68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-9-17”

  3. Eerie cat eyes this morning 🐱💩👀
    The wind blew all night. The sky looks like it’s snow filled, but sunshine is predicted for later as the temp drops lower.

    I had a bunch of running around doing errands yesterday. I got the emission sticker done, went to the tag office, went to the library, tried to get a new watch battery and found out a new crystal face plus a battery would be as expensive as a new cheap watch. I found that Marshall’s does not have watches, but they did have nice long lasting jarred candles which I had been asked to get for the office, and then I found two clearance watches at Burlington, I listened to a webinar, and fixed some dinner and got some dishes washed. Being at the office is easier in a lot of ways because even though it has variety in clients and their stories, it has a pretty set routine and I feel efficient. I thought replacing a watch battery would be a simple matter. But no…I called a number of places trying to get cost of watch repair. I ended up talking with a shop that I thought was at Northlake Mall here and found out it was Northlake Mall in Charlotte.

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  6. Even I used to be able to replace a watch battery–but I needed the tool to get the back off the watch. Now, because people complained about scratching the back of their watches with the device, you can’t borrow the device anymore.

    The last time I got my watch battery replaced, it cost me $15. $2 for the batter, $13 for the labor. But I like this classic Timex, now going on ten or so years. The good news, of course, is the professional didn’t scratch the back of the watch this is always against my skin.

    And it only took him 2 minutes; though he threw in setting the time for free. 🙂

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  7. Now that I think about it, I waited outside his office for half an hour waiting for him to get to work–he was time.

    Fortunately my time isn’t valuable.

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  8. Late. I’ve been sick.

    We’re supposed to get 2-4 inches of rain in the next 36 hours. Yes, people are tired of it, now.

    Or, as one of my Bible study ladies said the other day, “The news reported we’ve had so much rain, they’re suggesting too many people prayed. ‘You can stop now.'” We all laughed.

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  9. It is sad that is it cheaper to buy new than to fix old. What does that say about us? I have a pair of shoes I love that were purchased at a resale shop for $14. They need to be spiffed up and resoled but that would have cost $40 or so! I realize in the larger picture, It is still cheaper than buying NEW shoes that I may not love as much but something in me fights the price discrepancy.
    Some years back Paul Newman was being interviewed and made the same observation. He was fixing an old toaster. Certainly HE could afford new but said it galled him when he could fix what was already there rather than throw it away.
    There’s a lesson in there somewhere for all of us.

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  10. If you have a Shaw’s Jewelers nearby, check them out. The last battery I bought there was $12.99 and they replace it for free, forever.

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  11. Yesterday there was a meme on FB that was —well I am just not sure how to describe it. You can draw your own conclusions.
    Well Fairhope, we survived
    a flash flood watch
    a tornado watch
    a thunder storm watch
    & a serial killer watch
    and that was just Tuesday
    Happy Wednesday

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  15. On accents, my siblings and I apparently have a distinctive accent different from those around us. Twice, I have been asked by my fellow students about where I came from and received surprised responses when I say I was born and raised here. One of my questioners said he thought that I must be from overseas because of the way I talked. My siblings and I used to get asked the same question when we worked as waitresses. So, for those who have met me, apparently I’m not a good representative of a Canadian accent. We can’t account for the difference, since we grew up surrounded by people who talked in the casual, clipped tones of rural Ontario. Perhaps it is because our father came from Nova Scotia, though he long ago lost all but a few traces of the Down-East accent. Perhaps it is because all of our mother’s grandparents emigrated from England, so that there is a trace still of the British accent in the way she and her siblings speak. Or perhaps, being homeschooled kept our pronunciation just that much different than our peers.

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  16. What is the significance of “leaving the property”, Mumsee.

    I couldn’t get Kim’s link to work. I am frustrated because, after all these years, I still don’t know what an “elegant accent” is. I may never know.
    Wherever Elvera went in the Washington area, people would ask, “What part of the South are you from?” They never ask me that.

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  17. Good Morning….why is it that the battery in the house smoke alarm always dies at 1 AM???? And then some people can’t fall back to sleep until 4 AM…..it’s gonna be a long day…but at least I do not have to go any where!
    The battery died on my watch…I finally found a kiosk at the mall that had a replacement….cost me 20 dollars…hoping the battery lasts a while…I really like my watch 🙂
    Accents….I am always asked what part of the south I am from….ummmm….Ohio! 🙂

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  18. “leaving the property” means that I will actually go somewhere. Time to get the military ID’s redone, so I have to leave the property. In the past three months, I have left twice, for church. I like where I live and have plenty to keep me busy. That is why I signed up for bowling, to get me out of my rut, but that did not work.

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  19. Carol will want to go places.

    I’ve had a fairly busy week and am sitting in on endorsement meetings with our LA City Councilman & challengers today. Incumbent, a 40 year old former LAPD officer who’s very cute (his nickname among some I know is “dimples”) and has deep local (Italian) roots which never hurts, remains popular but after 4+ years in office he is taking the usual hits for whatever is still wrong (homeless encampments, etc.). Hard worker but you just can’t fix everything by yourself in a city like LA. His 2 challengers, both from the far left, don’t appear to have much chance. Still, people are frustrated that some problems seem so impossible to address.

    We have a dry day today (relatively speaking, it’s still very foggy and misty out) but more rain coming in tomorrow. Then it’s supposed to be sunny for a few days.

    I promised Carol I’d take her to an Apple store on Saturday to get her iPad (given to her by someone at church, it’s used) property set up and registered but I also have a bathroom worker coming sometime around or after 3 p.m. so it’s going to be a bit of an early scramble for me. I told her to make an appointment today but I’m thinking they may not have any left for a Saturday, those places are all so busy.

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  20. Cats don’t miss much.

    Janice, I’m surprised people are doing their taxes this early. But then I usually push mine off until late March.

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  21. I’m ahead of the game this year. My state and federal taxes are done, submitted, and accepted, but I still need to do the local. :).

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  24. I’m trying to connect with 3 (local to us) dog owners who are competing in the Westminster show next week. One has emailed me w/his cell (he’s already in NY), two more to go before I can pull together a weekend story. 🙂

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  25. Why put off the inevitable? Just because I can. 🙂

    Plus it’s usually another Saturday I have to set aside to make the trip to my CPA in the OC. Not to mention first having to collect all the data on my end.

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  26. Oh, taxes. I usually use Taxact® online, but because of selling the house and mving I think I’ll go to a tax preparer. Anyone have experience with Liberty Tax service? Or should I use H&R?

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  27. I would ask around for someone local and reputable Peter. Some of those places do a quick training for temp help. I want someone who is going to be around if I get audited.

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  28. Donna, let me introduce you to the Kim method of record keeping.
    Get a big department shore shopping back (you know the kind that can stand on it’s own?), every time you have a tax deductible piece of paper drop it in the shopping bag. Sometime in January or February of the following year put the papers in neat stacks, open an Excel spread sheet, create a column for each category, enter rows of number, auto sum at the bottom across the columns and email to your tax person.

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  29. Last night I dreamed that somehow I found and rescued two half-wild (young) kittens, brothers, one tiny and fluffy white and one quite a bit larger and colorful. In my dream I thought that since they were brothers, it would be possible to keep both, and I could either keep both or just the prettier one. I think one of them was tamer, too. I told my husband I dreamed about adopting kittens.

    That may be a sign I’ve been hanging around you guys too long. Don’t worry, my dream life will never intrude into reality. Kittens are cute and cuddly, but that dream is the only time in my life I’ve ever wanted a cat, except a brief longing for one in a litter of kittens when I was about ten. Mom snapped me back to reality by reminding me they would grow into cats, not dogs.

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  30. I already kind of use that system (minus the spread sheet, of course), Kim. 🙂 But there still seems to be some sorting required and adding up (by hand in my case). Seems like there’s always one piece missing (car registration, 1/2 of property tax payment, things like that). I always find it, doesn’t take too long, I just tend to put it off because there are always so many other things to do … And the deadline, after all, isn’t until April. 🙂

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  32. Peter, I asked a tax advisor about the tax implications of selling my house in Hendersonville.
    He said that if it is for less than $500k, there are no tax ramifications..

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  33. Check and see if you get some sort of “green” credit for replacing windows or updating the bath. I know you would get it on investment property and you may not be able to count the windows until next year when they are all done. There are all sorts of things people don’t think about.
    I just figured out I get an $800 deduction because I use half of an 11×11 room as a home office and I work exclusively from home.

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  34. I grew up with cats, my mom loved them (and dogs, but we didn’t get our first dog until I was a teenager and my dad finally gave a begrudging “ok” when a stray puppy latched on to us and we could not find an owner who may have lost him).

    Annie was the first cat I’d had since those years, though, and it was a (re-) learning curve for me as cats are so different than dogs and I’d forgotten some of what I knew before. Annie also was much different from many of the cats we had, or at least she seemed like she was different — more affectionate, more dog-like almost. 🙂

    Nice to have both.

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  35. Oh, good idea Kim. ! Esp maybe the new windows and door. I probably should have thought to check on those for energy rebates with the city of LA too. But yeah, maybe the bathroom might give me something, who knows.

    So now I have to find the window paperwork … 🙂

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  36. Kim, be careful with that deduction. It is my understanding that it is the biggest red flag there is at the IRS (and you don’t work exclusively from home). You should be able to deduct your mileage when you travel to show properties or other work-related duties.

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  37. I have taken the deductions before, but I had no physical office to go to. I won’t take it without asking. I trust Eve. She has done my taxes almost since I started paying taxes and she won’t let me get away with anything and I always under-estimate. I might be letting the government have too much of my money but while I do look good in black, orange just washes me out. 😉

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  39. Since no one here noticed my birthday on the actual day, it hurt so much that I am going to take a break from the blog for a while. I haven’t read any subsequent posts.

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  41. I am already planning on claim the credit for new windows. Our new house had the original 1960 windows, which looked like aluminum storm widows. They just about all had cracks in them, so we replaced them with double pane vinyl windows.

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  43. About the watch, I had purchased it secondhand at Wellspring which has stores to take in donations and make sales to benefit/help young ladies get their lives together after being in the sex industry. I had wanted a watch with large numerals and ended up getting a Staurer man’s watch with a web and leather band. It has Roman numerals in black on a cream face and looks classy for office casual. I recently noticed a chip on the edge of the face and then the watch stopped maybe a week later. I bought it sometime in the past year for about 25.00. The first battery store I took it to would have charged 8.99 for battery replacememt, but he saw a sliver of glass inside the face that he thought was catching the hands and keeping them grom moving. With my eyesight, I had not noticed that. One jewelry store I called said he would look at the inside of the watch and see if it was a good one or not. It would have been 7.50 for a battery and over 20.00 for the crystal. It also could use a replacement band. As it turned out, I found a designer ladies’ watch marked down from 65.00 to 12.99 with a pink leather strap, a buff colored face, silvery hands, and a circle of vrytals around the rim. It is very pretty. As an alternative, I found a man’s watch set by Sean John, originally marked 95.00 for 24.99, that has either a stainless link band or black leather. I can use the black leather and it will be good for the office, too. If Art’s current watch stops working then this can be a backup for him. I looked quite a while before finding these two that must have been Christmas leftovers. I may still try later when I have more time to get the Stauer fixed. But if I get my eyes fixed then I can go back to my more dainty watches.

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  44. I don’t think so. Our loss. We think in our own time zone, which means she went the whole day with no acknowledgement from us. Having been in different time zones for ten years, I have some idea what she might be talking about. But I don’t much acknowledge birthdays in my immediate family in my house, so did not think about it when she mentioned it on the seventh. I am sorry, Jo.

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  45. The ladies’ watch is by Adrienne Vittadini, a designer I am unfamiliar witb. The price was right. I just sent AJ pictures of the three watches in case he wants to take a poll and see if I should invest in fixing the Stauer. The gal at Radio Shack said she could put a battery in unless it is water resistant in which case she did not have the proper tool to keep from breaking the water resistant seal. I learned a lot yesterday!

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  47. Well, you will be happy to know that my id card is renewed and I don’t need to leave again for another four years. Husband is off with the small folk to eye appointments in another town. He said, “Wait, this means, you will be home alone.” I said, “Yep.”

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  48. So sorry if you felt slighted Jo….AJ did have your special day posted on the header….and I did send regards when I got home around 6 or so (and I did post on FB as well)……and I did see a couple others as well….we do love you…and we are incredibly blessed to celebrate our Lord’s beautiful creation of you….everyday!! ❤

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  49. Ants are a problem in CA all the way over to GA! A co-worker found her white BMW covered in trails of ants that came up from the front walk where her bumper touched the concrete. She thought they would blow off as she drove home, but they just burrowed into crevices until she got home. She did not park the car in their garage. We have never seen such an invasion of ants. It is almost plague like.

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  53. I prefer the personal visits with
    My CPA anyway sine he grew up across the street from us and his mom was a good friend of my mom (and I’d babysit his younger rather when our moms were working on the Reagan
    For Governor campaign). Enjoyable to touch base with someone from the old neighborhood. Sending him a spreadsheet (even if I knew how to do that) wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. 🙂

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  56. We are enjoying a lovely spring day. Lots of rain and wind. The snow is quickly leaving but we should get more in a couple of days. Did I mention I love the snow?

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  59. No snow here. If I say it is snowing down south that means a woman has her slip hanging below the hem of her skirt. Hmmm…if I say it’s snowing up north does that mean a guy’s underwear is showing where his pants should be? Those old fashioned sayings don’t have any meaning these days, do they? At least in the town where the office is a law was passed that guys have to keep their pants pulled up. I really don’t understand how that fad happened. It was just so weird.

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  60. I am fighting that fad here with fifteen year old. I tried explaining that it was cool in the children’s eyes twenty years ago. And that I had looked at enough poopy pants over my years to not want to see anymore. Then I told him he was not allowed in the same room with me if he could not wear his pants correctly. He keeps them up.

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  67. We have no snow…..we had 60 degree weather today…and it will be pushing 70 tomorrow…then the bottom falls out and we will have some snow and 33 degrees on Sunday. We really really need some snow here…it’s all staying on the western slope….

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