Tax time

Anyone seeing that title might think, "It isn't April yet!" -- but April isn't tax time for us. February is, because that's when (a) the first half of the property taxes are due and (b) we try to get our income tax stuff ready to send to our preparer. This makes February even less pleasant than it already isn't.

(Note that this photo is actually showing something GOOD: the snow is melting. It just looks awful. February is not a pretty month.) 

(Nor is March.)

The property tax side of the unpleasantness is over for now: I could only come up with enough money to pay the first half of the taxes on one of our three properties, so that's done and now I have to pay the full amount on the other two properties by May 1st. May 1st is a long time from now, two months -- MORE than two months -- well, two months and two days. Plenty of time to find $5000 somewhere. Hm.

So now the focus is on our income taxes, and I will be interrupting this blog post periodically to go work on those. I don't know why it's always such a big deal for me, but it is. OK, time to go work on them. 

And now I'm back. I scanned six documents (our tax preparer lives in the Virgin Islands, so we have to send her everything through a "portal"). Now I will blog for a few minutes and then go back and do something else on the taxes.

This has been kind of a crappy week -- although I must hasten to add that nothing really bad happened and we are Just Fine. So, then, what not-so-bad stuff happened?

1. On Wednesday, a scammer called the police department at 8:30 am and said he was outside the kids' high school with a gun and he was going in, followed by "very realistic" sounds of gunfire. Only thing was, the scammer apparently didn't know that Wednesday is "late start," so there were only 60-70 kids in the school at that time (compared to 2000 when everybody's there). But all the teachers were there. Anyway, the school went into total lockdown and eventually was evacuated and there were no classes that day, of course, which my kids thought was great, and I was a nervous wreck. Still am, actually. They were planning to have in-person parent-teacher conferences the next night and those were cancelled -- not postponed, just cancelled. I think they have to give the teachers some time to decompress. Oh, and now apparently they have extra security in the school, in case someone decides it would be fun to REALLY shoot up the school.
   
2. On Thursday, Teen A's phone stopped working. It already had a cracked screen, but the touch screen feature stopped functioning, so he couldn't use it at all.
   
3. On Friday, Teen B's glasses broke.
   
4. On Saturday, Teen A and I went to the phone repair store, but even though it says you don't need an appointment, no one ever came out from the back to talk to us, so eventually we went home, feeling weird. Today I made an appointment, so we'll be heading back over there soon.
5. Also on Saturday, I attempted to fix Teen B's glasses but failed. So I went to the grocery store to buy a new glasses repair kit, they were out, went to a different grocery store, they had one, but I still couldn't manage to fix the glasses. My old eyes, my shaky old hands. So after Teen A and I get back from the phone repair store, Teen B and I will go to Costco (where we bought the glasses) and see if they can fix them.
6. Also on Saturday, one of my book group members announced that she is leaving the group after our meeting on Tuesday. She moved to Philadelphia a year or two ago and has been joining us via Zoom, so I can understand why she doesn't want to do it anymore, but I'm still so sad. She was my first friend in Boulder.
7. Also on Saturday, around 8 pm the kids were watching TV and fighting over the remote. I got tired of the fighting, and foolishly attempted to snatch the remote from Teen A, who was hiding it under his blanket (they watch TV while wrapped in blankets, even in summer). In the scuffle (we were laughing), Teen A knee-ed me in the face (an accident), which not only hurt, but bent my glasses, which I haven't been able to fix. I really need to call and make eye appointments for the three of us -- it's time anyway, and our glasses are all falling apart.
    

Whoops, my timer just rang. Back to the taxes, then the phone store, then Costco. I'll be back here in a few hours, probably. 

OK, I'm back. Teen A and I went to the phone store and the guy said it would cost about $100 to fix his phone and he could have it back Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. Considering the phone only cost $150 to begin with (and Ting is having a sale and we could get a new one for $99), I did think about saying oh screw it and buying him a new phone. But here's the thing: at some point I'd like to buy him a BETTER phone, and now is not that time. So I figured I might as well spend $100 to fix it and then we won't have the hassle of setting up the new phone and there'll be one less piece of electronic junk in the world.

Then Teen B and I went to Costco, and though we had to wait a LONG time to be helped, they did finally fix his glasses, for free of course. We also bought muffins, fruit-by-the-foot, brownie mix, and granola, none of which we needed. Also, Teen B complained pretty much the entire time we were out: the drive was too long, I wouldn't buy anything he wanted (e.g., an iPad), Costco is too big and crowded, why was I wasting time looking at stupid things, I bought things he didn't think I should get, and the drive home was too long.

I have to keep reminding myself that it isn't fun to be a teenager. I'm the grown-up, so I model good behavior instead of bopping him over the head. Then I come home and complain to the blog.

Now we are back. I have put away a load of the kids' laundry, spent another half hour on the taxes, eaten a (rather stale) chocolate Costco muffin, and now I get to work on this blog post a little more. I wanted to take a walk, but it has gotten very windy, and my lungs don't like wind.

But in fact, I feel better. It always feels good to deal with problems, and the glasses are fixed and the phone is getting fixed. And the taxes are almost done -- maybe a few more hours, but I should be able to submit the forms either tomorrow or Tuesday AT THE LATEST.

Once the taxes are done, I have to focus on the book group, coming here on Tuesday. I was looking forward to it, but now that I know it's Karen's last time, I'm not. It's going to be sad, not fun. However, I still have to feed the other members. The book we read was set in Mexico, so I got a Mexican cookbook from the library and found some interesting-sounding recipes to modify. I think I am going to make baked tostadas, with either a mushroom or a sweet potato topping (I'll make both, so people can have a choice). Also a fruit salad, and for dessert I may make an almond cake -- or I may say screw it, and serve Costco muffins.

Or M&Ms, maybe. Ice cream? I'll think about it.

I also have to clean, but that's much easier now that the FlyLady helps me. Yes, the living room is kind of a cluttered mess, but we'll fix that, no problem. Tomorrow, Monday, I'll finish the taxes and clean. Tuesday I'll cook and bake. It will be fine.

Other than the bad things that happened this week, it wasn't such a bad week. I mean, it was, but it wasn't entirely bad. I earned another $16 or so through Mechanical Turk -- someday when I get some time I'm going to try to figure out how to earn more, but still, $16 is fun. So far this week (I get paid on Thursdays) I have only earned about $3, but that's because of the taxes.

I didn't get a lot done on my novel, either. The taxes, again. Even when I'm not working on them, they're bothering me. But I'm on Chapter 19 of the novel, and I will get back to it as soon as the taxes are submitted and the book group has been and gone. Oh, and I'm taking my car in to be looked at on Wednesday, in preparation for our Spring Break trip that we may or may not take. The car is fine as far as I know, but it needs an oil change and "looking at it" is always a good idea before a trip (whether or not we take the trip).

Oh, and my "skin cancer" seems to be finally going away, which means it probably isn't skin cancer after all. So that's nice.

And here comes March! My least favorite month of the year -- but it's OK, it's really OK, it will be fine. I have to think of something to do for the twins' birthday, which is in 11 days, but I'm going to wait and think about that after I submit the taxes and after the book group comes and after the car gets worked on. It's too late to order anything online anyway. I'll have to think of something to buy at a store. Oh lord. Well. It will be fine.

I'll write a post about what I'm going to do in March next week. Right now I need to go back to the taxes.