One of my neighbors has been screaming about his income tax bill. It seems he underestimated the amount of money he would make in 2014 when he applied for the tax credit for his healthcare insurance. He admits his underestimate was intentional and now wants to screech that the government took the correct amount back from him via his income tax return. I fail to see what part of the subsidy being based on EXACTLY what he earned didn't alert him to the fact that if he earned more than he claimed his subsidy would be different? OMG OMG OBAMACARE DIDN'T LET ME LIE AND THEY TOOK MY MONEY. This means, of course that Obamacare is a failure. I can't convey to you the epic facepalm moments I have when I hear crap like that. Are the people complaining about having to pay the correct amount for their insurance really that stupid?
I'm very short tempered about things these days. Probably because I am lacking transportation. My Youngest stepson's car needs a new oil pump. It went to hell last Friday. He drove the car here, grabbed my Bravada and has done nothing to fix his problem since. Car still sits here while he runs all over Hells Half Acre driving what I usually drive. With my beloved HUSBAND'S blessing.
My vehicle needs some work done on it. Intake manifold gaskets need replacing. I've been running with it on one of those Miracle In A Bottle quick fixes. Works fine since I don't go that far. The Youngest Idiotic Offspring of My Soon to be Dead Beloved Husband travels hundreds of miles in a day.
Since I have accepted the inevitable I started hunting for another vehicle. I found an Olds Bravada in much better shape and newer than the one I have. Husband is whining that the guy wants too much. Well DUH! Hasn't he heard about dickering? Sooooo, this means WAR!
Yesterday I stuck him with the having to answer the business calls while actually conducting business trick. Of course, do you think people would call so I could share the inconvenience? Noooo, of course not. So, next attempt will be tomorrow since we went for groceries at Aldis and he won't drink their coffee plus they don't have the brand of cat food my cat eats. Since I couldn't get to where I needed to go because my friend wasn't going there and I have no transportation, he's going to have to take me.
As I explained to him, he can go without coffee on Sunday and without canned cat food to keep the cat from pestering him at 5 in the morning or he can cart my butt to the grocery store. I can't drive his pick up since it's manual and I never learned to drive on a manual. He doesn't want to take me out to teach me, nor does he want to kick his son in the butt to make him give me back the vehicle I need.
So, this means he needs to drive me to my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, the hairdresser appointment on Friday. He'll have to make the bank deposits, pick up the vehicle parts, the plumbing supplies, the oil for his pumper from Baums and call a tow truck if he breaks down somewhere since I have no way to help him. In the meantime, his son is using my vehicle to cart his daughter to work and back, let his wife get the groceries and whatever she needs and they get to go to the movies in it while his Passat sits in my driveway for a week now instead of being taken care of.
Funny how I married a man who isn't bright enough to understand why I'm angry. Yep, people do amuse me.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Seasons, Reasons And Lifetimes
This morning saw the property owner at my door to pick up her check for our leasing agreement. She's a mess these days with her Mom in a nursing home. Actually, she's a mess for other reasons going back 8 years now to the death of her husband, but she's dealing with a family issue that is adding more to that mess.
It seems her younger brother took advantage of the impending death of his step-father to grab power of attorney for step-dad and his own Mom. Their mother is an alcoholic with liver disease and with that power of attorney he also acquired her healthcare proxy. His first action was to lock her out of her own bank account so that she didn't have access to money for booze. Secondly he went through her house with a fine tooth comb and cleaned it out of her stash.
There are long term alcoholics that shouldn't be dried out without medical supervision. She is one of them and she wound up in a locked down mental ward at a local hospital. Her kidneys shut down. As a result of his actions she is no longer considered to be capable of managing her own affairs and he has now transferred her to a nursing home. She needs to be there. I know this sounds harsh, but other than his lack of understanding of just how drying out would affect her, he is doing this for her own good.
His sister is upset. Not because of her impending death. She is upset that her Mom wants to go home to die and her brother won't let her. The doctor has declared this woman can't live alone any more. She falls all the time since all she's done for years is sit on her butt and drink until she passed out. She won't cooperate with the therapy to make her stronger, and there is no room in her apartment for someone else to live in.
There is a solution, but it isn't one my landowner likes. She has a 3 bedroom ranch in which she lives all by herself. It hasn't been cleaned in 8 years and she spends no time in it except to sleep at night because her husband died there, 8 years ago.
He didn't die suddenly, he died from cancer. Prostate cancer because he was a Jehovah's Witness and wouldn't accept the treatments that might place him in need of blood transfusions that were against his religion. She had time to prepare herself and she didn't. I don't know if she was in denial, I don't see how she could have been had she paid any attention to his condition. Then again, her lack of ability to stay home started when he was suffering. Church members spent more time with him than she did.
My Dad died May 4 and her husband died May 20 in 2007. My step-Mom has gone on with her life and she misses him 8 years later, but she lives her life head on. She doesn't run from the pain of loss. She owns it and finds things to do when it's this time of year. At the time, she let go, she didn't try to hang on to him because he was suffering. That's not what my landowner did.
Death hurts. Being left behind to fend for oneself hurts. The only way someone is in our lives for our lifetime is if we die first. That's a fact that can't be gotten around no matter how hard we try. People are in our life for seasons or reasons. For lifetime we have memories. It's up to us what mood those memories give us. We can waste our time wallowing in the hurt or we can use that hurt to do something constructive for someone else. It isn't the hurt or the loss that defines us, it's what we do afterward that will. That's our choice and nobody else's.
Monday, April 27, 2015
If You're In Too Deep, Put Down The Shovel
I can't count the number of times people have asked us, as business owners who have just provided a service for them, if we can't hold the check until after Friday when they get paid. I'm tempted to say no, we need this money to pay our bills on time. I'd love to see the expression on their faces if we did that, not that they care, we don't count in their struggle to make ends meet.
When something like that is requested from someone who is obviously struggling, we don't have a problem with it. My problem is when you look at the homes they live in, the 3 nearly new cars in the driveway, the RV parked next to the garage, the boat, the snowmobiles, the ATV, the big zero turn lawn mower and all the fancy toys that are clearly visible on the property, I don't have much sympathy.
You have all that but you don't have $250 or thereabouts to pay our bill on time? Really? Whose fault is that? Accept some responsibility for your problem and do something about it, stop whining.
I don't have all those toys. I'm not asking anyone to send me money so I can have those toys. I'm asking people that we provided a service for to pay for that service so we can pay the bills generated by that service. No more, no less. How hard is that? Pretty hard according to most of the people who are owing us money.
Excuse me for not being grateful for your business when you bounce checks, have paid with a maxed out credit card and then ignore my calls to try to straighten things out. I'm not impressed with your exclusive country club membership then. Trust me on that. You aren't any better when you do that than the people you call low life scum. You call them that because in your mind, they don't pay their bills. So, tell me what part of paying your bill just didn't happen?
And don't think that life will change much when the Republicans get serious and take our country back. You will still be buying toys on credit that is creating payments that are higher than your income. Funny how that's everyone else's fault except your own.
When something like that is requested from someone who is obviously struggling, we don't have a problem with it. My problem is when you look at the homes they live in, the 3 nearly new cars in the driveway, the RV parked next to the garage, the boat, the snowmobiles, the ATV, the big zero turn lawn mower and all the fancy toys that are clearly visible on the property, I don't have much sympathy.
You have all that but you don't have $250 or thereabouts to pay our bill on time? Really? Whose fault is that? Accept some responsibility for your problem and do something about it, stop whining.
I don't have all those toys. I'm not asking anyone to send me money so I can have those toys. I'm asking people that we provided a service for to pay for that service so we can pay the bills generated by that service. No more, no less. How hard is that? Pretty hard according to most of the people who are owing us money.
Excuse me for not being grateful for your business when you bounce checks, have paid with a maxed out credit card and then ignore my calls to try to straighten things out. I'm not impressed with your exclusive country club membership then. Trust me on that. You aren't any better when you do that than the people you call low life scum. You call them that because in your mind, they don't pay their bills. So, tell me what part of paying your bill just didn't happen?
And don't think that life will change much when the Republicans get serious and take our country back. You will still be buying toys on credit that is creating payments that are higher than your income. Funny how that's everyone else's fault except your own.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Yada Yada Yada
I've come to the conclusion that political discourse as we know it now is stupid. I'm not just talking about those commonly called Right Wing Nut Jobs, I'm also talking about the habits of the Progressives as well.
They don't like Gov. Cuomo. He's a DINO, he's for the rich, He hates education, etcetera, etcetera! However, they fail to accept that Cuomo is attempting to rebuild a state that lost $93 BILLION in taxable revenue as a direct result of the Wall St. crash of 08 and the number of people and employers who left the state for other places that had less taxes.
So, to combat that exodus he established tax free zones so outside businesses and start ups could get their feet in the water and learn to swim before the tax situation in this state creates an anchor that holds them underwater. Businesses here are still failing. And it's great to say TAX THE RICH" but that isn't really the solution.
TAX THE RICH isn't going to bring new businesses in.
TAX THE RICH isn't going to employ the nearly 600,000 people actively looking for work.
The answer isn't just TAX THE RICH and then spend the money on stupidity. For instance. Onondaga County has asked the State of New York for $900 million to tear down the Grandstand at the State Fair grounds and build an Amphitheater. Meanwhile the city of Syracuse in Onondaga County has some serious issues with their infrastructure. The newly revitalized business district called Armory Square is having water main breaks at the rate of 2 a week. The county won't help them because of the request for the money to build the amphitheater. And they don't have the money to rebuild the water mains themselves.
The prevailing reasoning behind this move is that the State Fair brings in millions of revenue for the county. Somehow they seem to not remember that the State Fair is a once a year deal and that businesses open daily bring in revenue that if allowed to continue will keep the money coming in when the fairgrounds doesn't. That requires the ability on the part of the city to see to in that the businesses actually have what they need as far as sewer and water.
And while this may sound like an excellent idea to many who want to use the fairgrounds more than once a year, they aren't making the decision based on what the outside the fair use actually is. Every October, Super DIRT week is held at the fairground on the Grandstand's race track which they plan to do away with. What the County Exec wants to replace that with is horse shows. And there is already an arena where those are held. Which don't bring in the money DIRT week does, but the reasoning is they could have more of them?
Mind you, this isn't just $900 million of Onondaga's money. It's the state's money that she has no qualms about asking for. A move which will cost the DIRT revenue and eventually the businesses in Syracuse when they move to other places where water and sewer is available. Some of those business owners are already looking for alternate sites, reluctantly, because they want to stay there. DIRT week adds to their revenue too because of the shuttle buses between the fairgrounds and their businesses.
And when the lovely Liberals scream TAX THE RICH how are they defining the word rich? I took a peek at Gov. Cuomo's tax returns. And he pays half his income in taxes.
On the Governors total income of $553,000 he owed the federal government $155,193 he paid $6916 over the income deductions he filed quarterly. For state tax his bill was $41,000. He'll get a refund of $3212. In addition to that he also pays 6.2 Social Security plus the Medicare tax which makes his tax indebtedness equal to half his income.
He's not starving by any means with half of his income left, but how much more can be taken to offset the expenditures our government, both state and federal are making? The reality is WE are in the habit of spending too much money. If We the People keep spending ourselves into debt on a personal level, why is it we expect any different behavior from our politicians? It's not just them, it's US.
They don't like Gov. Cuomo. He's a DINO, he's for the rich, He hates education, etcetera, etcetera! However, they fail to accept that Cuomo is attempting to rebuild a state that lost $93 BILLION in taxable revenue as a direct result of the Wall St. crash of 08 and the number of people and employers who left the state for other places that had less taxes.
So, to combat that exodus he established tax free zones so outside businesses and start ups could get their feet in the water and learn to swim before the tax situation in this state creates an anchor that holds them underwater. Businesses here are still failing. And it's great to say TAX THE RICH" but that isn't really the solution.
TAX THE RICH isn't going to bring new businesses in.
TAX THE RICH isn't going to employ the nearly 600,000 people actively looking for work.
The answer isn't just TAX THE RICH and then spend the money on stupidity. For instance. Onondaga County has asked the State of New York for $900 million to tear down the Grandstand at the State Fair grounds and build an Amphitheater. Meanwhile the city of Syracuse in Onondaga County has some serious issues with their infrastructure. The newly revitalized business district called Armory Square is having water main breaks at the rate of 2 a week. The county won't help them because of the request for the money to build the amphitheater. And they don't have the money to rebuild the water mains themselves.
The prevailing reasoning behind this move is that the State Fair brings in millions of revenue for the county. Somehow they seem to not remember that the State Fair is a once a year deal and that businesses open daily bring in revenue that if allowed to continue will keep the money coming in when the fairgrounds doesn't. That requires the ability on the part of the city to see to in that the businesses actually have what they need as far as sewer and water.
And while this may sound like an excellent idea to many who want to use the fairgrounds more than once a year, they aren't making the decision based on what the outside the fair use actually is. Every October, Super DIRT week is held at the fairground on the Grandstand's race track which they plan to do away with. What the County Exec wants to replace that with is horse shows. And there is already an arena where those are held. Which don't bring in the money DIRT week does, but the reasoning is they could have more of them?
Mind you, this isn't just $900 million of Onondaga's money. It's the state's money that she has no qualms about asking for. A move which will cost the DIRT revenue and eventually the businesses in Syracuse when they move to other places where water and sewer is available. Some of those business owners are already looking for alternate sites, reluctantly, because they want to stay there. DIRT week adds to their revenue too because of the shuttle buses between the fairgrounds and their businesses.
And when the lovely Liberals scream TAX THE RICH how are they defining the word rich? I took a peek at Gov. Cuomo's tax returns. And he pays half his income in taxes.
On the Governors total income of $553,000 he owed the federal government $155,193 he paid $6916 over the income deductions he filed quarterly. For state tax his bill was $41,000. He'll get a refund of $3212. In addition to that he also pays 6.2 Social Security plus the Medicare tax which makes his tax indebtedness equal to half his income.
He's not starving by any means with half of his income left, but how much more can be taken to offset the expenditures our government, both state and federal are making? The reality is WE are in the habit of spending too much money. If We the People keep spending ourselves into debt on a personal level, why is it we expect any different behavior from our politicians? It's not just them, it's US.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Counting My Internet Blessings
First blessing I can think of is being able to talk to people without choking on the strong scents they apply to their bodies. I opened a gift set I received from someone this past Christmas and used just the shower gel. It came from Bath and Body Works which means someone spent a great deal of money on something that made me choke and shower again using something different. I am doubly grateful I didn't use the lotion and body spray along with the shower gel. I can still taste it.
The second blessing needs absolutely no explanation. CATS, CATS, CATS. I love looking at them.
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The third blessing probably should be that it gives idiots like me a platform to spew my stinky opinions on. How else would people who never will know me in real life manage to decide I'm crazy?
I should qualify that by saying IF they decide I'm crazy. I do tend to think that's fairly obvious but then again, I am just another internet user who might be pretending to be someone I'm not.
Which brings me to the fourth blessing. Succinctly put? On the internet no one knows you're a dog. Or a loser living in his mother's basement.
The fifth blessing probably should be something like on the internet I can actually be whoever I choose to be. Except that I'd forget who I chose to be yesterday and someone would immediately try to troll me. So, I guess it's best to find the blessing in the fact that I am who I say I am and leave it at that.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Mindless Brain Dump
I had decided prior to retirement that the first task I'd undertake would be removing a large amount of clutter from my home. Four weeks later it's closer to the door. Is that success? I doubt it.
Everything from the kitchen and living room now resides in the dining room. Two large totes of it have been stacked in a corner to be placed in storage. The resident furball producer has determined it's a fine sleeping place. How does one take the favorite sleeping place away from one's beloved pet? I haven't the heart yet.
One of my numerous excuses for not having all that much accomplished in 4 weeks is that there's so much snow it's not safe for me to carry anything out to the storage shed. I may run out of that excuse soon. I'm hoping. Even have my fingers crossed. I won't mind losing this excuse since it means the snow will go away and warmer weather will arrive. I do still have a few excuses I can replace that one with.
There's always the *my daughter-in-law decluttered her deceased father's apartment by sending me some clutter* excuse. I wouldn't be lying either. Well, not too much, anyway. Her father was a person who believed in stocking up for the winter or something. He had two replacement coffee pots for his maker and close to 400 coffee filters left. Neither of the pots come close to fitting my machine. They're glass, mine is a thermos style pot. The filters work so those I'm keeping but have no idea what to do with the pots. Apparently neither did she which is why I now possess them. Hey! Maybe I can find some poor schnook to gift them to? It's a thought.
It's been warm enough these past couple of days that running the woodstove makes it too warm in here. I'm just using the propane right now. I decided to take the opportunity to clean the darn thing up so it isn't such an eyesore. When it's not hot you see stuff you don't care to see. Like soot all over the glass and something that looks like ashes all over it. So, I blackened my hands washing it. Tonight's fire, because it's going to get colder again, will occur in a sparkling clean stove. All that effort just to get it dirty again. I think I'll go take a nap.
Then I'll go see how much more clutter I can move into the dining room. Maybe I'll do that after lunch, and then I'll take a nap. I don't even need an excuse for that. All this thinking about decluttering is making me sleepy.
Everything from the kitchen and living room now resides in the dining room. Two large totes of it have been stacked in a corner to be placed in storage. The resident furball producer has determined it's a fine sleeping place. How does one take the favorite sleeping place away from one's beloved pet? I haven't the heart yet.
One of my numerous excuses for not having all that much accomplished in 4 weeks is that there's so much snow it's not safe for me to carry anything out to the storage shed. I may run out of that excuse soon. I'm hoping. Even have my fingers crossed. I won't mind losing this excuse since it means the snow will go away and warmer weather will arrive. I do still have a few excuses I can replace that one with.
There's always the *my daughter-in-law decluttered her deceased father's apartment by sending me some clutter* excuse. I wouldn't be lying either. Well, not too much, anyway. Her father was a person who believed in stocking up for the winter or something. He had two replacement coffee pots for his maker and close to 400 coffee filters left. Neither of the pots come close to fitting my machine. They're glass, mine is a thermos style pot. The filters work so those I'm keeping but have no idea what to do with the pots. Apparently neither did she which is why I now possess them. Hey! Maybe I can find some poor schnook to gift them to? It's a thought.
It's been warm enough these past couple of days that running the woodstove makes it too warm in here. I'm just using the propane right now. I decided to take the opportunity to clean the darn thing up so it isn't such an eyesore. When it's not hot you see stuff you don't care to see. Like soot all over the glass and something that looks like ashes all over it. So, I blackened my hands washing it. Tonight's fire, because it's going to get colder again, will occur in a sparkling clean stove. All that effort just to get it dirty again. I think I'll go take a nap.
Then I'll go see how much more clutter I can move into the dining room. Maybe I'll do that after lunch, and then I'll take a nap. I don't even need an excuse for that. All this thinking about decluttering is making me sleepy.
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