Yardwork

With 500 Spring Bulbs arriving in a few weeks (what was I thinking?) I had to prepare some places for them.  

Most are daffodils with different colors/flower shapes to add to the existing daffodil bed around the bird-feeder.  Some will go into the front yard daffodil box for the same reason.  I decided that masses of the same flowers needed some additional/contrasting colors.  

The hyacinths, tulips, and crocuses have to protected from deer and voles.  Both consider them candy.  The voles eat the bulbs below ground; the deer eat the flowers.  I can protect against the voles by planting with wire cages underground.  I can only protect them from deer because the deer won't jump the tall fence into the back yard.

So I mowed one 10' diameter bed in the back yard. and one larger one in the front down to 1/2".  I have never grown pollinator plants in it (as I intended it for), but a few dozen hyacinths will smell sweet in Spring and I can try other plants there (slightly shady in Summer).

The crocuses will go into the back lawn in mesh cages too.  I need to keep the moles away.  They don't eat the bulbs, but the voles use the mole tunnels to travel around and they eat the bulbs.

I need taller edging around the various beds.  6" is not enough.  Set 4" deep just to stay upright barely protects against mowing.  I need 12" edging.  Or landscaping bricks that stack securely.  

The Two Mysterious Objects

 On Friday, I displayed 2 odd objects from Temu.  They have many, and I click on them often just to see what the heck they ARE!

But no one guessed what they were after a few days, so I owe you an explanation.

Is a tactical camo belt.  I expected someone to notice that the ends connected, but the rigid shape and the angle was a bit confusing.  LOL!

The other one was weird.  

It a cooked meat shedder.  You put cooked meat in it, turn the top, and you have shredded chicken/pork/beef.  Basically, it makes "pulled pork" fast.  But I just HAD to click on it to discover what it was.  

I'm not pushing Temu.  But they sell some of the weirdest stuff I've ever seen.  And no, I did not buy either item.

But I did need to at least tell you what those 2 items were.

Gettiing Some Stuff Done

It is so nice to be done with having taxes hanging over my head like The Sword Of Damocles!  I'm back to regular stuff.

1.  I mentioned a couple weeks ago that my handcart tire was flat.  Actually, both of them were but I didn't realize that at the time.  "Unknown" suggested that I use a winch strap to tighten the tire to the wheel (always appreciate good advice).  I've done that before on other garden equipment tires though and those long straps can be tedious to tighten.  

So I had the cart propped upside down and clamped against my workbench and happened to glance at my other bar clamps.

Well, maybe that would work.  I clamped 2 across the tire.  It worked!  And much easier than the strap.  Yay!

2.  Last March, I bought a 5'X8'x18" trailerload of topsoil/compost mix for filling 10 gallon pots for planting tomatoes, beans, and corn (My regular garden needs some renovation).  I got the containers filled but then my right hip went all bad in April. 

This gets all complicated, but I'll try to keep it short.  I went to bed April 15 feeling fine.  I woke up April 16 and fell to the floor when I tried to get up.   And I screamed in pain.  The x-ray technicians said it was bone marrow cancer.  My Dr said I had a liver problem and suggested further tests with specialist Drs (who were booked for 3-4 months).

I had to buy 2 roller/walkers (one in the car, the other for in the house) just to get around.  But before those appointments,I suddenly could walk normally again after 2 months.  It was obviously "just" a very badly torn groin muscle.  

But I still had a half trailerload of topsoil/compost mix leftover (I miscalculated how much I needed for the containers).  So half the stuff has been sitting in the trailer for 7 months.  And I need the trailer for other reasons.

So most is going on a front yard island around a tree and boulder.

I have 500 Spring bulbs arriving in November.  Many daffodils will be planted there (the deer won't eat them).  Along with a couple dozen Japanese Painted Ferns I will transplant and a few remaining 'Snow-On-The-Mountain' plants which I hope will spread (which also the deer won't eat).  And no tulips; the deer love to eat them!

The hyancinths and some random daffodils will go the space around the birdfeeder for more color.  I made it too uniform originally.  Large clumps of identical bulbs.  Boring...

The crocuses will go in the lawn.  In vole-proof cages.  I planted a few hundred in the back and front lawn 10 years ago, and there are barely any left.  If deer love tulips, voles love every bulb but daffodils.

That should keep me busy for a week!

3.  Bought 40 pansies yesterday.  Lowe's has great prices on 8-packs.  In some past years, I have planted a 100 in one spot in the back.

But I want to cover that area this Winter/Spring in brown packing paper to smother encroaching weedy grasses.  So this year I will be just planting them in the deck pots and around the mailbox post.  I think that will be more visible and cheery during the Winter anyway.

4.  Bought a mop-wringer recently.  Which sounds a dirty and janitorial, but a damp mop is easier on the wood floors than a sponge-mop.  And a wringer will help.  Dipping a dirty mop in the toilet and then squeezing it clean get tiring.

So I started declutterring the floors the past couple days.  I can't mop the floors when they are covered with cat toys, turbotracks, tunnels, and my own odd junk!  And even then, I will have to move and/or lift all the furniture.  But a wringer seems "cleaner" to use.

And then, I'll drag out the carpet water-cleaner machine.  It will probably go into shock since I haven't used it for 10 years.  And the dirty water it sucks up will be depressing (and leave a bad smell for 2 days).  But both the wood floors and carpets need some serious cleaning.    So declutterring the floors was a start.

5.  Cooking,,,  I found 2 interesting ideas in both a cooking magazine and the Washington Post newspaper recently.  The first was that adding some salt to eggs you are scrambling makes them smoother (by relaxing the whites).  Tried that yesterday and I agree.

The second idea was adding sugar to the salt and pepper in cubed beef (in any recipe).   The sugar promotes browning and adds some flavor.  And making a slurry of beef stock, cornstarch, soy sauce and steak sauce seriously enhances the flavor (I add minced fresh garlic separately) .  

Add the sugar, salt, and pepper an hour beforehand to relax the meat proteins.  I overdid it though.  Too much salt (I don't normally use much salt on my food, so the recipe was a bit more than I wanted).  But it did brown better with the sugar and the salt kept the meat moister.  

Which when tossed back into a skillet of shallots, and red bell peppers heated with the slurry, actually came out very well.  But less salt next time.

6.  Went to Petsmart Monday for "Marley-food".  By which I mean his kidney-care diet stuff.  Usually, there is just Hills Tuna&Vegetable flavor or Royal Canin T (Royal Canin just uses initials).  But this time, they had Royal Canin E and D.  There is no ingredient list on the cans.  So I asked a clerk if they knew what the letters meant.  He didn't but looked it up (which took some time because apparently Royal Canin doesn't want you to know).

But he found out that one is chicken, one is chicken liver and pork liver, and one is chicken liver, pork liver, and salmon.  Pork liver ans salmon seem gross together.  I didn't buy that.  But I'm not a cat, maybe Marley would love it.  I have to go back to get a few cans of it as a taste-test for him.  

That's enough for today...

Clickbait

I'll admit it.  I love clickbaits.  Not for the usual stuff (sex aids, medicines, insurance).  It's Temu on AOL.  

First, I can't resist clicking on a t-shirt.  You have to, to read the actual message, and a lot of them are pretty clever.

But mostly because Temu sells gadgets.   It's not like "oooh I want that".  It mostly "What is that"?  I'm thinking "what the hell is that thing"?  It may turn out to be some gadget that makes waffle-cut potato slices.  Or something that inflates your tires remotely.  

I never buy the stuff; I just have to find out what it is.  Its like, if you had never seen a staple remover and saw a picture of one.  Would you know what it was for?  Would you wonder about it?  I do.

Do you know what this is?

HOW ABOUT THIS?

Weird things crack me up sometimes...

Taxes Done

 I finally got the taxes done.  That State return was so much easier because the software imported most of it from the Federal return.  I was going to snail-mail it Monday, but realized that it was a Federal Holiday and the Post Office was closed.

And then I thought about it more.  To snail-mail, I had to print an official copy, sign it, write a check (increasingly difficult for me these days), drive to the Post Office on the last day possible, pay for postage, pay for "proof of sending", and driving home. About an hour's effort and some gas too.

I decided e-filing for $20 wasn't that bad a deal after all!  It only took about 15 minutes.  I received an email saying it had been transmitted after 1 hour, and that it had been accepted about 4 hours later.

And maybe I will use software again next year.  Now that I understand a few of the new financial items I have to deal with, it will be a lot easier next time.  

And I noticed that my mutual fund has adjusted its reporting to make it easier to fill out software forms.  I used to have to manually add up columns of numbers and figure out where to put the various results.  Now, they give me the details, but also add a summary of what to enter in the tax forms by block numbers.  As in "enter this is block 1a, this in block 4", etc.

So NOW, I am free to get back to regular home projects.   And I have plenty coming up soon!  500 various  Spring bulbs (daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses) will be arriving in a few weeks.  Well, I was feeling ambitious last Spring...

I need to build memorial boxes for Laz and Ayla.  I kept putting it off, mostly because I can't find brown resin 8-12" cat statuettes to match the existing ones.  If you know of a source, please let me know.

I'm taking  a previous box apart to copy it.  And this time I'll copy the pieces in heavy cardboard or masonite so I can do it easier next time.  Sad to think of, but I still have 4 cats and they will each need a memorial box of their own someday.  I don't think I will have a need for more; I'm getting too old.

I am back to cooking again.  I just didn't do much while all stressed about the taxes.  I used up most of my frozen leftovers the past couple weeks.  The tax stuff really stressed me that much.  Now it is time to start building up my supply of good frozen meals.  

Along that thought, I made bread yesterday.  I use dark beer instead of water, and I add a lot of onion and garlic powder and oregano to the mix.  When it cools, I slice it up using a spacer I bought.

Then I freeze it all.  I used to have a problem with the slices sticking together, but I but up a plastic placemat and put a piece of that between each slice.  Works great!

OK, that's all for today.  

Taxes

Thank you all for sympathy, encouragement, and  hopes for easy success on my taxes.  It helped.  And I successfully e-filed my Federal Taxes yesterday afternoon.  After attempting to complete my taxes before April 15th, in June (after having filed for an extention in April) and in August, I was at my wit's end.

Some explanation...

In April, my H&R Block software said I had no network connection.  So I assumed that meant it was a problem on my computer and filed for the 6 month extension.  I figured I had to solve the "no network connection" on my own.  But 6 months seemed like lots of time and I wasn't having a network problem with anything else.  

So I tackled it again in June.  No luck!  Tried again in August.  That time, I decided to call H&R Block and demand to know what "no network connection" meant to them.  I reached a very helpful techie who helped me check my network.  After about 20 minutes of no success, she suggested I just reload the software.  I was worried that I would lose the existing "almost" completed Federal return, but she assured me I wouldn't (as it was a separate file).

So I did and the "no network connection" problem went away and my file remained.  Yay!  So in September, I went back at the taxes.

OMG, the software was different and I discovered there were documents I was missing.  Apparently, the whole problem was some failure during the initial software download in April!  But I had a month to find the missing documents before the Oct 15 deadline.

My, how time flies...

So last week, I realized I had to sit down and get everything together.  First thing was to sort out 6" of unfiled general billing/receipt stuff and file them while looking for the missing documents.  That was long overdue and worth doing, but I didn't find the documents I was missing.

Not to reveal details, but I had 2 major missing documents.  The first was a summary of my mutual fund  investments.  Downloading that one from the mutual fund website was easier than I expected.  There was an obvious button for "downloading tax forms".  Yay.  

The second was the one for a Government Savings Program.  It requires that you start withdrawing 10% per year after age 73 and I turned 73 last year, so this year was the first time I had to report about that.  Worse, if you don't withdraw it voluntarily, they send you a check anyway (minus earned interest).  

So I wasn't familiar with it and didn't recognize when the software was asking about it.  The term "Minimum Required Distribution" didn't mean anything to me.  So I went to the H&R Help Desk (a FAQ, not a person) and figured it out.  But entering it in the tax software raised an alarm.  Which, of course, I did not understand.  Turned out they sent 2 checks and I had forgotten about the 2nd one.

Anyway, I finally got that straightened out...  But it seems that I managed to delete my previous Federal Form entry, so I had to start all over again.  I felt like Ahab fighting the whale!

At least I went through the process a bit more smoothly yesterday.  There are still some entries I'm not certain about.  There are terms and phrases the Government uses that are not exactly plain English, and they explain terms as best they can.

At the end of the Federal form, they (H&R) do a review for completeness and risk analysis.  I did have to go back and fill in a couple of entries I had accidentally skipped (minor stuff like an address confirmation).  But they said after that, that they found no errors.  

So I e-filed the Federal return yesterday (free, and I already have a confirmation the IRS has accepted it.).  Later today, I'll do the State return.  That will be easy because most of it is automatically entered from the Federal return.  I'll snail-mail it Monday because H&R charges $20 for e-filing the State return.  Why the Federal e-filing is free and the State is $20 escapes me.  

I just had to stop after hours with the Federal return (and it was time for dinner).

Next year, I'll just dump everything on a live H&R Block office and avoid all this.  I'm not the dimmest bulb in the room, but this tax stuff is just getting too ridiculous. 

I once read a joke about a simplified tax form.  As follows...

"A.  How much did you earn last year?

B.  How much do you have left?

C.  Send B."

Reconsidering Offline

Maybe going offline until I get my taxes done isn't the best idea.  I can only do so much paperwork in a day.  There is value in posting about other things for a change in menbtal focus and some relaxation.  And to discuss progress.

To get my taxes right, I need some documents.  And in spite of being an office worker for 3 decades, I was and am a terrible filer.  I had an 8" tall stack of stuff  (credit card, insurance, and bank statements; vet and Dr visit documents; all kinds of stuff; on the top of my filing cabinet and I expected the documents I needed were in there somewhere.

So yesterday, I spent almost 6 hours sorting the stack into subjects, organizing the documents by date, and then filing them.  Binq tried to help, but mostly she kept swishing her tail in my face, scattering the documents, and demanding attention.  Generally keeping to herself, she does have times of wanting considerable attention.  Otherwise, it might have only taken 4 hours.

But it did get completed.

Not to get too detailed, but I have a particular saving account that requires 10% withdrawals each year at my age.  I ignored that requirement at first, but they forced 2 checks on me in 2023 and I am missing one of them, which is where I started having problems understanding the tax forms even with H&R Block software (probably my fault, not theirs).  I mean, they ask the right questions, but you still have to answer them correctly.  

And I only had a document for 1 of the 2.  The information I need is probably also in my bank statements.     I might be able to get the forms from the special savings account website.  But that is the project for later today.

I stopped when it was time to make dinner and time to make sure The Mews were inside and get First Dinner.

So later today, I get back at the taxes.  Hopefully, I will actually find the missing document directly and easily from the account website.  If not, I will have to search my bank account statements to find the specific deposits (hence my sorting and filing efforts of yesterday.

But if I don't post for a couple days, assume I'm having troubles and am distracted...

Taxes Are Too Complicated

Going off-line for a week.  I have to do the extension tax filings by October 15 and things are so botched up I have to start from scratch and make corrections...  And sort out the 3 versions I thought were correct at various times but aren't.  

I'll be back when I am back.  Damned stupid complicated taxes!  The 'Minimum Required Distribution" of my Government Savings Thrift Plan has ruined my ability to deal with it on the tax forms.    

  .....

Well, Darn I have to change my post.  I did spend a few hours sorting out the various tax forms (without a lot of success), but when things like that get troublesome, you have to turn your attention to something else.

So I decided to tackle another problem that has been bothering me for several years.  No point in solving a simple problem, LOL!

Some people listen to music on their phones, some on a small boom box.  But I'm a stereo rack guy.  Old habit...  And I haven't been able to play CDs for 3 years.  So, "fix that".  I was sure it was "bad cable hook-ups".  I've looked at it a couple times and just gave up seeing all the wires in the back again.  And I even had a new CD player in the box, but was sure it was the cable connections.

I'm an idiot!

But to start, I had to roll out the stereo rack.  It's on a wheeled tool platform (love those things).  

Then I looked at the cables.

I could not find anything wrong.  But they were all tangled so I undid them all.  Even unplugged all the power cords

to have a clean untangled start.

So with most of the equipment unplugged, I attached the CD player directly to the speakers.  Nothing, nada, nope.  I should have known the CD player itself was the problem...

But I had a replacement in the house (for 3 years).  So yeah, at least once I suspected the player was the problem.  

So I re-connected all the non-CD cords neatly (to keep them out of the way) and put the power cords off to one untangled side.

Checked all the "ins and outs" cables carefully...  Plugged everything back into the surge box...  Turned the tuner selection dial to "CD".  And tried it.

Ah bliss!  'Pictures At An Exhibition' came right up...

I really needed a success...  

My Busy Day

Yeah, somedays I do more than usual.  And I bet many of you do more than I do, so I'm not bragging about it, just mentioning it.  To me it was a busy day.

Partly, it is that I just stay in bed 10-12 hours.  I don't really know why, but I sleep poorly and it takes 10-12 hours to get 7-8 hours actual sleep.  So half the day is gone by the time I get up.  I am resenting that loss of useful time.  I mentioned that to my Dr once, but nothing came of it (as there were more serious issues on the table).

So I got up and made lunch.  I wanted something quick because I had "stuff to do".  But it is surprising how long it can take to peel 2 hard-boiled eggs and dress the halves with a smear of mayo, salt, paprika, and onion powder.  And cut up a tomato, 2 celery stalks, a carrot, and a cucumber.  And then eat it all while reading the newspaper.  😋

After that, I got at my errands.

First, visit vet to pick up new sub-Q fluid bag for Marley.  I bought one a week ago, but SOME cat bit it open and all the fluid drained out.  That used up a 1/2 hour.

Then to the grocery store.  I hit a busy time.  One cashier lane open, so 30 minutes shopping and 20 minutes waiting to pay for it.  I should remember not to grocery-shop between "end of school day" and "pre-dinner" times!  An hour used up there.

Then to Nick's (the liquor/deli/specialty store I like).  Picked up 6 cases of my special-ordered wine.  It is actually a repeating order, but they had a sale on it, so I ordered extra.  No point in passing up a good value.  It's not like this wine goes bad in 6 months.

By the time I got home, it was past 5 PM.  And I had lots to unload and put away.  Did the groceries first, since the was milk and deli meat involved.  And bulk stuff has to be separated out for the basement refrigerator.

Then the 6 cases of wine.  I have gotten to the point where a case of wine is a bit heavy for me to just carry to where I store it in the basement.  So I dragged out my hand truck/dolly to pull them from the garage to the basement.  It wouldn't move.  One flat tire!

It is a small tire, so I pulled out my old bicycle pump.  5 minutes of that and no improvement.  The bead on the tire is separated from the rim.  So I dragged my mechanical air pressure pump into the garage.  And that wasn't enough to reseal the tire to the wheel.

But I had 3 cases of wine on it.  I removed one and 2 cases was light enough to wheel around with just the natural rigidity of the tire.  Got the cases moved.  I'll deal with the failed tire bead another day.

By the time I had the wine put away in a corner of the basement and had all the groceries put away, it was 7 pm.  Dinnertime!  

The Mews were a bit short on meals (because I got up late and then was gone for hours), so I just kept feeding them once per hour until they didn't want anymore food.  Full kitties are happy kitties.

Then, and only then, I made my own dinner.  Had to be something easily, because I was pretty well worn out.  I am glad I make spaghetti sauce with meatloaf mix, saute'd onions, mushrooms, garlic, and oregano in large batches and then freeze dinner-portions.  Thawing the sauce out is easy in hot water.

Watched 2 hours of political analysis news on MSNBC, then came here.  And I have more errands to do tomorrow!

Good Meat Store

I like the local meat/deli/liquor/specialty store (Nick's of Clinton).   They offer good specials each week.

For example, this week they are offerring Filet Mignon for $12.99/pound.  That may seem a lot, but they trim the membrane off and slice it to choice for free.  And I have them save the trimmings to grind up for The Mews (they love it).

But more importantly, I cut the steaks into 4 oz sections, which is all I need for a meal about 2x a week.  Which means my Filet Mignon steak is only $3.75. Try to beat that at any restaurant, and I cook it just as well, LOL!  And rib-eye and delmonico is often cheaper.

Yeah, chicken and pork is cheaper (and my routine meats) but a small steak is good sometimes.  

And they special order my favorite wine when I order 4 cases at a time.  And discount the price.  4 cases does last a while for me.  So a couple days ago, the manager actually called me to say that my favorite wine was going on sale this week and did I want to delay pickup until it was "officially" on sale?

Well, I normally order the 1.5 L bottles as being a little bit less expensive at $16.49.  But the smaller ones at 750 were going to be $6.99, so like $14 per 1.5L.  $2.50 less per volume for the same amount!    So I said to order 6 cases.  No point in passing up a good sale.  It's not like the wine will go bad sitting in my cool basement!

Don't get me wrong.  I drink 2 glasses of wine with dinner and I'm not worried about that.

There are other good things about the place.  For one, it is the only place I can routinely find eggroll wrappers.  And some of their produce is usually cheaper than the local grocery stores.  And they actually have ripe Golden Delicious apples.  The local Safeway thinks they should be green.

I love Nick's...

Taxes

I filed for a tax filing extension back in April.   My H&R Block software did my Federal return, but the State software kept saying "network connection not found".  I couldn't solve that.  And there was no way I was going to call the H&R Help Center 2 days before the April filing deadline!

So I filed for an extension and sent the IRS $5,000 to cover possible extra tax required.  Every month after, I tried to solve the "network connection lost" problem.  It was baffling.  But by early September, I could put it off any longer and I decided it was safe to call the H&R Block Help Center without being on a 2 hour waiting list.

An agent come online in about 20 minutes later.  The agent said network problems were not really their problem.  I pointed out that the Federal return software did not show that problem, nor did I have that problem anywhere else.  I pointed out that we were both looking at my account over the internet, so there was obviously a "working network connection".

So she agreed there had to be an H&R Block problem.  After 20 minutes of trying various solutions, she said, why not try re-installing our software?  I was worried I would lose the Federal return.  She said that the Federal return was saved under a different name (which I knew but hadn't thought about) and that the re-installed software would know what file to look for.

So I did.  And the Federal return was still there and the State return form seemed suddenly perfectly happy with my network connection.  I thanked her and hung up.

So I proceeded with the State return.  This is where things get bad...

I won't go into details about my taxes, but I have stocks, bonds, and a Government Savings Account (called the TSP if you know what that is).  My stocks and bonds are all Index Funds and some portion of those have some foreign investments, which complicate things.  I have no control over the Index Fund investment choices.  Plus, the TSP requires that I withdraw a portion of my savings from it each year now that I'm older than 72.

I hadn't known that in 2023, so they forcibly sent me 2 checks since then.  I had included one on my Federal return, forgetting about the 2nd.  So I had to adjust my Federal return in the software.  Did that, and shut down for the night.

The next day, my Federal return was blank!  Nowhere to be found.  I have no idea why.  Even my backup program (Time Machine) is acting weird.  I tried to recover the Federal return using that, but failed.  Each time I open a date, it sends me back to "choose a date". 

ARGHHH!

If I was 50, I could probably solve this.  I think I have to just redo the Federal return.  Fortunately, I have all the previously-printed tax forms, so it won't be like starting from scratch.  And then I can do the State return.  I have until October 15, so I will sort out the 3 different versions of the Federal return (as I said, I found errors before I mailed them) tomorrow and go from there.

But I think this is my last year using tax software (unless the Govt provides a better one).  Next year, early March, I will just take all my forms to a tax-preparer and say "tell me what I owe" and have them file the returns!  

This has finally become just too hard!