Month: February 2018

Yesterday, my mover, All Pro Moving, delivered forty boxes, 42lbs of packing paper, six rolls of tape and two markers. So I can pre-move all my crap out of the house. Am I moving? No. I am having an estate sale and we are not selling all of our stuff. We are selling a lot, so we gotta get the “good” stuff out of the way. Hence the pre move packing. And, I say again, Saturday is the sixth work day of the week. I have real work at the office but I will be here today doing other real work. I really don’t look forward to this. And I need to mow the lawn. I thought that had been retired.

Finished the newspaper. Emily went to yoga. I am doing the dishes. What’s next? Mow lawn. I really want to put off the pack and move till Emily can be here and yell at me. Then I will know I am doing it correctly. Just a little guidance. And, now that I think about it, it’s only 9am which means lawn is too wet to mow. I can wait on that.

It’s now 125. I have been packing and cleaning since 9. Emily was gone till 1135 yogaing and shopping. And me packing. Way fun. Soon as I finish the next box I am going to the lawn. I swear it.

Next stop is a lunch of leftover burritos. So far, mine is nice and hot. And I hear it again “I don’t know how u can eat it so hot”. Been hearing that 30 years. I would think she would have figured it out by now. My tongue is burning from the hot sauce, though.

So I finally got the lawn mowed, roughly. That’s as good as they get. Buyers are lucky I mow at all. Though he may buy the mower. That would be a bonus. It only took an hour to mow. Dear God, please make this the last time I have to mow this lawn and let me move away to my next home.

One of the buyers, and three of her friends and the RE agent came by at three. Emily took a load of clothing to the consignment shop. I stayed and played host while they walked around and measured things. And I signed papers for my agent. At this point I would probably sign my own death warrant.

It is now 910. I hurt all over. I hate boxes. We did stop for dinner a couple hours ago. . Barb and Kirk brought by he remains of the BBQ they had for Kirks b day. We are having them over to our house tomorrow. So he gets two b day dinners. Dinner was fab. Especially the artichokes. I really think most artichokes are a waste of time. But Barb has oh so obviously perfected the art of the artichoke. She grills them with plenty of garlic and butter and I don’t know what else. But now I want to eat them and previously did not. She has changed my life.

After heaven if dinner comes hell of boxes. We both packed till 8. Emily quit. I kept going and going till aforementioned 910. When I said fuck it. Which is what I said. God am I sore. And tired. And getting up to xtra early tomorrow to go to work and do taxes. I will be sitting down.

Time for me to clean up and go to bed. Emily is already there. Tomorrow she will pack alone. That won’t be fun.

Today is Friday and the first day of President’s Weekend. Hardly much of a day off for us. Though, Emiky is still in bed taking advantage of sleep in time. I woke early because the day is full and I want to work out. Which makes it longer and fuller. I must be crazy.

Workout will be same same. But, after workout the show really begins. Starts at rental pod early am to get things for sale. That will not be fun. Couple hours easy. After that I have the whole day full of appointments and such till I go home. At home I will be getting ready for sale. Mover is bringing forty boxes to fill up too. Sound like a holiday weekend? More later. Come back, inquire within.

Emily and I managed to get to the pod and grab a few things for the sale. Large upholstered chair, several hundred feet of garden hose, a couple chairs, odds and ends. Usual sale stuff I guess.

Ran it all back home and dropped off. Then I ran to work. Had to postpone one tax appointment but managed to make the other right behind it. One out of two is not so bad. After that I just tried to organize the dump of documents I have received in the last two days. Took a couple hours just to neaten all of it up. And make calls. And go through a hundred emails. And the mail. And go to the bank and straighten out the banker so I could get my accounts open. Towards the end of the day I managed to get into some tax returns and finish a couple. Like that’s my job, right? Stayed too late but managed to finish up some taxes. I did finally get out of the office. And go home. Emily had made dinner. A very nice salad, and some stuffed mushrooms. I would call it a great dinner. I made a rhubarb crisp for dessert. With ice cream. I didn’t make that. But, it was the essence of awesomeness. I love rhubarb.

We tried to watch the Olympics on on our large screen. The sound has stopped working and we can not figure out what the problem is. TV has a great picture and no sound. Very difficult to watch anything on it. So we go upstairs and watch. Small screen. With sound.

I am going to go wash the dishes. And put the dogs out and lock up. And turn off the soundless TV.

What a day. It’s 853 pm and I swear I never stopped moving all day. I just finished dinner of burritos, nachos and fresh oysters, and red wine. Don’t ask I will tell all when I get there.

I did get up early this morning. Or, earlier than usual I should say. I have two appointments actually on the books for this morning here in Dixon.

I also wanted to workout. Which I do very regularly and am keeping it that way. Don’t mess wih the workout schedule.

So got all regular morning duties done. I went to workout. Upper body routine, and I am a little sore. Probably a good thing.

Ran to the tire shop and dropped off my car. I still need them to fix my tire pressure sensor that they broke. Picked up the owners tax stuff, he is a client. Then off to next appointment.

I went to another client. She knew I would be hot and sweaty cuz I told her I was coming directly from the gym. She was in her grubby clothes as well, I was her only appointment and I am not special.

So we reviewed her corporate books and personal documents. Also reviewed sale documents on our house client is my real estate broker as well. We had coffee discussed all those docs. Called the water test company to get a test bottle for my well. We need a clear turn test to make the buyer happy. Gonna pull a sample on Monday. Have to deliver it to testing the same day you take a sample.

All in all it took over an hour at her office. I went home for a shower.

While on the way home I got a call from a client who said he was on his way to my place. In an hour. Told him I was in my way out and I would call when on the way.

Finished up the shower shave thing. Dressed and ran out the door. I noted, on my way out the door, I had three envelope drop offs of tax info in the basket by my door. Crazy.

Grabbed the crap and in the car. Drive to Davis and called next cli by to set up a meet spot and a time.

So I met wih client in the parking lot of In N Out. He has had a disastrous financial life for the last ten years. Well, it can get worse. His wife of twenty years left him last week. He has four boys and she left them too. Seems she wants independence. I say, don’t have four kids. Guy is a mess but still pushing forward in life. I have known him at least fifteen years and this is an awful blow for him to absorb.

Well, I said my goodbyes, and off to work. I got to the office around 130. Just in time to meet with another client and review the return I just prepared. We spent 30 mins reviewing. I have other things to do.

Next client was right in top of the last. End to end like chain smoking. Took maybe 45 minutes. Client is an old employee of mine. He was my first employee hired in 1993. He is now 71 and retired. Last year he became gravely ill and was not expected to live. He sold all belongings and his house Hospice came in for the death watch. Within a couple months he was well enough to kick hospice out of the house. Alright Ron!! He has since purchased a new house and is doing well. Not to many people beat hospice.

It was late and I still need a new bank for my LLC accounts, as most readers are aware. I went to a new local bank. Took an hour, but heaven help me, they ok’d three accounts. Amazing. Of course, it was 515 at that point and bank was closed. I have to go back tomorrow to finalize. At least I got the thumbs up.

Back to the office. I managed to finish one corporate return. Bill it, print it, and be done. Then I had to head home. My job to pick up dinner tonight. Also, friend Bob is bringing back the S2000 as well.

Got to the restaurant. I received a t cut from them, marketing type, buy three burritos and get nachos free. Well, they are the worlds best chile verde nachos so I was all in. They were quick, which was helpful.

Now home, where Bob has been waiting for a half hour. He brought fresh oysters for us. Nice guy. Of course I have him my car for two days. I’m a nice guy. We all ate a lot and are stuffed. Way stuffed. Like no ice cream for dessert stuffed. Full. Bob went home. I cleaned up the dishes. Emily ate ice cream. Obviously not as full as me. Now it’s finally bed time.

I feel like tomorrow will be just as busy. The weekend is already full too. Whats a mother to do?

Amazing how many holidays I have seen. At my age they do run together even the Hallmark ones like Valentines. It’s just an excuse to give a gift to someone you love. I don’t need an excuse. I would like to cut back on “holiday inflation/expansion”. We, as a country, hardly need all the special days and holidays. They have proliferated. Maybe we should cut them down to the special five or four. Scarcity makes them more precious? I don’t know. But I would probably not have this day on the list.

I have a few things to do this morning. The bank, finally. Then Haughn’s to get my TPMS sensor replaced. They broke it when I had my tires changed a couple days ago. Then a visit with my real estate agent about the well testing done for our house sale. Se me the tester from Eaton Pump in Woodland CA, name is Dan, is a complete moron. Not someone you would want in your house. He tested and found two things that don’t exist to be a problem. Also, I have specialized well filtration installed for water softening and water filtration. The filters take virtually all chemicals and bacteria out of the water. This moron from Eaton Pump states in his report, “bacteriological filter not present”. So stupid and BLIND. What an idiot. Oh, best part, since he left I have been having problems with air in the water lines and low pressure. So we got an inspection and demolition all in one courtesy of Dan Morris of Eaton Pump. Now I have to have a competent pump repair done by Victor at Worsham Pump. They are local to where I live and appear to be good at it. They have worked on my pump for the last 15 years. Maybe they can get this done correctly.

So pump guy called. He did what I thought he would. He told me he could not figure out how he concluded what he did. Victor thought, from inspection of well, that he also pulled a bad water sample. So not a very good inspection. But Victorbis the guy that has worked on my pump the last 15 years. I think the other guy wants work. That’s how the septic inspection went.

Work was the usual cluster fun. Lots of taxes, etc. a client came in and brought us three heart shaped boxes of See’s candy. How sweet. Nuts and chews, my fave.

I went to the bank to finish opening my new LLC bank accounts. The gal who had helped me prior was out till next Tuesday on persona leave. And no one else could do it. What the fuck? Because she started it, she needs to finish it. So I asked, if Lori (the gal) dropped dead that means I would never get an account open? This bank has 25 branches u know. Banker I was speaking to said a manager could override this. But no manager was available. They want me to wait and come back next week. Fantastic service, just great. Fuckers.

After this joy, back to work and more taxes. Headed home round 6.

We had a nice Valentine dinner. Steak and sweet potatoes. Nice bottle of wine. Emily, as usual, overdid it on V day gifts. She does love holidays. They were very nice, as always. My wife loves me.

Maybe an hours worth of bad TV and off to bed.

So far, tax season has been calm and easy. Well, today I have four appointments starting at noon. I think it starts now. The complete hell of it is a couple weeks off but today will suck. No time for eating or going to the can. No time to take calls (yay). Just straight yakking with people who are usually in a tax mood – nervous, unhappy, needy. Sounds fun, no? No. But I chose this, over thirty years ago, so I blame myself. Such a living. I shoulda been a forest ranger. Or maybe a Power Ranger. The black one cuz he was coolest.

I do earn money on each appointment. That’s the part that keeps me moving through my day and forward to the next. It’s mercenary, but it’s the only real joy left in a job of thirty years. And that is not real joy. Ok, cynicism gone please. Gonna be a bright, bright, bright sun shiny day!

It is workout time and I am blogging. Waiting for Emily to be out the door. Here she comes.

And I am off. To workout. Well nothing exciting in today’s trip to the gym. Talked to another gym rat about snow quality (bad) and cover (also bad). But otherwise a workout like all others.

Made it to the body shop to payoff Emilys recent work. Nice visit. Had to run off quickly to Sacramento cuz I have an appointment in 35 minutes. Which I was three minutes early for. Yay for team Bill. Client owns an HVaC company. Brought in the personal stuff to go with the corporate. Managed to finish both. Which means quick pay for me. Again yay.

That appointment was followed by several more. After all that I spent the remainder of my day finishing those returns. Got all done but one. Again yay.

Off to home and found Emily and Marika. Marika had called during the day. She has the flu and is in horrid condition. I called her Uncle, he lives close by her, and asked him to pick her up and take her to the doctor. He did. He wins best uncle award. Turns out it is stomach flu and not the other awful kind. Though she is in sorry shape. Emily drove to Santa Rosa and brought her home. Which is why I found her here.

Emily and I ate dinner without her. She is in no shape to be eating pasta in tomato meat sauce. She is still puking. Maybe something in the morning.

We are watching the Olympics. Half pipe competition. Very cool. Always fun. Missed the downhill earlier. Oh well. Emily has gone up to bed. I am going to take Marika up for a bath. Might help her feel better. She still has a fever. Body aches. Claims she can’t walk. Drama queen. Sick drama queen.

Off to help them off to bed.

Boy did I get a lousy nights sleep. Woke up at 230 and by 3 had realized I was not getting back to sleep. So I took 50mgnof Trazedone which does work as sleep aid. I slept till 630, got up to do Gods work, and back to sleep for another hour. So I felt OK when I got up, though not really rested enough. Emily was snoring, loudly, and I guess it must have woken her cuz she said she did not sleep well either. All I heard was her snoring when I was awake. Just saying.

Today was another work day. I went to work for several hours. Managed to finish a few tax returns and almost finish a couple more. Most returns arrive with incomplete info which of course requires phone calls and back and forth emails. Not sure why people can’t get alllinfo required. Seems easy to me. But what the hell do I know.

Five hours at work does not yield much to write about. I had one visitor and did finish his return while he sat there. That was nice. Couple others communicated by text and one I spoke to by phone. I got his return finished but he was unhappy with the results. Not my fault.

Quick drive home, very light traffic. That is strange cuz Sundays in winter usually have a lot of Tahoe traffic. But none in evidence today.

When I got home I washed my car. It was windy and cold so perfect weather for a car wash. My hands were so cold they were buzzing when I was done. And, so you know, the car looks fantastic.

Emily was working on her class gifts for V day for the kiddies. She is putting heart shaped tags in mini moon pies. The tags say “love you to the moon pie and back”. Very cute. Kids will get them on Wednesday along with some ice cream. Will be a good day for a kindergartener.

After the car and stuff we went to the grocery store. Emily only needed a few things. 70$ worth of few. We got candy hearts and ice cream and chocolate sauce and caramel. A few things.

Back home we made dinner. And cocktails. Which are required. We had leftovers – chicken, steak and lamb. Plus broccoli. Pretty good shizzle I would say.

After dinner we went to watch the Olympics. After an hour or so, Emily switched channels to Last Man Standing. Funnier than the Olympics.

We just folded laundry. Now go make the bed. Then get in the bed and, hopefully, go to sleep.

I am at Haughn Tire now. I blame our “beloved” Gov Jerry Brown. He has enough money for a train to nowhere and a huge hole in he ground but doe not spend what is necessary to fix our roads. My tires are pothole damaged. Gov Brown is a moron.

The guy at the tire shop just busted my TPMS sensor while removing my tire. So I have to come back for a new one. God damn it. One more thing. Jim hires retards on occasion. Such as the guy doing my tires.

Not a big fan of hanging around the tire shop but I am here all the time. Lots of crap in the roads where I live leads to holes in my tires. Low profile tires look cool but are prone to road damage. But here I am on a Saturday and of course one additional day. Weekends, esp Saturday, are for work. Just not the paying work.

After this, nothing really planned. Emily wants to start the dump of house contents. That will be really fun. Right? No, not right.

Emily called while I was at the tire shop. No cell service their. She is doing a little shopping for V Day, which is coming. Emiky takes all of her Hallmark holidays very seriously. Very.

The dumb ass installing my tires busted my tire pressure sensor. So now I have to come back next week for a new one. What a moron.

After tires I went home. Nothing else planned. I was going to wash my car but the wind is lowing like hell and I don’t want to go outside. So we stayed in. And cleaned out the master bath of things we are tossing and things we are keeping and maybe selling. The estate sale is two weeks out. I want to give them as much crap as possible. Gets rid of a lot and makes us a few bucks. Win win.

After our clean out Emily decided we were done. No more cleaning. She wanted to watch TV and have a cocktail. Not quite. I had to get some info for my real estate agent. That took 30 mins. Then I made cocktails. And watched the olympics. For an hour. Then we made dinner and Emily had another cocktail. Not me. And we ate while watching the Olympics. Seems the thing to do.

Well we continue, more winter sports watching. Also, online shopping for Emily for V day. And texting back and forth with friend Cissie. She gave me V day ideas. Most not good. Some excellent. Bob is texting about the truck. He may have a buyer. Don’t care who I sell it too.

Emily and I are supposed to go back up to Incline today after work. I think there is about a 10% chance I can get Emily to go. She is already trying to back out. This is not surprising.

I believe she has not been up to the mountains, except passing through, in over twenty years. She does not like cold, elevation, or skiing. Which is what the rest of us like in winter. But, at the super bowl party she volunteered she wanted to go. So I thought, hey this could happen. Not looking good right now. Though she looks good. Ok, Emily just left and she is not going to go up the hill. I think the only way to do it is drug her and abduct her. That may work. I swear to God I do not know why she offers and backs out. All she has to say is nothing or no thank you. Both work. Now I gotta figure out when or if I am going up since she isn’t. It’s really time to go work out.

After workout went home. I have an appointment at 11 and need to get ready. So I get a call from the office that my ten o’clock was there. Only I have them at 11. Sucks. I blame them.

So I rushed through getting ready and skipped everything. Out the door at 1023 and call the office. Turns out client dropped his crap and left and no one called me. So I went to the tire shop since I now had time. As mentioned yesterday, my tire pressure warning light was on while up the hill. So I went to check on the health of my tires. One had lost air since nice yesterday. Turns out I had a busy Ed tire from hitting a pothole which damaged the bead. The other had a smashed sidewall. So need two new tires and these are orphan sizes so won’t have till tomorrow. I am not going back up the hill. Settled that. I have a good excuse.

Tire guy put the damaged tires back on my car and over aired them so I could drive to work. Be back tomorrow morning.

Drove to work without incident, which, for a change, is truly saying something.

I have no other appointments today. So I just have work. And I worked till 6. I wonder what I did? Work never seems so earth shattering that it causes a memory to stick. It was just work. I talk to many people, move around a bunch of paper and wish I was somewhere else. Every day. I understand your jealousy.

As I was saying, I left the office at 6. Again, drive was uneventful fortunately.

Emily and I went out to dinner. I let her pick so we went to Rose Garden Thai. Emily is a Thai fan. We both ordered something different than we usually order. Emily, for the first time ordered Thai ice coffee. What a night. It is the usual Friday night activities.

We are home watching TV. Nothing new on the tube. Yet we continue to watch. Go figure. Soon we get to go to bed. One of the days highlights.

Morning comes early here. I am sleeping on the front room pull out bed. So I gotta get up early to put the couch back together so everyone can watch bad morning TV. Heaven forbid I get a good nights sleep. I am up early. The good part of that, I get first shot at the bathroom.

I am into my third cup of coffee. Bob is making breakfast. We are just sitting around discussing not much and watching bad TV. Bob is making a frittata of sorts. He threw in a little of everything. I toasted bagels though where is no cream cheese. But they do complete the meal. At breakfast after much discussion, I will be skiing alone. Everyone else is too sore from skiing yesterday. Weenies.

I loaded up the palomino and am off to Diamond Peak. Not a great mountain but a cheap one. That’s nice. All said the snow is shit but still a fun ride. I will know in ten minutes. First day jitters going. Or, five cups of coffee. Not sure. I have a card that gets me a free ticket. Yay. Ski till 130 and head down the hill. Appt at 430.

Just got off the hill. Snow is like spring skiing but not that good. The cover is almost non existent. Only covered where they can make snow. That is a bad sign. Take a look from the top
See green trees. Off in the distance all brown. Only snow is unde foot. Compare to last year at same time

I think if you look closely you can see the difference. I can. Hell, I can feel it.

Gonna drop key off at condo and go to Sacto right now.

And three hours later I am in Sacramento. I was 2 minutes late to my meeting. Not bad considering how far I drove.

The meeting was just more of the same as our other meetings. Just a chance to talk to the engineer who is working on other infrastructure problems on our project. But, nothing new really went down. I am not sure what Mike our architect is trying to accomplish. I hope I will see what it is soon. Very soon, please.

Emily and I drove around W Sacramento after the meeting. We have a couple listings from the property management company and we thought now was a good time to look. Neither was impressive. Too bad.

We went Vince’s in W Sacramento for dinner. It’s on the way home sonits at least convenient. Unfortunately we got a crappy waitress so that really was a disappointment.

We are home now and dogs fed. We are watching the Olympics which does not qualify as bad TV. Soon to bed. Yay. I am way tired after last nights bad sleep.

So it’s Wednesday morning, and a beautiful day. This would usually be considered mid week except I am cutting out early today to head up to Incline to overnight at friend Bobs place at the Hyatt Regency. And go skiing, definitely on Thursday, not so sure about today. Dep nds on when I get there.

I can’t leave immediately because I have an IRS auditor coming in to the office today. I need to slap her around a little and then kick her to the curb. And step on her face. Once that is all done, I head for the hills.

My car is already packed, as is my suitcase. I come back down the hill on Thursday for a 430 appointment. Back up to Tahoe on Friday for more skiing with Bob. For the first time in 25 years, wait for it, Emily is coming up with me. Not quite sure how that will work. She has been anti cold anti altitude anti ski since about 1995. It is a momentous occasion. I think she might back out. Would not really surprise me if she did. It would be disappointing but, again, not a surprise. Wintertime outside activities have always been a Dad and kids thing. Mom stays home to take care of the dogs. So you can see what Friday is. A shift in the force. The universe imploding. A big deal.

It’s workout time. More important to me than some auditor. More important than work. And I like it better too. I have my workout list back so I can do my lower body work. Yay.

So I did have a fine workout. Somebody actually tried to start a conversation with me. I really am there just for the workout but I like to be polite. So I chatted for awhile while I was doing sumo squats. Which is not easy. Especially while talking.

After my fine workout I went home and showered and shaved after all today is Wednesday.

I tried to get to work quickly. I don’t want the auditor to be sitting in my office alone. I also know that when auditors get upset or mad they take it out on the taxpayer in front of them. So obviously it’s good to show up and take care of the auditor.

I arrived and greeted her first, even before talking to my staff. Want her to feel the love. We had an hour long discussion on various aspects of three years worth of the clients tax. We had a lot to discuss. It really got down to employment tax on the shareholder/owner. In the last five years the owner had not pulled wage, only earnings which do not generate SE tax. But, with all the kissing up I did she is going to allow me to propose wage levels for each of the three years. If I can justify well my proposed wages, she will allow that. So I could play pick my taxes for the client. Not so bad. After having my overlong discussion, auditor left. Bout time.

So I completed three more tax returns and headed out. Up the hill to the Hyatt in Incline Village where Renee has her timeshare. Drive was long and boring which is fine. Bob gave me the wrong address so I had added joy from driving around the area looking for the place I was headed. I called Renee and she helped me get there. Bob is a dumbass.

And, now, my first day of skiing this season. The snowfall has been so bad this year it has not felt worthwhile to go up skiing. So the snow is not that good. And it’s icy and hard for two hours in the am. Then gets nice for an hour or two then slush ge rest of the day. Spring skiing here in the middle of winter. I hate this. We had five years of this shit with our mega drought and then last year the heavens opened and we got massive rain and insane snow. Awesome ski days. But, it appears, we are back to the crap weather of recent years. Gonna go skiing anyway. There is a workaround, put up with it and stop complaining.

I got to the condo and unloaded all my luggage, etc., only Renee was there, the three boys having gone out for a cocktail. Renee and I chatted for a few minutes then I headed out to find dumbass Bob and the guys. They were on their way back when I found them. So we headed upstairs to the room.

We all sat around and drank some wine and yakked. They had prepped dinner already. We had some very nice rib eyes spiced and oiled which Lance BBQd. We sautéed some asparagus and we were off. Plus another bottle of wine.

After dinner we decided to head to the casino. Now I want to say, don’t forget Zoe thank much. This is a casino in a 2nd rate location that is isolated. Maybe a niceish looking 3rd rate place. Think of the movie Gladiator, they start in the Provinces andbin the end they are in Rome. This casino is lower than the provinces.

We were all going to monopolize a blackjack table. There are five of us. We got there walked up to the table and the dickhead dealer IDd Renee. She had no ID so she couldn’t play. The dealer was quite fucking unpleasant about it. Fun. Seedy casino with unpleasant employees. She went back for her ID. I noted the table minimums were set at 10$ so I decided I wasn’t playing.

When Renee and Bob returned from the room all tables were full. So we sat at an empty table and asked if they could open it since there were five of us. This request ended poorly. The manager we spoke to was an asshole of the highest caliber. Little bit of profanity on both sides. Very professional. I wandered around. Watched craps. Lost a couple bucks in a slot machine. Went back to the room. Had to stay up cuz my bed is in the front room with the TV. So I dozed a bit till everyone went to bed.

I had a generally lousy nights sleep on the pullout. Just not comfy. Tonight I can sleep at home which is far superior. And home has a bed warmer too. But, I was up three or four times to pee as well as just waking and I think dreaming I was awake while I was sleeping. Leads to a fitful night. It’s also difficult to find anything in a foreign room in the dark. Like light switches. Fun. Tomorrow gonna be better.