Take some time to stop and.....check the back SEAT!

I just came down for my morning coffee a few minutes ago and a newsman was announcing that a baby died after being left for 4 hours in a car in the heat here in TX! The driver claims s/he forgot to drop the 7 month old at daycare. And just last year in the Austin area, a man forgot to drop his child off at daycare and that child died as well due to being locked up in a hot car (in a car seat). The fact is...this wasn't intentional. These people did not set out to do this, they simply did not take the time to look in the back seat when they got out of their vehicles. And look what it cost them. The life of a loved one!

Everyone is so busy these days, thinking about what all they have to do, talking on the cell phone, running here and there and in my opinion needing to SLOW DOWN. I'm not saying everyone can lazily sit it their rocking chair day in and day out (unless they are one of the lucky ones), but everyone just needs to take it slower in general. Maybe leave for work 15 minutes earlier so that there isn't the urge to speed, not schedule so many things in a day, say no to that evening 'home party' even though that is the one evening that is free.

If everyone did this they might be surprised how less stressed they are, how much happier they are and maybe even a bit healthier! And most importantly, they won't be in so much of a hurry that they forget to stop and check the back seat!

Almost forgot..

to post about my youngest being home last weekend. She came home to watch the high school's dance team spring performance and of course to spend a little time with me. It was a quick weekend but we did get some time in at the Red Poppy Festival on Saturday. I got a few vegetable plants so I did get them planted but that is it so far. Hopefully will get more in the balcony garden within the next week or so.

Although the weekend flew by I am looking forward to next month when she will be home for the summer. Woo hoo!

Work is getting steadier which is a good thing. The days are getting warmer which is a good thing. I'm still waiting to resolve my income tax discrepancy which is not a good thing. I will give it a while yet before I mail them another letter.

My mom is getting a surgical procedure tomorrow on her back as she fell backwards from a crouching position in her kitchen and hurt her back and it is not healing on its own. She did this about 2 months ago now. So hopefully this operation will solve her back injury. Fingers crossed! She hasn't felt good enough to do much of anything which has been hard on her and in turn hard on my dad who is doing the best he can to accommodate her.

Earth Day...what I did..

Today I went to the Farmers Market that is in town on Thursday afternoons for a few hours. This is the first time I've ever gone and now I wish I had been going long before now. The members are all local farmers and I was really excited to check it out. All the crops are locally grown and without pesticides and whatever else the vegetables go through by the time they are picked in Mexico or wherever and end up on the store shelves.

I took Kaci, the most behaved of my dogs and she did well and loved sniffing everything she could reach such as some breads below the table that were stored for replacing ones sold. There were several merchants with mostly vegetables. Some specialized in certain things like honey. I just bought honey recently, so I didn't need any. One woman made yummy smelling pies and breads. I almost got one of of her strawberry pies but they were if I recall $10.00. That is just a lot for a pie to me. She had small pies too which I would have gotten if it was $3.00 (we're talking like a serving for one), but that was $5.00 but not half the size of the full pie. So I passed.

I did get some radishes to give my dad, and some baby carrots, tiny squash, strawberries, zuchini, kale, spinach, snow peas, swiss chard, a loaf of homemade bread with spinach and feta cheese in it (tasted very good so hope hub likes it), and pecans. I haven't bought local pecans although I've heard many rave about Texas pecans. But I'm glad I bought them. They were very sweet (for nuts) and I'm sure I'll get them again. There was also a table for chicken (frozen I think but I didn't check it out), and one for the sale of fresh local beef. I may get some beef sometime, but that was really pricey too. I'm sure it is a lot better quality than the local grocery store so once I can afford to get some, I plan on it.

I of course used my canvas shopping bags and passed on the plastic ones that they had. Always makes me feel good that I use the canvas. I've been doing that for over a year now (not sure when I bought the bags but I do know I bought two pink ones last October during breast cancer awareness month).

It started raining while I was there but it seem natural and didn't bother me until I put Kaci in the seat next to me and she proceeded to get the seat and the back a little muddy from her paws. < sigh >

I can't wait to make a good stir fry this weekend when my youngest is home! I did forget though I was going to get some young onions to have in the stir fry. That is okay, I can get those at the grocery I guess. :)

Foreclosures are Up

I heard on the evening news a few nights ago that the foreclosure rate is still increasing as much as 35% in the first quarter of this year!

What is the reason for all these foreclosures? Is it from people out of work or merely walking away from properties that are worth so little compared to what is owed that they don't think they'll ever have any equity in their home? Folks who are just having a hard time making their mortgage payment due to job loss or pay cuts and really want to keep their homes should be able to get a break. I know some modification help is out there but not sure if the criteria is such that these folks can 'qualify'.

There must be better solutions than having one property after another be foreclosed on. Although I know that servicing would be a lot harder, borrowers should be able to send in what they can, even if it is only a few hundred dollars and the mortgage company hold that payment and future payments until they have enough for the full mortgage payment. Then apply it to the loan. This would take longer for the loan to be paid off, but at least folks could hold on to their homes through the hard times. A simple solution to a horrible problem. This probably won't ever be adopted though because those lenders or investors are counting on receiving those full payments each and every month as the Note guarantees....but otherwise this sounds like a good plan to help the homeowners in trouble.

.....ugh...

I have a cold or possibly light flu. Not sure what the difference is because yesterday I was achy and wanted to go to sleep while I was at my desk forcing myself to work. Also had a headache and felt slightly feverish...so don't know if it is considered a cold or flu but at this point in really doesn't make a difference does it? I feel crappy!

Today although I am not fighting sleep quite as much, the nose is running like a faucet and still don't feel very well. It figures, as soon as I run out of my OMNI4 liquid vitamins and decide they are too expensive to keep buying, I get sick. I bought regular multi-vitamin pills about 2-3 weeks ago but they just don't get absorbed into the blood stream like the liquid vitamins.

Talked to hub last night about it while I was trying to get comfortable lying on the couch and we agreed I should just get the OMNI4 again and maybe take that every other day and the pill vitamins on even days to make it last longer.

Some might not buy the idea that those liquid vitamins really made any difference but I had not been sick the whole time I took them the last couple years. So I believe!

Anyway, I think by tomorrow I'll finally start to feel like I'm on the downside of this thing. I won't bother exercising though as I made the mistake yesterday doing it because I didn't feel that bad in the morning.
By 10:30am or 11:00am yesterday I was really feel lousy!

Well I sent in the extra $$ that the IRS said I owe even though I know I am right and am just waiting for them to correct my returns and refund me what we were originally due plus this amount I sent today. I don't want to get charged any penalties and such. It is just a shame that I filed back in mid February and here I am still waiting for this to get corrected and done with! It isn't like I have that extra money to give them right now, and forget any 1st quarter estimated taxes! Hopefully will have some for 2nd quarter.

The cold mornings here finally seem to be over which is nice. I am debating whether to have a little bit of a balcony vegetable garden and I probably will have a small one as long as I can still get some plants/seeds. I won't be looking for them until this weekend at the earliest. At least the old planters are there and have last year's soil in them... so I should be able to just sift and dig it some and maybe add a little peat and just use again. I am not going to think about it right now since my head hurts. :-)

......Achhoooo!

Spring .. planting?....

As I look out and see all the planters on my balcony with dried up remains of my attempts at a vegetable garden last year, I remember how inspired I was that all the seeds that I started grew to nice seedlings. Then my young vegetable plants were planted into the various planters and barrels I had purchased and it all started out nice and green and growing. But then came summer with over 60 days of blistering 100 degree heat. It was too much for my garden to survive. I think I had 3 or 4 cucumbers and a handful of green peppers when I had planted a lot of vegetables that mostly were nurtured lovingly by seed.

Since it is already April it is late for me to start anything from seed except maybe cucumbers and zucchini but I am still trying to decide if I even want to spend the money on seeds or plants, more soil, and water, and spend the time taking care of it. Money is tight this year and every penny counts. So I may try growing one or two things but just not sure yet.

I am definitely not buying flowers for the front porch. Those are not cheap and last year they died pretty quickly. I know this summer may not be as dry and hot as last year, but it was really depressing how bad my balcony garden turned out last year and how fast the flowers died.

So if I don't try having a lot, I won't have to risk the disappointment if not much comes of it. I suppose I could look into an indoor herb garden...lately I've discovered and gotten on a kale kick...wonder if I can grow that indoors...hmm...

Update...

I finally got the letter from the IRS on Thursday, and it was vague still as to what the error was. So I decided to call the phone number indicated. After going through a menu of selections and getting through to the department I wanted, I got a recorded message that the next available representative would be an estimated 10-15 minute wait. After being on hold for over 2o minutes I got a live person. After confirming all my information so that she could verify I was whom I knew I was, I asked where the error was on the Schedule SE. The lady I spoke to said that she would put me through to someone that can explain the Schedule SE, in their small business area.

Before I knew it I was on hold again, and the next available representative would be an estimated 10-15 minutes. After another 25 minutes a gentleman responded and I told him about the letter indicating a mistake on the Schedule SE. I asked him what they had for my Schedule SE. He said he didn't have that information only that he explains the form. I told him I use Turbo Tax and it did not indicate there were any errors when I was done. His response was that the IRS doesn't acknowledge (as in guarantee I guess)that program for tax returns and he suggested I contact someone at Turbo Tax. By this time I had been on the phone over an hour.
I knew that I did my return correctly. I told him I have been doing them myself for 30 years, worked for H&R Block one year and am not a stranger to schedule SE.

I asked him why I can't find out where they got a different figure than I did on the Schedule SE. He told me I had to go back to a representative and there I was back on hold again..for another 10-15 minutes which turned out again to be at least 20.

I finally got a person who could tell me the figures on the Schedule SE that they had. I tried to compare with him line by line but they don't have the identical line by line Schedule so I resorted to asking him what figures he had. He got to the social security tax line where I show 0, it indicated I owed, bingo! That was it. And it was whomever did the data entry of my return I suppose who didn't transpose my figures accurately, creating a $3000 tax mistake! I explained how this was not my error but I think I was over this guy's head as he wasn't very familiar with the Schedule SE. So I thanked him, got off the phone and wrote in my response with supporting documents proving I was right. Now it is a waiting game once again and will probably be another 30 days before this is all resolved. Lesson learned. I will never file taxes early ever again.
Every other year I've filed no earlier than a week before April 15th and never had a problem.

Guess it is Murphy's Law. Expect a refund so file early, and get screwed.

I just wonder how many others get letters like this and just don't deal with it because they just assume they must have done their taxes wrong or are just afraid to challenge the IRS. But I hope that people will take the time to find out where the differences are because it may turn out that they are right! Of course it might take 2 hours of being on the phone, but to me it was worth it!