Sometimes I wonder if I've gotten a little forgetful. I might be busy in one room and realize that I need something in another room. So, I stride off purposefully. Shortly thereafter, and long before I reach wherever I'm going, I realize I don't know what I'm going after. I always seem to know where I'm going and almost always stop exactly where I should. But, once stopped, I simply stand and stare blankly. Once in a while I actually remember why I'm there, but usually I have to go back to where I started from and take up whatever task I was doing. Then I remember and make a second trip to fetch whatever. I don't think I've ever had to go back twice. If I ever do, it will surely make me laugh and I'll write about it.
I had something else to write about concerning forgetfulness. I think it was a pretty funny story...but I forgot what it was while I was writing the first paragraph. Maybe I'll remember it later.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Those sly dogs!
Follow-up to the question about why there was such a big difference in valuation on identical homestead plots:
Chris said he went to the tax office and asked about the valuation. The first person he spoke to said that his valuation was higher because his land adjoined a larger block of land, which increased the value. Huh? He explained to that person that our lot adjoined the same piece of land. Further clarification was needed so he spoke to a second person. When he pointed out to her that we both adjoined the same larger piece of land, she admitted that they had never caught it.
They are correcting it...luckily, lowering Chris' valuation, not raising ours. I don't know how long it has been that way. Could have been more than 30 years. Of course, there's no refund. Their stance is, "Oops! Our bad!"
Chris said he went to the tax office and asked about the valuation. The first person he spoke to said that his valuation was higher because his land adjoined a larger block of land, which increased the value. Huh? He explained to that person that our lot adjoined the same piece of land. Further clarification was needed so he spoke to a second person. When he pointed out to her that we both adjoined the same larger piece of land, she admitted that they had never caught it.
They are correcting it...luckily, lowering Chris' valuation, not raising ours. I don't know how long it has been that way. Could have been more than 30 years. Of course, there's no refund. Their stance is, "Oops! Our bad!"
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Busy, busy, busy
Recently, in an email to a friend, I remarked that I needed to work on my "schedule." By that I meant I needed to think about inserting blocks of time for a little housework, some exercise, and sorting through and dealing with 44 years worth of stuff.
After I sent the email, I finished the set group of puzzles that I do at Jigzone.com almost every day. Then I loaded the car with the recyclable stuff that I intend to deliver when I go into town today. After that, I loaded the few dishes from lunch into the dishwasher. I then headed upstairs to get ready for my trip to town which was going to include dinner with girlfriends...a once a week event that we have been doing for nearly 11 1/2 years.
I was still thinking about my daily (well, Monday through Friday) routine and going through the activities in my head:
* Sleep till at least 8, if at all possible
* Weigh in on Wii Fit and do the body test (haven't done yoga or exercise for several months...no time in the schedule)
* Prepare and eat my breakfast (same menu most mornings)
* Read the paper and work puzzles while I eat breakfast...this takes about an hour
* Hand wash some dishes, place others in dishwasher
There is a block of time that starts here and ends about lunch time that I can't account for. I'm not sure what happens...possibly I'm abducted by aliens.
Really...I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I do. Wayne does his laundry, so it's not that. I rarely sweep, vacuum or dust, so it's not that. I almost never turn on the television before 5 PM, so it's not that. I'm baffled. Maybe I should keep a log.
Continuing with daily activities that I actually remember:
* Prepare and eat my lunch. Usually nothing special. Continue reading the paper or a novel while I eat.
* Clean up any dishes after lunch. Wayne either makes himself a sandwich or (rarely) asks me to make him something. About 50% of the time he goes out to lunch with friends.
* After lunch I make a cup of coffee (instant) and take it upstairs and read for a while.
* Around 2 or 2:30 I get on the computer and check emails and work some jigsaws on jigzone. This usually takes about an hour.
* Maybe I'll open Quicken and do some bookkeeping about now. Pay some bills, etc.
* About 5 I start thinking about supper and head downstairs to see what I can make with what I've got. The t.v. gets turned on about this time and I usually watch one of the CSI's or NCIS while I'm in dinner mode.
* So, eat...clean up...head to the computer room, maybe.
* By about 9, I'll start watching some of the shows I've recorded. While I watch I often play WordWarp on my iphone (which then means I have to rewind and watch the shows again because I can't spell and follow plots at the same time). By 12:30 or 1, I go to bed.
Well, that's my usual daily grind. Of course, it's flexible thanks to the 2 hour block of time when I'm beamed up to the mothership.
Okay, I was replaying all this in my head and then I actually thought, "and on the weekends I relax." Of course, that made me laugh and I had to come write it down.
After I sent the email, I finished the set group of puzzles that I do at Jigzone.com almost every day. Then I loaded the car with the recyclable stuff that I intend to deliver when I go into town today. After that, I loaded the few dishes from lunch into the dishwasher. I then headed upstairs to get ready for my trip to town which was going to include dinner with girlfriends...a once a week event that we have been doing for nearly 11 1/2 years.
I was still thinking about my daily (well, Monday through Friday) routine and going through the activities in my head:
* Sleep till at least 8, if at all possible
* Weigh in on Wii Fit and do the body test (haven't done yoga or exercise for several months...no time in the schedule)
* Prepare and eat my breakfast (same menu most mornings)
* Read the paper and work puzzles while I eat breakfast...this takes about an hour
* Hand wash some dishes, place others in dishwasher
There is a block of time that starts here and ends about lunch time that I can't account for. I'm not sure what happens...possibly I'm abducted by aliens.
Really...I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I do. Wayne does his laundry, so it's not that. I rarely sweep, vacuum or dust, so it's not that. I almost never turn on the television before 5 PM, so it's not that. I'm baffled. Maybe I should keep a log.
Continuing with daily activities that I actually remember:
* Prepare and eat my lunch. Usually nothing special. Continue reading the paper or a novel while I eat.
* Clean up any dishes after lunch. Wayne either makes himself a sandwich or (rarely) asks me to make him something. About 50% of the time he goes out to lunch with friends.
* After lunch I make a cup of coffee (instant) and take it upstairs and read for a while.
* Around 2 or 2:30 I get on the computer and check emails and work some jigsaws on jigzone. This usually takes about an hour.
* Maybe I'll open Quicken and do some bookkeeping about now. Pay some bills, etc.
* About 5 I start thinking about supper and head downstairs to see what I can make with what I've got. The t.v. gets turned on about this time and I usually watch one of the CSI's or NCIS while I'm in dinner mode.
* So, eat...clean up...head to the computer room, maybe.
* By about 9, I'll start watching some of the shows I've recorded. While I watch I often play WordWarp on my iphone (which then means I have to rewind and watch the shows again because I can't spell and follow plots at the same time). By 12:30 or 1, I go to bed.
Well, that's my usual daily grind. Of course, it's flexible thanks to the 2 hour block of time when I'm beamed up to the mothership.
Okay, I was replaying all this in my head and then I actually thought, "and on the weekends I relax." Of course, that made me laugh and I had to come write it down.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Can't figure it out
As I was working on my part of the wedding list, going through the list we made for Carolyn and Brent's wedding in 2001, I had to continually click over to
...hold the phone..."ad infinitum" has been approved! Google searched it while I was working on the last post and I just noticed.
continuing from paragraph 1; come on...keep up with me...
white pages.com to update addresses. All the routes are being changed over to 9-1-1 addresses. I was usually able to come up with a good address, but occasionally, while the road was given, the number was "undisclosed." So, I would then go to the online Wharton county data site for a search, thinking they might have updated addresses. During my search, I realized how much "nobody's business but mine" information there is at that website. So, I started looking at other people's information.
I compared our land value on our homestead to someone else's, who shall be unknown, Chris, and noticed quite a difference in value in our identical size lots. Not the improvements, just the land value. They should be identical. So, I was talking to him today and suggested that he might want to investigate why his is so much higher. I haven't heard anything back from him yet.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to work out in my mind how our 1.375 acres could be valued differently from his adjoining 1.375 acres. Maybe this is what has been observed by the appraiser's office over the 30 or so years we've lived here:
Them: Have an automatic sprinkler system
Us: Have used irrigation pipe to flood the yard 3 or 4 times. Every few years we have also used hoses and sprinklers to water, whether it needs it or not.
Them: Maintain their flower beds year-round
Us: Someone driving past might have seen us set fire to the flower bed (one that isn't next to the house) in lieu of chopping out the weeds. I must say I was against it at first, but it worked pretty well. The key is using the right amount of gasoline...too much and it kind of makes a "WHOMP" and it's all over...too little and it burns too slowly, trees and shrubs don't like that.
Them: Mow and edge regularly
Us: Not so much
Them: Decorate outside for Christmas and then take the decorations in after Christmas
Us: We put up Christmas lights probably the first year we were in the house. We didn't take them down until we needed new siding. They had quit working long before that.
Them: Board up the windows in preparation for a hurricane and then take them down afterward
Us: Well, we did that, too. Of course, the boards on the 2nd floor windows are still up...almost 6 months after the hurricane...but, I don't really mind. It sound proofs and keeps it nice and dark so I can sleep late without any sunlight waking me up.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head...I don't see how that would affect the land value that much.
It did get me laughing out loud while I thought about it, though. Really, I can still see that flower bed burning.
...hold the phone..."ad infinitum" has been approved! Google searched it while I was working on the last post and I just noticed.
continuing from paragraph 1; come on...keep up with me...
white pages.com to update addresses. All the routes are being changed over to 9-1-1 addresses. I was usually able to come up with a good address, but occasionally, while the road was given, the number was "undisclosed." So, I would then go to the online Wharton county data site for a search, thinking they might have updated addresses. During my search, I realized how much "nobody's business but mine" information there is at that website. So, I started looking at other people's information.
I compared our land value on our homestead to someone else's, who shall be unknown, Chris, and noticed quite a difference in value in our identical size lots. Not the improvements, just the land value. They should be identical. So, I was talking to him today and suggested that he might want to investigate why his is so much higher. I haven't heard anything back from him yet.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to work out in my mind how our 1.375 acres could be valued differently from his adjoining 1.375 acres. Maybe this is what has been observed by the appraiser's office over the 30 or so years we've lived here:
Them: Have an automatic sprinkler system
Us: Have used irrigation pipe to flood the yard 3 or 4 times. Every few years we have also used hoses and sprinklers to water, whether it needs it or not.
Them: Maintain their flower beds year-round
Us: Someone driving past might have seen us set fire to the flower bed (one that isn't next to the house) in lieu of chopping out the weeds. I must say I was against it at first, but it worked pretty well. The key is using the right amount of gasoline...too much and it kind of makes a "WHOMP" and it's all over...too little and it burns too slowly, trees and shrubs don't like that.
Them: Mow and edge regularly
Us: Not so much
Them: Decorate outside for Christmas and then take the decorations in after Christmas
Us: We put up Christmas lights probably the first year we were in the house. We didn't take them down until we needed new siding. They had quit working long before that.
Them: Board up the windows in preparation for a hurricane and then take them down afterward
Us: Well, we did that, too. Of course, the boards on the 2nd floor windows are still up...almost 6 months after the hurricane...but, I don't really mind. It sound proofs and keeps it nice and dark so I can sleep late without any sunlight waking me up.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head...I don't see how that would affect the land value that much.
It did get me laughing out loud while I thought about it, though. Really, I can still see that flower bed burning.
Let me entertain me
I am so easily entertained. I think I've always been this way. I see humor where others might not. Andy and Chris, are the same way. We got it from our mom. Dad, while he could laugh at a good joke, didn't understand it when we would latch onto something that made us laugh and then keep adding other elements to it ad infinitum. (My spell checker has put a red line under infinitum. If it's wrong, I apologize...but, I'm using it anyway. Substitute ad nauseum if you want to, although there's a red line under that, too.)
Last night, after I finished working on my list for Robin's wedding, and after I had watched a recorded episode of "The Closer", and after I had turned off the television and the lights and snuggled under the blankets, something flitted through my mind that made me laugh out loud. I don't remember what I was thinking about, but after I laughed out loud about it, then I continued laughing at the fact that I was laughing...and now I'm laughing again. As I said, easily entertained.
Last night, after I finished working on my list for Robin's wedding, and after I had watched a recorded episode of "The Closer", and after I had turned off the television and the lights and snuggled under the blankets, something flitted through my mind that made me laugh out loud. I don't remember what I was thinking about, but after I laughed out loud about it, then I continued laughing at the fact that I was laughing...and now I'm laughing again. As I said, easily entertained.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Dust
So, now that the tax work is done, I can turn my energy to a little housework. This is one filthy house!
The bug man was here last month. He comes three or four times a year. I always dread it, because in the six years since I retired, I still haven't gotten the house looking like it should. It actually looks worse than it did when I had a full time job outside the house! Much worse.
For the last month, I've noticed the odd dead bug but haven't bothered to get the broom and sweep it up. Yesterday I noticed a new one in the living room. I backtracked to see if I saw what I thought I saw. Yes, indeedy, it was a large roach (a type that we always say came in from outside) that seemed to be resting on a dust bunny. My first thought..."it must have choked to death." It's still there today, but I am really pumped right now to vacuum, dust, sweep, etc. Well, I'm pumped, but I'm upstairs on the computer.
For sure, tomorrow I'll clean. Oh, wait...tomorrow is Tuesday, the day the movie runs a feature at 1:00 for $2.50. I really like to take advantage of that when kids are in school. Usually it's just me and 3 or 4 other people in the theater. Very nice.
Back to the dust and dirt; where does it come from? I don't have windows open. There's no carpet. The door may only get opened a few times a day. This is ridiculous!
The bug man was here last month. He comes three or four times a year. I always dread it, because in the six years since I retired, I still haven't gotten the house looking like it should. It actually looks worse than it did when I had a full time job outside the house! Much worse.
For the last month, I've noticed the odd dead bug but haven't bothered to get the broom and sweep it up. Yesterday I noticed a new one in the living room. I backtracked to see if I saw what I thought I saw. Yes, indeedy, it was a large roach (a type that we always say came in from outside) that seemed to be resting on a dust bunny. My first thought..."it must have choked to death." It's still there today, but I am really pumped right now to vacuum, dust, sweep, etc. Well, I'm pumped, but I'm upstairs on the computer.
For sure, tomorrow I'll clean. Oh, wait...tomorrow is Tuesday, the day the movie runs a feature at 1:00 for $2.50. I really like to take advantage of that when kids are in school. Usually it's just me and 3 or 4 other people in the theater. Very nice.
Back to the dust and dirt; where does it come from? I don't have windows open. There's no carpet. The door may only get opened a few times a day. This is ridiculous!
Atta girl!
Apparently there's a limit to how silly I want to appear. I actually set up my camera and made a short video, dancing and chanting about having turned my taxes in to the accountant. It's on the cutting room floor...
I am, however, very pleased that I did get it finished more than a month earlier than usual. I had been determined to not put it off until the last possible weekend before the accountant's deadline. The final 1099 (at least I hope it was the last) arrived last week and I got to work. Yea, me!
I am, however, very pleased that I did get it finished more than a month earlier than usual. I had been determined to not put it off until the last possible weekend before the accountant's deadline. The final 1099 (at least I hope it was the last) arrived last week and I got to work. Yea, me!
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