No matter what, 95% of every day is the same thing as the day before. No, not citing a scientific study though there probably is one. I write about my day, every day. Based on the last couple years, things don’t change. From casual observation, though I am hardly casual about it, most others are in the same boat. The work is how to make it sound different enough to be interesting. I have no idea if I have succeeded.
Emily just texted me. She needs $20. Can’t remember why. This is my first appointment of the day. And my first chance to forget something. It’s how my brain (doesn’t) works. Making a mental note. Wait, maybe I should make a paper note. Then what if I don’t read it? There is no solution. Except Emily reminding me. Will see how this goes.
I have another appointment at 11. I am hoping it is worthwhile but do not have any real belief it will. The guy is a long time client. He is a prima dona. And an asshole. He left my firm for greener pastures for about five years. Then came back. Now he is my new best friend. When someone leaves and comes back I am afforded the opportunity to raise my prices higher. After all, doesn’t the return mean I am better than all others? At least to him? I think so. I raised his price. Can hardly wait to see what he wants now.
Today I still have audit prep to do. Would love to get the correspondence audit off my desk. And the client off my phone. That would help. The IRS is a creator of havoc. A creator of anxiety. I heartily dislike them.
While checking my emails at home, my 11am texted. He can’t make it. Cool. So I took a little more time on my emails. Dragged around the house. Did some dishes. Packed up and left. About 1030.
Got to work around 1130. Got a call right as I pulled in and spent a few minutes on the phone. Now that I’m not driving, I checked voice mails and texts and made a few more phone calls. Ended up being in the car for half an hour. Thencarbisbhood for this. No one can interrupt or pass me a call or anything. I should do this every day.
Into the office. Katrina has an emergency for me to handle. Except I already did, from the car. I had already taken care of all my messages.
Spent the day on all my other tasks. I called the clients whose audit I handled last Tuesday. They came in shortly thereafter to review their case. The audit covered two years, the second of which had a very minor change. The first was a $40k tax increase. There is not much I can do for them. Fortunately I did not prepare the return. The guy who did the work is incompetent. The return was a pile. The auditor was more than fair. My clients, as usual for any client, were convinced it was not right. I think it more than correct based on the data I had. We ended up deciding to try for another adjustment to sales. The auditor is being more than fair in re-examining data. The client is just in disbelief. I can tell who is correct.
After the meeting I moved on to more audit work. I am handling a correspondence audit for another client. I am preparing a package of receipts and other documents to mail off to an IRS examiner. I really don’t like this method. No contact with the auditor leads to problems. I had to ask for a lot more data from my client. She had provided a portion and I prefer to have all. Crazy. Clients are very good at sending far less than is required.
I spent some time looking at cars on the internet and building them online. The idea being one day I will buy one. I have my eye on a few, but would really like to win the Corvette in the drawing I entered. I am pretty sure I am going to win.
Headed home a little after five. Marika is home and we are making Mole. Which I looking forward to. I love Mole.
She had brought home a chair I had ordered at a Petaluma store she helped me move it into the house when I finally got there.
Marika made all of us cocktails. Bourbon cocktails. It’s always a celebration when she comes home. Or just an excuse for cocktails. Like we need a reason.
Dinner was fabulous, as expected. The Mole was particularly spicy which I find very tasty. We had it on chicken and pork, separately.
Emily picked up eclairs and cream puffs for dessert. So we really feasted beyond the pale tonight. On a Thursday of all things.
We sat around a bit watching TV. And then we went to bed, leaving Marika up watching.