic was finally able to fix it – but two months ago I did not think to take the mileage off the odometer and will not have it until we get the car back this Friday.  

I went to file extensions for the client who needs them while I was still waiting for information from the other clients last week.  I found out that the tax software I am using has a problem with our state and the forms are not fileable (my practice is too small for me to be able file for clients online).  So, I have had to take the copy of the return as I get it from the software and then fill in the state forms by hand to be able to use them.  This did not happen with a return I had to prepare for a different state so it is related to this state's returns not a general problem.  This was not a big deal, but it did take more time.  

I had to send a couple of weeks ago emails to both organizations for renewals and I am currently waiting for the renewals to trickle in from both groups.  

It doesn't matter how much I have systems for getting things done on time when things go awry elsewhere.  Plus of course – Easter and Passover dinners for husband and myself, as well as husband's birthday.  This is one heck of a spring for me, and I have to work hard to juggle it all this year.  

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Chances are that whatever one's plans are and how well they are organized something will go wrong.  Hopefully nothing goes wrong in a major way that cannot be adjusted for.  The comedienne Gilda Radner used to say on “Saturday Night Live” - “It's always something.”  

Oh, did I mention that our shower drain is backed up and we cannot use it until we clear the pipes, we still have to figure out what to do about the poison ivy in the backyard that we ignored last year and it grew all the way from the back of the house to the front – including onto the house, and we could not mow the backyard due to same and still have weeds the size of trees back there...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-

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

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

DEAD COMPUTER PROBLEMS LIVE ON

 We had telephoned about my dead computer Tuesday afternoon, eastern US time.  The box to send the computer to them was to come 2 day UPS.  The company is located in California, so it was even earlier in the day there when I was told it would be sent so I expected it to be here on Thursday - 2 days later.  The weather here was a rather nasty on Thursday - raining and windy due to Hurricane Zeta down south.   I have mentioned (ad nauseam) that we have problems with delivery of items by every carrier ever used.  We kept looking out of the front door and windows for the box - hopefully it would left on our steps, but often packages are left at the foot of our (short) driveway next to the sidewalk -nothing there.  As the day grew later we became more concerned that perhaps it had been left and had blown away so I telephoned the warranty company and got the tracking number (which I had expected them to email to us when the package went out).  The box was enroute through the worst of the area Delta was coming through and would be here on Friday - it was still rather close to where it had started its trip.  Taking a chance that the box would be left on our front steps rather at then at the foot of the driveway and knowing the remnants of Delta would be coming through our area all day Friday we left a large note on the inside of the glass storm door asking that it be left inside our side door (on a small porch) with arrows showing where we meant.  I checked when we woke and dressed on Friday -nothing in front of door, in porch or on driveway (as far as we could see) - if the box was left outside it would drenched and unusable.  When we went to cook dinner we found the box in the side porch (I had the curtain on the window next to my desk open the entire we were in the office and had not seen it delivered).  At least it was finally here and dry. 

We had hoped to turn it around and send it back by Friday - first as we wanted it back as soon as possible and also because the return shipping label had time limit - but that was not to be.   When I had set up the claim I was told I could not call for pickup and had to bring it into UPS - I had asked as we REALLY did not want to go out for this (or basically anything) and I explained that to the employee.  Since these days we don’t normally open “mail” until 4 days later we did not rush to open the box as it would not be going out until Monday anyway, the first time it could be sent.  When we opened it Sunday night to pack the laptop it said we could call for pickup - oh, well, that would delay it another day.  We packed it up - we made 2 plastic tape labels for the computer and two for the cord - one label on each had our names and the other had the case number we were given - if the computer and/or cord was separated from the paperwork we wanted to make sure it would be obvious whose they were.  We were extremely concerned about going to UPS - last time we had to deal with something there the place was wall to wall to people waiting and took hours - not a situation we want to be in right now.  Luckily it was empty when we went there.  We checked today (Wednesday) and the computer is still enroute.  Hopefully they will actually have it tomorrow.

I still cannot sign into the newspaper to read it on my laptop.  I can sign in my desktop and husband can sign in on his cell phone (latter done as a test as he does not read the newspaper and gets annoyed when I read him “tidbits” from it - he is a TV news person.  We figured perhaps the problem is that this laptop is Windows XP, so husband brought down and tried to sign into his Win 10 laptop and could not sign into the newspaper either.  Makes no sense to us.  I am reading the newspaper on my desktop when I have a chance during the day. 

My embroidery club has been holding its meetings online - show what one has made (yes, show and tell) discuss business - such as needing a larger room to meet in next time we meet in person so we can space out, etc.  I had forgotten that the meeting was today until I heard from the group president.  After I heard from her I was going to use husband’s desktop computer (mine has no microphone, speakers or camera - it was custom built for me by husband and other than Zoom meetings, which were unheard of by us until Covid-19 stay at home started, have no use for them.  But as I was using my little, old laptop I noticed it had a camera and a symbol for microphone, so making sure that they both turned on I planned to use my laptop for the meeting this morning.  Husband showed me where to plug in his microphone and camera on his desktop - just in case.

I woke up this morning, dressed and turned on my little laptop.  It worked!  I signed into the Zoom site and got into the meeting and saw everyone - m o v i n g  v e r y   s l o w l y - okay, I can deal with that.  I said hello.  I then realized that I could not hear them - something was wrong with the speakers.  (Husband later reminded me when I told him of my adventure that I keep my speakers in my laptops on mute - oops, my fault.)  So I plugged in his camera and his microphone and turned on his desktop computer.  I then had to sign into my email address to get the invitation to the meeting - an email address which is not in his computer (I checked in case it was).  I put in my email address on the appropriate page and entered my password as I remembered it.  Nope.  Tried again.  Nope.  I then turned on my desktop (so at this point I now have 3 computers turned on trying to sign into Zoom and join the meeting) to get the password as it shows there - I had the correct password.  Time kept passing. We get a 40 minute free session from Zoom, sometimes extra minutes are given - I looked at the clock and the 40 minutes had run out.  So I shut everything down and went back to bed.  I later sent an email to the group explaining what had happened.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-

Make sure you have good lists of current usernames and passwords.  If you are going to use a device or a feature of your computer (or any other electronic device) when time will be of the essence to use it - and you don’t want to look like an idiot that doesn’t know what you are doing (especially since they consider me the computer “expert”) make sure you do a trial run before you actually need to use that feature or device to make sure it is working , turned on and that you know what you are doing.   As we go along with the Covid-19 situation we are using computers and other devices differently than normal and may need a bit of practice doing so.  Yeah, I had thought of doing a quick Zoom session with husband to make sure the laptop would work and run fast enough - but never did get around to it.

I hope that all who have been in the path of Hurricane Zeta and their families and friends are safe and well and the same to those in the paths of the various fires and other weather problems. 

WORKING ON PAPEWORK EARLY TO SAVE MONEY ON REAL ESTATE TAXES - OOPS A WEEK LATE

My apologies - this post was written for and I thought I posted it on September 16.  While posting my September 23 post, I found this was still marked as draft -

  I am working on paperwork for a real estate credit that husband and I are entitled since we are over 65 and have an income on the low side.  This paperwork has to be filled in and filed annually.  Last year's filing ran something like 125 pages.  This is due to change they made last year.  We have to provide proof of all our business income and expenses.  The paperwork was crazy before this requirement, but with it….

At least this year I knew these extra records would be needed, so before I put away our financial records from 2019 I pulled out and scanned the needed paperwork into the computer – or at least I thought I did all of it.  I even made sure that the expenses for our two extremely small businesses added up to the tax return numbers which came from my computer software.  

The form to fill in and mail (or drop off) with the papers needed came and I started, slowly putting it all together.  I have combined various sections of what is needed with cover pages for each in my computer as pdf files.  It should not be hard, I had already scanned in the papers – right?  

General proof of income – 1099s and such, no problem.  Medical expenses (we can subtract this from our income in the calculation)  I had most of them ready – we have to have printouts, they do not accept paid bills or copies of checks that paid them as proof.  I had contacted and have this printouts from our medical insurance companies which is most of the expense.  In normal years we go into our pharmacy and they hand us printouts and we also bought eyeglasses last year and had planned to do same with the optician.  But this is not a normal year.  The optician is mailing the copies of our records, I still have to telephone our pharmacy about same.  

I had moved on to putting together the information from our businesses.  I thought I had it all – I had scanned them into the computer and just needed to finish assembling them.  But, neither business' receipts match the computer records of what they should be.  They are small amounts, but this process is so crazy – they may disallow the $1.90 here or the $20 there.  Hopefully if they do it will not affect the exemption amount by much.

Imagine having to put together all the expenses just from your car and having to make copies of all of them.  In this case I have to also give a breakdown of how much is from miles driven for husband's business and how many much for miles driven for mine and apportion the cost of each expense (which was already done for our income taxes).  How many small credit card receipts for gas do you end up with in a year?

While the cut off date to file this form and supporting paperwork is January 2, 2021, I don't like to wait until the last minute to deal with it.  Last year when we needed to go and bring in the paperwork to the county offices was when husband needed to get teeth added to his upper denture (also includeable as a medical expense for IRS and for this) and we ended up having the impression of his teeth taken and then driving to the county office – where he would have had to wait in the car anyway (no place to park), but in this case did not want to go in within without his teeth also.  So, since we are stuck in the house due to the corona virus pandemic anyway, I have been working on putting all this together and filing in the forms since August.  

We were discussing how we file the paperwork.  We used to mail to the county by certified mail.  In 2018 we mailed in the 2017 information for the 2019 taxes  (yes, it is terribly confusing) by mail as usual.  Then we received a month or so later a robo phone call from the county executive that we had not filed the papers!  I tried calling the office  - but the answering machine basically said “we are too busy to talk to you, don't bother us”  When I called again later in the day added to that message was “and don't try to come in here as there is no parking”.  This last part being true and has been decades, which was why husband dropped me off and waited in the car.   In a panic we reprinted and assembled everything to bring it to them.  In the interim a story on the news was that they were suppose to send the call to a few people who had filed in the past and had not yet filed, but they sent to every property owner in the county.  Unsure of if we were in the group whose paperwork had not been received, we drove to the office and I waited in their waiting room.  Luckily by the time we went there a couple of days after the call – the lines were no longer 5 hours long as they were the day after the mistaken calls.  They did have our paperwork.  

Last year we decided we go there (as we did) and turn in the paperwork in person and receive a receipt from them for it and did so.  We planned to continue to do so.  But we are now trying to decide since we are not going out due to Covid 19 – do we venture into the post office (that we don't go to, even overnight) to pick up our mail or do we go to the county office where I will wait my turn for what might be hours – but we will know for sure that they have our paperwork?  (Yes, the difference in what we pay in property taxes, especially the school taxes, with and without the exemption is enough to make it worthwhile.)  

Hopefully I will soon be done with the paperwork and we can decide which we will do and when.  I am guessing the early in the season for this, the fewer people who will be waiting, so I will try to finish as quickly as I can.  I did send an email to the head of the department and asked if they will have drive-up windows for this as they did for people to come in and pay the property taxes.  I don't figure they will or even that I will get an answer.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Use the time you are stuck in the house to get work done.  I have been catching up all sorts of paperwork and household chores that I have put off, well, for years since I am home.  Our shower soon might be even clean enough to actually not worry about getting dirtier when one takes one.  :-)

My thoughts and prayers both to those in the United States west where there are terrible fires and those in the southeast who have been going through yet another major hurricane this week.

COVID 19 #15 MORE DELIVERIES - MORE PROBLEMS, BUT NOT AS BAD

Well, Monday husband commented to me that he found a couple of things he needs, but not enough for a delivery order (US$35 minimum).  I decided to tell him that I needed some things also – most important was lint trap filters for our washing machine.  (These are the mesh bags that go over the outgoing hose of the machine and keep lint from ending in the drain.)  We went to the computer and the Walmart site and started going through our lists - $35 – easy – we went over $100.  Most of what we ordered was not food – but household stuff.    We put in the order – first items were to come today, Wednesday. 

Last time we ordered (the first time we ordered) from Walmart the first shipment came a day early and most shipments were sitting on steps when I woke up and looked out – 3 hours earlier than I normally wake up.  So despite husband insisting that nothing was coming on Tuesday – per the delivery information  - I woke up and went downstairs and looked out the front door.  Nothing there.  I decided to agree with him and not wake up hourly to check and went back to sleep. 

Tuesday is one of the days I go out and take in the mail.  When I did so in the afternoon – surprise!  A box from Walmart!  I brought it into the porch and unloaded it – wiping each item down with alcohol on a piece of paper towel and handing it to husband in the kitchen.  (Items that are packed in a package – we just toss the outer package instead of wiping it down.)  We cover the kitchen table with a towel – and we are running short on bath towels as we have the dining room table covered with same so the cans and plastic boxes living there for now do not scratch or mar the table – to hold the items he brought in.  Nice assortment, but none of the urgent items. 

Today we were to officially get a delivery.  I woke up early again – no package.  An hour later – no package.  An hour later – no package.  Finally in the late afternoon I was working at my desk in the office -with the curtain opened so I could see if a big truck parked in front of the house – I saw the truck and the package was here.  I went downstairs and brought the box into the porch and repeated the unpacking procedure.  The lint filters I needed was in the order – using one of them right now as I am doing the laundry as I write.  The filters come 2 in package and we had bought 4 packages – I opened each package and held it out to husband to pull out the contents – they did not need to be wiped down. Good thing – if I did not get them, I would have to constantly run downstairs and make sure that when water was expelled from the washer the lint screen over the drain (there in addition to the filter all the time) was not completely covered and that water could still go down the drain. 

There was also the package of bars of soap.  Husband has been constantly afraid during the pandemic that we would run of hand soap.  Mostly we use liquid hand soap for washing our hands and bars of soap for showering.  He has had trouble finding liquid soap to buy more of and when he saw the brand of bar soap – we decided to more of them for showering and “just in case”.  The soap arrived today.  As soon as I opened the shipping box I knew the soap was a problem.  The package had looked right in the photo and it did not occur to either of us to make sure it was unscented.  It is scented.  I now have the bars in double plastic bags and still smell the awful scent when going past them.   I am working on the kitchen table onto which we had unloaded the items.  The towel which covered the table is gone from here – but the odor of the soap continues in the room – ewwww!  I figure if we don't need them  during the pandemic/soap shortage – I will donate them rather them use them.

The next (I think last) delivery should be tomorrow.  Husband has been worried as there was no update of its location until after 6 pm tonight.  At least after it comes I won't have to wake up early to check for it.

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK -
Even now one should not rush and should stop and make sure items being purchased/ordered are the ones that one actually wants. 

Never trust that the delivery will be on the day one is told – always check the day before. 

DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU DO?

Do you record what you do?

A number of organizing books I have read over the years suggest that one write down everything that one does. The idea is that you will see two things – how much you are getting accomplished and also how long various tasks take you to do.

Even before I started trying to get organized I kept an annual appointment book with short notations of work items completed (and appointments of course). As a matter of fact, the appointment book would be my annual Christmas gift from my husband (bought by me, of course) and in many years it would be only gift. (Suggestion if you use a paper appointment book, which is good for many things – if you have a black covered appointment book it can easily disappear from view in a stack of something or a mess. I used to have gray appointment books – still professional and more visible (my gloves are also gray for the same reason).

Sometime in the late 1990s I got a computer appointment book – I used it to keep track of what I did for work plus more and more personal items also. Unfortunately it did not work with Windows XP and when I got a computer that worked with same, I could no longer use it. Before I stopped using the old computer I printed out as pdf files all of the entries from that program so I still have the records from it available to me. The problem I had with the computer appointment book was that I could only use it on the computer – it could not be carried with me, so while using that program I also kept a paper appointment book to carry with me.

I had to find something else to use. I got a wonderful program called Lotus Organizer it was even better than what I had before. It had an appointment book, todo list (completed tasks remain on the date they are finished – most such software moves them to a list when completed – this way I can page through the book and see what was done), address/telephone book, and also allowed me to have memos. Even better, it sync with (among other devices) Palm Pilot. Husband had a Palm Pilot and gave it to me as he did not use it. Now what was in the program on my computer was also in my hand.

I started making more and more notes in the todo section as completed todos. Short notes on conversations with clients (or others) – where we went for meals – where we went on trips – what stores we went to with reason if there was one – and so on. I worked out a sort of shorthand to use to save time and computer/Palm memory. Husband was delighted as there is rarely anything I like.

We were offered new cell phones to renew and the hottest thing out was a smart phone – the Palm Centro and it was tiny – just over 4 by 2 inches. No wifi – it did not exist (or at least did not commonly exist) then, Internet was by cell phone service only, real buttons, no guessing where the buttons were and mistyping everything (as smart phones no longer have now) This was a major wow to me.

I refuse to give up the Lotus Organizer and so husband finds ways to allow me to keep using it. He has made virtual Windows XP machines in my Windows 7 desktop and my Windows 10 desktop (this one) so I can keep the Organizer on the computers. (I told you, he loves solving my problems as there is so little I want.) When I had to switch to Blackberry, he found that old Blackberry software would work with Organizer, mostly. The biggest problem – which I to solve myself – was when the Blackberry no longer worked as a telephone or Internet. I had to get - boo hoo, I was so upset – an Android phone. I basically “keep 2 sets of books” now. Certain things are on both the Android and the Centro, others are on one or the other. I use the Centro in the house and take it on trips, and make notes in the Android when I am out and copy them to the Organizer. Not ecstatic, but it works for me.

So what do I do with what I record in the Organizer?

I have more contact info in the Organizer/Palm than I do in the Android - I won't need my Congressman's info while out, so it is not in the Android.

I have my calendar in both setups.

I have some memos in the Palm/Organizer setup only such as list of where and when we have gone through automatic payment tolls so I can check against the bill. (Which is why I bring it on trips.)

Others are in both the memos in the Palm/Organizer setup and the Android. Included here are lists of embroidery/needlework books I have so I don't buy duplicates, specifications of items we have that we might find items to go with (sewing machine feet, post size for lathe and items needed to make reenacting clothing. Since we tend to go to the same places on trips, I also started a list of fast food and casual food restaurants along the roads we commonly travel on. We know what food they have and that we can find what we can eat, as well as that we can afford them. Passwords in a code that I understand. In the Android only I have my shopping list – for groceries as well as items we are looking for from other sources.

I also keep tasks (todos) both to be done and finished. This way if I do something I have a record of having done it. (No, I don't record when I go to the toilet or when I sleep.) I do keep track of phone calls/emails/in very rare cases texts made/sent or received, letters written, where we went – including for errands, chores around the house, and so on. If I need to contact a business that has not replied to me or done what it said it would do – I have a record of when I contacted them, who I spoke to and what was discussed – also of letters written. I have a record of when items were mailed out and to who (we go the Post office to check for mail in our box there and also send out any mail we have to go out).

I use codes when I do this.

T: is a telephone call, it will have who it was made to or received from quick what was talked about, the time it was made/received, and if it was an incoming call it will say “in” if I spoke to a computer “CP”, and if it was a return call to someone who called me “RC”. Details as needed - can be long or short – just “RC “or “chat” is just conversation.

E: is email – I use “AE” instead of “RC” for this and time is not recorded.

X: is something I just added and it means text – used for those texts which are other than from husband as our texts between us are basically “dinner is ready”, “where are you in the store”, “starting home from work” and similar. Other text messages – such as from my sister about my mom I want a record of what was said.

I also use letter for what the call, email, etc. is for – personal ones have no code, “A” is something done for accounting, “C” is for crafts business related, “U” is for our reenactment unit and so on for about 6 or 7 different things.

To make sense of this - T:A:Jones: appointment >3:30pm - means that I telephoned at 3:30 my accounting client, Mrs. Jones and made an appointment to go into her business to do her books. (The appointment is separately recorded in the calendar at the day and time I need to be there.)

Now you might say what the heck is the reason for all this? I can search for when I did something to check on when it was or what was discussed. I used the Organizer for this yesterday. I was about to pay a credit card bill and I thought that I had called the company and had the “rewards amount” applied to the bill so I could pay less by that amount, but I had no notes of the call on the bill. I searched in the Organizer and was reminded that I went to make the call the phone was not working. I immediately called up and had the credit put to the payment of the account. If I had just gone by memory I would have underpaid the (full) balance due and would have been hit by finance charges.

Another use is sometimes I get a credit card statement and there is a charge on it which I have no slip for. (Yes, happens to me too.) I can go back and see if I was at that store or restaurant that day. If I was, I have to presume the amount was okay, if not then I will contact the credit card company for proof of the purchase. (If I have no slip for, say, FG Asian buffet, and we ate dinner there – well, we owe the money.

Husband and I are getting older. We can end up in a “disagreement” about what and when something was done “No, we went to your mother's house on the 4^th so we did not do X that day and still have to do so.” Look it up and we either did go there on the 4^th or we did what needed to be done.

I also put into the tasks as repeating tasks, items I need to do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. and add reminders of them. This blog is two tasks a week – one is to write it on Tuesday nights and the other is to post it on Wednesday nights. Okay, I don't think I have ever actually written it on Tuesday – like Charlie Brown, I work best under pressure. I do have reminders the same way to write the newsletter for my embroidery chapter monthly, do the laundry, take out the garbage, take out the recycling, rotating over the month – clean the house, and so on, as well having the record of having done so.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It helps to stay organized by keeping track in your cell phone of what you need to do and your appointments. You can have all the contacts you need in it also. And after you have done things you can keep a record of what you have done even if it was not listed in it to do.

EVERYONE ELSE'S DISORGANIZATION PREVENTS ME FROM BEING ORGANIZED

Wednesday already? 

I have been a whirlwind of not getting things done. Amazing - really - entire days have disappeared since last Wednesday with nothing to little accomplished.  I am starting this post about 3 hours later than normal - Once a month I have to write and send out the newsletter for my embroidery chapter - and I barely started it before dinner and had to write it after dinner - through my “reading the newspaper” time, my “doing the laundry” time and my “writing my post” time.  (The last two items are normally done at the same time.

Worst of the week was our lost Friday.  I think I have mentioned my mom has not been doing well - she is 90 and now in an assisted living facility.  Since I was not able help to much at going through the family home and husband and I do not work full time (more like hardly at all) I was asked by sister to deal with taking mom to several doctors - she gave me a list of them.  Last week mom was unwell and ended up at the hospital overnight.  She had a blood clot in her leg.  After she was back “home” (in the assisted living) my sister wrote that mom had an appointment to go to the cardiologist on (now - last) Friday at 10 am with a certain doctor - Dr B.  We had been planning - again - to take a trip to Pennsylvania, but were not sure due to weather if we would go - decided Thursday not to and I texted my sister that I could take mom.  Mom called me before I could call her to make the arrangements to pick her up.  The appointment was at 10 am - none of the three of us - mom, husband, me - are normally up and out that early.  Thursday night there was a huge storm in the general two county area.  (Mom and sister are in the next county.)  The storm was so bad that the front was blown off of a warehouse on the county line. 

Husband and I woke up at 8 am to take mom (this is about 4-5 hours earlier than usual as wake up late and go to bed late (it is 2 am as I write this and husband has not come down yet for snack before bed and we will get to bed between 3 and 4 am).  I had estimated a lot of extra time for rush hour traffic, getting mom into her wheelchair - then our car - and then dealing with her wheelchair for our first time.  As we drove to mom there were lots of slow downs as huge trees had fallen along the parkway and the crews were working on them.  We got to mom just at the time we needed to be there - so my extra time was a good thing.  I went up and got mom, we got her into the car and figured out the chair fairly quickly (I had thought to look up online the night before how to take it apart to fit in the car) and we were off.  The doctor’s office was fairly close to mom’s place. 

I expected a doctor’s office as I am used to - an outer office with staff, then several exam rooms in the back.  If it was in an multiple office building I expected to see doors along the halls with the names of doctors on them.  The place had open offices along the hall - no doctor’s names - just the specialty that was in that space.  We came to the end of the hall we had been sent down and had not seen a sign for cardiology.  I asked an employee and we walked into a nearby office area.  I asked someone about signing in (at our doctors one signs a sheet with name & time) there was acomputer tablets - oh boy!  It asked if I was the person or signing in for them - I selected the latter - it wanted me to put my hand on the screen - I did, several times.  It gave up and asked for mom’s name and date of birth - rejected that.  I went to someone at the desk and explained - I should not have been sent there - mom was not registered.  I was handed another computer tablet to fill in info on.  Mom was confused by this (although she does use a computer since she worked with one at her job).  I started trying to fill in the form - I have trouble using my Android phone as I do not always show up on touch screens (if I knew we would be using one I would have brought a toucher thingee to use).  Husband had to take over and fill in info.  I gave the woman mom’s two insurance cards while we did all this.  Mom had to sign the tablet - multiple times - she was very frustrated doing so.  Then there was a problem with one of her insurance cards - there was an extra digit in the account number (I have to wonder if it is because she has had it soooo long).  The woman called it in and found out how to enter the number.  We were told to sit down and wait.

We were called much quicker than I thought we would be.  We followed an employee into a room.  She was checking and taking information - we were there to see Dr. Z per her - I told her that we were suppose to see Dr. B (my BIL’s doctor).  No, Dr. B is at the hospital doing procedures mornings - he only has afternoon appointments.  I started texting my sister.  All three of us thought mom was there to have her pacemaker checked  - employee said mom was there to have her leg tested related to her blood clot, and they don’t do pacemaker testing - that is done at the hospital.  (Her old doctor did same in his office.)  I called my sister - yes, she was there for her leg (did not say to her - but if she was not there related to heart -why say she is going to the cardiologist?)  and yes, she was suppose to see Dr B - sister had a card from the hospital which made the appointment with the doctor’s name and time.    Our choice was to see Dr Z instead, come back another day or they had an open appointment for Dr B at 2 pm - we could come back.  We chose the last.  As we walked out it was corrected to a 2:30 appointment

We now had close over 3 hours to spend.  We got in the car and started to drive and figure out where to go - lunch would be part of it, but not long enough.  We came to a Barnes and Nobles and parked and went in - I figured we could always sit and look at magazines.  We managed to easily spend over 2 hours there.  Then we went to a Wendys we knew for lunch.  Then back to the doctor’s office.

I had asked if we had to check in again and had been told to speak to the woman who had helped us.  Again we were told to take and seat and we would be called.  At 3:30 we still had not been called and I went back to the woman - I told her that it was an hour past the appointment and mom had to be back for dinner at 4:30 or she would miss same.  She apologized and said it would be “soon”.  Mom went in just after 4 pm - us with her.  Nurse took vitals and asked for info - her assisted living should have sent info with her, including a list of her meds (next time I will check with the office which handles this, in advance) - we gave the list of meds as we could.  We then went to another room where they had the machine that doctor needed to do the test.  We waited.  The doctor came in - he was extremely nice and took time to explain everything to mom and us very simply and without large medical terms unless he explained them.  (Husband and I had already the report on the counter from mom’s hospital visit.)  He said that she did not need the test yet - she should come back in 3 weeks.  He gave us a list of things to be done in the interim for mom’s facility - I had one of the employees make a copy for us.  We left.  So basically we had spent, just since picking up mom 8 hours - and nothing had been done.  We were concerned about mom not having dinner, but she said they would bring her a tray and when we got to her room, we had to insist that she throw out the tray left for her for lunch as it had been sitting out. 

On the way home we stopped at the bank as we had planned to do in the mid afternoon on our way home and the at the post office to pick up mail at our box - ditto.  Friday gone and wasted.

Then we found out that our kitchen telephone/answering machine was dead.  It is on the wall across from the basement door.  We bought a new one - per the online info it should have fit - the door passes close to the wall across from it - but apparently they had not included the handset in the measurements.  So we have now bought and returned 4 telephones - the others were too cheaply made and at least one of them hardwired so the wire could not be removed for wall use.

In the meantime I am trying to get a copy of the changes to my reenactment unit’s insurance that we did - back in April. The woman I have worked with for years at the agency retired and I figured the new one was stupid and did not understand what I wanted.  Then another thought hit me - perhaps the changes were not properly made - seems like that it the story - and she is checking what went on.

I have a client who files his income taxes on extension as he is away when it is due.  I just picked up the info from him a week or so ago.  He sent me an email that he needed to talk to me.  There is a situation with his income for 2019 and I need to call one of his financial advisors - so that is another call I have to deal with.

We need to have a printout of what we paid for medical insurance last year for a senior tax exemption.  We have 3 medical polices between the two of us.  One company has now sent us the wrong info - not a listing of what we paid - twice now, and I have to call them AGAIN! 



So when the heck am I suppose to get anything done?!!!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes the stupidity of ours takes up more time than thinks one can deal with.  One just has to deal with it and do one’s best.  When others are not organized - they take our from our ability to be organized.

BAD WEEK - STARTED AS A SHORT POST

Okay this is one of those weeks. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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