HUSBAND FOUND ME AN EXTRA WEEK FOR WORK - AND THEN HE USED IT UP

 On March 28 I started to panic – it was almost the end of March and I still did not have information from clients to do their taxes and was in the middle of one return which was taking longer than it should – plus I still had to do our taxes and those for our craft business.  In my mind I had ONLY TWO WEEKS to finish the returns and two of the clients live in other states – and with USPS running as slowly as it is I wanted to get the out of state returns out 2 weeks before they were due – so clients would receive them, have time to review them, and not have to do any of this in a panic – which I was already in.  

I had not looked at a calendar – just “it is the end of March already and taxes are in 2 weeks!”.  When my husband asked why I was in a such panic and I told him, he told me that there were 3 weeks, not 2.  Amazingly this was correct – taxes are not due until April 18 and that is a Monday so I had the week I was starting plus 2 more weeks.  After he kept saying that he found me an extra week.  

Sounds good right – an entire extra week!  How did I spend that extra week?  Husband's birthday is this week and he decided we (he) were getting a big (not a BIG, just a big) screen TV as who knows when or if we will ever be able to go to the movies again – not only due to Covid, but we don't like the new recliner seats and the local independent theater we had been going to which did not have same has no information about the future other than that is “temporarily closed”.  

So most of the week he “found” was spent going out and looking at tables to put the TV on in addition to looking at TVs.  Towards the end of last week we went to Ikea and bought the table he figured out would fit where we needed it (both in terms of length, width, and height – but also clearance under it so we could keep the DVD chest he made a number of years ago as the table would be going in the same space – with the chest sliding under it (where the chest has always been).  We then drove to the Costco in the next county (the one here is much too busy even in normal times for us to deal with) to order the TV to be delivered to us – as we could not carry it home nor could we carry it into the house.  They do not allowing ordering in stores – take home only, so we had to then call their ordering service and order the TV.    This process took 2 full days (such as short as our days are) last week.

Then another day was taken up with assembling the table from Ikea.  This is always a simple process – which isn't.  We have assembled a lot of Ikea furniture in the past 20 years and while most make sense to me – he is always confused and there is always “discussion” over whether I am handing him the correct pieces, screws etc to him.  Luckily once it was assembled it fit where it needed to go even better than we thought it would.  

Today the TV was delivered and physically setup by the delivery people (extra US$20 for same).  I will say that we are very happy with Costco's delivery.  We were told the tentative date when it was ordered.  Late yesterday afternoon we had a computer call giving us a 2 hour window for the delivery – since their delivery time for TVs starts at 7am and we normally do not go to bed until 4 am, we were concerned about having to be up and dressed at 7am to wait for them to show up, so we were very glad of being told which 2 hours they would be here (and thankfully it was late morning).  We then had another phone call today from the fellows delivering it to tell us they would be here in 20 minutes.  So, their letting one know when to expect was great and the fellows were very nice.  

So we had the TV sitting on the table and husband was ready to start setting up what he has for it.  This included running to Walmart to exchange a DVD player he had bought for the TV which was lacking its cord in the box – it was listed on the instruction sheet, only to find out after we exchanged it that it did not come with the cord – all of their players apparently have the same sheet and there was an asterisk he had not noticed saying only one of their players comes with the cord.  Luckily we had a cord in the house.  He then spent several hours setting up the information and such of the TV and of the DVD player – much of the time I was needed to help him.  

So now it is less than 2 weeks until the taxes have to be filed and I still have 3 returns to do, though at least the client is in the metropolitan NYC area and our returns can be mailed on the 18th!  BUT – a client who mailed the return to out of state mailed me a notice she received from her state government – a refund of her overpayment on her 2020 return …. which was suppose to be credited to her 2021 return and has been taken as payment on same.  So, now I have to redo part of her paperwork.  Luckily she is overpaid more on her 2021 return than the amount not credited to it, so it is her estimates for 2022 which have to be changed – and I emailed to her and said I will do so after the 18th as it does not affect what she is filing now.

I used to do so many returns with so many less problems than pop us these days!   

And yes, I have pointed out to husband that he used up almost all of the extra week he found for me, so the extra week he found helped him – not me.


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is amazing how the little things take up/waste time.  

TRYING TO FIT THINGS INTO SMALL SPACES OR LITTLE TIME

 Have you ever had to fit more in a space than fits?  Yes, I know – that is what is organizer is about, not having to do this, but sometimes…

Back in the normal times before Covid husband and I would go to the movies just about every week.  There was (is?) an independent theater in a nearby community that we would go to. While it had become a multiscreen theater it had not changed over to the terrible lounge seats – still had old style movie theater seats (same type as in school auditoriums, Broadway theaters, etc) and having once sat in lounge seats at movie theater, we vowed never to do so again.  It is currently still “temporarily closed”.  We went to “late showings” - which at this theater means the movie starts 9:30 to 10:30 pm, as opposed to when we used to go to midnight movies in the old days.  While it has some theaters which are rather small, it does have just about full size theaters.   And it was reasonably priced (even for so for seniors) and had a very nice staff.

This is something we have missed – last time we went to a movie was in late February/early March 2020.  We have instead been having our movie night at home watching movies on TV – which is not the same, not only due to small screen, but missing in the atmosphere of a movie theater.  

Husband has recently got into his head to buy a large screen TV for our living room.  I was shocked.  Husband spent a good deal of time decorating our living room in – more or less – colonial style – which is why I was shocked that he would put a big screen TV in it.  (The TV which is in there – not digital – is in a period looking piece of furniture to hide it.  It does not have a cable hookup as we tend to only watch TV in the living room while putting up and taking down our Christmas tree  - when we watch specific Christmas DVDs and New Year's Eve – when, most years we watch “the ball drop” in NYC through Roku – though one year we watched Animal Crossing's New Year Party instead – I actually liked that better. )  

Between this and the price, the idea of a big screen TV in our living room to watch Saturday night movies shocked me.  This discussion has been going on for about a month or so.  He has decided that the theater we used to go to will never reopen and we are too uncomfortable in the lounger seats in other theaters.  (Though we have found one other theater with “real theater seats”, but it is not near us.)

He has been going back and forth with ideas on what to do – then deciding they are no good, then a new idea and then back again.  Just when I thought he had given up – it is becoming reality.  He has bought one for his birthday which is coming up in a while.  

In doing this we had to figure out a lot of things.  His first idea was to have the TV hung on the wall.  Only wall possible was where the TV set furniture is now.  BUT – that is too close to the heat, would have to be hung off center on the wall, and he found out that one has to help the installer hang the TV – if we could do that, we would not need the installer.  

His second idea was to stand it on something.  An obvious choice to me was a large wooden chest he built – it looks like a hope chest – top lifts, lock on front – but on this one, the key in front is the handle to pull down the front and drawers come out with DVDs in it – so the top is stationary and can have (and does have) things put on it.  That is too low for what he wants – he want to “look up at the TV like one looks up at the movie screen in a theater”.  He went looking for a stand to put the TV on – either one that stands on the floor or one that stands on a piece of furniture.  

He found a stand that he liked how it held the TV at a chain computer store's website.  Problem is that the dimensions are obviously wrong – how could something 4 inches tall hold a TV which is so much longer than that?  We drove to the local location of the store – none on display.  We asked a manager about the dimensions – he went to his computer and looked it up – on their website and read the numbers off to husband.  Husband, a bit impatient, pointed out that he had read the same on his computer and how could the stand be 4 inches tall?  Manager agreed that had to be wrong (both he and husband decided it had to be the shipping box dimensions) – but when husband if the boxes “in the back” could be checked for the dimensions – he was told no, “It is a brown box with no writing on it” - then how do they know which item is in the box.  We left.  

He started thinking again – the TV comes with feet, if we got the smaller size than he was looking at (65 inch instead of 70) and we could figure out what to put over the chest of DVDs to make it longer for the feet – it should work.  

We looked at an assortment of ideas of what we could put the TV on.  (In this entire process since it started we have, in our minds, rearranged the furniture in the living room end wall to end wall, side wall to side wall, end wall to side wall and so on.)  

He finally had an  idea and in his words “went back to works” - Ikea.  We bought today a table from Ikea.  It should fit over and around the chest of DVDs – box stays in place and is usable.  Table is extremely modern in design, of course – but if it makes him happy…

We then drove to Costco to buy the TV and have it delivered – believe me, he has done extensive research on where to buy the TV, warranties, service contracts, setup etc.  Problem is that one cannot buy it at the store and have it delivered – it can only be delivered if it is bought online – we hate to order things and have them delivered, but that is what we had to do – after wasting about an hour and a half driving there and home – even worse these days – the gasoline that was used for the drive there and back!  He has ordered the TV.  The table will sit in our van until early next week when we bring it in and assemble it.  

In addition to this mess we had a “discussion” with our cable company over a 20% increase in price (which they lowered for us), the cold water started dripping in our downstairs bathroom sink – after an hour and a half on hold – they could not help us as they no record of our faucet model and were the Canadian office of the company (reached through the US 800 number) and transferred me to their US office – I hung up as I did not have another hour to wait.  And it is tax season and getting closer to when I have to finish returns for clients – and us.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Doing anything today has become hard to do – nothing seems to be easy to do any longer and not just do to Covid and limitations arising from it.  Who ever thought buying a TV would take weeks – maybe even months – of planning, needing to change the plan several times including buying the TV?

TAX TIME IS HERE

 Well here it is again – tax season!  I am sure I have must have mentioned this, but just in case I haven't – I am an accountant.  Not a big fancy one such as you see in movies or on TV, but a small practice practice one.  To give you an idea of what I mean – a friend of mine was marrying a CPA – he said he worked for a small firm – the sort of companies which only have a bookkeeper to deal with keeping track of expenses, deposits, etc (keeping the books as it is called).  He thought he was working with clients like mine as his clients did not have full bookkeeping department.  I laughed and explained that to me that was a large company – if my clients had a bookkeeper  a set of books beyond their checkbooks I considered them a big company!

Over the last couple of decades my practice has shrunk – I am down to one business client (plus my husband and my craft business – which I do the accounting as the owner) and 4 tax clients - one of whom is a dear friend and I have to annoy her again as she has not filed a return in 3 years and will be losing her refund on the oldest return if she does not file that return by April 15 this year.  It is enough work for me to still be able to say that I am accountant and these clients, with the exception of my friend, have been with my father or my prior boss for decades and decades.  In one case I do a tax return for the daughter of one of my dad's old business clients – first work I did in accounting when I was 12 was adding up the payroll of her father for my father.  So the annual contacts between the clients and myself is a good deal of catching up the year that passed on a personal level.  Oh, one client died last year.  His son/executor said that I would still be doing his return this year – but I have not heard from him and am guessing that his accountant will be doing his dad's final returns.  That cuts down the number of clients I have by one.

I have finished one return so far this year and I am good way along with a second return.  Still waiting to get the info for the third return – and of course my friend needs a bit of pushing (why should she lose out on her refund).  Somehow with the pandemic – even with keeping me in the house most of the time – it is harder to do the returns these years.  I have also done the business client's return – it was due by March 15 not April 15 – and started on our business return.

What does this have to do with organizing?  I have to fit all of this into my schedule in addition to everything normal I do.  I have to get the returns done on time – which means early enough for me to mail the returns to clients and allow them time to review the returns and mail them out in a timely manner.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
DON'T wait until the last minute!  Get your taxes prepared early – you can always hold until the last minute to mail out.  (If you need to – find out which Post Offices near you will be open late on April 18 and will postmarking the late mail  - yes, this year one has until the 18th to file their taxes. When I had a lot of clients, inevitably, several would need to file extensions and my husband would drive me late on April 15 to that post office and sit outside in the car as there would not be any parking available due to people filing their taxes at the last minute – my dad always said that at the main Post Office in Brooklyn employees would be outside with sacks for people to drop their taxes into, so they did have keep the actual office open late.)

When going late on April 15 to mail out I have seen any number of people standing in the Post Office filling out their taxes forms leaning on the walls as they are that late – don't let that be you!

USING YOUR CELL PHONE CALENDAR TO GET AND STAY ORGANIZED - IN THE HOUSE AND FOR SHOPPING TRIPS

 We are expecting another large snowstorm this coming weekend.  I have been checking to make sure we will have the food we will need if it does snow.  In the interim we will get one or two days with heavy rain – and husband does not like to drive in same these days, so we will need to make a food run tomorrow I guess.  

In the interim I pulled 4 slices of white bread and 2 of rye from the freezer.  This would allow us to have sandwiches as they will be defrosted when we need them.  Husband HATES frozen bread.  I don't like it, but deal with it better than he does.  

Due to my switch in cell phones (and, yes, I still hate the new one – it will have to do something to redeem itself to change my mind) I am not even sure which app I am suppose to be using for my shopping list as I now have 3 different memo apps!  In years past (before the pandemic) I would keep my shopping list in my various (over the years) cell phone.  One never forgets it that way and if suddenly while out it is decided to food shop – there it is!  During the most of the pandemic I did not want to have to take my phone out in public, so  I had a small piece of paper on the fridge and wrote down what we needed to buy.  More recently I have gone back to having my list in my phone – I also add non-food items from around the house this way as the phone generally travels around the house with me.  (Not that I get a lot of phone calls or texts, but husband likes me to have it with me in case I fall “and can't get up”.  No, he would not hear me screaming, but that is another story all together.)  Hopefully I will remember which app I used – yes, I am starting to get that old.  

We bought a set of new sheets and pillowcases.  We had 2 sets of white and one of light beige as we bought same when had bedbugs – easy to see the bugs on the bedding if it is of a light color.  Unfortunately over the ensuing 10 plus years it has also been easier to see the stains on them.  We bought tan sheets – light enough to see bedbugs on it but dark enough to hide the stains – and no, after we got the bedbugs that time we have not had any sense – but whether that means we can relax or if it means our hard work at avoiding them has worked we don't know.  Then again, my leading culprit for where they came from is a tax client of mine and he moved out of state and is no longer a client.  Husband helped me changing the bedding.  I hate changing bedding more than other job.  Being short I also have short arms and I have figured out that is why I hate changing bedding – my arms are too short to deal with queen sized sheets and blankets easily.  Husband helped this time (either the first or second time in 40+ years of marriage – he may have helped when I made the bed made up before we got married for when we returned home.  (Good thing it was – we got home in the wee hours of the morning and would have ended up sleeping on an unmade bed.)  It made it a bit easier.  I guess I will ask him to help from now on.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
How do you use your electronic devices to help you organize?  In addition to my shopping list in my cell phone I have reminders for chores which need to be done – including weekly reminders to take out garbage, do the laundry – even run backups on my computers.  The phone calendar you always have with you (you know you do) should be used to help you get and stay organized – use its alarms to remind you.   

CHRISTMAS PUT AWAY + DEALING WITH A NEW CELL PHONE AGAINST MY WILL

Done storing away Christmas last week. 
Due to the discontinuation of some 4G cell phone systems (which is not being mentioned in public releases - only 3G is being mentioned).  I have spent much of the past 2 weeks getting and being disappointed in a new cell phone.  The organization of my life depends on my cell phones.  Yes, cell phones. One is the only one which actually phone service, but I like the calendar in my original cell phone (a Palm Centro, the first smartphone) much better and continue to use it for same.  I like the games in the Blackberry I had after it, so it is still around for the games.  Now my first Android will join them in traveling around the house and on trips as it sooooo much better than my new one. 
My husband had assured me that "everything would like the same".  The poor man has spent the better part of 2 weeks trying to make that true - and it is not and the new one is terrible, but apparently most is due to software changes.  So my last one gets to stay in use in the house for what the new one either does not do or makes doing much harder - and that is true of most things in the new phone including making phone calls which the older one cannot be used for except by calling through the Internet as it no longer has service. 
This has thrown my organization into a tizzy.  One example - recently, since I feel comfortable again taking my cell phone out in public places - I had gone back to putting my shopping list in it (when one's phone is always with one, it cannot be forgotten).  Right now I am not ready to try to using the phone for the shopping list so I used the same spreadsheet I have used most of the pandemic.  I wrote out what needed to buy in the aisle order they are in the store.  I did not print it out right away as I wanted to add anything husband wanted.  Between when I finished the list and when he came down for pre-bed snack - the entire list disappeared and I had trouble finding my master list of where foods are located!!  I had to make a second shopping list from memory and hope I did not live anything out - which was the purpose of the first list which was collected as we found we needed to replace some food item - put us at going to bed an hour even later than normal.  (Used the list when we went shopping today and will know soon enough if we forgot to relist something and did not buy it.)
I use my assortment of cell phones (remember only one actually has service and can make calls) to keep my organized - from reminders ringing to shopping list it helps me.  I even had to rename items in the calendar - for example, I have a reminder for every day at 6:45 pm to stop what I am doing and start cooking dinner.  Dinner is what we call this meal and it is our main meal of the day.  In the new cell phone a picture showed up because it said "dinner".  I had to change it to "supper" to get rid of teh picture - despite that we do not call it that.  Same thing - any item which says "birthday" has a picture of a party - why would they do such a stupid, inane, annoying thing!  I have to go through my calendar and change these entries also!!  Why change something when it works well to something this annoying!!
My poor husband has been breaking his back trying to make everything comfortable for and usable by me and I feel so terrible that he has to do spend so much of his time doing so.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Aw, heck - my only thought this week is how annoyed I am about this phone!

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!

SNOW!!!!!!

 Oops – I thought I posted last week – but when I looked at my copy of saved posts – last week's post was blank.

I did start taking the ornaments off the trees – but got sidetracked by snow – plus somehow I am missing 2 ornaments and broke one.

We have had SNOW!  We had about 18 inches, while to the east of us it was close to 24 inches.  This is suppose to be the 3rd highest amount of snow in the area – so those of you who read this and think “2 feet – big deal” will understand.

The storm started late Friday night – before it started coming down the county plow/sander trucks put down salt mixture on our street to keep the snow from sticking as much.  

Per the newscast husband likes, when we went to bed the night before (Thursday night) we were to get 6-12 inches.  Since we are towards the west side of our county and the county west of us was to have up to 6 inches and the county to the east of us was to have 12 and up inches – we sort of figured we would get be getting towards the low end of the 6-12 inches.  Husband falls asleep much quicker than I do and when I checked the weather again a couple of hours later we had been upgraded to 8-12 inches.  He was in a panic straight through the week in anticipating of any snow – let alone this much. When we woke on Friday morning  - anticipated snow amounts from the storm had been raised and our area could get as much as 20 inches!!  He was very upset and nervous.  

When we came home on Thursday we had parked our car as close to the sidewalk as we could so in an emergency we could just clear out behind it and back out of the driveway – this is not easy to do, remember we live on 4 lane main road -  but we do so with our RV – I stand in the street with a walkie talkie and tell him when to pull out.  

It snowed – and it snowed – and it snowed.  We guess that by the end of the storm late Saturday we had 16-18 inches of snow. The general advice on the weather reports was to wait until Sunday to clear the snow as it was fluffy, light snow and would remain same.  After the snow stopped on Saturday we heard a snowblower close by – looked out and a man was clearing our sidewalk.  He went on to clear our two driveway cuts and run the blower one trip through our semi-circular drive – he also cleared the sidewalk in front of the house north of us – and then he went across the street to the one house there which faces our street.  Our best guess is that he is the neighbor who lives 2 hours south of us – we met him once, during another bad snowstorm when he was helping the neighbor in the house between us as her husband has medical problems.  I am am going to mail a note to him thanking him (hope it was him).  

Sunday we went out and cleared the snow remaining in front of our house.  It only took us about 2 hours and husband felt much more comfortable and better as we could easily get out of our driveway in an emergency.  

Since the salting process Thursday night we had not seen anyone from the county come through – no plow – the road on Sunday had one lane centered on the two lanes that actually exist in each direction which had been worn through the snow by vehicles traveling on the road.  

Sometime between when we went to bed on Saturday night around 4 am and when we woke up Sunday (early afternoon) the plow finally had come through.  Both cuts of our driveway now had about 3 ft of heavy, packed snow in them!  

We ate a quick lunch, dressed in heavy winter clothing and went out to again clear the cuts.  We were working at it – using a light duty snow blower,  snow shovels and a metal spade shaped garden shovel (to slice/hit the packed snow and break it loose).  Husband was just this side of crying.  Then a miracle.  In the 30+ years we have lived no one has stopped to help us before the neighbor went through with his snow blower  - a fellow in a pickup trip with a snow plow on the front saw our situation and came to help – he drove his snow plow into the packed snow on one of our driveway cuts – the “exit” side no vehicles parked there.  The broken up snow we could deal with.  He was then going to do the same with the “entrance” side of our driveway,  but -

The plow was coming through again – he was waiting across the street to come back, but someone got out of the plow truck and talked to him and apparently told him he had to leave!  

So the cut we had just cleared had snow in it again and we still had the second cut to clear.  We recleared this cut (and we have to be careful not to block the adjacent driveway of our neighbor, about 2 ft away from ours, when we clear ours).  We then went to the other side – husband pushed our snowblower into the snow again and again and would break apart part of what was there until we able to clear a path through the packed snow that looked wide enough for the car to fit through.  

Well, it is wide enough if we make a left turn into the driveway from across the street so that we come in straight.  Monday he cleared a bit more away from our “exit” cut so we could leave on a bit of an angle.  

More snow might be coming early to mid week next week!  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can only do their best – we still have a lot of untouched snow around the driveway near our house as we did not need it cleared.  

Sometimes “angels” appear to help.