What Is That Piece For?

Peyton Manning is coming to Denver?!  Just heard that on KUVO which I stream most of the time.  Digressing again.  I'm getting ready to go to Boulder to hang around and try to talk to the IRS about their double dipping, so this is going to be quick.

Some time back...I think it was the last 50% off Saturday I attended at Goodwill in Boulder...I found this beverage dispenser.  Since I have no running water and carry water from the spring in the next valley...

...I usually just dispense my water from the jugs into which I catch the water. 

I thought the new dispenser shown at the top of the blog might look a little nicer and would take up less space on the wash stand.

I took the photo at the top when I was washing it the other day when the weather was nice enough to do dishes outside.

As I took it apart to wash it, I discovered this one piece for which I see no purpose.  I'll post the photo again...

Obviously the cone-shaped piece holds ice, which will be nice here in the summer since we have no refrigerator and some people really don't like room temperature water.  I personally don't mind it, but I thought this was an added benefit.  Then there is the primary lid and the smaller lid that enables direct access to the ice container.

I don't understand the bowl-shaped piece on the right, however.  It sits down inside the main container. Does it have something to do with keeping an air lock from forming?  I know with the large jugs I have I must loosen the lids in order for the water to dispense.

Any ideas?  Teddee

Spoke Too Soon

My elation yesterday was premature when I thought the expected worst case scenario had not occurred and the IRA, oops Freudian slip, IRS had not continued to deduct monthly payments for my 2010 taxes following their taking the balance owed out of my 2011 refund.
 

Photo of facade of IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C., courtesy of FotoSearch.


They did, in fact, help themselves to the March monthly payment as well.

Maybe I'm paying for these lovely flowers...

 Photo by John Elswick, AP, on USA Today on-line 1/9/12
 
I called H&R Block today and they told me I could come to their office tomorrow and they would pay for the call if I wanted to try calling again.  I'm going to drive to Boulder and do so even if both the H&R Block representative and I think it won't do any good and I'll just have to wait until it dawns on someone at the IRS that they have wrongly deducted the payment and refund it...or not.

Photo of IRS headquarters sign, Washington, D.C., courtesy of Los Angeles Times/Business/Money & Company, on-line 4/12/11

I suppose now the worst case scenario will be if they continue taking it out month after month despite the fact that it appears in their computers that they have discontinued doing so.  Hmm.  I wonder if I can contact my bank and stop it from that end?  I don't give up easily.  Are you effective at taking on the bureaucracy?  Teddee

My Lucky Day

I didn't post a blog yesterday.  Instead, I met my friend Paula for lunch at the Olive Garden in Boulder.  The restaurant was my choice.  I'd been craving that all-you-can-eat green salad.  The food was great and we had a good visit, but when our waiter brought our checks, things got confusing.  Our orders only differed in that I had iced tea, but he had initially just split the ticket when we asked for separate checks, then realized this was inaccurate and recalculated.  We received a shower of receipts, along with an explanation, but he assured us we would only be charged for the check we signed.  Of course, when I checked my bank account this morning, I had been charged for both amounts.  I called the restaurant and the manager said this often happens with debit cards and she was pretty sure the wrong amount would "fall off" within five days, but I should call her if that didn't occur.  In the meantime she was sending me a gift card.  Thank you Neptune!  (The local astrologer Karen Anderson told me recently that after 144 years, my ruling planet Neptune has entered my sign or whatever and this is like having an ally). 

After lunch I had to pick up my 2010 income tax documents from H&R Block which had been reviewed for free and found accurate. By the way,  after Thursday's rant about the IRS, Uncle Sam was satisfied with deducting the rest of the 2010 taxes I'd been paying on a monthly basis from my 2011 refund and did not take out the monthly payment as well, so I take it all back and I'm a free woman! (Neptune again?).

Then I stopped in Savers which is just next door.  I got a couple of cardigan sweaters with part of the $20 my friend Cindy sent me for my birthday.  Thank you Cindy! (Neptune was on duty.  Cindy actually sent $20 in cash, silly girl, and the post office equipment had tried to eat the card, but the $20 bill was unscathed).

Here are the sweaters.  Identical, but one black and one brown.  They are a little large under the arms but these pleats flatter my "figger," as one of my grandmothers used to say.  No discount (Savers is a notoriously stingy thrift store), but the sweaters were only $6.99 each and I filled a punch card which translates into 30% off my next purchase.



There may be need for those sweaters by tomorrow.  Our unseasonably warm weather which, I believe, is setting records, is ending.  Today it was supposed to be 59F degrees here in the mountains (my thermometer says 60F degrees at 5:30 p.m., so I think it was warmer than that).  NOAA predicted  77F degrees in Boulder.  The Eldora forecast is 30% chance of rain/snow tomorrow with 38 mph winds, 60% chance of snow tomorrow night, 50% chance of snow Monday and a 40% chance of snow Monday night with a low of 17F degrees.  I'm not sure we'll be able to adjust. 

Goodwill was having a 50% off Saturday today, but I decided to forgo the pleasure.  I needed to tote some wood from that pileout by the car in preparation for the return of cold weather...

 
...and I'm saving myself for the Beautiful Junk Sale next Saturday in Golden, Colorado. 

I think this is my third visit.  The subtitle is "Jefferson County's largest bargain sale with 10,500 square feet of discount treasures."  It's held inside at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds' Exhibit Hall.  Admission is $3 and they deduct $1 if you bring two cans of food.  I didn't think the last sale was as much fun as the two previous events, but it's always fun to see what they have and there's never a bad community garage sale.

After Savers I finally got out to the Walmart in Erie where I needed to purchase a gift card for my great niece.  I've given my great nieces and nephews (or is it grand nieces and nephews?) these gift cards for their birthdays and at Christmas for years and they really seem to enjoy them.  I also needed ink cartridges for my printer and those aren't cheap even at Walmart ($32.97 for a Kodak color/black and white combo).  My shopping list had grown considerably waiting for the second Wednesday of March to arrive.  Those of us who receive our Social Security checks on the second Wednesday of the month had one of those months in which that was not until the 14th.  The second Wednesday in February was the 8th.  Those extra days can really make a difference.  Paula and I agreed yesterday that having the government issue these checks on a specific Wednesday each month instead of a specific date really causes hardship.  Why don't they just always issue them on the 10th?  Maybe I'll start a campaign. 

My grand total at Walmart added considerably to their bottom line.  Walmart's owners are among the richest of the rich who just get richer as pointed out in that book I just finished and blogged about, Winner-Take-All Politics:  How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.  (I'm still waiting to hear back from the authors).

According to a December 14, 2011, on-line Forbes article, the "six members of the Walton Family...have more wealth than the bottom 30% of Americans."  "...they are collectively worth about $93 billion."   According to an MSN on-line article dated 8/12/2009, they were worth only $23 billion when founder Sam Walton died in 1992.  In the intervening nineteen years, their wealth had increased by $70 billion!

In a way, it's too bad their prices can make such a big difference in how far a Social Security check goes, let alone the convenience of finding almost everything one needs in one store--I had been wondering where I could find a cobbler (do they even exist anymore?) for some of those sticky traction things you can put on the soles of shoes and boots to keep them from slipping and, lo and behold, there they were among the shoe polishes.  My shopping list went from toothpaste to needles, cat food for the foxes to drill bits, the gift card to the ink cartridges, rubber gloves to poster mount (which I hope I can use like Quake Hold to keep things from vibrating off these shelves next to the cabin door) and I found it all as well as a few groceries. 

I didn't get back until dark.  I have a porch light, but had forgotten to leave it on, so had to leave the car door open for the bit of light the overhead interior light provided, pick my way across the meadow to the cabin, turn on the porch light, grab the flashlight and make numerous trips to unload the car.  My neighbor across the road drove up the canyon behind me and, I think, deliberately left his multiple very bright back porch lights on until I got my car unloaded.  I've only chatted briefly with him once.  Maybe it was coincidence.  If so, it was nice coincidence.

So that's my good luck story.  What's yours?  Teddee

Must Government Be...That Way?

I got my federal income tax refund today and saw it was about half of what H&R Block had indicated I would be getting back.  I called H&R Block and was told the IRS, to which I had been making monthly payments for taxes on my last "big earnings" year of 2010 before I retired, had cut to the chase and taken the balance of what was owed them from my refund.  That was fine.  I had, in fact, asked the woman preparing my 2011 return if she could arrange this, but she seemed hesitant, so I had decided to simply wait for the refund, then finish paying off the 2010 taxes. 

However, last night in my half sleep--knowing it took the IRS three months to initiate the automatic deductions I had approved--I decided the likelihood of their continuing to deduct automatic monthly payments even after the balance was paid was extremely high.  I thought perhaps I'd just let the automatic monthly payments continue through July when the balance would be paid.  At this point, I'd like to note I think it's interesting I automatically assumed if the government was involved, if something could go wrong, it would.

This morning, when I realized the balance had been paid I decided I'd better take some action to make sure the automatic monthly payments didn't continue.  First I got on line.  The IRS web site is a joke.  You couldn't find a straight answer if you had an IRS employee sitting at your elbow.  Now why didn't that surprise me?

So I decided to phone.  First I phoned a number that had been provided last year in a letter from the IRS acknowledging the monthly payment arrangement.  None of the menu options applied, but I picked one of two offered, which led to others that also weren't applicable.  After each selection I was told their new hours of operation and admonished not to believe anything I'd heard to the contrary and why didn't I visit the web site.  All of this was taking up expensive minutes and left me wondering why it was so important it had to be repeated at every juncture.  Eventually I was thanked by the computer and disconnected.  At least one disconnect to be expected, right?

Then I phoned a number provided on the web site, listened to numerous menu options, did my best to select one that at least didn't sound wrong, then keyed in the information requested.  Finally, after keying in my Social Security number, I was told to key in #1 if the Social Security number, as repeated by the computer voice, was correct.  I did so, but the computer voice kept on talking.  Of course!  I got so frustrated I hit #1 about ten times.  Then I got a repeated request for "the number of the day."  It seemed as if I was supposed to know or guess some kind of daily password.  I had no idea what that meant so didn't key in anything.  Perhaps that's what I should have done in the initial phone call because finally I was told I'd be connected to a person, but was advised my wait would be between ten and fifteen minutes.  My AT&T cell phone package is such that I try not to make or take any unnecessary phone calls during the week, which drive my monthly payment up quickly, so was not pleased with the hold time but figured I didn't have much choice if I wanted to insure the automatic deductions were not going to continue.

It was a beautiful sunny and calm day--predicted to get up to 52F degrees--so while I was waiting, I hammered in nails that had worked their way out of the cabin siding during the winter and peeled old paint off the west side of the cabin which was re-sided some years back with some recycled siding. 

My mother had told me if we didn't get rid of the red paint she'd come back and haunt us.  Even though she's still living at 96, I figure she'll probably make good on her word and thought this would be a good way to pass the time.  The hammering was particularly therapeutic.

Finally I got a human being on the line.  After taking down my life history to confirm identity she went away for a while to check my account and came back to indicate there was a record the 2010 taxes had been paid in full and it appeared that whatever was in place to trigger the automatic monthly payments had been "turned off."  This was actually sounding good.

I thanked her, but told her that since it had taken three months for them to get the payments started, I really didn't have a lot of confidence the payments would stop just because the balance was now $0, and asked what happened if the automatic payment was deducted from my account tomorrow anyway.  She actually chuckled, indicated she understood and shared they had made some improvements that should prevent this.  This just reinforced my concern.  So, I repeated, what do I do if the automatic deduction is actually made tomorrow?  Well, she said, if the automatic payments continued, they would automatically refund them.  Would it happen fairly quickly?  Well, no.  It might be three weeks. 

Then, acting as if she were really offering me helpful advice, she suggested, if I banked electronically, I could check on line later in the day or tomorrow morning to see if I had such a deduction pending.  I explained I really didn't need to know it was pending, I needed to know how to stop it from happening.  According to her, there wasn't anything else that could be done either by me or her to make absolutely sure it didn't happen and, according to her, "that was just the way things were."

I made sure I didn't use an angry voice, but said, since I was sure the call was being recorded, I was going on record to indicate that even though I understood she was simply one IRS employee, it was this attitude that made most Americans generally irate with the agency she worked for.  She was still blah, blahing about it all being the fault of the banking industry when I thanked her and hung up.  She'll probably deliberately make sure the monthly payment is automatically deducted.

Excellent, even good, customer service, is greatly based on an enthusiastic "can-do" attitude.  Why should we not expect this, which is priceless but adds nothing to the budget deficit, on the part of government employees?  Teddee