Monday, October 31, 2011

IRS and other random thoughts 10-31

I received a letter from the IRS today.  It is over the payroll taxes from the store I had.  I had a payroll company do my payroll and stuff but when the store closed they did the end of the year paperwork but never sent it in.  Needless to say, this was a surprise when I got notices about this.  Since then I have sent in all the paperwork.  Well, they lost the W-2s and W-3 from that year.  I was on the phone with them but I only had to wait about 30 minutes (which for them, that isn't a bad wait) until I talked to a real live person.  He was very helpful.  He was polite and nice too.  I always heard that they are not, well, my experience (as limited as it is) has been that they have wanted to help and they were polite.  He told me to make a copy of the W-2s (all 7 of them) and the W-3 and send them in.  He gave me the address and told me what part of the notice to send in with them.  Talk about a good thing.  I was very pleased.  He put a hold on any action and said most likely when they balance, everything will be dropped and that will be the end of the paperwork mess up from the store.  The only thing left for me, paperwork wise, is paying on the sales and use tax that we owe from the last year.  I am on a payment plan and that paperwork is all taken care of.  Thank goodness for that.  I am very happy about how this is turning out.  I will copy those papers this evening and mail them tomorrow.  It shall be done quickly on my part so that they get them sooner and can put them in the beginning of the process to take care of them.

I think I am missing Mom a bit more than normal because it is Halloween.  She really liked the younger children and their costumes.  It was just something that she loved.  Then again, Mom just really liked children.  She had worked with children since she was 14 when she was a girl guide (Canada's girl scouts) leader.  From there Mom went to work with Army Cadets in Windsor (boy do I remember that!  I have lots of memories of being at camps and away with them) to working with my students for sewing and other things.  Mom just enjoyed children a lot.  I would say that Mom really loved lots of things.  I am hiding in the house tonight because I just don't really want to do much.  Trick or Treating here lasts from 6 pm when the sirens go off to 8 pm when the sirens go off again.  I do like how the fire department lets people know when it starts and when it ends.  It really is for the best this way.  When we were small we would go to our elementary school for trick or treating.  Sometimes I would do a lot and other times I would be with mom in the classroom where she would be passing out the candy.  I really liked how the school had a party because all the candy was checked by the fire department (back then people would put glass or razor blades or something equally dangerous in children's candy) and you had a safe environment to go trick or treating.  My friends would all be there too and as we got older we could go without my Dad taking us around.  We would all meet in the gym/lunch room where they would be serving cider too.  I just remember it being a good time the times that we did it.  I know in early elementary we did this, but I don't remember later elementary after my dad left.  I don't remember too much about Halloween then.  I know at one point it was just Mom, Andrew, and I but I don't really remember too much about it.  I have a picture of Andrew and I in our costumes in 4th and 5th grades in the china cabinet.  I was a princess and I wore one of my Mom's fancy dresses.  It was pink (naturally!) and I loved it.  She even had a little jacket to go with it so I wouldn't get cold.  The little jacket was white.  I remember the other holidays so much better than Halloween.

I was thinking about Mom earlier today and that brought some memories out of all of us together.  I have very little memories of my dad.  The only reason I know what he even looks like is because I have a picture of him in one of the picture albums.  I don't know what brought this memory on except I was scratching the top of my arm where my booster shot scar is.  I do remember that day really well.  Mom was never really allowed to tell Dad when she took us to the doctor because he felt his first wife was constantly taking my sister (I have never met her, she lives in England as far as I know and is 16 years older than me) so he didn't want Mom taking us "all the time".  So she just never really mentioned it to him whenever we went.  Well, that day was my booster shot.  Remember how much those hurt?  I do remember because I didn't cry too much I got to pick out a book to buy.   (That was Mom's bribe, a book if you don't cry)  I remember we went during the day so I missed a bit of school.  I was not unhappy about that.  I didn't like school then either.  We came home, Mom made dinner and I remember we were sitting at the counter in the kitchen not at the dining room table.  I was sitting to the right of my dad and Mom was at the left end of the counter.  I must have been wiggling (that was usual for me.  I wiggled all the time) and Dad got mad.  i remember trying to not wiggle, but it was hard so of course, being the young child I was, I wiggled again.  He smacked my arm exactly where the booster shot site was!  I immediately burst into tears because that sucker hurt.  My dad was like, what I didn't hit her hard.  I jumped down from my seat and went to Mom to be soothed.  Mom just quietly said, she had a booster shot today and you hit her where she got the shot.  He didn't apologize, he just said, well, she shouldn't have been wiggling.  I have very few other memories of him, but this is the strongest one I have.  I do remember Mom putting ice on the spot to help it stop hurting.  She even let me sleep in her bed with her that night.  I have so few memories of my dad (he left when I was about 8 and the last time I saw him I was 9) but boy do I have many of Mom.  Mom used to tell me how she knew when I was faking sick to stay home from school.  I would go to my dad and say I didn't feel good.  If I went to her, i was really sick.  She told me this when I was in my 20s.  Of course, this all changed after he left.  Then I just went to mom.  By that time though, I was having so much trouble with my tummy, that I missed generally at least once a week or once every other week.  It wasn't until I was 40 when the doctor said what was wrong.  My stomach doesn't digest properly.  That is why I take reglan.  It is kind of funny to realize how quickly we adjusted to no dad, but the adjusting to no Mom is so hard.  I guess we were so used to dad traveling all the time that it didn't make a difference.  We always had Mom with us and she was the one who took really good care of us.  Even he admitted at the time of the divorce (in court no less! and he was mean to Mom during the divorce) that she was a really good mother.  She certainly was.  Yes, she made mistakes, but we talked about those when I was an adult and she apologized for some of the things she did.  I apologized, she apologized and we put it behind us.  I think that was when we became more than Mother and daughter, we were friends.

I do hope everyone has a good Halloween and a good day.  I am enjoying the peace and quiet here in the dining room.  I think I am going to make some chili for dinner now.

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