Well, we relieved some of the stress. Tuesday we bought a car. Our friend Roy, who works at the Ford dealership in Grants Pass made contact with us -- he had been out of town -- and we bought a 2007 Ford Taurus. It was a former Budget rental with 31,000 miles, very clean. I've never had an extended warranty on a car but thought maybe it would be a good idea with this one so we rolled the price, warranty, title transfer, and closing costs into one ridiculous offer. After a little back and forth exchange we finally settled on a decent price. Joyce and I felt good about it because the final price was less than the amount we had available. A couple of the other cars we were looking at would have meant going into debt a little bit.
Now let me tell you about tax stress. I had my taxes figured out but with questions about a couple things so I wasn't real confident I had done it all correctly. 'The way I figured it, I owed the US gover-mint about $400 more than I had already paid them. Almost the same with the State of Ory-gun. I made an appointment with the local branch of AARP to look them over and answer my questions. We showed up on Wednesday, filled out their form, and the lady started putting things in the computer. Then she had questions about what to do. Her boss came over and discovered I had income from being a minister (remember Newport the first part of last year?). After an hour and half of forms and computer input she informed us they weren't supposed to do minister's taxes because they were too difficult. Okay, now what? I tried again to put the right numbers on the right lines but ran into more questions. Now I'm beginning to panic because I'm scheduled to go to Eugene Friday and be gone until the end to the following week -- note: that is after the 15th.
I told Joyce, "this is nuts." I picked up the phone (sidebar here: this was a cell phone. We don't have the old land line phone number any more. The phone company has given that number to some unfortunate soul who is getting a host of calls for Gene or Joyce. Go ahead and call us, but don't use the old 476 number). Okay, where was I? Oh yes. I picked up the phone and called H and R Block with two questions. Do you have someone who knows how to do taxes for a minister and can they do it in the next two days? Answer: yes and yes. My appointment was for two hours at 10:00 Friday. She said we could do it all right then, wrap it up, and be finished with it. Sure enough, she was quite knowledgeable and so was her computer program. Two hours later I had good news and bad news. The good news was that she saved me a bundle on taxes -- I only had to write a check for $40 to the IRS and I get money back from the state. The bad news is that H and R Block is rather expensive. But all in all, I'm way ahead. And it is done. Over. History. Behind us. And we can move on to other things. Like floors.
I promised my sister Beth, I would install a new wood floor in her kitchen -- you know, one of those "floating" wood composite jobs. Somewhere along the way, the kitchen project grew to include the living room and hallway. Oh well. My nephew Roy, prepared the floor by taking up the old carpet and leveling the low spots. Beth lives in Elmira, west of Eugene. So Friday afternoon, Joyce and I showed up with the RV and work began. By Saturday evening we were about one third finished and possessed sore knees, legs, and muscles in general. We have lots of corners, nooks, and crannies to do but it will be done by the end of the week.
Today we attended worship at the Eugene Free Methodist Church -- they call themselves Living Hope. Good service and good message by Pastor Dave. Afterward we enjoyed lunch at Izzy's with my sister-in-law Iva, and Joyce's brother and wife Jack and Luwayne. The only problem was that our time was too short. I had a Conference committee meeting at 3:00. It has been a good day.
Sort of a boring week, huh? I guess that happens when one is retired and doesn't have anything to do. Are you bored? What's your day like?
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