ONE NEEDS TO HAVE PLANS WHEN ONE IS STUCK HOME DUE TO AN INJURY OR ILLNESS

 My foot is much healed  - though not completely yet – since last week.  

It has been hard staying off my foot as much as possible.  This means, of course, sitting in one place or another and greatly limiting switching to other places – though we did have to go out for a bit of food shopping.  Staying off my foot seems to be working as it seems be about half better already.  

Husband has been trying to help as much as possible – he even washed the dishes for a couple of days.  He has always been upset that I did not replace our dishwasher when it died – as much as he did not want me having to wash the dishes by hand, he did not want to have to do so himself when I could not.  Even long before Covid I would put on a mask (he has them for his woodworking) or tying a towel around my face and putting on disposable plastic gloves when ill so he would not have to do the dishes.    He also cooked – but he has always been the cook of the two of us.   

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One needs to be prepared for when cannot do the normal housework – or other jobs which one normally does.  What sort of plans do YOU have for when you cannot deal with house, cooking, or work for a period of time.  

Do you have someone else to take over or help you – spouse, child, parent, housemate or really good friend?  Do you have disposable goods – paper plates, cups, napkins to use when you cannot deal with washing up after meals?  The telephone number of a place which delivers for an affordable price?

Whether an injury or an illness which keeps one home one needs to be prepared to be able to eat and deal with one's house should something happen.

LOSING TIME TO INJURY

 The past 2 days I have finally able to walk up and down the stairs without needing two hands – one on banister and one on opposite wall – to do so and not having to step on each step with both feet.  Only need the one hand on the banister.  This is making it easier on me to do things.  I could actually carry the empty laundry down the 2 flights to the basement to do this week's laundry – last week husband had to carry it down.  Leg is not perfect yet, but it is better.  

It is hard to get things down when one cannot carry things downstairs at all – I had progressed earlier in the past week to being able to hang a plastic shopping around my wrist on the hand which was holding the banister to get some things down the stairs or shove them in the pockets of my jeans – small, light things in both cases.  

Have not gotten a lot of work done due to this as I have been trying to not keep walking up and down the stairs so I tended to stay on the same floor of the house for as long as possible before moving to another floor.  Once downstairs to cook and eat dinner – stayed downstairs until for bed, for example.  Husband has been very helpful as he worries about me.  

So, I have not gotten much done the past week – mostly treading water to keep from falling further behind.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One never know when something small will make big problems for one.  I try to keep the house up to date (though rarely succeed at same) to make it easier when something throws me off schedule.  Hopefully I will be caught up soon with what has fallen behind.

CHRISTMAS ALMOST ALL STORED AWAY

 

Well my storage of our Christmas items has progressed. I have put away all 3 regular trees, the Christmas figures (Santas, elves…) that we put out in the living room (most were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with – one small plastic Santa goes back to when husband was a boy and one elf I sewed and entered in the local tri-county County Fair), and a set of bear figurines that I put out by the month – December is boxed and stored and when I finish putting away the rest of Christmas I will put out the February bears from that set – they go in the corner display unit in our living room (this is NOT part of the Teddy Village I talk about – that is upstairs). (BTW – I store the Christmas bear figurines to this set in holiday design boxes which are sold to store photographs. When the figurines are all put out the boxes are empty and put them under the big Christmas tree in the living room as set dressing of presents as we do not get many Christmas presents – husband buys himself a couple of things and gives them to me to wrap and I do not get any presents – don't need more stuff around the house. But the tree so looked so lonely without any gifts so this way it looks cheerful with (empty boxes as) gifts under it during the entire season.)

The ornaments from the trees has progressed and are boxed and waiting to go downstairs – it is a tall set of steps so as I go down on trips I take the boxes down – second box will go down when I go down to change laundry loads shortly and third will follow later when I go down to bring up the laundry – that leaves one box to go down tomorrow.

I have to pack the assorted small decorations – candles, “greens”, mugs, Lego Christmas figures, and the like in the 2 boxes they store in. These two boxes will be stored on top of the ornament boxes – all of which go in a corner of the basement which is a perfect fit for them.

I have beaded Christmas tree which I made some years ago and is in a glass dome, as well as a large light up teddy bear and the wreath for our front door which will go on top of the stack of boxes.

I have a number of soft decorations – small stuffed toys, as well as items I have embroidered – other stuffed toys, wall hangings, holiday throw pillows, and such. They will go down last to their box which is elsewhere in the basement.

I do have great incentive to get the tree and the items which go on top of it quickly – I can't do the laundry until I put away these items as assorted items which are stored in front of these items are moved to the top of the washer and dryer to get the items out for Christmas – and I had to get them put away – Wednesday night is laundry night! Second load washing first load drying – and a load of Covid masks to follow.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

While it is much more fun to take out the Christmas (or other seasonal) decorations – it is not as much fun to put them away – but it must done so go ahead and get it done – it is February after all!

A TRIP NOT TO THE PARK - SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

 Well, as of now all of the Christmas decorations are not only down- but stored away.  

We were lucky and the snow storm which was to come through on Tuesday (yesterday) was just rain which ended in the early morning – and the temperature went up into the 50Fs!  What a pleasant day!

Husband was upset, as usual, about the storm due to come in tomorrow (Thursday) – very upset.  I looked out and the saw the sun, felt the (relative) warmth and suggested to cheer him up - “Let's go walk around in the park.”  He was concerned that the snow from prior storms might not have been cleared or that the park might be soaked and did not want to go.  I suggested as an alternative we take a drive.  He thought about and agreed.  We got our “going out bag” - holds masks, bag for mask, hand sanitizer, plastic gloves, plastic sandwich bags (as alternative to gloves for me), and spray bottle of alcohol and started out.  

We drove to a different, nearer park and all looked well cleared.  BUT whenever we had to stop – at red light or otherwise – the car was surging – he would need to shift the automatic transmission into neutral to stop it.  So home we went – now very upset, so much for a nice day out.  This is apparently the sort of problem which is either a US$200 repair for a switch or thousands for a new transmission.

We have a driveway which is shaped like an “h”.  We keep the car at the foot of the long side of the “h”  (RV at top part) and our van on the grass, well really dirt, all the grass died, between the bottom legs of the “h”.  All extremely organized, this way either car or van can be driven out – if the van is being driven before we go out the car is put on the curve of the “h” so we can the van back in place.  He was concerned that if the car did not drive next time, we would be stuck and not able to get the van back in place – so we decided to switch the two on the driveway.  First he paced out that the wheels of the car would be on the bricks that the van's wheels are on – yes, they matched okay.  Then he drove the van off the driveway and parked in the street in front of a neighbor.  Then he had me get in the car to drive it so he could direct me.  I am actually the better driver – no, really, he would say so even more than I do, but I have not really driven the car since the first Wednesday of last March.  I have driven a couple/few times to or from our mechanic who is 4 blocks away, when we have needed to take one of our vehicles to him and it was too cold or wet to walk home (if going there or walk there if picking up), but that's it.  I did fairly well with the driving, but did not end up on the bricks.  We did not figure into this that the ground had melted after being frozen and wall sheer mud.  In going back and forth to get the tires on the bricks – I was getting stuck in the mud and the tires were throwing mud up.  When husband asked me to open the passenger door so he could talk to me – well, I had forgotten how to do so!!  I did open that window and by the time he asked again, I had found the button on the dashboard (I could have sworn it was the door near the armrest – that must have been our last car).  He had to shovel the mud around so that there were not deep cuts in it when it freezes back.  He then had to go and drive the van onto our driveway – which involved driving it to the next street and back.  We will take the car in for it to be looked at next week – after the ground freezes again!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Apparently we are in time where anything that can go wrong - will do so.  Try to figure out what can happen and what you can do if does.  Hopefully your problems, like ours, while perhaps terribly annoying (and possibly expensive) will not of the type which threatens health or life or financial security.  We have to learn to “roll with it” as much as we can.  

I hope all and theirs are stay well and survive this winter weather – especially those in areas such as Texas which are not used to winters like this.

COVID 19 #3 - GETTING BILLS PAID IN NEW WAYS

I have mentioned that I am in an embroidery club.  We meet the first Wednesday of the month except in summer.  I reserve for the group the room at a local park in which we meet.  This is done in November for the coming year.  When I saw that the April meeting would be today – April Fools Day – I wondered what might happen.  I never dreamed that we would not be meeting due to a pandemic – or even just an epidemic.  I hope that all of you and your families continue to stay safe and well.

We are learning bit by bit about how to deal with the threat of  COVID 19 as I am sure most to all of you are also.  Every time I touch something to use it – my husband gets upset that we will use up all of whatever it is I go to touch so I have been figuring out how to do more with less and alternatives for consumable items that I normally use without thinking about it.

Luckily we did manage to buy an extra huge package of toilet paper just as the emergency was becoming obvious – husband, as I have said panics easily – so he has not started rationing same.

We have a lot of paper towels  - but did not think to buy extra when we could.  We have started packages of both full and half sheet paper towels.  (And as I always mention to him – a started and a full roll out in our RV – we have spares of most household items there – including at least 2 started and 2 full rolls of TP.)  But he did not like that I was using a half sized sheet each meal to wash the dishes – this quickly became one half sheet for the day's dishes.  I offered to go back to using a sponge to wash the dishes (we had stopped same last summer when we had ants) but he did not like that either and told me to stay with one half sheet a day.  Then looking in the cabinet under my kitchen sink I had an idea.  I keep several old kitchen towels there to use for things like wiping up a mess, covering the front of the sink/counter when husband washes his hair in the sink, etc. I took one of them – actually a rag by now – and thought about it.  I pulled out a pair of shears and cut it in 6 pieces (smaller would be too small).  I now have a small dish rag to wash the dishes , etc – as well as wipe up spills  - I change it every day and throw the piece from the day before in the towel laundry bag in the kitchen.  They actually work pretty well – they are “bumpy” so they scrub a bit.  I cut 2 more pieces off another towel, leaving the rest of it intact – for now.

I normally do laundry on Wednesday night (while writing to you) and sometimes more than one night is needed so Thursday sometimes also.  The downstairs laundry bag almost always holds nothing but towels (sometimes a sock wet from the rain or similar might end up in there also).  My upstairs laundry bag holds clothes, bedding and towels to be washed.  I put a second bag upstairs for just towels.  I normally change all the towels on Monday, the hand towels in the 2 bathrooms again on Thursday, so each time they are used for about half a week, and the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and on Friday.  Now all towels are changed every other day – so the towel laundry is now done on a day that changes as I do so every 3 changes of towels – hence the need for a special bag for them upstairs.

Last weekend I went online and signed up to have our mail forwarded from our Post Office Box to our house.  No more late Sunday night runs there to get the mail – I forgot which hand was for touching mail items and doors and which was never suppose to do either once too often for husband and was annoyed at having to do so – and we wore plastic gloves on both hands.  Our only trips there now will be at night to mail out items that have to go out – and they will go in the mail boxes outside the Post Office.  I only take in the mail at our house 3 times a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  The mail goes into a sealable plastic bag and I spray Lysol into it – the bag then sits until the matching day of the next week – once our mail starts coming here on the forwarding, it will not sit that long as it will already be 7 -10 days additional time in the mail – and bills cannot wait that long.  These procedures are to make husband less terrified – not recommended by anyone.

Bills – I thought we would be okay.  We are both on Social Security and most of our income comes from same.  Our payments are deposited in our checking account and ready for use.  Luckily within the past year  I had changed our Social Security to go into our checking account instead of our savings account where it used to go.  Well, we ran into two problems with our bills. 

First, I realized last week that we had to pay our electric bill – and did not have the money to do so in our checking account.  In normal times we would have gone and transferred money from somewhere – perhaps some extra cash that we ended up with in the house after one of our few trips would be deposited back in the bank or we would transfer it from savings – but we are not going out and not going to the bank to do so.  I realized that we could pay the electric bill with a credit card – we never do this, but since we pay all of our credit card bills in full in monthly, there is no interest that will do on same. 

We use one credit card for rare online, mail, phone order purchases or recurring items that have to be credited to a credit card – it has only has $1000 line of credit due to what it is used for – did not want to tie up that line with an amount equal to the electric bill.  So I decided to put the electric bill on one of the cards that we do not normally use at all – I use it once a year to keep it active for, generally, an under $5 purchase.  I was concerned that using it pay of a couple of hundred dollars of electric bill all of a sudden might get rejected.  So I figured that I would call the credit company in advance and let them know. I started calling Monday early afternoon.  I would be told by their computer that they have an unusually large number of calls and to please be patient.  I understood this and was prepared to be patient.  The computer kept trying to get me to use their website instead – I don't do financial things online unless there is ABSOLUTELY no other way to do it.  I started to wait.  I was then told to call back later and the computer hung up on me.  I called again and tried to use the computer – same thing.  I tried several times during the afternoon (no where to go anyway) and again in the evening.  No luck.  I waited until 12:05 (the next day) and then called, figuring how much “later” could one call and also that it was night it in the most US and that hopefully there were different offices to handle customers in other countries – after all on the back of my credit card it said that it was “24 hour number”.  It seemed to work.  This time I was told to hold – and I did – I was prepared to hold as long as needed.  At 1:05 am a message came on telling me the office was now closed and I should call back – yes, - later.  Now how can a 24 hour office be closed?  I thought about this and applying some logic – perhaps they switched to the next office in the time line and if I called again I could be hold with that office.  So I called again.  To my shock the call was transferred almost immediately after I spoke to the computer to a LIVE PERSON!!  I managed to make the arrangements with her to have no problem with paying my electric bill with their credit card.  Now as annoyed as I was, I knew that these are rare circumstances, though I was a bit po'd at the treatment that I had received – but thought that all the credit companies might be like this.  Yesterday, I called the electric company and paid the bill with the credit card – by the time the credit card bill comes in – our Social Security will have done so also.

I keep our bills organized with Quickbooks – the repeating bills (even for credit cards that we do not normally use) come up in the QB calendar  two weeks before they are normally due – a week to remind me to pay in a week and I pay them and mail them a week before they are do.  Normally I am in our Quickbook files almost daily.  But since we don't want to go out more often than we need to, I have been paying bills in advance of when they are due if we have the money in the account, so I am not in QB that often.  Today I decided to go into the file and take a look.  GOOD THING!  Our cable/Internet bill has not come and is due next week – and suffers from the same problem as our electric bill!  I tried calling our cable company today – they are taking no calls – we are to do everything through the website as the telephone system is overrun also.  I need a week delay from them to pay the bill and knew that under the current conditions it would be given.  Husband signed into the cable company's website and tried to get to “chat” to talk to someone about this.  The chat must have been jammed – it would not even all the way!  So, again, knowing that there is someone there 24 hours a day (to help in case Internet or TV goes down – they tell one to pull the electric cord and plug it back – as if we have not that already) I waited until after dinner.  I then signed into their website again.  In the interim while I cooked dinner husband had played around and found a COVID 19 part of the site with a chat.  I had to wait about 10 minutes but a very nice fellow came on the chat – I explained that we needed an extension to pay until April 15 and he told me that there is automatic 60 day extensions on all payments – matter resolved.

In the middle of sitting and making these long extended time phone calls and website connections, yesterday was my mom's 91st birthday.  Of course we cannot visit her.  My sister who is younger than me and lives near the assisted living residence mom is in, went and left a cake and flowers for mom on a car the residence has outside for items to be left to be given to one's family in the residence.  I tried telephoning my mom – I called her 7 times,  She is barely and rarely allowed out of her room these days due to COVID 19.  I even tried yelling a message when her answering machine picked up – she does not check for messages, but I hoped she would hear me and pick up (and I had proof that I tried to call her).  How could she not be in her room?  I later contacted my sister and she told me mom had a bad stomach and did not feel well and went to bed early.

When I did not reach mom the first time I called her yesterday I called a client and friend as I had sent her email about the need to file her 2016 tax return or she would lose her refund (no one says the deadline before same goes is lost has changed) – so I also spent time on the phone with her.

So instead of getting lots things done for work and in the house  - I am spending time on the phone and online dealing with problems!  But I do get to go outside to the front of the house and take in mail tomorrow and then I get to open last week's bag of mail – yippee!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – This too shall pass as all things do.  The important thing is for all to stay well – stay home if you can and be careful if you have to go out.  I only have a few followers on this group – I can't afford to lose any you!

REORGANIZING AND CLEARING OUT THE LINEN CLOSET - PART 2

Well the new layout on the towel shelf in the linen closet seems to be working.  It lays out so evenly and well that I could even label the front of the shelf if I wanted to help husband figure out which are the towels he likes and which he hates.  (He takes towels and after he starts using them he realizes that they are not the ones he likes.)

I am not sure if I have mentioned that among the other crafts that husband and I work at, husband does weaving.  He had always wanted to do this and a few years ago we found a floor standing loom that was small enough to fit in our living room, but large enough for him to weave scarves, shawls, table runners and the like.  This past September he bought a second one that is narrower and smaller to bring to events where he is selling his weaving to demonstrate.  He also has a much smaller loom that is a reproduction of a type used in earlier centuries that makes fabric tape used in clothing in the period.  (Remember Disney's “Snow White?  The ties across the front of her clothing would have been this type of tape.)  After a piece is woven it has to be washed to “set” it.  If he uses the dryer to dry the pieces they end up with folds that we have to iron to try to get out.  He uses large white towels to roll the pieces in to take down the wetness of them (similar to wringing something out so it is not dripping wet).  He bought a towel to use for drying himself that he hates and it has been in the linen closet taking up space.  I took it out when I redid the layout and brought it to the living room (which is the “loom room” mid January to mid December) for him to have it to use when drying pieces he has woven.

With the new layout  working and the removal of the above towel  and the two large ones mentioned last week – I decided to move the shelf below the one I worked on.  The two larger towels had been on that shelf.  Currently they are rolled up in a bag and will stored on the top shelf of the closet in a spot we cannot reach without a step ladder. 

The shelf below had our bed sheets, our spare mattress pad, and the 2 large towels and was jammed.  The sheets are still in a stack (we have 3 sets – one on the bed, one being washed, and the next ones to put on the bed, so the most in the stack in 2 sets of sheets.  The pillowcases hang below the shelf in a wire hanging shelf, like those below the first shelf.  There is a second wire shelf hanging with pillowcases from old sets of sheets - the sheets wore out, but the pillowcases are still good.  In addition to still being usable for sleeping, they are also good for putting needlework or cloth dolls that we have made to protect them when going to an exhibition.  The sheets have remained where they were.  The mattress pad is folded in thirds the length of them and then rolled up - for some reason this is the best way to store it.  Instead of putting it side to side on the shelf, I put it on the end of the shelf from front to back.  Fit perfect – okay, it did take a bit of pushing to get it in place. 

I then managed to fit a couple of spare shower towels between the sheets and the pad – they are still folded in quarters and are pushed to the back of the shelf.  I put our spare bath mat on top of these spare towels.  We have 3 “bar towels” that we use in the bathroom to wipe up things when we notice they are wet. Normally two of them are in use and I will rotate the three of them to laundry one while two are in use.  I put the third one of same in front of the spare bath towels/bat mat. 

Again, a shelf that seems to work great! 

Next I have to go through things on the wire hanging shelves on the inside of the closet door to get rid of stuff.  Husband tends to buy shampoos when he is not happy with the one he is using, not like them, and stick on these shelves – and they are not sample bottles.  I will toss out about 4 or 5 bottles of shampoo.  There are a variety of other items that have accumulated on these shelves that I will also get rid of.  Anything of his, of course, I ask before I toss.  I hope to have enough room on these shelves so boxes of bandaids do not have to be stacked on each other and fall down on our heads, as well as fit washcloths and guest hand towels on the shelves – or else they will have to be fit on one of the two shelves.  I might even be able to put the box of “ear swabs” right side up on a shelf – right now it is sideways and sometimes swabs fall out. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Little by little this is being accomplished.  If I tried to do it all at once it would not get done.  Try doing small bits of organizing when you can. 

This week I hope to defrost a small spare freezer in our basement – there is years of ice in it.  We have not really used it in awhile, but the freezer in the new refrigerator seems smaller than the one in the old one – and I am not allowed to put anything against the back wall of it as, apparently, that stops the air from moving correctly.

Mom's house and doctors plus stored away Christmas

Mom is taking much of everyone's time again.  Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch once said of his mother - “One mother can take care of 6 children, but 6 children cannot take care of one mother”.  It is true.  I have 2 sisters, we each have a husband, but there is a niece and nephew – that is 8 adults to divide up taking care of mom.

The family house is cleared out – mostly due to my sisters, brother-in-laws, and niblings.  ( I had invented a genderless word for nieces and nephews combined as there should be one – niblings.  When I posted this on some group that I am on, someone replied that someone before me had come up with a word for nieces and nephews combined – guess what it was – yes, they also came up with niblings.  I am now spreading the word in hope that this long missing word becomes common. Now I need a common word for aunts and uncles – any ideas out there?)  There is a broker showing the house now.  So, new problems come up. 

The family house is in the county and township as husband and I live in. The county (and included townships and a city) has had for decades ongoing problems with the local real estate taxes and how properly the houses are assessed for the value to be taxed,  In attempting to fix one problem an entirely new one arose.  One can “grieve” their assessment (value of the house to be used for the real estate tax calculations) which means that one files with the county and says that the amount they say the house is worth is wrong and it should be less.  There is no downside to this – they cannot raise your assessment, only lower it if they agree with you.  One can do this one's self or one can use one of several companies which do the paperwork and deal with the county for you.  Husband and I have done this for a long time with a company and our house value has always been lowered.  Mom has not done in the past until last year (which is for next year's taxes) as she was afraid of losing her senior  partial exemption from part of the school tax (part of the real estate taxes), though I had assured her it would not.   

Two problems arose with the sale of the house related to the real estate taxes.  First one is that since mom has this senior exemption she amount she pays for real estate taxes is probably less than someone buying her house will pay (it based on income and being over 65 plus one cannot have children in school).  The second is that the broker told my sister that mom's taxes are terribly high – higher than the neighbor next door with the same model house, with additions that mom does not have.  So yesterday my sister emailed me for help with same – since I am in the same county/township and know the system.  First thing I did was take the copies of mom's tax bills that my sister emailed to me and add up what the tax would be without the senior exemption – took a little time as I had to add up all the lines of taxes – once I had the total percentage of the taxes that are charged all I had to do was multiply the assessed value (a small percentage of the actual value of the property/house) by this total percent of taxes and there it was.  Even with both the school and other real estate taxes added together it was much less than the broker said it was.  Also I telephoned the company which is handling the appeal and they said that due to the county revaluing all the properties in an attempt to even off the assessments mom's assessment will go down as she had not appealed her taxes while other had.  I emailed all this to my sister and mentioned that the broker should be able to figure out what the full real estate taxes on a property is. 

Well, a thought occurred to me today  - there is another house in the county, in a different township, which has the same address.  We found this out one year a couple of decades ago when mom's check to pay her real estate taxes was returned to her marked that the taxes had already been paid by someone else.  I was going to check on same, but found an email from my sister that she had already thought of this and the huge high taxes (the taxes on this house are so high compared to other houses on the street that it does not make sense at all and there will be problems selling the house) and checked – the taxes the broker has is about $6,000 a year more than per mom's bill or on line and is actually the real estate taxes for the other house with the same address.  My sister will tell this to the broker, as well as pointing out that the value of the house for the next year's taxes (starts in September) will be lower as value of the house is lower and I will get a letter from a the company handling the grieving of the assessment saying that same is being done.  (Based on mail I receive from them for our house this should not be hard and mom should actually have had this paperwork at home – but her records were lacking as well as the letters might be in the stacks of papers I still have here to go through.)

At the same time I was relaxing from taking mom to the various doctors and thinking “Good, we have time now and can get her to a plastic surgeon for the possible cancer growths on her face and get to Costco for hearing aids .  Oh, well,  It is about 3 months since we last took her to the oncologist, the surgeon for her cancer and the cardiologist who put in her replacement pacemaker.  Guess what – they all either wanted her back in 3 months or wanted blood work done.  So I have an appointment set up with her surgeon.  I asked doctor's staff if mom needed blood work and they had to check with the doctor and get back to me – did so today and I have to call back and give them the info for the “wellness” office at her residence as they will do the blood work there.  I already gave that info to her oncologist – I had given the wellness office two sets of paperwork for blood work in November, they did the first one and apparently lost the second one to be done now.  Hopefully the two sets of tests will be done together so poor mom does not have to be stuck twice for blood.  We have an appointment for to have her pacemaker battery tested at the doctor's office, but they were suppose to set up for when one of their staff goes to mom's residence (lots of heart patients there – not surprising) to do test the pacemaker there.  Have not heard back so I have to make sure they are set up to do that and then cancel the appointment.  So, we are back on the doctors-go-round, luckily the doctor from heck does not need to be seen for a couple of months.

And it is about to be my work busy season – income tax season!

I did manage to take down and store away our small Christmas tree and Christmas stuffed dolls, pillows, and stockings – a small assortment of what I normally put out.  I switched out a set of bear figurines that I keep in the living room and change by month to keep it seasonal and went from Christmas – the bears for same were only half put out on display – to February (Valentine's Day and bear “dressed” as cherry pie for Geo Washington's birthday).  The Christmas ones are all stored away in their boxes.  My Teddy Bear Christmas village never actually was finished and will be partially taken down soon, with some bears added and others rearranged for Valentine's Day.  One can only do what one can do – and this Christmas season was not one that had time to get everything done. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Mom's doctors, blood work and related comes first – health over all other things.  

MY COLD CONTINUES AND HUSBAND KEEPS COOKING DINNER, CLEARING OUT STUFF FROM MOM'S HOUSE

Been a busy week between doing nothing.  I still have the tail end of the cold I had last week – mostly coughing fits, which upset my husband.  He still does not want me touching things – like food and dishes as he is afraid of catching the cold. 

Eating dinner has continued to be an adventure. He used to be a such a good cook and enjoy it so much – no longer.  We ate out our usual 3 nights for the weekend, which helped a bit, but then we were back to cooking at home.  While out on Monday we stopped in at the Walmart Neighborhood Market (supermarket only) to buy stuff for dinner.  We came up with the idea of making a soup we like, for dinner.  It was too late to make it so we were going to buy what we needed and make it yesterday (Tues), but unlike Walmarts normally this one has a terrible produce deprtment and we could not find good potatoes or onions.  

So today we bought same and are making the soup for tomorrow.  Husband made it so I would not touch it. Now remember, he was always the better cook.  First thing to do is cut up the onions.  I would use a paring knife; he takes out the largest knife we own.  I didn't want to criticize, so I said nothing and hoped he would not hurt himself.  He did not.  Then onto the potatoes – he had major trouble as  he could not cut through them – they were not our usual red potatoes as same looked terrible, but similar edible skin potatoes.  As he finally started swearing I simply said “I usually use a small knife for that.”  He then went and took the smallest knife we have – the one I only use to open sealed food packages as it is too small to cut with – and proceed to cut the potatoes with it.  Then the meat had to be cut up.  The rest of the vegetables added were frozen ones – including some I had split into bags in the freezer when I made normal amount of soup in December at the holidays.  We have added more meat to make it a dinner entree this time.  I watched it as it cooked – stirring it now and then.  I just shut it off and took the pot off the stove to cool off.  It should cook 2 hours, I let it cook an hour and a half as it will cook again tomorrow before we eat it.  This also allows about 2 hours before we go to bed so we can put in the fridge without needing to put the pot in ice water to cool it off.

At the same time I have our clothes in the washing machine – deal with my cold is I put in washer, I move to dryer, he takes the clothes out of the dryer (because the heat of same will kill all the “germs”) and then he will hang up his shirts, but I can fold the rest.  I did not do other than clothes last week and probably won't this week either – what fun next week – plus our reenacting clothing still needs to washed and stored until the next event, probably in the spring.

Monday I had telephone call from my sister.  She had someone who could come and would take stuff from our family home for his non-profit thrift shop and we would get a receipt for the donation.  She also had someone coming today to take furniture, so could husband and I go on Tuesday so she did not have take off 2 days from work?  So we went.  While we waited for the fellow to come we walked around the house looking for certain items.  I should mention that there have already been 2 tag sales – one by a professional and one by my sister.  The fellow was amazing – he packed the stuff so quickly – and I was surprised that breakables were not wrapped – most of what was around the in the house in smaller things are now gone including several closets of clothing (including the gown I wore to his sister's wedding as a bridesmaid), all the bed linens & towels, drinking glasses (at least 2 sets of same), candle holders (lots of same), toys and anything else you can imagine – plus other stuff.  In our walk around the house before and while I wandered around while they were there (husband went out to the car as he was tired – we had to get there earlier than we normally wake up) some items were found that, yes, we took.  My mom had embroidered a lovely (large) wreath of flowers on blue velvet back in the 1970s/80s and my sister had asked if I wanted it and I had said no.  In the interim I thought about it and decided I wanted it, but when we were there just before the first tag sale, I did not see it and presumed that it had been taken by one of my sisters or mom had asked for it.  But it was in the dining room.  I looked at it and the frame was damaged and huge.  I told husband that I wanted it, but if we could get it out of the frame – that was great.  A quick trip to the car – we have all sorts of useful things in the car – and a large Swiss army knife was found (no staple removers in dad's office) and he pulled the staples out so I could keep the needlework. I plan to refinish it in the same manner I finish embroidery pieces that I make, but don't plan to hang up – as an unquilted small quilt piece. 

Our first stop was my dad's office.  We are still hoping to find the book about our family and husband wanted to see what show business books were there.  My sister had mentioned in the list of things that the fellow could take and what he could not take that there were office supplies in the office closet – so I had to look.  I am about to run out of what is called columnar paper – that is the accounting paper with number columns on it – and have not really wanted to spend the money to buy a new book of it – husband tried downloading from online, but it was not that usable – and I found a number of books of it in the closet – now here.  Husband found a book he wanted – we took that too.  Just before the fellow the arrived husband found 2 ceramic mugs from the Williamsburg Pottery – perfect to use for reenacting and not cheap – so we were putting them in the car when the fellow arrived.  He was very nice and I said, very efficient.

At first husband stayed with me in the house as we did not know the fellow and we followed him as he looked at what was in the house – as we walked around in my parents' bedroom I noticed a stack of tablecloths – there the long missing and looked for, tablecloth that I had embroidered in high school was there!  So now the only thing I have not found that I was looking for is that book! 

As I waited in the house as they went through everything my eye fell on 2 pewter, 18th century looking candle holders.  (Not antiques, just looking like.).  I picked them up and walked out to husband in the car and showed them to him – he agreed we needed to take them for reenacting – perfect for extra candle holders at the candlelight nights event. 

As the fellow was finishing he asked about several large black garbage bags in the kitchen.  I texted my sister – yes, they were garbage not stuff she was keeping.  He went through the bags and most of what was in them – kitchen items not actual food or paper garbage – he took also – another 2 cartons worth!

I have not yet spoken to my sister about the furniture man today and how much he took. 

It is amazing how much stuff a family of 5 accumulates over 60 years – and I know that mom was always donating stuff to different organizations.  One thing I can say – We do have less stuff than my family did – well, there are the teddy bears - larger and smaller - and their friends…

So think about it – when one day your house has to be cleared out – how much will there be?  Enough for children to take what they want, plus 2 tag sales, plus a thrift shop truck load, plus…? 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Try looking through one room – perhaps your kitchen or your living room – anything there you no longer like?  Did you buy new set of dishes and still have the old set?  Every one item that you get rid of is one less for the thrift shop man to come and take later.

REAL ESTATE TAX EXEMPTION PAPERWORK AND TEETH FOR HUSBAND

In our state, which has high taxes, being over 65, we are entitled to a senior exemption from part of our real estate taxes (which is a BIG amount) and since our school taxes are a separate real estate tax, we are also entitled to a partial exemption from same from our state.  In speaking with friends in other counties this is handled by the local township, village, or city and is a simple process.  In our county it is handled by the county and they seem to make it hard in an attempt to make it harder to obtain the exemption.

I understand that they have to make sure that those obtaining these credits are entitled to them but if I was not an accountant I would have a problem with the paperwork in past years and even more so this year. 

First year we were entitled to the exemption I put together the info we seemed to need and we went to one of the meetings that the county holds in libraries around the county about the exemption.  We need to fill in a form that is actually pretty straight forward.  We also need to supply copies of W2s, 1099s etc. to prove our income – okay not too bad from the prior year .  If our income was under the maximum amount allowed that would be all we need to do.  My mom cannot understand why I scream about this process as she has a 1099 for interest, one for some small dividends and one from Social Security and that is all she needs to make copies of and send with her application form.  Have I mentioned that the paperwork needs to be filed annually?

Since our income is higher than the maximum amount allowed, we need to provide our medical costs paid by us to bring our income under the maximum.  Sounds easy, right, make copies of the checks or charge slips that paid our medical insurance, doctors, pharmacies, eyeglasses, etc.?  No, they will not accept canceled checks or credit card slips as proof.  We have to get a printout for the year from each of the medical insurance companies, doctors, etc. that we paid money to during the year.  Pharmacy – no problem, the understood what we needed.  (Maybe because they are in our state?)  Dentist – no problem, he printed our our payments file.  Medical Insurance companies – ha, ha, ha.  I have now dealt with 3 of them trying to get printouts – and now have done so over multiple years.  The first year I only had to get same from the one (ACA) insurance company we had both shared the year before.  After several calls I finally had what I needed and I made a note of what they called it to help the following year.  Second year I had to get same for us, and husband had switched to Medicare during the prior year – so I had to get printouts from his supplemental policy and his medications (Part D) policy as well.  (Actual Medicare paid is shown on the Social Security form and they accept that.)  Since this is all done towards the end of the year using information from a year before, when I got the info last year my Medical insurance co had also sent the payments for last year as I had already switched to Medicare and I held onto same for the filing this year.  This year I managed to get the printout for our two medication policies on the first try.  It took 4 tries – the last by mail with a copy of the printout that they sent last year  - to get a copy of same from our supplemental policy company.

As, I mentioned the first year we were applying we went in and met with a person from the assessor''s office about this.  https://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/10/dealing-with-county-bureaucracy.html  In addition to all the paperwork that was listed and we had with us, they wanted other paperwork.  The employee said that our income was too high.  I pointed out that we have medical expenses that bring the income down and well into range.  “But these have to be medical expenses that YOU pay, not someone else!”  Who the heck else is paying our medical costs but us?   She took the info we had and I get to get a form from IRS showing the W2s etc that they had on record for us also.  (This is a very valuable form that I did not know about before this.  A client of mine between moving and losing her husband had not filed her /their income taxes.  She filed later ones, but not that one.  I pushed her to her file it as she normally has a sizable refund due, but then she could not find the information forms she had been mailed – this form allowed us to get copies of them so her return could be prepared.  In addition husband is having a fight with an online payment processor which wants proof of his corporation's “Social Security number” - it does not have one.  They need a notice or bill sent within the past 6 months (umm, we pay on time, only if one has not paid would one get either – do they really want to do business with people who don't pay their bills?) showing the Social Security number.  I sent away for this form as it shows the Business ID number of the business and will dated within 6 months – I hope that will resolve the matter.)

Last year since I knew what had to be done I collected the papers, made copies and we mailed them – certified mail – to the county over a month and a half in advance of the due date and relaxed waiting for the notice to be sent of the exemption we were entitled to.  We received a robocall from the County Executive that we had filed for the program before, but had not filed for “this” (last) year yet.  I had to take mom to the doctor and this office cannot be reached by telephone.  I tried calling anyway, but got the usual - “We do not have time to speak to anyone.  There is extremely limited parking here, so don't bother to come here.” message. (I am not exaggerating – that is how their phone is answered and there is a currently a movement by higher county officials to make them take calls.- the parking part is correct, it is almost impossible to park to go to them.)  I tried again later in the day while mom was in with her doctor and there was a message that the call had been in error.  Turns out that instead of calling 3000 something seniors, every one of 400,000 plus land owners had been called.  Per the information on TV that night if one had a receipt from the assessor's office one was okay.  There had been a line 2 hours plus long of people running in with the problem.  The next day we made an additional copy of the application and all the attachments and drove there – husband dropped me off and drove about 5 blocks away to a store's parking lot to wait for me.  They did have our application.  They could not give me a receipt as it had been received by mail, but they did have it.  And we did get our partial exemption.  We decided that in the future I would walk the application in to them, while husband waited in car. 

Knowing I would need all of this I started collecting and requesting the information earlier in the year this time and had it all ready for when we received the application in August.  After we did all the rest of the problems that I have posted about with mom happened.  I worked a bit on the exemption when I could.  I thought that it would easy this third time, but they added to what they need.  If one has business income (and we each have a very small professional business – both with losses in 2018 the year we are giving them for the 2020-2021 real estate tax year) one has to provide proof of all income and expenses.  This actually turned out to be harder and more time consuming than any IRS or state (of 5 states I have done income taxes for) audit!!

Husband's was fairly straight forward – he gets paid through an online company and the printouts from same show the income and the fee taken from same.  (His income was not high enough for a 1099 form last year.)  8 photocopies (he did not get paid every month) took care of the proof of income and of the fees paid to get paid.  He had maybe 3 other expenses plus car expense and Internet expenses.  I had a 1099 from one client and deposit slips plus copies of checks received from my other clients.  I cannot reveal names of same so I blacked out all identifying income of clients.  I have a variety of expenses – office supplies, exams I have to take, computer, subway etc plus my share of car expenses and Internet expenses.  I had to copy every gas receipt, every repair receipt, car insurance, etc. for the car and also all of our Internet service bills.  I then used the copy of the breakdown of the car expenses that I used for our tax return to show same and had to do a breakdown of our Internet service expenses for them.  I scanned each page of the entire form and attachments into the computer as I added them to the stack of papers.  I also wrote a summary of what was enclosed – that was 6 pages long – and put a title page on each of the sections of  papers, plus a cover letter.  I know I passed 180 pages! 

Then I went to attach the papers to each other – I did not own a clip large enough and even my  special “large stack of papers” stapler would not work.  I ended up putting the application and main papers in one clipped package and the business income and expense proof in a second one. 

I finished this over last weekend and we planned to take it this past Monday to the assessor's office as we wanted their receipt for it (plus it would cost a fortune to mail).  So, last Friday husband's front tooth fell out.  Our dentist retired and while we had 4 possibilities, we did not know who to go to.  We are doing a colonial craft show this coming Saturday and he really needed this tooth replaced.  We decided to go with a local office that we pass which has good reviews which has a lab in it and takes walkins.  Husband had me call on Friday and the phone kept ringing.  I finally called their office in the county west of us and was told that the office near us was closed until Monday.  My already panicked husband was in that state all weekend.  Remember – we planned to bring the application for the exemption to the county on Monday.  Monday morning I started calling the dentist's office at 9:40 and it just rang.  I called the other office again and was told that someone would be there by 10 am.  I started calling at 10:10 and either the line was busy or it did not connect.  I should mention that it was heavily raining.  At 10:30 I called the other office again, apologized and explained.  She said that she would have them call us.  They did – they were having troubles with their lines. Big problem – dentist was away until the following Saturday (still 3 days away as I write this).  I explained why we needed to come in.  At last a break!!!  The technician was in – Monday his only day – and he might be able to add the teeth (there was another one out and ignored while waiting for this front tooth to go) for us – but we would have to come right away.  We did.  Very nice receptionist and technician.  After the inevitable paperwork the tech took a mold and we were told it would be ready by 2 pm – same day!!  I went to the desk to pay for the work (much less than we thought it would cost), but due to the telephone lines problem, the credit card would not process.  I was trying to figure out if we had enough in checking to cover the cost, when she decided to call the other office – she read the info to the lady there who had been of so much help and the receipt would be waiting for us to sign when returned. 

It was just around noon.  Husband decided that we should go to the assessors' office and deliver the paperwork.  Of course when I was taking same with us as we left for the dentist, he told me to leave it home and we had to go home and get it.  I had figured that the assessor's office would be jammed and we decided if I was not done by 1:30 I would leave so we get his teeth.  (He has an older set that he was wearing.)  I also figured that since it was lunch time it would be even worse as people would come during same and less employees would be working.  I went in and there were less than 20 people ahead of me.  (Texted husband same.) 

At first I was amazed how fast it was going.  One of the 3 employees working at this spent the entire time I was there with one woman who apparently had a real mess.  One of them was seeing people, collecting paperwork that was right and seeing person after person.  The third seemed to be a supervisor.  I happened to be seated near him and could hear what was going on.  There was a man there delivering papers for some other matter of the assessor's office and he was wasting time – he could not understand to give the employee the needed papers and had to go and make photocopies (they had a free machine in the room) – the employee then took a couple of people dropping off their exemption papers.  Then the fellow came back – he kept asking if all the papers were right and the employee kept telling him that it was not his decision.  The fellow went to make more copies.  I turned to the employee and said “You have great patience.”  He smiled back at and nodded.  He then took someone again.  He was about to take someone else, when the fellow came back.  This threw the numbers off.  He had been about to see #79 and it had disappeared off the list of numbers to call.  He told the other employees to call that number, but they forgot and called #80 – who nicely let 79 go ahead of her.  Then when they called 81- 80 went.  There was then a discussion between the two regular employees – you take 81, I'll take 82 – me.  But someone with something from before came back.  I stayed near where they working to make sure that I was next. 

The employee asked for the papers and I handed them to her and explained it was too large to put together  - not for her – a rubber band around the two and a huge clip on top and it was done.  She handed me a computer issued receipt and it was done! 

As I was about to text to husband to come back to the building and pick me up – he texted asking if I was going to see someone soon.  I texted back.  He picked me up and we went back to the dentist.

The teeth were perfect!  I signed the copy of the credit card slip, took our copy and we left.  Two major problems resolved at the same time!  And we now know of a dentist to go to.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When there is a huge problem – do it step by step.  Expect that things will go wrong or be different than last you time you did the same thing.  Take advantage of down time (in this case I had worked on finishing the exemption form in short bursts over the weekend between shopping for his younger niece's gift, meals out and movie night -plus the run to the assessor's office while waiting for his teeth).  Somehow the work always seems to get done.  The paperwork was due by January 2, but we wanted it in before the holidays. 

WHY MY POST WAS SO SHORT LAST WEEK - MOM AND ANOTHER DOCTOR

Sorry for last week. We ended up having to take mom to an oncologist on Wednesday – the day before Thanksgiving and the day that I normally would write my post and post it – and I had to cook for Thanksgiving that night.

I realize that taking mom to a doctor is more time consuming than you might think. Remember – mom is 90. We have to allow an hour and a half to get her out to the car, up, drive her to whichever doctor we are going to (all with 30 minutes of her assisted living residence, most within 20 minutes), and get her into the doctor's office.

Why does it take this long? Well, when we get to her residence we park in the lot. We walk to the building and walk in – have to stop and sign in. Mom's apartment is – literally – the furthest one in the place. She is on the top (third) floor and is in the last room on the furthest hall – if we are running late picking her up and have to run - getting to her apartment is a good cardio workout. We go the elevator, go to the third floor and start walking (unless as mentioned we have to run).

Mom will be sitting in her wheelchair waiting for us. She uses a walker around the building, but when go out it is quicker and easier to take her in wheelchair. But – first she has to stand up with the walker so that we can take the two large wheels off the chair. In case you did not know this – the large wheels on the sides of wheelchairs can be removed (on hers we push in the axle and then pull the wheel off) and there are 4 smaller wheels. The big wheels are there so the person in the wheelchair can reach the wheels and push them to get around. (Mom will “walk” the wheelchair – sitting, but walking her feet to make it go when she uses it alone.) If we leave the big wheels on it is too heavy for us to lift into the back of our car and does not fold as flat. Big wheels off the chair she sits down in it again – we check that she has her room key, her medical insurance card and her driver's license (to be changed this coming year to a non-driver's ID). Even when one has been to a doctor before they need the insurance cards and her ID again. (One doctor is in the local hospital and we all need to show ID to enter and have to allow time for same as there might be a line – we each get an ID tag good for a day with the photo and info from our licenses on them.). When she is back in her wheelchair we head out her door to the hall.

There is what is called a wellness office in the building which, luckily for us, is on the same floor as mom. It is set up like a small clinic – receptionist, nurse's office, 2 examining rooms, and a medication room. In this last there are file cabinets with loose leaf books with pages with plastic bubbles on them with the medications for a month for each resident – each time during the day that the resident needs to take a medication there is a separate page. One thing that impressed me is that there is a photo of the resident in front of her/his pill pages so they can be sure that the correct person gets the correct medications. If mom has not been at a doctor that month I call ahead and ask for them to give me a copy of her medications – easiest way to given them to the doctor. The first time the nurse added mom's height and weight and since she cannot stand without holding on to someone or something and one doctor's office insisted that they had to take her weight, I now ask for her height and weight to be listed. Sometimes it is waiting for us when I call ahead, often it is not – so we often need time to pickup the info pages or wait for it to be done. If mom will be away from the residence when she is to take a pill, they will give ME the pills (they cannot give them to her per them as the resident might forget them or take them at the wrong time). Lately I already have the meds from last time and she will not miss medications so we can avoid this stop.

We then go back downstairs in the elevator and head back to the front desk. If mom will miss a meal we have to stop and we are not able to take her out to eat that meal, when we stop at the front desk to sign her out – and sign that we are leaving - we order a tray for her to be delivered to her room – this can take awhile for her to decide. We go out to the car and help her get in the front passenger seat. Ahead of time we clear out the hatch area at the back of the car for her wheelchair – it takes both of us to load and unload it. I ride in the back seat. That is at least a half an hour gone.

We then start driving to whichever doctor we are going to. At this point we are taking her to 4 different doctors – on different days - and still need to set up appointments for her for hearing aids (so we don't have repeat everything the doctor says by yelling it to her) and for spot on her face that has to be removed. She also wants to go and “get the shots” in her knees so that they don't hurt or least not as much.

Depending on the doctor (well his/her location) parking may be easy or hard. Generally it is not too bad – except there is one doctor whose office is “heck” and seems to be the worst organized place we have ever been and sometimes husband has to drop us off and then go look for a parking space.

The doctor we went to last Wednesday is in a temporary office and the building is on a hill – with most of the parking in the rear – uphill. Husband dropped us off at the back (main) door and went to park so we would not have to deal with the hill. We went in on the second floor as a result. There was a very small hallway area – basically a large room and we went through all of it and could not find an elevator. Husband said to me “I told you always check that the office is wheelchair accessible. “ we decided that since the front of the building on the right side had a big sign for the group that the doctor is part of, maybe we had to go there. So we went back out and around the building – downhill trying not to let the wheelchair and mom get away from us. The front of the building had stairs! Husband went in and asked and they told him to use the rear door – where we had been = there was an elevator and they could not understand how we could have missed it (none of us saw it). We each took a handle to wheelchair and huffed and puffed our way back up the hill. We went in the building second door on the left was the elevator! (I would swear it was not there before). You know the expression - “if it was a snake it would have bitten us?”). Rest of the visit went well and we took mom out to lunch at Wendys – she insists on paying for us.

We allow the extra half hour for things like this – not being able to find the elevator or problems parking or whatever. Some doctors say that if one is there 15 minutes or in one case, half an hour, before your appointment it will be canceled – why the heck don't they just make your appointment for the earlier time, especially as they don't tell you this until you are at the office.

We also have to allow time to get to mom. It is a half an hour minimum to drive out there – if there is traffic, especially rush hour – morning or afternoon, or an accident we need to allow extra time. The time we were going to the doctor who is half hour from her, there was an accident on the road after we picked her up and were on our way – the extra half hour saved us from being late. Of course if it is early (for us) we have to get up and get dressed and sometimes eat lunch before we go.

After the appointment the entire process is done in reverse - including signing mom back into her residence – sometimes ordering a tray for her then, taking her back to her room and putting the wheels back on her wheelchair. We may also have stop in the Wellness office with instructions from the doctor or to let the nurse know to expect same to come. Sometimes we will walk around a bit if we have time before her dinner.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When you do something over and over – even with slight variations – take note of how long each part takes and use that information for doing whatever it is again in the future. But – always allow a bit of wiggle room as one never knows when there will be a accident on the road to the doctor or they actually want you there earlier than you are suppose to be there.

STILL TOO MUCH NEEDING TO BE DONE

That was a short week!  We have taken mom to two doctors in the past week.  One was a happy checkup with the doctor who replaced her pacemaker.  The other was a not as happy appointment with the doctor who did cancer surgery on her.  There is still some cancer and we have to take her to an oncologist.  Treatment recommendation by this doctor was based on mom's age – 90 – and the fact that it is a slow growing cancer.  I should mention after complaining about another doctor's office, both of these were great with helpful staff and no hours of waiting.  We still have to take her back to the doctor about her leg scan (the one with the awful office/staff setup) and then there are about another 4 doctors she needs to go to.

In between these appointments I have been trying to get our senior real estate tax exemption worked on and I should have all or almost all of the paperwork I need.  I will have to check each section's numbers against the paperwork for it and we have to copy all of it and I do so with a page that has our names, the section, block, and lot number of the property and the year the papers apply to written at the top (with the computer).  This page is put behind the items I copy as I do so that so that the finished copy will have this info at the top in case any pages get separate from the others – I am glad I have a heavy duty stapler that staples thick stacks of papers as there will a lot of papers.  I have already done our 1099s & similar and our medical expenses.  I have to mostly deal with our businesses expenses – I will do the joint expenses first (car expenses and some other ones have to be split between our two businesses and also from personal use), then husband's business as it is easier and finally my business. This has to be there before the end of December and I figure the earlier the better.  I was getting all this done quickly and early when I found out that they had added need for proof of business income and expenses. 

I also have to renew my permissions to prepare tax returns from Federal and state governments.  Federal mailed in already and I did the state application online – the only way it can be done.  I still need to finish the required tests for the Federal paperwork.  One test for 1 credit done, 19 more credits to go.  It will be done – it only one test for 6 credits that always concerns me as it has a time limit. 

I have still been heating the paperwork from my family home in small groupings in our PackTite heater (for bedbugs).  I found out that among the papers my sister gave me is my parents income taxes – back to the 1950s as well as the papers related to the purchase of the house back in 1958-9 and my dad's release from the military paperwork.  I commented to husband that I know their old taxes are no longer needed and I should just check through them and shred them – but – dad always told me that one keeps copies of client's taxes as long as they are clients and then at least another 3 years, so by that logic I should keep them.  I have discussed it with husband and will scan them into the computer and shred the originals. 

I got behind with the laundry last week – it was done, but not all was folded or put away, so I had to do same tonight before I started this week's laundry – first load is in washing now, when the ringer in cell phone goes off, I will go down and switch to dryer and put in another load to wash.  Just happened – will be right back – feel free to talk among yourselves until I do.

Back again. 

As I have mentioned in the past year, I have been having a problem keeping track of papers – something I have never had before.  In October our reenactment unit had an event.  I know and remember that the unit commander (club president) had asked me if I had brought the checkbook – which I didn't as it is safer to keep it home. Since he did, I assumed that he had given me a bill for something for the unit to reimburse him for.  ¾ of the way through the day it had started raining and we along with most members had brought their stuff inside our headquarters building and then at the end of the day I had brought our van back to the area where we had been setup and we packed it quickly to avoid getting things wet.  Two days later I started looking for the bill that I had to reimburse the commander for.  I could not find them.  We did not actually bring the stuff in from the van until the end of that week.  I went through everything again and climbed under the seats in the van looking for the bill.  Husband than threw another thought at me – at an event the unit did in September the place wrote the check payable to the commander personally instead of to the unit – and husband said that what I was remembering was probably the commander giving me his check as we had told him to deposit the check and then write the unit a check.  So was I missing the bill to pay him for?  The check he gave me for the that event?  Both?  A week in I had written him an email explaining and apologizing and asking him to let me know how much the unit owed him.  (I did not mention the check he owed the unit.)  He did not get back to me.  I have been “sick” with the idea that I lost a bill to pay, as well as maybe the check he wrote to the unit.  I brought the checkbook to the meeting this past Monday to settle up.  Whew! Nothing was lost.  He had asked me about the checkbook in reference to another matter that did not materialize and he told me that not only does the unit not owe him money, but he owes us the money from the check that he deposited.  It was a wonderful relief to know that I had not been careless and lost neither bill nor check. 

I have to complement and thank my husband.  He has been insisting on helping me with my mom and the doctors.  My mom is well, a 90 year old opinionated woman who does not hear well.  (One of the doctors we still have to go to is for hearing aids – but the other doctors are more urgent).  He has been wonderful with her.  One advantage to having him along is that he speaks “medical” and can talk to the doctors on a different level than mom or I can.  (He was the head of a mental health agency and had doctors working under him.)  He understands what the doctors are saying better than either of us and knows when and how to ask questions.  Part of why he comes is I helped with his mother when she needed same (although his sister handled the medical and I handled the financial), especially since he butted heads a lot with his sister and mother over how things should be handled, so I sort of ran interference by going while he was at work to help her.  Part of it is he does not like being home alone.  Part of it is that he know he can help a lot. 

We still have not really done any planning for (American) Thanksgiving.  Since he has become lactose intolerant (or so it seems) since last year, two of his favorite dishes may not be made for him, especially since I like neither – pumpkin pie and Colonial Williamsburg Sweet Potatoes (no marshmallows, of course).  The former uses evaporated milk and the later uses regular milk –  1/3 of ¼ cup of same (original recipe for 3 lbs sweet potatoes, I make him 1 pound).  We will see.  We are debating if I should make the vegetable soup that I used to make for the family for Thanksgiving dinner – I figured out how to cut it down and make ¼ of the amount of soup I used to make or even 1/8 of same, but it is one that we like and gets better reheated.  (I would make the entire recipe and reheat over the winter, but it has potatoes in it and they do not do well with being frozen, so I need to cut it down to what we can manage to eat without needing to being frozen to keep long enough.)  The alternative is to make a different Pennsylvania Dutch soup called Chicken corn soup.  We will see which he prefers.  Our normal menu was the Vegetable soup (cooked on the day before Thanksgiving as it takes a while to cook), turkey of course, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, the sweet potatoes, and gravy.  I did not cook the turkey as husband liked it better from a commercial oven – he says it is crisper.  When we started (I had never cooked a turkey) we found a local place that cooked turkeys with a hot pick up just about when we needed it – my sister and her family would stop and pick it up on the way here for us.  Three years ago we had run places to go to for Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of as we were no longer having family in for same, and I had to cook the turkey.  I did so and it was fine.  The following year I cooked it from the same place following their directions and it did not cook through, we ended up cutting off pieces and cooking them separately.  I figured out that the packaging had 2 different temperatures and I must have used the higher one first year and the lower one second year.  Last year I used the higher temperature and put the turkey in upside down and turned it over part way through and it was cooked through and I will remember to do so this year again.  In the old days there would have been the pumpkin pie and I would bake an apple pie and Venetians (rainbow cookies).  No need for so much dessert for the two of us, especially since neither of us should be having same at all.  

(And I will have to find time to post the night before while I am generally cooking.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

As it says in the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe” - DON'T PANIC!  Things seem to work out in the end.  We managed to get the appointments we needed to get right away for mom.  The real estate tax exemption will get done and in on time.  The exams will be taken on time.  Laundry will be caught up tonight.  The missing papers were not missing.  Thanksgiving dinner will get a menu and will be cooked. 

RV, VAN AND OLD PAPERS

Another week, another post.  Mom had 2 surgeries within a week and is now back in her apartment at the assisted living facility.  We will taking her Friday back to the doctor who changed her pacemaker for a checkup and I have to make an appointment for same with the doctor who did her cancer surgery as well as with the one involved with her leg scan as it still has not has been discussed with her.  We did squeeze in appointments with our doctor for us last week – dealing with mom, we had forgotten to make same until the doctor refused to renew our prescriptions because we were so late in doing so. 

Friday we drove to Pennsylvania and picked up our RV – the batteries are working and the entire electrical system was checked and was fine.  Husband is concerned about driving such a distance alone (as I probably mentioned when we had to drive it there) and also concerned about driving alone in the dark – the combination of the two, even more so.  We kept calculating when to go and what to do coming home.  We figured out that we had two choices – both involved trying to get the dealer as early as possible, having lunch at Wendys very quickly and starting home.  In one version we would immediately drive home, this way we would miss Philadelphia rush hour and hoping to avoid rush hour from NYC headed towards our home. The other version involved again leaving immediately after lunch to avoid the Philadelphia rush hour and driving to near the Golden Corral in New Jersey that I am sure I have mentioned before.  We would then go to some stores in that area to spend some time, then have dinner at the Golden Corral and then head home. With this version we should avoid the rush hour from NYC to home, but would be driving in the dark home from Golden Corral.  We figured we would decide after we picked the RV and while eating lunch.  The golden morning time to leave home and head off Long Island for us seems to be 8:30 am – we are following at the end of rush hour and are before the construction work on two of the major roads starts.  We we were out at 8:20 -since we were driving only our van, we did not have to waste time backing the RV out of the driveway (a process that involves walkie talkies and me standing in the middle of a 4 lane road road that has traffic that all speeds – which is why it a problem to begin with.)  We had figured we would get to the dealer between noon and 1 pm.  We got there just after 11 am.  We picked up the RV - “schmoozed” a bit, gassed up the RV and the van for the trip back, spent about 15 minutes having lunch and started home – confident that we would miss the rush hour traffic at both cities.  We did fine in PA – no traffic, NJ not bad almost no traffic.  One very quick stop at a rest area for me to use the facilities – so fast, I left my cell phone in the RV and husband waited out there so we did not have to shut everything did – I ran literally both ways and we were off again.  Then we hit Staten Island  (NYC) and there was traffic, but it was not bad – 15 minute part of the trip maybe was 25 minutes.  We then crossed the bridge to Long Island.  The limited access roadway we have to taken home was BAD.  How bad?  The signs on the bridge said not to exit to it, to exit to a local street that allows later connection to the roadway – which we take anyway.  It took us 2.5 hours to the dealer – it took us 5 hours home – and that was with arriving in NYC at 3 pm.  Another day of our lives – gone.

But the RV is home and working properly again – so all is well – right?  Driving home husband found that the brakes were squealing so today they were at our mechanic again.  He said they were okay to use – a problem sometime down the road as there is rust. 

Wait a second, have to run to the basement to switch laundry loads and check the heat in the PackTite.

Back.  Normally I have a load of clothes, a load of towels, and a load of bed linens each week with a load of jeans every few weeks.  With all this going on, I have not changed the bedding in a couple of weeks – no time to do so and saves a wash load (yes, I think ewwww also, but it will done soon).  This week I have a load clothes, a load of sweatshirts and nightgown – I bought 3 new ones and have worn a few of them and they don't fit in the general clothes load, a load of towels, and a load of jeans.  I also have a load of white reenactment clothing (much “small clothes” - undergarments, all of which are white) from our last couple of events and a second load of the rest of our outfits – next time we will need them is December and I want them clean so I don't have to run at the minute to wash them – some of the pieces need ironing also.  Just put the general clothes load into the dryer and the sweatshirt load into the washer. 


At the same time I have been going through the bags of stuff from the family home.  Being a crazy person who had bed bugs. I fill (lightly) our PackTite heater with some of the stuff and heat at it night – mixed with whatever fabric or paper items we have in addition to be heated.  Then the next afternoon I go through the stuff from the house after putting away the stuff from our house that was added in.  Today I went through the papers from our wedding – 40 years ago.  All of the response cards & envelopes – shredded, set up invitation with all the papers which were included and put it in the shoebox that I have as a “memory box” of the stuff I am finding and want to keep from all this, shredded the other invitations, tossed out the other response cards (no names, etc. on them), I kept the blank envelopes for the invitations – can always use larger envelopes, have set aside the unused response envelopes they do have my parents and name and address, but I will see if labels will cover same and decide if we are keeping them or they are being shred, shredded the receipt for the wedding (what a waste of $8,000 – I was right, we should have just gotten married & not bothered with a wedding), and shredded the seating charts and other papers.  I kept the box that it was all in.  Good box.  Apparently there is much more than my stuff in what my sister set aside for me – work papers of my dad's and other financial stuff.  I have a found a certificate given to my other sister when she graduated from high school (she is 55 now).  I scanned it, emailed it to her and asked if she wanted the certificate or what.  I found old bank statements and similar of mom's and even some of dad's (he died in the mid 1990's).  I found a dividend check for $4.50 that was never cashed – I will see if it can cheaply somehow be replaced – but 1994 was a long time ago.  More to do tomorrow after the current load is heated – this load also has some yarn husband bought for weaving project to sell and a new sweatshirt that I bought  - both today. 

At least every year I go through the papers from 10 years before and get rid of almost all of them – 25 years is a long time to keep bank statements and a check.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

So progress is being made on the stuff from mom's house. I am trying to keep up on household chores – dishes washed after dinner and after night snack (only meals we eat home).  Obviously laundry being done.  Towels changed and into the laundry.  (If only I did not hate changing the bedding and folding same after it is washed even more than more than cleaning toilet bowls – I figured it out – my arms are too short to deal with sheets easily.)

Any suggestions for my family and me about dealing with all of the stuff from the house?

PLANNING YOUR ORGANIZING

Another week – another post – but not much done during the week. 

Last week, as mentioned, I hurt a muscle in my stomach and husband would not let me do anything heavy so I would heal.  This meant that I could do computer work, some cooking (not “heavy” pots) and such.  He carried the laundry bag downstairs so I could do the laundry and then carried the basket of clean items upstairs (twice as I did clothes one day and towels the next) for me.  The basket of clean clothes that I carry upstairs on one hip with one hand normally, he can barely lift.  Unfortunately after feeling better, today my back was hurting – I could not even twist to see the office phone to dial as I had to lean around the file holder stack on my desk – I had to go to the kitchen to call our bank to see if something coming into the account had arrived.  So not much done again this last week.

I will say that we were very pleasantly surprised after using up most of our available time last week to prepare for the reenactment event I mentioned that it was much easier to do than we had figured how it had been explained. 

Rather than hand everything over the fence, we were allowed to drive right to the space set aside for our unit.  The people from the museum that was having the event were the nicest people we have ever met running an event – and we started doing craft shows in the 1980s.  They bent over backwards – if we wanted the space set a different way, they were glad for us to do it and helped us.  They were helping us unpack.  They had tables out for us to use – one less thing for us to have to take out and set up.  When we had finished unpacking I asked one of the men to help me back the van out of the museum grounds.  He sent me up the road about a block to a school that was letting them use their parking lot  - okay, a small bit of disorganization, the lot was small and full – there was a children's soccer game going on.  There were no spaces.  The fellow (not from our unit, but a friend) who was the blacksmith followed me in – he had a regular car and told me he as going to park between the two rows as another car had done.  I luckily saw a father and son heading to their car and got that space.  Not sure what later cars did – demonstrators, volunteers, and the public. 

Despite my back I held up one of the tent poles (this is a reproduction tent – not a modern popup tent) for the unit set up as our members put it up.  We had table next to the tent with plenty of room for the wooden drying racks we were using as display for the scarves husband had woven.  After we set up I found a space between our table and the unit's setup to sit and embroider.  Other members set up across the aisle from us in a group.

I talk about this in this column as organizing a setup for a display – whether a craft show, a reenactment event, a flea market, or a display setup up involves advance planning and then one has to hope that all goes as expected.  We have learned to carry a variety of setup items that we do not normally need or use – just in case.  Even if one knows the space that one will have it may be different than it was last year or otherwise expected.  If the person that the next space is reserved for does not show up, one may be able to expand into their space.  One may have to deal with uneven ground – or even a large puddle or flooded area.  This time we were lucky.  The venue's employees were nice and accommodating and the space well situated and not limited.  We have gone to craft shows where we are supposed to have the same space as the year before – a corner space with 2 sides to display on – and found that the setup had changed or an error was made and one had different space in a different area midaisle with one side to work with.  As we did this when we brought more items for setup than we needed, one has to be prepared for anything. 

Think of trying to organize your home – you have plans to clear out the closet in the spare room and then find items there that you had not remembered.  You are not ready to deal with those items – maybe not enough garbage bags (or the bags you have are too small) or you need help to move what you find.  Or maybe you have to sort a lot of very small items and have no where to sort them.  One has to be ready to deal with situations that one did not expect when organizing. 

As to the event we did – very nice.  Husband has been weaving for about 3, maybe 4 years and has tried to sell his scarves and table runners online.  No sales of same at all.  He has been despondent about weaving and no one buying.  Our thought was that if the pieces could be seen in person it would be different and hoped that to be true.  Craft shows around here for the most part are buy and sell junk shows – no chance of selling an actual hand woven scarf if commercial scarves for $8 each are being sold, which is why he jumped at this chance to sell, especially in the fall (okay, it did not feel like fall, it was in the upper 80/lower 90Fs) but he sold a scarf partway through the day and then near closing, 5 scarves to one woman.  Yippee.  He is again happy to weave. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plan for everything you can think of for a specific organizing chore.  There will be things that happen out of your control, but try to anticipate what you will need and the time you will need to do it.  Then “play it by ear” if something not anticipated pops up!

YET ANOTHER WEEK OF NOT GETTING ANYTHING DONE

Another week gone by and little to show for it – again.

Husband had planned for us to go to a quilt show in Pennsylvania last Thursday, the first day of the show.  We normally will go to this and other shows from the same company on Thursday as it is less crowded and items are not sold out – not that we normally buy anything there.  While we both have done quilting, we go for something to do and because there are no other sewing or embroidery shows in this part of the country and I do sew and hand embroider.  Since we – and our RV – really need a trip we had planned to stay overnight and go to the farmer's market we like in Lancaster on Friday. 

So, of course it poured on Thursday – here and there.  We changed our trip to just go for the day on Friday to the quilt show, but drove there in the RV so it was driven and would keep the engine and RV batteries working properly. 

Husband's sister has self-published a book and somehow managed to get a local bookstore to give her a reading/signing event on Thursday night.  Since we were home, husband decided to go to the signing – in heavy rain.  We could not figure out where to park – hard to see in the rain – and ended up 3 blocks away.  I am “made of sugar” - when I go out in the rain, I get sick. 

So Friday midday a cold hit me.  Luckily it is a relatively light cold and will soon be gone.  But husband is a hypochondriac and does not like me touching things that he will touch or eat when I am sick.  We ate out as usual on the weekend.  Monday night we had reenactment unit meeting and bought deli sliced turkey for dinner.  But last night, Tuesday, dinner needed to be cooked.  Understand, husband is, or at least was when we cooked more elaborately, a better cook than I am.  But he is out of practice, was worried about the batteries in the RV (which are still not right) and an oil leak under the RV, and I have stand there and step by step tell him how to cook and where things are – so dinner and clean up (done by me with plastic gloves on) took forever. 

In addition our reenactment unit has an event this Saturday that originally husband said we were not going to.  Now not only are we are going, but he found out he can sell the items he has been weaving.  So he (and thereby also I) are involved with getting ready to do so – we have not done a craft show in 10 years and this has to be setup differently and we have never sold items he has woven before so we do not a have setup at all for same, let alone one that will pass for a country fair.  So we are running around trying to put together a setup and also finishing the woven items.  Finishing them consists of washing and drying them and then cutting the start and end threads and doing something with the fringe ends.  Not something that can be quickly done for about a dozen scarves and table runners.

He also decided that we need to be able to take credit cards – something I agree with – so he filled in the required info to be able to take credit cards from Paypal. We have an account with then that we use for online sales that exists for about 10 years, so we are not strangers to them, it should be easy to get a card reader and use with our existing account.  As of today – a week after he filled in the info – we still don't seem to have the account for sales with a card reader and they seem to be sending the wrong card reader.  The day after he originally gave them the info and we saw that there were problems he signed up with Square – who we had never done business with before - and we were able to immediately sign up and pick up a card reader at one of an assortment of stores locally that sell them.  So much for loyalty to customers by Paypal. 

So I have not get anything done as we were away and we have been trying to get everything done for Saturday (which to our minds mean that it will rain Saturday and the event will be canceled or they will have it and we will not go due to the rain). 

In addition I have the cold, plus a couple of weeks ago I started having pains that we think are from my lifting the last analog monitor we got rid of – the pains come and go depending on if I lift something else heavy – and last night I was terribly ill after dinner so I have not been of much help, particularly since husband will not let me lift anything “heavy” which has much lighter threshold than it does for most people.  (I am not sure how we will be able to setup Saturday as he will not let me carry any of the setup or the weaving and we cannot park close to where the reenactment unit is setting up.

I was suppose to take my mom to the doctor this week – but had to speak to her about when she is available to go so I can make an appointment, so I had not done so, plus I did not want to her give her my cold – so I called tonight to check her schedule and will try to make an appointment for next week.

I also have to go to client this week or next. I would greatly have preferred this week as she is in Manhattan and next week the U.N.  will be in town and it will be a travel and security mess, but she is also older woman in her 80s and I did not want to give her my cold either. 

Oh, and the RV battery is not keeping its charge so we were “playing with it” all week and now our car mechanic has it – he fixed the oil leak and will see what he can see about the batteries tomorrow.  (Husband spoke to RV company that installed the new batteries – batteries have warranty, but does not cover labor and we will need to leave the RV there for at least a week – ouch, at $100+ per hour… - plus we will have to drive both RV and car to New Jersey, come home with car, when it is fixed drive car to NJ, pick up the RV and then drive both home – and tolls for each vehicle for each round trip is about $30 – so the tolls alone are almost $100, plus the gas.)

So I have gotten some computer work done I managed to trace and resolve problems in the posting of our Etsy sales and fees – mostly only have fees, few sales – from using their new payment account that handles both fees we pay and sales we make (terrible idea from an accounting point of view).  I did scanning of tax return recently finished for client.  That sort of thing. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes one just has to go with the flow of what is going on.  Great to get stuff done, but when life has other plans – don't go crazy, just go with the flow and catch up when one can.