Tax Check?

I am not often shocked.
But today, opening the mailbox after getting home MUCH later than I normally do from work, I saw it.
It was a road made out of gold. It had shiny..............well I'm exaggerating a bit there. Lol. It was obviously a check from the IRS and it had my name on it.

I just looked at it. I wondered how much was there? It couldn't possibly be the amount that I came up with through the online software I used. Could it?

I wondered how they had sent me anything without disputing it. We're not talking $200 here, we're talking 5 grand. I had sent in all the necessary paperwork, yes, including proof of the fire from the fire department and the only thing I could find that would show any value for the house coming from the tax assessor's office. I hated that, they always undervalue - great for taxes - not so great in this case. Oh well, something is better than nothing.

I just walked into the backyard, greeted my waiting doggies and then decided to tear the envelope open.

Stunned. The entire amount, there. 5 thousand dollars. Pocket change to some, a small fortune to me.

I have already decided, as I was discussing yesterday in another entry, that a vacation is long overdue. I'll wait til' summer. Oh, summer is here. Yes, but I just took 3 days off plus the weekend plus the holiday day, so it will have to wait. I have always wanted to go on a fishing boat out to sea and fish - for whatever it is they say is out there. Talking sometime in July, before my son gets out of his mountain high adventure with the Salvation Army and in the middle of what will undoubtedly be miserable, unbearable heat.

At least 1k of that money will go into savings account for emergency use. A small portion for decorative purposes in my house. Probably around $200 to find out what's wrong with my black Great Dane - Prince - who is going on his third week of diarhea. Get rid of 2 pieces of furniture in my living room and replace it - though there is such incredibly high dollar stuff available on Craigslist right now for cheap, no need to buy it new. One of the mattresses in a tenant bedroom - is whacked, get another one of those. I have an almost-endless list of stuff I need, I am going to proceed very cautiously, but...........I really need at least sun screen window treatments on the west side of my house. The money spent will be the money saved.

That is the list of things I will get done. After that? Well, it's nice to have money in the bank. I will spend whatever else it takes to modify previous IRS returns, there is a lot of money there in "carryover" from the house fire, which gave me this 5k to begin with. I mean, a LOT of money, at least to me. Another 10k anyway if my calculations are correct - let a certified accountant figure that one out.

The old saying that money doesn't make you happy? No, if you have inner voids that need to be filled, millions of dollars won't do anything about that. But in MY situation? With all the stuff I need to get done? I think I will be happy to have some things rectified around here, yes I do.

So, that's it. My head is buzzing with the ideas of prudence vectored by ideas of doing what needs to be done triangulated by things that I want to do. Sit on it for a while - yes indeed. That's prudence. Let it sit in the bank and collect dust for a bit until I get over all of the initial excitement of having some money and then figure it out.

G'nite.

ben

Monday's Tuesday 5/31/2011

Tuesday

Back at work.
Alarm was set at it's usual time to go off this morning, it did not. I looked at the thing, half an hour late getting up and still couldn't figure out why the blooming thing hadn't gone off. Fortunately, I get up early enough that even losing half an hour is still enough time to jump in the shower, get dressed, etc etc, get to work and even write a short entry.

Could I have taken another week off and not missed work? Darn straight about that. It's not even open hours here and the uniform guy is already showing up - a thing that annoys me greatly. They KNOW our open hours, why can't they show up THEN? I like the peace an quiet in here which I will not have. Oh well.

I still have my hands full with stuff to do today in finishing up the pond scenario. The filter for one thing needs to be installed. One day of no filtering with water that is fresh out of the tap isn't going to hurt it. The fishies seem to love their new digs.

Still trying to figure out what to do this weekend in terms of getting my son up to Heber, AZ. In other words, leave on Saturday, spend the night up there or just leave on Sunday morning? Hmmm, I think an answer to that would be easier if I knew whether my mother was going to be at her property - which is along the highway up to Heber - we could stop in on Saturday and visit for half a day and then move on up to Heber.

Dunno - she hasn't made up her mind, don't know what the hotel availability is up there, I do know there are at least 3 of them and the prices from I saw are quite reasonable.

Well, time almost up. Unfortunately, I don't think they got the AC in the semi fixed yet. I am going to start getting a bit cranky about it as I have been asking for a while now to get it fixed. It doesn't seem to matter to those that don't have to drive a huge honking truck in 100 degree heat, only to those - me - that have to drive it.

Anyway, have a great day.

ben