The IRS Can be Funny

Hidden in Publication 525 are a few tidbits that I found funny, mostly because criminals don't obey laws.  So here goes...

"Illegal activities.  Income from illegal activities such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040) or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity."

And here's another gem.

"Stolen property.  If you steal property, you must report its FMV (fair market value) in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner."

So the criminals and thieves out there will be hard at work doing their taxes properly.  Sure, uh-huh.  But then it shouldn't be too surprising.  After all, Al Capone was caught on tax evasion rather than for all the other criminal things he allegedly did.

If you guessed that I'm wading through mom and stepfather's taxes, you'd be correct.  I should just count the blessing that they still have income and haven't qualified for medicaid yet.

Still Melting

This is an improvement from when it was about 6' tall.

The garden is under there somewhere.

This one averaged about 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet tall over the last month.

The rabbits were truly desperate; they ate lilacs, raspberries, catnip - pretty much whatever they could wrap their teeth around.  Then they left "smart pills" everywhere.  They even pee'd blue; apparently that means they were desperate enough to eat buckthorn.  The only other instance of blue pee that I've heard of is porphyria.  But how would anyone be able to tell if a rabbit came down with porphyria?  They normally eat grass.  At least I hope it was just rabbits that left the blue pee in the snow.

There are no low hanging branches left on the apple tree.
The rabbits "pruned" the bottom; now I have to prune the top.
The raspberries have been mowed to the ground, mostly.  Those canes still standing have been ringed, so I might as well cut them all down.  We won't be picking any raspberries here this summer.

I pushed the season a bit today and opened a few windows; it reached a high of 45 deg. F - woo hoo.
The wind was blowing from the west so that it was possible to leave the pellet stove running while still venting out the house.  The basement benefitted from a change of air too; dehumidifiers can do only so much.

We are enjoying the nice weather, but we aren't being lulled into a false sense of spring.  This is Wisconsin after all.

Errors, Not Comedy

So the phone rings this morning.

Ring, Ring...

Me: "Hello"

Unkown person: "Good Afternoon"

Me: "It's still morning."

Still Unknown person:  "This is ____ from ____ assisted living.  You're late to pick up your mom for her fasting lab.  Her breakfast and diabetes meds have been held per the doctor's order."

Me: "What fasting lab?  Today is Sunday.  The doctor's office is closed today, and she just had a fasting lab about two weeks ago."

Poor, confused, underpaid employee working on Sunday:
"It is on our calendar.  Has there been some sort of mistake?  The order came through from the doctor's office last Monday."

Me: "Let me check her appointment schedule.  Her next fasting lab is on this date, NEXT YEAR."

Assisted living employee:  "So there has been a mistake?"

Me:  "Yes, someone accidentally put next year's appointment on this year.  You are going to give mom her meds and feed her now right?"

Assisted living employee:  "Yes."

Me:  "Thank you!  Tomorrow when the doctor's office is actually open, I will contact them, and get this straightened out."

I had this sinking feeling on Monday when scheduling next year's appointments, that something like this would happen.  Either the person from the doctor's office did not make it completely clear the appointment was for next year, the fax machine made the full date of the appointment illegible, or someone at the assisted living was really out of it when putting the appointment on the calendar.  No matter what happened, it resulted in an error, thankfully not life threatening, because another employee actually double checked.

It is Sunday, but it feels like a Monday.

Update:  I found out the doctor's office was the one who got the date wrong.  Hopefully, they will get it right this time.

Not a Gentle Thaw!

Add a few inches of rain on top of several feet of snow and above freezing temperatures for 3 days in a row, and what do you get?

Flooding

https://www.wbay.com/weather/alerts

There was also the ice from previous storms which finally thawed.

Both of my pumps and all my good garden hoses are at my dad's house.  He has been pumping out his back yard for two days straight.  The north end of my garage has gotten a bit damp, but a lot of folks have it much worse.  The unfortunate lesson is to buy a house upstream and at the top of the hill.  Gravity is relentless.

On the plus side, I can confirm that my driveway is still made of blacktop, not ice.  We were starting to wonder for a while.

Yesterday afternoon we had a brief amount of sunshine and temperatures in the 50's.  I saw some bikers heading out of town in the sunny weather looking really happy.  Unfortunately, later in the afternoon, we heard a couple of Harleys heading back into town in the rain.  I don't know if it was the same fellas.  I wonder how long it will take to dry out all that leather?

Melting

Winter might eventually come to an end,

but first there will be melting, lots and lots of melting.

Hopefully, things don't flood too badly.

In preparation for all the melting, last night the city finally cleared the 7' wide sidewalk that runs in front of our house and many other houses.  Of course they did this between midnight and 4 a.m. to avoid stopping busy daytime traffic. Hubby and I were trying to decide whether it sounded like very large fingernails on a very large chalkboard, or a bull elephant with his plums clamped in a vice.  Hubby said the elephant would be louder.

Farewell Amy

We hope to see you again someday in heaven.

Until then your friends and family will miss you terribly.