(3/1/22) Tuesday Was supposed to meet someone at 9:00 am to work on the fence, maybe pressure washing later in the day. They have been spot paving our road for 2 weeks. You have to line up and wait your turn to follow a pilot car. It takes a long time to go 6 miles. The van right in front of me turned out to be the man I was headed to meet. We were both early. He said GC was supposed to show up later with the bobcat. He took the EZGO with his chain saw and trimmer up to the corner to clean up small stuff first. The worst that can happen is he ruins the CVT transmission. I told him the one thing to NEVER do. Hope he takes me seriously. He took a look at the tree near the dam. Also thinks it is too big for a bobcat. Said he found 2 more trees down. That would make 6 total. GC never showed up. He left at 4 pm. I remember now why I put off hiring people. You really have to be there, for one reason or another. If you aren't, something always seems to go wrong. Waiting around is more tiresome to me than working. First I moved all the furniture on the porch away from the house for pressure washing. That didn't take long. What else? My cousin in W.V. called on Thanksgiving. Her husband asked if I ever go fishing. "No I don't have time." On the spur of the moment I invited them down to go fishing. They might just take me up on it. It's one thing to invite someone to spend the afternoon, or come for dinner. It's another to invite them to spend the night, or have the house all to themselves. Routine cleaning is one thing. Then you start looking around for things someone might notice on closer inspection. Cobwebs on the ceiling, mildew above the shower and on the rubber gasket around the freezer, rusting bolts on the fridge, dead bugs between the double window panes, ladybugs in the bathtub. Vacuumed the bathtub and floor and sucked up two of the floor tiles my mother laid, all by herself. Now I've got to glue them back. The mobile home has a cathedral ceiling which peaks around 10' where the two halves meet. You need a ladder in the shower to clean above the shower. Best fishing season is just around the corner. GC sent a text message later in the evening that they'd be back Thursday. (Thank you) I need a day to rest.
I inherited a large Pyrex loaf cake dish, which turns out to be a perfect bird bath. I've been watching birds and squirrels off and on since 7 am. We are up to 4 Robins now. They have been in the back yard fighting with one Brown Thrasher (State bird) over who gets to take a bath first. The thrasher won. Robins and Thrashers never come to the feeders. One bird flew directly into the bluebird house and came out a minute later. Too far away to identify. Don't know if it was just visiting or planning to stay. I didn't see or hear a single bird out in the country Tuesday. It was eerily quiet. No dogs barking even. Birds have been all over in town all winter, chirping away. The squirrels are plentiful out in the country also, plus snakes, hawks, and other things. I don't see how smaller birds can ever raise a nest of little ones successfully out there with all the predators. GC called last night at 7:30 said they would be out this morning with the bobcat. He would prefer to start very early. So I went out late last night, left the gate unlocked and the keys to the garage hidden where he can find them. Since they have the EZGO I can only walk to where they are to see what's going on. Will go out later. If they move to the dam I can drive the Ranger to the cabin and walk around the pond. I would like to see them tackle that tree, but not worth spending a whole day cleaning house otherwise, with a good chance I'll miss it even if I try. .
Your bird bath might be worth some money these days. For some reason, old Pyrex has become a "thing" and people are paying ridiculous prices for it.
(3/3/22) Thursday It's silly to take pictures of where something used to be, isn't it? They got all the trees removed in one day! I only counted 5. 1. Oak tree on the corner BEFORE-1 ..BEFORE-2 The neighbor said he was going to bring in some equipment, clear it off, and chop it up for fire wood. That was 3 years ago. He never got around to it. Neither did I. 2. What's left of a pine that fell some time in the last 6 months (?) 3. & 4. Two uprooted trees on the back property line Just the top of one hit the fence. Lots of limbs but not so big. BEFORE-1 ..I tried to clear a path just so you could drive through and got it down to two. BEFORE-2.. About that time a big tree fell farther up the same road, so I decided to get them all removed at the same time. That was 2 years ago. Fence Man said he would do it, but never got around to it. Neither did I. 5. Later ...
I don't know where you get your energy, Nancy. I'm having trouble rounding up dust bunnies these days.
I didn't do any work on this tree removal project in the last 2 years. The fence has not been a top priority without the goats.
(3/12/22) Saturday The power went off for about 5 minutes around noon. The desktop pc didn't come back on. I said the next time it happened I'd replace that little CMOS battery. Zero confidence it would work. The side panel came off with just 2 screws. Popped out that battery and put the new one in. Tempted to stop at that and just put it back together. But the thing was covered with dust inside. It has 3 fans. Two are exhaust. One of those is wedged between the power supply and the case and you couldn't get to it. The 3rd one appeared to be more important. Behind it was a round thing with fins, like a car radiator. I assumed this was for cooling. The fins were covered with a mixture of dust and lint. Literally covered solid. Took a soft tooth brush and brushed the dust off of the fins, with vacuum cleaner beneath to catch the dust. Cleaned off the blades of the two fans the best I could, trying to keep a balanced/equal amount of dirt on each blade. Accidentally sucked up one of the screws, that attached the fan, into the vacuum cleaner. We had winds gusting to 45 mph all day today. Tore apart the vacuum cleaner bag and poured everything out an an old sheet inside the house and recovered the screw. Put everything back together at 6:30 and it started up. Maybe this was just a coincidence. Maybe I'll find out next time the power goes off. At least I got the radiator cleaned. And I'm a little less afraid to tear the thing apart now.
(3/13/22) Sunday The oil filter didn't arrive until Friday. There are several new oil filters that my father bought for vehicles in the garage. But I could never find his wrench. Maybe he used the screwdriver stab method. So I bought the pliers type at Harbor Freight for $8. Then of course I found his wrenches hanging on a nail up high. I forgot to look up. They are both the band type. I doubt they would have worked. Almost gave up getting the filter off, but when it started to become "disfigured" in the process I realized failure was not an option. There would be a filter with holes in it stuck on for good. How embarrassing. Except for that, the oil change was easy. The next one won't be that hard. Wish I had known. No one will work on carts here unless you take them into their shop, or they pick them up. They charge quite a lot to haul them in. But it's not the money so much as the waiting around for them, both coming and going, and you don't know for sure what they do when it's gone. The last two times I had it serviced I think they just did cosmetic things. As if washing it would impress me. I didn't ask for it to be washed. Everyone says this EZGO was one of the best model years. "They don't make 'em like that now." If I'd known that, and known it would last 18 years, and that I could change oil myself, I'd have taken better care of it. It's still not running right, and I'm tempted to try more things now. YouTube has let the cats out of the bags. . .
I wasn't going to mention this until it got resolved, because then it wouldn't be worth mentioning. But it's still not resolved. Backtracking a whole week... (3/9/22) Wednesday Another routine Dr. appointment at 2pm. This new doctor (PA) caught me off guard last time and I agreed to another appointment in 3 months. That will not happen again. While in the waiting room a robot-like man with a mask, who I never saw before, came out with a printout from CMS (Ctr. for Medicare & Medicaid Serv.) saying that my Medicare Part B had been "SUSPENDED." Either get it straightened out right now, he said, or pay up front for the visit. Told me to call the Medicare 800 number. All the woman at CMS could tell me was I hadn't paid Part B premiums since September. She told me to call SSA (Soc. Sec. Admin.). This was a needless appt anyway, so I (politely) cancelled and went home. Fixing this might not be quick or easy. Years ago, when I finally got all health insurance things set up to run automatically, I didn't want to ever think about it again. And I didn't. So I wasted a couple hours trying to figure out why I didn't make these payments. I forgot Medicare B was automatically deducted from SS checks. First tried logging onto My Social Security, hoping to fix this online, but got locked out, likely from too many tries, but maybe not. Must call an 800 number to unlock, but only before 7pm. It was already past 7. The local SSA office closed at 4 pm. Would start again in the morning. to be continued...
(3/10/22) Thursday 8:30 am Sure enough no SS checks had been deposited to checking account since September. Called federal SSA office. The man explained that all this happened because my mailing address was incorrect. They must have got mail returned to them. (?) He corrected the address on his records, but said it wouldn't take effect until tomorrow. Said to unlock My Social Security, he would have to send me a new password in snail mail and it would take about 10 days. Faster to just delete the account and create a new one. And... call the local office to resolve the check deposits. I find most online help people pretty nice and as helpful as they can be, if you are polite to the them. But the man at the local SSA office ticked me off. When he told me for the 3rd time I should have informed them when I changed addresses, I shouted ... "I haven't moved in 40 years!" "Well, someone put that address in there." Grrr... The incorrect address was the same highway as the farm but a different number. It would be half way between the goat barn and the nearest neighbor. The goats were all gone before September. He claimed to change the address on his records also and that everything would be fine now. I created a new My Social Security account and the address on that was correct but flagged with "correction pending", and a note in red if anyone tried to change it, the correction would be cancelled. By then it was noon, and there was nothing to do but wait 'til tomorrow. My guess is this incorrect address came about at the post office. Somehow my mother's social security must have got confused with mine, probably when I had them transfer her mail to my address in town right after she died. They do that for a short period of time. Someone at the P.O. probably transcribed the number by hand wrong and returned it to SSA after that time expired. continued...
continued... It's still Thursday (3/10/22), but now Noon - 4pm I was on a roll dealing with 800 numbers in the morning. It seemed like a good time to tackle 3 other things that have been lingering for a long time. I jumped into them with a newly found momentum. 1. Cancel an old Earthlink email/dial-up account They say it's not easy to cancel Earthlink. The girl I talked to said she would send a confirmation email and I was to enter a code before cancellation would be final. Maybe I misunderstood. I do have a code. But no email ever came, so far. 2. Replace a credit card lost 2 months ago No one has charged anything on it. I kept thinking I'd eventually find it. You used to be able to order a duplicate card online. Now you have to call an 800 number. They wanted the full credit card number. Did you know if you log onto your account online you can't find the number? At least I never could. (I need to write it down somewhere for next time.) Apparently you can't have 2 duplicate cards now. There are only 2 choices—Lost or Damaged. If you choose Lost they give you a new number. There are some things on autopay with the old number. Should get it within 4-6 days. I tried to hard to claim Damaged, but after 3 transfer calls I got confused, and something tells me it will have a new number. 3. Cancel the phone at the farm To log onto that account you need a passcode that appears on your monthly bill. I never could find that passcode when the bills were sent in the mail, but was able to set up an account somehow (years ago). Unfortunately the bills are now paperless so I can't see the bill unless I log in. You are not allowed to change a passcode like you change a password. Must call an 800 number. The man told me the account is still under my father's name. They would not cancel until I provided confirmation that my father died. I sent an email copy of his death certificate. He said it would take at least 48 hours for them to read that email. Call back then. Later I was able to bypass their passcode security by playing around with the "forgot login" and "forgot password" options. The account had my name on it, not my father's. So there must be two different data bases. More waiting... continued ...
(3/19/22) Updates Social Security Lump sum deposited to checking account for SS up through March '22. The amount looks close to what it should be, but can't know for sure without a breakdown. The IRS 1099 form for 2021 still reflects 3 fewer monthly payments (Oct, Nov, Dec). In general, if a check is issued in 2021 but you don't cash it until 2022, it still counts as income for 2021. But this may be different. I wonder if you could call IRS and ask what 1099 they have on file and just match it when you file your taxes? Medicare (3/16/22) Wednesday: Called CMS. They said Medicare Part B had now been "TERMINATED!" I'd have to re-enroll in Medicare. What ??! And, btw, call SSA instead of us, anyway. Local SSA - Nice man this time. From their side everything looked fine, he said... "But wait! I see a pending item. Let me check with my supervisor." He will send a notification to Medicare. Said I would NOT have to re-enroll in Medicare. But it would take 15 days to get it all straightened out. Earthlink Cancel Called Earthlink and they said it was officially cancelled. No need to wait on an email, and the confirmation code was never asked for. ( Where did that come from? ) Billing cycle is on the 15th. No charge as of 3/18/22. This looks like it might be resolved. New Credit Card New credit card arrived yesterday. It has the same number! Yay!!! Phone Cancel Called on 3/15/22. They didn't even look at the death certificate. Didn't know what I was talking about. Cancelled service immediately and said I didn't owe anything unless I made a long distance call recently. Unfortunately it just happened to be right around the new billing cycle date. Checking account showed another phone payment made on 3/17/22. This could just be an honest mistake in bad timing. Called the bank. Said I'd have to come in and fill out a form if I wanted to challenge the charge. If making one more monthly payment would guarantee this would stop, I'd eat the payment, but it might continue. Off to the bank (3/18/22). Two choices: (1) challenge the payment or (2) stop payment. The latter cost $32. They will challenge this and see what the company says. She said it usually takes 2 weeks. I guess if they refuse to refund anything, then I could go to option (2) if I want? I figure option (1) will make them at least stop. That's all I want. Three out of 5 ain't bad. So I guess all that's left is to wait 15 days from the 16th for CMS (that would be April Fools Day), keep checking online, and wait to hear from the bank about the phone bill challenge.
Sorry but I am laughing at your misfortune. So many similar things have happened to me. My mentally challenged daughter is on SSI(?) there was some mix up years ago and I went in to correct it. On her history was a prison term in Nebraska or somewhere and, as she wanted a job of some sort, this stood in the way along with her handicap. I explained we never lived in Nebraska, my daughter can't drive nor would she know how to find a conveyance to get there. The woman behind the desk said it was probably a typo but she didn't know how to fix it. ????? Eventually my daughter got a job but that is another story.
Hi Mary, It is funny when it's all over and done with. One can laugh about it. My problem wasn't nearly as bad as having a false criminal record though. I bet that was hard to correct. It's possible my "wrong address" problem will come up again. A similar thing happened last year at tax time. I never got a 1099 for SS. When I called SSA they said my address was incorrect, but they refused to tell me what the incorrect address was for "security reasons." I suspect there are at least 2 data bases involved at SSA. One of them gets corrected, then occasionally they pull up the 2nd one, and the information on the 2nd one overwrites the 1st one.