Unintended Birthday Hiatus

Where to start?  Yesterday was my birthday and I spent part of it here:

Saturday I had launched myself out of bed at 6:30 a.m. intent on being first in line at the University of Colorado Business School where, I'd been told in a phone conversation Wednesday, they would be able to do my taxes for free including an EZ Schedule C. 

I got the wood stove going to heat my water so I could wash up. Finally about 7:30 a.m. the water was warm enough to wash in.  I cleaned  up, dressed and, using my ski pole, climbed over the deck railing and made my way to the car fighting wind gusts.  The snow had drifted deeper south of the cabin but was still preferable to that on the west and the car was totally free of snow so I got out without shoveling. 

I drove to Boulder, made my way to the campus and found a free parking place which seemed like a good omen since parking is at a premium and most of the lots are parking by permit only.  It was also cold and windy in Boulder and I had to walk what seemed a quarter of a mile to the correct building..

I found the room in which the free tax services were being offered and after showing Susan, the supervisor, my paperwork was told, despite our phone conversation earlier in the week, that they could not do my taxes because I would be filing a business loss on my Schedule C.  I suggested I claim the income and forgo the expenses and was told that no way, no how were they going to enter into that arrangement and I really needed to find a CPA and do my taxes correctly.  I took an  instant dislike to Susan.

BUT Goodwill, which was having a 50% off Saturday, is just a block south of the Business School.  So I went to McDonald's, got take-out breakfast and swung back around to Goodwill and got that parking spot right in front of the front door again. I ran into a "junqueing" acquaintance I hadn't seen since last June and he told me where H&R Block was located. I drove there and dropped off all my income tax materials and made an appointment to return Sunday at noon.  It was so cold and windy, both in Eldora and Boulder, but, in addition to this spectacular view of the Flatirons, a Boulder landmark...

...I got good news.  A very sizable sizable refund and even though it cost me $225.50, and that included a $20-off coupon the preparer was nice enough to provide, she is also reviewing my 2010 tax return at no additional cost. 

Spring had sprung while I was having my taxes done, the wind had died down and it was sunny and warm and I celebrated my refund and my birthday by going to Aspen Leaf Yogurt in the same shopping center where numerous self-serve flavors of yogurt and a smorgasbord of toppings are available for 45 cents an ounce.  I got by for $3.39

When I got back to the cabin, the weather was equally pleasant here so I smoothed a little path from the south deck to the wood pile and brought in enough wood to fill the wood box and emptied the ashes, which just isn't something you want to try to do when it's as windy as it had been.

 

Started to blog but discovered I was unable to log onto my computer.  More about that tomorrow.  How did you spend your weekend?  Teddee

Camp Pucker

All the members of my immediate family can find things so hilariously funny that we get, as we say, "hysterical."  If you do not know us, or from a distance, you might think we were, in fact, crying.  Our faces contort uncontrollably.  Our laughter sounds like sobs.  We gasp for breath.  We cry real tears.  In a group, we feed into each other's "hysteria," laughing because the other person is laughing and because he or she is having so much trouble explaining what's funny without getting even more hysterical.  But a group, I've found, isn't essential to this phenomenon. 

I was working on my income taxes today in preparation for an appointment with a tax preparer on Tuesday.  Volunteer tax preparers, trained by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), prepare tax returns free through the senior centers in Boulder and other Colorado towns.  I don't know if this service is offered nationwide, but I used the service for the first time last year on the recommendation of my friend Paula and found it very helpful...and easy on the budget.

I have been doing a bit of freelance editing, so thought I'd better go prepared with a list of possible business-related deductions.  I was looking, in particular, for printer paper and printer ink expenditures and knew many of these would be scattered throughout purchases of org milk, grnd trky, salmon flts and acid reducr I had made at Walmart.  [Note to self:  Have these business-related items rung up separately from now on].  I'm very short of work space in this one-room cabin, so was finding it difficult to sort through all these receipts I was balancing on one knee without having them fall on the floor and was getting increasingly frustrated with the entire operation.

About this time I spotted an item on one receipt that caught my attention:  Camp Pucker.  Camp Pucker?  What in the heck had I purchased that would appear on a receipt as Camp Pucker?  I could feel my thoughts careening around my brain in search of the answer like the steel ball in a pinball machine.  Then, the ball shot off laterally and all I could think of was the unfortunate child whose parents had just signed him up for Camp Pucker.  Waay worse than Outward Bound!  I started giggling, then laughing, then guffawing, then crying and couldn't quit.  I'd just get my tears wiped and my nose blown and I'd think about it again and off I'd go.

I finally figured out it was a camp shirt made of today's version of seersucker I bought right before I went to visit my brother in Tacoma last July.

Life can be a lot of fun by yourself in a 200+-square-foot cabin in the Rocky Mountains.

What made you laugh today?  Teddee