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Our Daily Thread 4-15-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1784 the first balloon was flown in Ireland.

In 1817 the first American school for the deaf was opened in Hartford, CT.

In 1861 U.S. President Lincoln mobilized the Federal army.

In 1865 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died from injuries inflicted by John Wilkes Booth.

In 1912 the ocean liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg the evening before. 1,517 people died and more than 700 people survived.

In 1947 Jackie Robinson played his first major league baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Previously he had only appeared in exhibition games.

In 1952 the first B-52 prototype was tested in the air.

And in 1986 U.S. F-111 warplanes attacked Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5, 1986.

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Quote of the Day  

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Corrie Ten Boom

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For music today we have 2 choices. The first is a request…

The second is for a birthday on today’s date…

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Now who has a QoD for us?

65 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-15-13”

  1. I saw Roy Clark at Wolftrap once. He uses a straight pick.
    He’s real good.
    I got dressed this morning to some woman singing “you’re no good, you’re no good, you’re no good, baby you’re no good.”
    Everybody go post your income tax.
    Off to the Y!
    Everybody be nice today.
    🙂

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  3. It’s a Monday. Luckily hubs woke up before I did and made the coffee. I woke up to a cup of coffee instead of having to wait. (Yes, I know they have these new inventions where you can set the timer on the coffee maker but the power goes out every so often and that would require resetting the time)

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  5. I know it’s going to happen, I just know it. And when it does, I’m going to cringe, scream, or punch something. Someone, somewhere is going to call this “the Ides of April.”

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  6. I may have to get Annie to the vet, she still is acting lethargic and not like herself (she’s spent the entire night in her crate on the front porch, I can’t seem to coax her in).

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  7. AJ, she said it again, and again and again. 😦

    Nobody cares about the Ides of any month but March.
    A guy at the Y works with AARP on preparing taxes. He has the day off. (Volunteers can take any day off, but he will go in if they call him.) He said they were very busy yesterday. I cannot understand waiting ’till the last minute.
    Not for anything.

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  10. Well, not of my own doing, but I am at the last minute with questions about filing a gift-tax form (709). Does anyone here have any expertise in that matter?

    My question is basically this: Hubby and I gave son and daughter-in-law an amount that exceeds the $13,000/per (by a lot) but is within the exclusion amount. Should we file: a) one 709 with one of us giving it all to son; b) one 709 with one of us splitting it between son and dil; c) two 709s with one of us giving half to son and the other half to dil; or d) two 709s with each of us giving a quarter to son and dil?

    It looks to me as though from an IRS standpoint, we could do any of the above. But is there a reason to do one over the other?

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  12. p.s. the reason this is last-minute is because I had an accountant for years who did our taxes but this year (without telling me) he retired and turned it over to his loser-niece who had so many errors on both this and our income tax form that I don’t trust that she did it correctly.

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  14. Each year you can (each) give up to $13,000 tax-free to one individual and there was a $5,120,000 lifetime exclusion (since reduced by guess-who to $1,000,000 for this year and going forward). If you go over the $13,000 but are within the lifetime exclusion, you have to file the 709. The purpose of all of this was to keep people from giving away all their money before they die to avoid inheritance taxes. I’ve heard that people gave away more last year (while the $5,120,000 was still in effect) than the previous ten years combined.

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  15. I understand the restriction about giving away your money to avoid inheritance tax, but not the $13,000.
    I hear you saying that a man and wife can each give $13,000 to a son, ($26,000) and another $13,000 to a DIL (another $26,000) for a total of $52,000 each year.
    I’m asking because we gave Chuck & Linda a timeshare. I suspect it wasn’t nearly that much. Resale value is mostly zero for those things.
    I paid Chuck’s tuition at USC. I hope that doesn’t count.

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  16. Good Morning, Y’all! Posting as anonymous…on a lab computer.

    Chas…Haiku is fun. 5 – 7 – 5…easy.

    ex:
    Cold brews, bright chainsaw
    “Hey y’all, watch this!” in the yard
    Gene pool cleaned again

    See…it’s easy!
    Inbutnotof

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  17. Chas: “Why would anybody leave anything ’til the last minute?” -I must admit to being a terrible procrastinator. I wait ’til my adrenaline is pumping and manage to get things done just in time. Every paper I wrote in both undergrad and graduate school was done at the last possible minute. I wrote my semester-long research papers in a long weekend. I don’t like this about myself, but can’t seem to muster enough discipline to change! 🙂 Luckily, hubby does our taxes (well, he meets with the accountant who does our taxes). We’re actually getting money back this year. We overestimated some taxes we pre-pay. Hubby was super-surprised b/c he was expecting to take a big hit due to the sale of his company (we are stock holders). It’s weird. I do not understand tax law.

    Had a fabulous weekend in San Diego! I laughed so hard and so much that my stomach muscles are actually sore today! It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Next May will be our 25th reunion at our boarding school and we all decided we’d rather take a trip with each other. So, I was elected to plan something wonderful. I’m pretty sure we are going to go to Costa Rica. You can rent a house there with maid and cook for a really reasonable sum. Anyway, it was the perfect weekend. I don’t have a lot of friends in Houston, and get lonely sometimes, so being with dear friends was a great pick-me-up. Thank you to all who prayed for my health and safety while traveling.

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  18. Tuition falls under a different rule and I suspect you are fine. Your assessement of the use of the $13,000 is correct, so if the value was below $52,000, you don’t even need to fill in the 709. If it was over that, then you might be in deep doodoo. Also, you’ve put them at disadvantage because if they ever sell it, they will need to calculate their gains on what YOU paid for it, whereas, if you had just left it to them they assume it at its market value as of your death. Learnt this listening to Dave Ramsey. But then he also says to NEVER buy a timeshare and that they are impossible to sell, so maybe the value won’t ever go up.

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  20. I don’t know Dave Ramsey, but his advice is good.
    Never, under any circumstance, buy a timeshare!
    It didn’t cost even $26,000. And the resale value is never even half the purchase price.

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  22. One thing I learned is that you don’t have to type http:// in front of the address. I never knew that before. I always typed the http.
    Linda, I knew of the rule, but not the details. We have been generous with Chuck & Linda early on. But not to the extent you defined.
    They nor the grandkids kids need us now.
    That is good.

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  23. Annms, I am just the opposite. I start things right away. It works better for me. If I have a writing assignment, I hit the library that day. I may finish it the day before, but I start on it right away.
    When I taught SS, I always read the next Sunday lesson on Sunday afternoon, so that I would know what I was teaching. During the week, I would get ideas about illustrations, insight, etc. I would finish the lesson on Saturday morning and go over the notes a couple of times. Then forget about it until just before going out Sunday.
    Then I would spend about ten minutes reviewing.
    I buy my TurboTax in January and start entering data early. I had my tax finished early in March but sat on it until about April 1 lest a late 1099 comes in and I have to send an amendment. That is a colossal pain.

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  24. Chas,

    I was reading where TurboTax crashed this morning due to the sheer volume of late filers. My fed’s been done for month’s, they owed us. My state was a nothing to either beyond what had already been paid, so a week ago. My local went to the post office yesterday, also paid already, none owed. If they don’t owe me, I’m never in a hurry. :).

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  25. We took my wife’s car for a new windshield this morning. Inspections due, and there was a big old crack, so it was necessary. 😦

    Then I renewed both registrations online. Let me tell ya’, I so enjoy not having to go to the DMV offices. No incompetent state workers, I pay, print, and I’m done. I’d pay extra for that, but they don’t charge more this way. That’s called winning. 🙂

    But then I decided to take mine for inspection while her’s was being fixed. It needs some new suspension rods. It’ll be done soon. 😦

    But it will be passed. 🙂

    Then my wife’s goes for inspection tomorrow. 😦 I’m thinking maybe brakes? Everything else is good. 🙂

    And then a new timing belt in a month. That ones expensive because they have to take the top off the motor. But if you wait until it goes, it takes the motor with it. I can’t help but think they planned it this way. 😦

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  27. AJ, you may think your state workers are incompetent but we were blown away by how efficient (and polite) they were here when we transferred our tags and licenses compared to the Maryland DMV.

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  28. I had to show valid drivier’s license and proof of insurance to get my car tags renewed. I went in person. Had I done it online they wouldn’t have known. We also have a new rule that if you have to show your grades or a high school diploma to get a license or learner’s permit.

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  29. NC doesn’t charge for on-line renewal. It’s win-win; the inspection station sends an approval notice on their computer. They match it with my license plate and send a new sticker through the mail. Inspection and renewal are coordinated.
    We don’t have inspection stickers anymore. If you have registration, it passed inspection. They charge to the credit card without extra fee.
    A neat system.

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  30. I didn’t realize so many major events happened on April 15.

    I think I’ve mentioned here before that a coworker of my husband had once asked him in all seriousness how old hubby was when the Titanic sunk. 😉

    To whomever requested the Pachelbel Canon video, thank you! And to AJ, also, for posting it. 🙂

    AnnMS: me too on the procrastination thing. I remember in high school having a research paper due in my 3rd Hour class, and finishing it in my 2nd Hour class the day it was due. I had stayed up all night writing it, but didn’t get done before having to go to school.

    Haiku: I’ve got the urge to write one now, seeing the fun ones Janice and Inbutnotof wrote, but my creative juices are not flowing at the moment. Perhaps later… 😉

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  33. Chas – wondering why you called it workplace violence? I looked at a couple of news sites and they didn’t say that; is it more recent info? Do they know what caused the blasts?

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  34. Linda, I was just being wise. That’s what the Administration called the shooting at Ft. Hood. It was obviously a planned terrorist attack.
    In the past, we would have known that it was Islamists, and probably is. But it could also be N. Korean or some such.

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  37. They’re now at the same situation as the hostage, and other, situations. Reporters have to keep talking, but there isn’t much to say. But they are now saying 2 dead and 27+ injured. That’s some improvement. They found and exploded two other bombs in controlled situation, it seems. They just keep showing clips of people running down the street. Not much else to know.

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  38. It’s been said that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. Religious believers (which include most here) pretend not to believe in death, though it’s pretty certain.

    I’ve always wondered if people such as Hitler and Stalin (two of the most evil people in history, though there is lots of competition) pretended to pay taxes, just so put lotion on their lack of conscience.

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  44. Random, believers do believe in death. We just don’t believe that death had the last word for Jesus, and Scripture promises that it won’t for the believer either. In other words, the God who created life made it stronger than death. And He is life.

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  45. Sorry. It didn’t show up the first time, and I forget to put my name on it. So no, there are not two people with identical thoughts at the same time.

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  49. Kare,

    The trick is to cut a small hole. You can always make it bigger. Too big and you are kinda out of luck. I don’t mind the measuring and cutting. It’s the spackling that gets me. 😦

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  51. Yep. Death is real. And certain. I suspect “Christian” Scientists would give you an argument however. 😉

    I’m hiring Kare.

    After dropping Annie off at the vet’s office early this morning I spent most of my day tracking down local runners who were in the Boston Marathon. Finally landed a few — no one hurt, but definitely shaken up. 😦

    Picked Annie up at the end of the day — nothing specific that they could find, but they gave her some antibiotics and re-hydration; they want me to call them tomorrow with an update. She’s still not wanting to eat tonight.

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  52. Yeah, small hole. 🙂 It’s actually my husband who is measuring and cutting. He just calls me to come and check his measurements before he starts cutting. We measure and measure and measure and then cut. Always a little bit off 😦

    Then he holds the drywall in place while I put it a few screws. He’s finishing the last of it right now – then the taping and mudding.

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  53. The cat does seem to feel better — she’s jumped up on her cat tree & was using the scratching post. I’m keeping her indoors for a while, I think.

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  54. Hope Annie gets to feeling better soon, Donna.

    I’ve been wondering about a family I used to babysit for when I was a teen. Both parents were avid runners; the mom usually ran 5 miles, and would do races up to 10K, I believe, and the dad was a marathoner and would do the Boston Marathon every year, among other races. They were the first people I thought of when I heard about the bombing in Boston today. I’m not sure if he still runs that race every year, or if the couple’s children took up running and followed their Dad’s tradition of running Boston each year. And the mom is an RN, so I wonder if she was there among all those injured people.

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  55. Oh, good, Annie seems to be feeling better. I didn’t see your post when I started typing mine — I always get pulled away from what I’m doing, and it takes me a long time sometimes to finish a short comment. 😉

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  59. Getting a lead from someone tonight that we may have a local runner who was seriously injured back there, I will have to try to track that one down tomorrow.

    I’m SO ready for bed …

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  63. My husband got home after midnight which is the norm on April 15th. It was a really bad day because the Drake system crashed including the phone lines to their NC office. This is a large company that many tax preparers use so many did not get to process their last minute work. My husband wonders if it might have been a cyber attack. 😦

    He told me the highlight of his day was receiving the haiku I wrote and e-mailed to him (that I posted above). 🙂 It was a truly little thing, but I am glad it brought him a moment of joy when the rest of the day was lousy for him.

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