HOW MANY THINGS CAN NEED TO BE REDONE?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does this happen to everyone - or just us?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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

UPDATE -

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

IT WOULD BE ENOUGH

I managed to get the dining room decorations finished over the weekend.  I also decluttered it a bit - and hid what has to stay a bit better.  The small Christmas tree I put up in there is up and decorated with the brass ornaments we get with our membership in Colonial Williamsburg.  A silverplated tea caddy ornament (we bought the full size caddy on sale one year and the ornament came with it) hangs at the top of the tree instead of an angel or star. 

Sounds simple right?  To get ready to set up the tree I had to store away husband’s DVDs which have accumulated since last Christmas.  The new ones sat on the chest he made to store his DVDs because - yes - it filled a few years ago.  We have a secretary (piece of furniture- drawers with fold down front for desk and shelves above it - green curtain inside hides the shelves and what is on them).  It was bought to be used as a bar and to hold table linens in the drawer.  The shelves held assorted bar and my good glasses.  I have been clearing it out as I can to make room for - yes - more DVDs.  Most of the bottom of the 3 shelves is DVD storage - I donated unneeded, unused glassware in the kitchen last year and moved most of my good glasses to where they had been to make the room for these DVDs.  I just donated a set of small wine glasses we never used earlier this month.  I want to get rid of most if not all of the bar ware as it was rarely used when we had people in and that will give him more room.  But, back to the chest now.  I ended up with DVDs that there was no room for and set them aside.  The chest when it was built by my husband was put on wheels just for this - I pushed it from the living room to the dining room.  Other than having to jump a molding between the living room and front hall, it is easy to push.  It goes against the far wall in the dining room.  The table is moved to the center of the room for this - it is normally pushed against the same far wall.  This gives room in the living room for the big tree (where the chest was) and a place to put the dining room tree.  I put the leftover, homeless DVDs behind the tree and then found a nice throw we received from CW some years ago, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped the bottom of the tree - and the DVDs behind it - it looks like a nice tree skirt and the DVDs are hidden.

Sunday I also started bringing up the parts of the big tree and stuck them together - and the small tree that goes in our studio.  The studio tree gets ornaments we have made - but some also go on the big tree and all are stored together, so they get decorated together.  I figured - okay, we are close on time, but not too bad to get done before Christmas.  I had planned on Monday night to spread out the branches and make the big tree look nice and add the lights - along with our traditional first 3 items - the angel topper and two angels all stitched by me or my husband. 

Then we got an order on our Etsy account.  We don’t get a lot of orders and they are mostly of the smallest of the items we sell.  This was for a medium priced item and I had to do the paperwork before I started working on the tree - okay, I figured, half an hour.  Yeah, right.  Paypal changed their website and we got so confused trying to buy postage and print the label that we ended up doing it twice and had to cancel one of them.  So the entire evening was gone and no work on the tree.

Tuesday we went to the eye doctor.  He is in the next county so we go to together.  We can’t come home right away as neither of can see enough to drive that much so we go to stores near him.  (Good eye report, thank goodness.)  We ended up having dinner out at Ikea on the way home.  I did get the tree arranged and the lights and first three items on it at night.
Tonight I took the exam I had to take and now the exams are done with until the middle of next year.  But by the time I was done, and taking into consideration doing the laundry and writing to all of you - no time for the tree tonight.  Oh, well, at least gift shopping is over - we are done with his nieces and I will mail checks to my niece and nephew. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One can only do what one can do.  For the Passover holiday in the spring there is a song which translates to “it would have been enough” - it talks about things that God did to help the Jews leave Egypt and after each item is mentioned the refrain is “it would have been enough”.

If the tree is finished at the last minute it will done then.  If it is not finished then however it is, it is finished (and I can always add on after the holiday).  My teddy village will be done when it is done.  It is often not worked on until Christmas Eve or Day or later (I guess that is why it stays up so long). 

My point being that whatever is done when the holiday come is enough.  If stuff is shoved into a bag and stuffed behind a bench - that is good enough if that is all there is time for.  A few years ago for two years we had one little tree with only a limited decorations - and that was enough.

I take the time now to wish all who celebrate, a Pleasant Christmas (merry sounds too demanding).