Tag Archives: character-building exercises

February 9, 2020 · 3:59 pm

Victory!

Fifth Estate

I have worked all day, but I have finally done the majority of the work needed on our tax prep. The spreadsheets I made helped a LOT. They are all totaled and printed now, and I have the supporting documents in ordered piles now. I just finished saving the spreadsheets for 2020.

I’m doing a small victory dance now – since all is ready – as soon as we get a few more documents – to bag it up and take it to our CPA. HOOOORAAAAAY!

Soon I will start entering the data for January 2020 on the new spreadsheets. I’ve also figured out some time-saving things I can do to make getting the supporting documents in order more quickly next time.

I figure I’ll have this down to a science by the time I’m about 106….

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, character-building exercises

Tagged as , ,

September 29, 2019 · 2:31 pm

Whine and Cheese

Sound Cloud

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I should get an award for procrastination. I’m an EXPERT in putting off things I hate, coming up with mental and vocal excuses that are truly impressive. My biggest area has been in bookkeeping/tax records. I keep folders, but don’t do the actual putting things down or organizing until push comes to shove and time is running out.

THIS year, I decided that I would do my bookkeeping and tax records at the end of each month. It wouldn’t take a lot of time and I would be up to date, just needing to do totals on the spreadsheets before tying it with a bow for our wonderful CPA.

I have been really good (for me) on keeping up with this. I got behind, though when health issues took obvious priority, so I was going to start on August yesterday, and then dive straight into September.

When I brought up a spreadsheet, a bunch of data was gone! I looked at the other spreadsheets and found the same thing. I got out my backups and ran them. The data wasn’t there, either. :0(

SO – It looks like I’ll have to redo about 5 months of records. OH, JOY.

“No good deed goes unpunished.” (Source in question)

I will grit my teeth and try to get August done today. THEN, I’ll tackle one month at a time until everything is back and caught up. THEN – I will print a copy of each of the spreadsheets AND make a backup!

And the character-building exercises continue….

2 Comments

Filed under Challenges, character-building exercises

Tagged as , , ,

August 13, 2019 · 9:48 am

Prepare

About Signs

Having a health scare is just that -scary.  Trying to get help for it is a character-building exercise at a time you’re under great stress. Once the initial hurdles have been jumped over, another of life’s realities rears its ugly head – you have to take charge, doing whatever is necessary to get the help needed.

Yesterday was a case in point. I have almost no tongue left because of biting it so many times while I was on the phone making my way through the bureaucratic maze, trying to get tests scheduled and appointments made.

I had been told we would receive calls regarding where and when we should show up for tests and referrals to various specialists. I was given a card with a phone number to call in case that didn’t happen. I was to use it if I didn’t hear anything in a week.

When I called the number on the card, I found that the ‘referral department’ doesn’t actually handle referrals – they give you phone numbers to call – one of which was the ‘scheduling department.’ It turned out that the scheduling department didn’t actually schedule the tests, they ‘authorized’ them. I received another number to call to actually schedule the tests.  The finally scheduled group of added tests will help the specialists figure out what is needed and who should do it.

You get the picture.

It’s bad enough to go through the health scare. The problem is compounded when you finally realize that even though you HAVE TO go through the maze – endure the system – in order to get help, you are your own best advocate. You have to steadily, persistently, keep pushing until you actually get the needed tests scheduled, the actual appointments scheduled to see the specialists, get the results of those, the plan of attack to fix the original problem, the guidance on how to best care for the person who is sick and isn’t in a position to deal with this.

We are thankful. Our son – who lives and works in Thailand – wanted to come to help. He did and is here. He is keeping us calmer, more able to slog through the mazes, phone trees, delays, frustration, attitudes, and emotions, actually injecting some much-needed humor, as well as calm strength.

4 Comments

Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises, Family, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , , ,

May 1, 2019 · 2:55 pm

Good News – Bad News

123RF.com

I already told you that two of the fourteen planters we built around the yard collapsed. We’ve been trying to get bricklayers to come and give us estimates on rebuilding them for us. We have the brick already, waiting on a pallet. We already have concrete bases ready to receive the brick.

GOOD NEWS – Today I finally got a call. Because of all the rain we’ve been getting, one of the guys we’ve been trying to reach called and got directions to come give us an estimate!

BAD NEWS –  The bricklayer was really nice. He even put up with Amber greeting him when he opened the truck door, covering him with kisses. I finally got her into the house and we looked at things. His estimate for the job was $700. That’s too steep for us, particularly since we’ve already had to buy the bricks.

SO – when the monsoon is finally over and it looks like we’ll have several dry days in a row, we’ll go to the local hardware store and buy umpteen bags of Qwik-Crete and will rebuild the planters ourselves. Even though we don’t know what we’re doing, the other 12 planters we built some 30 years ago lasted, so maybe we’ll do well enough again.

I’m excited about getting them functional again and deciding what we’ll plant…

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, character-building exercises, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as , , , ,

August 28, 2018 · 4:26 pm

Hello!

everyday feminism

Things are very awkward – using laptop, external drive saved from my regular computer, and all the patience I can muster – but I seem to be functional on posting on the blog again. :0)

We shipped my defective motherboard to the manufacturer this morning. It’s still under warranty, so they’ll either repair mine or send us a new one. Help is on the way!

I figured out this morning how to transfer my camera pictures to the laptop, edit them, and get them into my blog picture folder, so I’ll post a couple later today.

Since everything is different on the laptop, the mouse is built in and has an idiot trying to use it :0), things are a bit challenging, but doable, with a lot of concentration.

I’m glad to be back, however hobbled my gait. I hope you’re doing well, too.

More later.

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises

Tagged as , ,

July 8, 2018 · 11:57 am

Another of Life’s Character-Building Exercises

eighthrising.com

My husband is the technical person, handling computers, all things electrical, a LOT of things online, fixing things, etc. He was the one who figured out how we could cancel our satellite TV and save a lot of money. But, as he ages, his temper gets shorter and shorter – and – I admit I’m describing myself, as well.

Yesterday we had a power blip. Though the electricity was off for such a short time a lot of our things didn’t notice, it took us the rest of the day to deal with things that WERE affected.

We like DirecTVNow. All of a sudden, it wanted us to sign in with our user name and password. This is a really aggravating, laborious process of searching for one letter at a time, making our user name seem endless, and our password almost impossible due to the fact ours is quite complicated for safety concerns. I told my husband I would do the input if he would get me the password.

To make a long story shorter, we couldn’t get DirecTVNow to accept our password. My husband went into the office, then came back saying, “I deleted our Roku account because it wouldn’t take our password.” It turned out that he had confused the Roku and DirecTVNow accounts and had been giving me the Roku password. Now the account was deleted, so that meant ALL of our TV related accounts were toast.  His reaction to the problem and his temper in deleting the CORE of our TV watching ability was done in a fit of pique. He then decided to divorce himself from the problem – saying, “I don’t know,” to all my questions and not showing any interest in helping –  which had me tearing my hair out, and – at one point – going out in the back yard to yell a bit. (I wonder what the neighbors down in the valley think of the crazy woman who shrieks once or twice each year.)

I finally created a Roku account in MY name, and then got on my husband’s computer and added each of the programs and channels we had before, laboriously going from the living room to the office and back again, jumping through the various hoops each required.

We are both still alive and the TV stuff has been restored.

If you heard my head exploding or my shrieking last night, don’t be alarmed. Things are back to what passes as ‘normal’ around here.

It truly amazes me that the person I love most in the world is also the one who drives me completely nuts!

2 Comments

Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises

Tagged as , ,

September 8, 2017 · 2:00 pm

Changes are DIFFICULT!

becuo.com

It seems that life is providing several character-building changes to us lately.

  • I’ve already told you that our much-loved dental hygienist and her husband were killed in a plane crash last month. We lucked out that our dentist, Dr. Wes Moore, was able to find another very competent, physically and emotionally gentle hygienist to take care of us.
  • Today we learned that our wonderful family practice doctor has left the Greenwood practice and has relocated to Russellville AR., an hour and a half each way from us. :0(   We are just devastated. We’ve looked up information on the new doctor coming in October, and have decided that we would like to try her. I called the clinic and they said someone would call us about it. Our doctor was compassionate, and provided samples of the blood sugar medicine my husband needs. Since this very likely will stop, I’ll need to research possible sources of this very expensive medicine. Humana doesn’t cover it, and it’s $550.00/month. To say I’m freaked out right now is an understatement. My husband glibly says, “I’ll just take it until the samples run out and then stop.” (I’m trying not to deck him.) He understands, but doesn’t really absorb, the fact that his body will do really bad things if he doesn’t take the medicine that helps control his blood sugar. So the search starts now…

I feel that the rug has been pulled out from under us several times lately. We’re trying to deal with things the best way we can, but one of the things about getting older is that you stiffen up and don’t bounce quite as well as you did when you were much younger.

I’ll try to focus on all the positive things in our lives – and we have a BUNCH of them.

3 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes

Tagged as , ,