My life, for what it's worth, part 2

So last time I wrote we were just in the beginning stages of being shut down.  And it worked, it really did.  Our numbers on this side of the mountain are good.  There are still new cases, we're all being very careful (well, most of us that don't have political motivations, anyway) and so far, so good.  We just have to keep on keeping on. I am still mostly working from home.  I don't know if I mentioned it before, but my knees are crap.  They both needed to be replaced.  I had scheduled the first surgery for April 22, right after the tax deadline, but of course that didn't happen.  On May 7, I got a phone call from the surgeon, he could do it May 13 if I was free.  So I moved heaven and earth to be free.  It went very well.  The recovery has taken much longer than I expected (I had told clients I'd be back in the office in two weeks, it was more like four) but overall I'm happy.  It's been five weeks tomorrow.  There is ...

Today I stopped at the grocery store for the first time since this all started.  Emily and Joe have done some shopping, and I always have a good supply of stuff, so I just haven't needed to go until now. I went during the dinner hour, when it's usually packed.  There were probably one third the number of people I would expect to see at that time of day.  About half the people were wearing masks and gloves.  There was a young man stationed at each door, wiping off the handles of the carts before people took them.  There's plexiglass sheets up in front of the checkers and the Starbucks barista.  There are decals on the floor, directing you which way to go in the aisle (they're narrow enough that the store decided to make them one way only.)  Most annoying, since I always go THIS way in that aisle, and now you must go THAT way. There was plenty of food.  I didn't check out the toilet paper because I didn't need any, but the cat litter was decimat...

I still have work to do.  A lot of it.  For good clients, who get me the information I need, sign what I tell them to sign and pay their bill promptly. I've got a few that drive me nuts, not doing the above.  One family in particular is a thorn in my side.  The wife does a little bit of self-employment.  She is completely incapable of keeping track of her expenses.  Which is fine, I will file the return without the expenses, but oh god no, that might make them pay an extra dollar in tax.  She'll get them to me.  She never does.  They make appointments and don't show up.  Three years ago, they waited until Oct. 15, when I happened to be out of town.  They had my partner do their return and then told her that they couldn't pay just then but they would as soon as possible, and Mary always lets them do that (I don't).  She told them they needed to pay and they disappeared for another year. Now there are stimulus checks, and you...

The bill has passed the Senate.  It has not passed the House.  It has not been signed by 45.  And everybody and their brother is calling and emailing me wanting to know when they're going to get their checks.  God.  They're interfering with me answering the people who want to get their tax returns done so they can get their checks. I know people are desperate.  I get it.  Michael thinks he's going to get laid off.  I have dozens of clients who made a good living running small businesses who are 100% out of work now.  These are scary times.  But the law hasn't even passed yet! I am on the board for a small non-profit.  Our purpose is to provide support to people in crisis.  We give up to $500 for rent, utilities, transportation, food, things like that.  We've been giving money away for eight months now, and we usually have six or seven requests per month.  One of our board members thought it would be a good idea to...

I have been doing taxes for 21 years, and this is the weirdest tax season ever.  I started getting nervous about all the clients who still wanted to come in.  We can do everything remotely, I have clients I haven't seen in person in years -- but there's still always the ones who insist they have to come in.  It's interesting too, it's the older ones who are most at risk.  The young people are staying home.  Last week we agreed we'd keep working and stop having clients in, but my partners kept seeing people.  One of them says it takes too long to do it remotely.  The other likes news of a different kind than I do, and thinks it's all being blown out of proportion.  Even though she has an autoimmune disease and is the most vulnerable of all of us. Saturday I'd had enough, I packed up my files and brought them home and have been working here ever since.  Monday the governor asked people to stay home, so the sensible partner packed up her fil...

It's very interesting living a few miles from ground zero.  My nephew attends a school that sent nursing students to the nursing home where there are multiple cases.  And today he found out that one of his professors visited a relative at that same nursing home the day before it broke out there.  That professor is self-quarantining, and my brother's family are staying well away from my mom for a few weeks. I have my usual spring cough and sniffles, it's allergies.  I get it every year.  No big deal.  Except every time I cough, people jump and look at me funny. I went shopping Sunday night, because we were running out of toilet paper.  The toilet paper aisle was bare.  The store looked like it had been stripped by locusts.  People are hoarding toilet paper and water (why water?  Water shouldn't be affected!) in case we have to stay home for awhile.  Even Costco has people posted at the front door letting people know they're out o...

It's been a tiring couple of weeks.  One partner is deliberately trying to keep her stress down by sitting in her office, working on not much, not answering the phones.  The other partner is highly annoyed about this and is having trouble concealing her irritation.  There's been enough snow that I had to work from home a couple of days.  One of the days, Boeing closed so Joe didn't have to work, and amused himself sitting and talking to me while I tried to work. But.  I am so so lucky. A woman I went to grade school with has that horrible breast cancer gene in her family.  Her mom died of it, and several of her sisters have suffered from it.  Now her daughter has it.  Her 35 year old daughter, who is the mother of two little girls and is also pregnant.  Oh my god, I can't even imagine.  Daughter has decided to postpone chemo until the baby is born.  I can't imagine having to make that choice, and I can't imagine having my daught...

He drives me crazy a lot of the time.  Tonight I made a healthy dinner that is exactly in line with what he should be eating (and was delicious too).  He didn't want to eat it.  And then he put what he didn't eat in the oven, to keep it away from the stupid cat who won't stay off the counter.  He'll forget to put it in the fridge.  I lost 3/4 of a beautiful ham when he did that at Christmas.  I guess I need to add checking the oven to my before bed routine. He's finishing up the really long vacation he gets every year at this time.  They don't get days like Presidents Day off, but they get Christmas Eve to New Years day every year.  This year he took a couple extra days at the beginning and the end, so he's been home for 13 days, with three more to go.  I call this "too damn much family togetherness."  I emptied the dishwasher last night.  If he was working, it wouldn't get full again for three or four days, but it's full tonight....

1.   What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before?   We bought a piece of property and are building a retirement home.   I haven’t talked about it here, but I love it so much, and it’s so exciting to see it finally coming together!   We’ve been talking about doing this for years. 2.   Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?   I don’t think I made any resolutions for this year.   I did a big overhaul a few years back, and mostly kept them, so I haven’t felt as much urgency. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Michael’s best friend, who is sort of like another son around here, and his wife had an adorable little girl this year.   That’s the only one I can think of. 4. Did anyone close to you die? My Uncle Jim.   Three of my favorite clients, two of them very unexpected. 5. What countries did you visit? None but the US this year.   I did get to go to Hawaii and Washington DC thoug...

The people in my house are weird about their cats.  Not me, I mostly tolerate them.  But Joe and Emily just lose their minds over them. It happened again last night.  I fed the pets when I got home.  They were all here.  A couple of hours later, Emily started looking for the girl kitty and couldn't find her.  She got Joe all worked up.  The two of them were tearing the house apart looking for her. Now, that particular cat doesn't try to get out.  If it was the boy cat, yeah, I could see maybe he sneaked out when someone came in.  But the girl doesn't try.  I figured she'd squirreled herself away somewhere and she'd come out when she was good and ready.  I continued with what I was doing. They went outside in the rain and were calling and calling.  Emily started to cry.  Joe was frustrated.  No one would believe me that the cat would come out when she was ready. And of course, eventually, the cat came out of th...

I spent most of the day in a snit.  I finally sent out an email last night to the people who haven't bothered to say what they want for Christmas yet.  I got a very snotty email from my sister-in-law saying she doesn't have access to the list, only my brother does.  If I'd given her access she'd have done it the first day.  She's very busy, blah blah blah.  I responded that I had indeed given her access on the first day (I'm sure she just ignored the email) and I sent her another link.  No response.  Then I got an email from my brother, her husband, that I really need to include her because he's just too busy to do these things. And then they all said they wanted Amazon gift cards.  Took a really long time to make that list. The other brother who hadn't done it made his list, and his kid who I am supposed to buy for wants a concealed carry holster.  I am wildly opposed to people carrying guns everywhere, and I'm not going to buy it. ...

Every year I say it, and every year I'm shocked at how dark and cold December is.  It's kind of like having a baby, you remember it hurt, but every time you do it again you're surprised how MUCH it hurts. So it's dark and cold and wet.  My arthritis hurts.  I came home at 3 yesterday, thinking I'd get some work done, and instead crawled into bed and slept for two hours. I've never had this much work in December, and I'm not sure how I'm going to get it all done before taxes start.  I've got five cases needing representation work, in various stages of completion.  I have two people who haven't filed for six years (each!) who need their books put together before we can start.  And will probably need some negotiating when we're done. One of my clients with the biggest messes was born in the same hospital I was, three days before me.  Since women stayed in the hospital for a week, we almost certainly shared the nursery for a few days.  Our ...

My siblings, in-laws and I have always exchanged gifts at Christmas.  We do a drawing for adults and one for kids, so everyone gets one nice gift.  For a long time we exchanged gift cards, because that's really what everyone wanted.  Last year, youngest brother said exchanging gift cards is stupid.  Everyone should give three ideas of something they would like, so everyone gets an actual present. I had a really hard time coming up with ideas, but I did, and it was fun.  So we decided to do it again this year. We drew names on Thanksgiving.  A Google doc was posted the same weekend for people to put their ideas on. Three families have ideas for every member.  Two families haven't even started.  Care to guess who one of the families is?  Why yes, it's the very same younger brother who came up with the whole idea.  I have him to buy for and also one of his kids.  They're taking a trip out of the country for a week between now and...

My company decided, back in August when it all seemed like a good idea, to buy a tax practice from someone who is retiring.  It's a good solid business and comes with a bookkeeper, which we needed.  I'm sure it will turn out to be a good decision.  But oh my god has it been a week. On Monday, the movers came.  They came to my office, picked up old stuff we wanted to get rid of, and took it to Goodwill.  Then they went to the other office, picked up computers and office furniture and etc and brought it to us.  My partner K was stationed at the other office.  I was at ours.  The third partner, J, has recently felt that she doesn't want to be as involved in managing the business, so she was sitting in her office doing I don't know what.  Don't get me started on that one. So the move went off flawlessly.  Then our tech guys came in and started moving computers around.  I am getting a brand new computer, which is great except that no...

My mother is a force of nature, as I may have mentioned before.  I really do love her, and feel so lucky that I still have her in my life.  But oh, my goodness, some days... This past summer, she told me that she really likes the clear lights that people are putting up on their decks around the neighborhood, and she wishes she could have some.  Absolutely, I said.  They sell them at Costco, I can get you some this weekend.  Oh no, she said.  I don't want to be a sheep.  Everyone else already has them, so I'm not going to get them. Okay, mom, whatever.  You're being ridiculous, but whatever.  She has mentioned several times since that she really likes them, but won't hear of me getting her any. At Thanksgiving, she was worrying that she didn't have her Christmas lights up yet, "everyone else in the neighborhood has them up already." Wait a minute, I said.  What about being a sheep?  Oh, it's different, she said.  This is...

Emily has been working as a sales clerk at Fred Meyer for a couple of years, and she was really hating it.  She liked the people, but hated the managers, and the men who think they're entitled to bother young women in the stores (and seriously, can you believe that is still going on?  What's wrong with us?) So at the beginning of the school year, she took a job working for the before and after school program at our local elementary.  There was supposed to be a site manager, and she would be the assistant teacher.  She was going to work 20 hours a week. The site manager was late every day for the first three days.  He fell asleep with the kids there.  He took some of the food that was intended for the low income kids and ate it.  Emily was horrified.  She told her manager, and there were complaints about him from the school, and by the end of the third day he'd been fired. Emily has been the acting site manager ever since, often working 40 ho...

My niece's birthday is Wednesday, so my brother and his wife decided to throw a family party for her tonight.  We had so much fun!  The Seahawks were playing Monday Night Football, it was a VERY exciting game that went into overtime and we won!  It was so much more fun than watching it alone at home while Joe worked overtime, which is what I would have done otherwise. This is the brother who had both knees replaced a couple of weeks ago.  At one point, his wife yelled "Oh Shit!" at the game.  In front of my mother.  My brother got laughing so hard he was crying, had to get up and leave the room.  It was hilarious. I bitch about my family, but we sure do have fun together.  It was a great evening.  Go Seahawks!

I don't remember if I ever talked about it here, but my youngest brother and his wife split up a couple of years ago.  I am 100% certain she is addicted to something, it's like her life did a right turn a few years ago and she became a different person.  She took up with a man who had already cheated on two wives (but he loves her, so he'll never do it to her!  ahem)  She left the kids with my brother and refuses to pay child support.  It's just been awful. Fortunately the kids are old enough to get it, and my brother is a very good dad.  Life has gone on. Yesterday he told us that she is supposed to have the kids for Thanksgiving, but she's told them she might make other plans.  Can you even imagine?  My brother is working a second job to get caught up again after he had to pay off half her debts, he'd planned to work that day four hours from home to get the holiday pay.  So the kids would have been on their own for Thanksgiving.  S...

Joe is the youngest of eight siblings.  Five are still alive and live in Indiana.  We are very fond of them, though we don't see them often.  One sister-in-law in particular has been around for most of his life, and has always been very loving and generous with him (and me!) That sister-in-law loves our President.  Today she posted half a dozen things on Facebook about how misunderstood he is, how God has put him right where he wants him to do the things he's doing, how we need to pray for him.  She even posted the one where he's hugging the flag with a silly grin on his face. I need someone to teach me how to make barf emojis.  I love her, but this is getting ridiculous.                      ___________________________________________________ I spent 20 plus years getting up at 6 a.m. to get my kids to school on time.  I am very much a night owl, but I did it because society expects us to ...

My brother had his surgery and is recovering very well.  However he can't drive for 12 weeks.  His daughter goes to the same high school Emily did, and apparently he's been driving her in the morning.  He asked if I could take her for the foreseeable future.  This will mean getting up about 6 a.m. again.  I thought those days were over.  But I said yes. Tonight I found out he's got my mother picking her up after school.  Why can't she take the city bus, I asked.  That's what Emily did.  It gets her kind of close to my mom's house, she can walk there and then mom can take her home from there.  It's the same bus I took when I went there, for that matter. Apparently the bus is not an option for her.  Hmmm.  I must be a very bad mother.  All my kids took the bus home from school.  I get driving them in the morning, but there's plenty of time and buses in the afternoon.  Ridiculous.  And my mother really sh...