Friday, January 29, 2021

Tax Woman

Began a sunny morning with breakfast and Blockbusters. The father-daughter-in-law pair were finally upended by a young gentleman. He did very well in the Gold Run round, missing only one question. He'd just started with a father-in-law and son-in-law pair as the show ended.

Rose called just as I was rolling out of bed. I called her back, then went into my taxes. They were a lot more complicated this year! I got a second W2 for the money I inherited from Dad, and there was the temporary disability from the broken arm. Needless to say, it took me a lot longer to finish than usual. I can normally knock my taxes out in 20 minutes to an hour. It took me over an hour and a half to round up all that information. And I ended up paying the state money! At least Federal's giving me over 1,000. That'll help pay the state. 

After I sent it all out, I made a Raspberry-Squash Smoothie for lunch. Watched the tail end of Match Game '75 before switching to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Teacher Harriet tells O the Owl "You are Special" when he tries to imitate the other kids' talents. He does have a talent none of them do, though. Dan Sr. reminds his son that "Daniel Is Special" when they take a walk through the leaves and he collects a pile to make pictures.

Finally dashed to Jodie's side of the house while she was out to do my laundry. While the sun peeked in and out of silver clouds all day, it remained very windy and way to0 cold to hike to the laundromat. I threw the laundry into Jodie's machine and hurried back to my side of the house, before she came home.

Put on Ski Patrol as I returned and started Butterscotch Bread from one of my bread recipe books...and again when Tubi stopped and the Roku reset itself. Jerry Cramer (Roger Rose) is the laid-back head of the Ski Patrol, who operate out of the old ski lodge run by Pops (Ray Walston). His fellow patrollers include Iceman (T.K Cramer), who loves his karaoke machine, explosives expert Eddie Martinez (George Lopez), and lovely Ellen (Yvette Nipar) who teaches the beginner's classes. There's also Stanley (Paul Feig), who has tried out for the Ski Patrol seven years in a row without making it. Real estate magnate Sam Marris (Martin Mull) wants to build a gigantic ski resort in the area where Pops' lodge is. With the help of Cramer's snooty rival Lance (Corbin Timberbrook), he sabotages the Ski Patrol at every turn...until they all figure out what Marris is up to and band together to save the mountain they love. There's also the nutty guy with three personalities (Sean Gregory Sullivan) who has his own one-man rock band and keeps getting into trouble on the mountain. 

This is one of those wacky random comedies that used to show up constantly on cable in the early 90's. My family loved it then, but we were always big on the Police Academy movies, too. This is pretty much the same deal, but with skiing instead of cops. Interestingly, while it's never been on DVD to my knowledge, it does show up for streaming - it's on Amazon Prime for rent and purchase along with being free on Tubi. Not the most outstanding movie ever, but an amusing way to spend an afternoon if you have fond memories of those cable showings or are a big fan of the slobs vs. snobs comedies of the 80's and early 90's.

Jodie came in towards the end of the movie. Rose was calling me on her cell phone...and she wasn't happy. Why did I do my taxes now? They're too complicated for me to do on my own. Um, I've always done them on my own, with Turbo Tax, and no one has ever complained. Why didn't I wait for more paperwork to come in? Why didn't I wait for her, so we could figure it all out? Because I wanted to get it done and out of the way now. Why wait when you can get something done quickly and with a minimum of fuss? I didn't realize they aren't processing claims until February 12th. They usually take mine right away. 

Now she's more convinced then ever that I have something wrong with me. Something about compulsions. I should probably call Mrs. Stahl again. I tried a couple of times last year, but I never heard from her after April. I called her and gave her my cell phone number after I moved in July, and she never called me back. 

I called her back on my own phone. At least we did manage to figure out the bikes. I told her what I'd narrowed it down to, and she asked me to send her text messages with the model numbers and information. She also said she or Craig would drive me to work during the snowstorm we're supposed to get from Sunday night into Tuesday if I had to work on those days. 

By the time I got off with her, finally slid the bread into the oven, and retrieved my laundry, we'd switched to Press Your Luck. It was all about the ladies today - the one guy Whammied out early. They went back and forth in the second round, with one only winning because she hit a Windjammer cruise on her last turn.

Yes, I did text Rose the bike information she wanted after the show finished. I also checked my schedule for next week, which is usually up on the employee website by mid-Friday. Boy, did I get lucky. I've never been so happy to lose hours. I'm off on Monday and Tuesday along with next Friday. I do work 7 and 8 hour shifts all week except for Saturday, but I'll take it to avoid the weather. (And if the weather does get that bad, they may need me for 8 hours on Sunday anyway.) 

Got some writing in after sliding the bread out of the oven. Goodson not only won't lead them to Charles, he's ready to call his men. Gene is ready to throw him overboard...but Richard says there's someone who may be able to help...

Broke for dinner at 6:30. I set up Lentil and Root Vegetable Stew in the crock pot earlier. Enjoyed it while watching Match Game '74. Skipped ahead a bit to the next week with South American hunk Alejandro Rey and sweet Juliet Mills. While Gene sat down as an excited contestant related her life story, everyone else gave their answers to the "antipasto" question that wondered what Frankenstein would do if he were the only man in the world and Brett was the only lady. Foster Brooks' appearance on Match Game PM assured that there would be several drunk jokes...but he did get to try to help a lady win $7,500. 

For some reason, Sale of the Century jumped back to Varsity Week and skipped the first day. They picked up with a volleyball player, a cheerleader, and a football player. The volleyball player bought one of the Instant Bargains and won the Instant Cash and ultimately killed at the Speed Round. Unlike some of the adults the last few nights, he was easily able to pick up the Bonus Round cash.

Finished the night online, cheering myself up with vintage sitcoms from the 90's. I'd noticed earlier that Disney Plus just put Dinosaurs on their site. Used to love that show in the early 90's. Earl Sinclair, his wife Fran, their three children, and his mother may seem like your typical sitcom family, except for one detail. They're all dinosaurs, full body puppets created by the Jim Henson Workshop. Went with the first season episode "The Mating Dance." Fran is feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated after the hatching of her third child, rambunctious Baby. Earl re-learns the Mating Dance to put some spark back into their marriage.

The second season of Parker Lewis Can't Lose kicked off with "Father Knows Less." Parker's best friend Mikey is angry because his mother can't help him with a project to make a toaster and his father left the family six months before. All the other kids in school are working with their parents, including Parker and his sister Shelly. Parker pairs him with a kid having trouble in school, but Mikey's not having an easy time with him. Meanwhile, their principal Musso butters up the industrialist in charge of the show in the hope of getting a better job.

Family Matters began their second season with the creation of "Rachel's Place." Laura's thrilled when she gets a job at Leroy's, the local hangout...but being a waitress loses its luster when she has to work with clumsy Steve Urkel. Urkel's attempt to work the grill ends with the diner burning down. Rachel has been looking for a job and thinks running a diner would be a great idea...if she can get Carl and Harriet to loan her the money...

Rose is also having money problems on The Golden Girls. "Rose Fights Back" in the fifth season when her husband's pension is cut off and she can't find a second job because of her age. She goes to a popular investigative reporter to complain and try to get a job with him. He almost turns her away because of her age as well, but she finally convinces him to give her a chance. Meanwhile, Sophia is buying everything she can get her hands on in bulk after joining a local warehouse market, and it's driving the ladies crazy. 

3 comments:

Linda said...

Emma, I am figuratively stamping my feet at Rose right this minute. What other documentation did she think you needed? You got your W2. You got the documentation of the inheritance. You got the documentation for your temp disability. Did you have other income like bank interest? Did you get unemployment? I didn't think either. You did TurboTax, answered the questions one by one, said yes or no, matched the questions with the documentation needed. The only thing I could think of: Did you have any deductions, like stuff you donated when you moved? Usually that doesn't add up to enough to deduct anyway. So if you have everything, why not do your taxes now when you had the time? That isn't "compulsive," it's sensible. You do them by yourself every year. Suddenly Rose needs to babysit you? Give me a break.

I'd do our taxes now if the fripping Georgia DOL would send James the paperwork for his unemployment!

Emma said...

I had Temporary Disability, which apparently isn't unemployment. I think she's worried about all the documentation from the inheritance money, that I missed something or wasn't able to calculate something right because I'm not good at math, or that TurboTax missed something. And her husband Craig took my stuff to Goodwill, so I don't know what he got for it. I think she's more upset that I do things without telling her or letting her help out, like I did when I moved my new dresser last year and scraped the floor and could have re-injured my arm.

Linda said...

Well, you can tell Rose we finished getting all OUR documents today and I sat down and did the taxes, February 12 or no February 12. I made a couple of mistakes and TurboTax asked the right questions and I fixed the errors. Expensive little rotter, but it works well.