Update from Curwood Manor

At long last, here it is, the year of 2014 in review.  What that little summary on the back of the Christmas card wasn't it?  Oh, no, you're not going to get off that easily.  Usually I'm able to get this out during the Thanksgiving holiday because I know none of you start your Christmas season without knowing what went on during my year.  Alas, this year, at the end of the year, I was beset by one virus after another starting the week before Thanksgiving.  Nothing major -- no flu, no whooping cough, no car accident -- just one week long virus after another, compounded by various side ailments.  For example after the first virus, a sinus drainage with a never ending cough, I sprained my ribs.  Yes, you really can sprain your ribs from coughing too much.  Then, getting well, I had to take Savannah to the doctor for strep throat where I picked up yet another virus.  I won't bother you with details but at one point I ended up in the emergency room, complete with a ride in the ambulance (No siren, my big chance and I didn't get a siren.  At 1:30 a.m. in Woodbury there is no traffic and I am only 5 minutes from the hospital, so I sort of understand, but would it have cost any more to flip the switch?) for a muscle spasm in the ribs.  The hospital thought I had a kidney stone and had to run a bunch of tests before pumping me full of muscle relaxants.  And I have finally been diagnosed with Frozen Shoulder which is an actual problem that takes from 2 to 5 years to get over.  So you may be hearing about this again.  But for now, let's move on.

You may have noticed the return address on the Christmas card, if you weren't so eager to see it that you ripped the envelope in a million pieces, of Curwood Manor and Gallifrey Gardens.  So what’s Curwood Manor?  Everyone here who can read and drive a car is asking the same thing.  I’ve always wanted to name the house, but a name is such a permanent thing and it takes a while to come up with the right moniker.  But after seeing Downton Abbey and having a sister who lives in British homes that all have names, I began to give it more thought.  We have a back yard now filled with trees (I’m trying to shade out the backyard to make mowing completely unnecessary in the near future) and I happened to see an ad for an exhibit at Cheekwood in Nashville and then there’s Collinwood of Dark Shadows fame.  Curwood was an easy choice.  I guess I could have stopped with that but Manor seemed like a good fit.

When I told the sign painter we were thinking of something with Gallifrey in it, he said, "Why?  Is your house bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?"  These people are everywhere.

Naked Ladies in the garden.

Gallifrey Gardens?  Those of you who know where Gallifrey is or when it is and Who comes from there will get the reference.  And those who don’t, probably don’t care.  But when Mama had the lot surveyed, and we discovered we had three quarters of an acre, it only seemed natural to give the yard a name as well.

So, let’s see what else we found to do when we weren’t trying to figure out what to call the house and grounds.

Last year at this time, I had just begun my life as a librarian and what a year at the library it’s been.  The director who hired me quit to take a job closer to her home.  She lived in Winchester, TN, and we struggled along without a boss for about a month until our new director, Tina, showed up from Minnesota.  She and her family had been looking for a warmer place to live for some time and when this job opened up, they jumped on it.  Tina had just finished working on her Masters in Library Science.  If I had known how much I would like library work when I was in college, I might have gone the same route she did.  However, it's too late for a Masters now.  I'm not in the college mood.  But I so enjoy my two days a week at the library.  It's such quiet, stress free work and brings in just the amount of money I need.  I'm still looking around for more CPA work, but until that presents itself, I'm quite content at the library.

As you might remember we had finally run out of money and credit last year.  We sold the farm, except for 9 acres, and the investment house in Auburntown.  I hated to see most of the farm go, but I doubt any of us would have ever improved it and lived out there.  We are all too much city girls.  It’s great to be able to walk to the bank, the post office, the library, the courthouse and pretty much any where we want to go.  Living outside of town would require driving everywhere.  If one of us does get the money and the desire for farm living, I bet those 9 acres will fit the bill.  We don’t have any extra money at all, but we have enough to pay the bills and have a little fun.  So what more do we need?

Mama and Savannah took a field trip to a farm that makes molasses with the Church of Christ while I worked at the library.  They are getting around and having a good time.  Mama tries to stay close to home while I’m down at the library, but the other days we have no idea where she is.  She has a round of shops she likes to check out and recently went to play Christmas Bingo at the church.  I don't know which is more surprising, that the church had a bingo game or that Mama played and won some movie passes to the local drive in.  It's off to the movies for us this summer.

Mama and I put in a garden while Savannah watched -- next year she’ll do more of the work -- but we failed to dig up our ground well enough and our carrots were stunted.  The ground is so hard the poor things couldn't push down and grow.  But we had a bumper crop of tomatoes and beans.  I cleaned out my asparagus bed and since the plants will be three years old this spring, I’m expecting to have my own fresh asparagus to grill in 2015.  I hope the bed will spread and grow.  Mama planted some winter greens and so far, even with all the cold weather, they are growing well.  Fresh spinach for us.

We all remain healthy as can be expected with our ages and on going health problems.  We had a low key Thanksgiving complete with frozen pizza and pecan pie from Kroger.  Christmas was the same except Mama ate the pecan pie all by herself and we shared an apple pie (yes, from Kroger) and a Key Lime Pie from Edwards (frozen from Kroger).  Savannah and I streamed Bones on Netflix,one of our favorite shows, and watched HGTV.  These frozen pizza holidays are the way to go.  No prep and very little clean up.

Savannah wanted a new cat this year but I kept putting her off because pets are expensive and I didn’t want to add a new line item to the budget.  George, the dog, is expensive enough.  He has delicate skin which requires some attention to keep him from scratching himself raw.  But cats come out of the walls around here, it seems.  We kept hearing this cat yelling in the walls and under the house.  It sounded like a grown cat with a set of monster lungs and I figured it would find its way out of the house, eventually, or die.  Either way the problem would come to some sort of end.  Then one evening while I was in the office running a payroll, I thought I heard it in the attic.  And there it was.  A kitten desperately trying to pull down the blinds and claw through the window to the outside.  The fact that she was on the second floor meant nothing to her.  Mama and Savannah came up with a chicken wing and a box to trap her and the next day Dr. Tate certified her healthy, except for starvation and dehydration, so we kept her.  Since she was a completely feral cat, we had to keep her in a dog crate until she became used to being in the house enough not to immediately run under the bed and hide when she was allowed out.  But being feral, she had no problem with George and gives him a good smack when he gets out of line.  She’s already killed a mouse, although Lizzie, the other cat, has killed four.  And this is after we’ve had the exterminator out, so I suggested to Mama we fire the exterminator since he obviously was not doing as good a job as the cats.  She killed two more mice last night.

So what did we name the cat?  We name our cats with a last name based upon where they were found.  We’ve had Michael Banks, Jaclyn Church, Calvin Barnes, well, you see the thread.  So we now have Steve Lofts, since Steve was found in the attic.  But Steve is a girl.  The vet assistant asked if we wanted to change her name now that we knew Steve was female.  “No,” I said, “we have a male cat named Lizzie.”  Savannah said, “Cats have sex not gender.”  So Steve it is.  Steve and George and Lizzie.

Savannah has joined the youth group at the Methodist church across the street and found some local friends.  They went to a corn maze this year for Halloween and in January they are going to Gatlinburg for a youth rally.  This church also gives away free food to the community almost every month and opened a thrift store to raise money for battered women and to buy food for backpacks that are given to hungry school kids who have nothing to eat over the weekend until school starts again on Monday.  Savannah and I helped pack one evening and it is quite an assembly line.  There are more hungry kinds in Cannon County than I realized.  Of all the churches we've been to in the last few years, this one has a great community out reach which we really enjoy.

Working at the library doesn’t allow me much time for travel and we didn’t have money to support the Class C camper, so I sold that in May.  I thought that would be the end of camping but Savannah wanted to keep on going.  I bought a large cabin tent that’s called automatic but really isn’t.  It seems to take 2 hours to set up camp no matter what we are camping in.  Even longer to break camp.  All the Tennessee State Parks were closed most of the year while they were updated with WiFi but we had a great time at Edgar Evins once it reopened.  I love their camping platforms, so the tent wasn’t actually on the ground.  In 2015 we plan to try Henry Horton which has a restaurant as well as WiFi.  I can never can get a campfire going, much to Savannah's dismay.  She always wants to crash another camper's fire as if they wouldn't notice if two strangers showed up with marshmallows.  Camping in the tent was great fun and I can’t wait for warmer days.
View from the back of the tent.
View from the front.  The walls around the deck sort of ruin the view but it did give us a good place to tie down the tent for the 15 mph hour winds we experienced the first night camping.

A different view of our campsite.  Since the platforms are made of wood the grill is on the side there as you can see.

Our view of the lake, not as good as at Defeated Creek but better than nothing.

More lake view and our trash can.  Tent in the back.

We all enjoyed our week in the Gatlinburg time share and Savannah and I went back in July for her birthday and Dollywood’s Splash Country.  In between we had our weekend in Chattanooga with the Liberty Con group.

Savannah at the Nashville Symphony.  Don't tell her I put this photo here because she doesn't like it, but I do.  This is before she dyed her hair blue.  The dress from Goodwill.  The booties might be as well.  The symphony gives free tickets to students so we go a few times a year.


Savannah decided to begin having her hair cut and cut and cut and cut and then colored.  A friend of mine who bleaches and colors her hair came over to help her the first time and now she changes color a lot.


Savannah's hair and the hole on the Woodbury square from the buildings that burned down last year.  Still no new buildings and I sort of like being able to see the courthouse from the back street.

Right after I sold the class c camper, Eva came for a visit and treated us all to a trip to Nashville.  We had only a quick weekend before she had to return to England and take up her duties there.  We had a great weekend that passed all too quickly.  Maybe she will be able to visit more in  2015.
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What’s happening around Woodbury?  A Taco Bell is being built and on opening night the family and I, and just about everyone else in town, went down there for supper.  Mama and Savannah don't like Mexican type food and it does tend to kick up my heart burn, so I don't see us spending much time there.  We don't eat our much anyway since I've tried to start cooking a bit more.  And, yes, it's more than heating up pizza.  In August liquor by the drink was voted in.  We may actually be able to drink Margaritas at our local Mexican restaurant (not Taco Bell).  But there are rules about how close the restaurant can be to a church and still serve liquor and with so many churches in town, liquor by the drink may remain limited.  There is hope a chain restaurant might come in as well.  But that's probably far in the future.

Playing trivia games as fund raisers is popular around here and we get a team together several times a year to prove that knowledge is fleeting and memory is non-existent.  But we laugh all the way through and never come in last, so far.

Eva and Chris spent the entire year in England doing whatever it is they do there.  They haven’t sold their place in Denver and may come back there to retire.  It's been a year for surgery.  I had hernia repair in August and Eva had another knee surgery in November.


I’m still working on winning big in the lottery as much as I can but some weeks I forget to buy a ticket.  I have great plans for that money which I will implement as soon as I have winnings to collect.  My writing also continues.  Tina and I write the library weekly column for the paper and although my fiction has taken a back seat to raising a teenager, it's still getting attention several times a week.  I write for enjoyment now and for profit later.

One of our best days this year was in August when the power went out just after dark.  I’d started to cook supper but with no power that plan had to be abandoned.  So the three of us went out on the front porch to eat salsa and chips and watch the cars creep through the darkness.  I’d never seen so many cars on the road.  Everyone was out to get the scoop on what was going on when they could have stayed home, eaten chips and salsa and looked at the stars, which are normally obscured by the city lights.

We still live a low key life, not stressing ourselves out too much.  To decorate for Christmas we just pull the tree out of the corner and plug it in.  When we decide Christmas is over, we unplug it and push it back in the corner.  It has become such a usual sight, no guest to the house ever mentions it any more.

I'm sure a lot more that is worthy of  note happened, but since I fail to take notes during the year and have to rely on memory, I'm going to stop here. 

Have a great year everyone.  Stay in touch and I’ll try to do the same.  We only lose touch if we stop reaching out.  I know I don’t keep up as regularly as I should, so help me out and send me a note now and then.  I'm sure great things are going on in your lives and I want to know about them.

I try to update the blog now and then so you can check back here or add me to your circle, what ever that means.

Below are some photos from Christmas.

We don't remember how we got this dog, but when you push his paw he sings a Christmas song.  So now he's a part of the tradition and has to sing before opening presents.

Christmas present wine dressed in Christmas present chef's clothes.

More presents from the Dr. Who experience and Big Bang Theory.  That's how I knock on Savannah's door, knock, knock, knock, "Savannah", knock, knock. . . . .

Thad made Savannah this shelf and mounted it high on the wall. Steve thinks it was made just for her.

Rose I was sent from the library when I was out sick.  Very sweet of them.  And some Christmas cards.

Mama opening a gift.  We opened at midnight on Christmas Day.

Savannah enjoying a gift.

Tree all lit up with the tree skirt Grandmother knitted at the base.

Savannah wearing her TARDIS dress received from aunt and uncle in England.  Yes, I know it's out of focus.

Here is a photo of things to come in 2015.  As soon as I get well, I'm going to finish this deck made of pallets in the back yard.  I will blog about it when it's finished.

Love to all.  Merry Christmas.  Happy New Year.


Lu Ann
of
Curwood Manor

Cook Out Fast Food Burgers

This is going to be a restaurant review.  Many of you probably don't remember, or never knew, that I used to write restaurant reviews for a singles magazine in Knoxville when I lived there.  Of course, back then the magazine paid for my meal and now I have to since no one is paying me to write this blog.  And since this blog is about taxes and saving money, you can bet this won't be an expensive place.

Are you tired of paying $20.00 or more to eat fast food?  You go into a burger place, you know the ones -- they've been around for decades, pull out a $10 bill and your jaw drops when the counter man asks for a $20?  I have and I'm only paying for two people.  It could be argued we eat to much and it could be rebutted that the dollar menu seems a bit boring.  Not to mention the fact we'd rather have something else than fried food.

Normally we hit all the specials, such as the half price appetizers at Applebees.  Share one half price app, add a plate of fries, drink water, and you have a pretty good meal for around $10.  But these specials only happen at certain times and we were hitting town before half price hour.  But there's a new burger joint across the street.

Cook Out is the name and if you want to review the menu on line, don't be fooled by two impostors whose pages show up before the official site.  The only way I found the official site was to go to Wikipedia and click on the official page, but again don't be fooled.  Even on Wikipedia the impostors are listed first.

Enough preamble.  From the outside the building looks open and full of windows to lend to the whole outdoors for a cook out feeling.  There are a lot of doors.  You never feel trapped and even though there didn't seem to be many people coming inside to eat, I could see a brisk drive through business going on outside.  In fact the line never let up.  It was too cold and windy to eat outside but an ample patio with tables and chairs looked inviting when weather permits.  Interior decor was that of a cabin or an outdoor picnic shelter with actual picnic tables, complete with backless benches, or regular fast food tables with back supports.  We opted for a table for two with back supported seats.

Mesmerized by the choices we stood for a good ten minutes reading and discussing the burger boxes, by far the best value.  I have to admit the price made me think the burgers would be about the size of a half dollar coin.  We each ordered a burger, cheese extra, so no cheese, with our choice of two sides and a drink for $4.99 each.  I chose coleslaw, made with mayo and not vinegar, onion rings and a water.  My dependent also opted for a burger with fries and a bacon wrap with a large drink.  Including tax I paid about $10.50.  But were we going to get a filling meal or something fried and greasy that would leave us hungry in an hour?

At first glance the burgers were smaller than the bun but not by much and thick in the middle.  The taste was that of a charcoal backyard grill and proved to be very filling.  The sides were small but more than ample since there were two and you can double up; if you like fries you can get a double portion.  My coleslaw came in a small container which at first I thought would leave me wanting more but proved satisfying.  I only received 5 onion rings but they were large and tasty.  Between the coleslaw, the onion rings and the burger I was completely full.

My dependent's bacon wrap was salty and left a strange after taste but the fries were firm and better than average thickness and not damp or limp with grease.  She had to get a refill on her drink but my water was enough for me.  And she commented that the ice was good.  She is very particular about her ice.  If you want a list of all the sides, which include hot dogs and wraps, go to the web site.  All three sites have the menu but only the official site is updated with the current sides and prices.

My only negative comment is that everything was served in Styrofoam which doesn't recycle or decay.  This is a rather large chain with many stores in five or six states.  Management could look into more environmentally friendly containers but everything did fit nicely into the Styrofoam burger box.  I can see the drive through window crowd would really like the convenience of the hard sided box, especially when buying multiple orders.

If you want a quick, tasty meal with some interesting sides that doesn't strip your wallet or bore your taste buds with the usual fast food fare, check out Cook Out.  You won't be disappointed and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.  It's a good meal for a good price.

Vacation on the cheap -- check out state parks

This blog is to discuss money matters and what does everyone want to do?  Get away.  Go on vacation.  Staycation?  Not for us. Being on a fixed income doesn't mean vacations are over.  It just means it's time to look at ways to keep those costs low.

First check out what is close to where you live.  We happen to live close to several state parks -- Cedars of Lebanon, Edgar Evins, Henry Horton, Old Stone Fort, well, the list goes on.  To add to their attraction all the Tennessee state parks were updated with WiFi access.  It seems my daughter, Savannah, can't go anywhere without that (and I don't like to be without either), so the state parks became prime camping destinations.  After we sold our last camping vehicle, a lovely class C, I thought my camping days were over, but my daughter said, "Let's buy a tent."  I really thought she was kidding.  Who wants to sleep in a tent?  I know some people think camping in a tent is the only way to camp, but I am not one of those.  I've seen the photo of the happy looking bear and the message, tent camping the bear's soft taco, or something along those lines.  And I agree.  But really, how many bears are there in Tennessee state parks?  Add to this the ability to book up to a year in advance on line and I'm really liking the Tennessee state parks.

Now let's consider cost.  Primitive camping sites, no water and no electricity, are only $8 and surprising usually booked solid.  Really?  I don't see the draw.  The other sites which have water and electricity and are varying distances from the bathhouses, are from $15 to $20 a night.  If you are disabled, elderly, a veteran, a state employee, or a retired state employee, then there is a discount.  These discounts get deeper during the off season.  Check them out.

Recently we booked a site a Edgar Evins State Park out in Silver Point, TN.  Where's that? you ask.  Look it up, I'm not Rand McNally.  All I needed to know was that it was within an hour's drive of my home and it had platforms for camping.  All the campsites at Edgar Evins are large deck-like platforms that hang out over the side of a hill around Center Hill Lake.  Why are these platforms so important?  I didn't have to sleep on the ground.  And I didn't have to pitch my tent on the ground.  I've never slept on the ground before and I wasn't really sure how that would be so I wanted to avoid it if I could.  At Edgar Evins I could avoid ground sleeping.

Now let's analyze the tent.  We have a large cabin-like tent which means it has a large foot print, I think it's 10 feet by 12 feet.  It's tall.  I believe over 6 feet at the center.  I don't want to crawl around on the ground to enter and leave the tent or to get into bed.  We have an air mattress that is low to the ground and one that is tall.  I used the tall one.  My daughter, with complaint, used the lower mattress.

Having never used a tent before I did some research on line and discovered that "in the old days" tents were made of canvas and didn't have floors.  If it rained, the tent remained water tight via water tension which kept water from leaking in unless something touched the side of the tent, therefore breaking the water tension, and causing a leak.  Also, I discovered that the windows should always remain open when the temperature outside was lower than the temperature inside the tent to keep condensation from forming and raining down during the night.

Well, all this was old news and completely useless to me and my tent camping experience.  My tent is made of nylon and waterproof.  No water was coming into my tent unless a window was open.  No condensation is going to occur because the roof is completely open under the rain fly making it impossible for the inside to be hotter than the outside, as we discovered to our shivering dismay.

Above is a shot or our camp site at Edgar Evins.  The only downside, which makes complete sense, is that the fire ring and grill are off the campsite to the left and not in this shot.  This site is right across from the bath house.  Very good placement considering that there is no bathroom in a tent.

Here is a brief run down of the tent camping experience.  The first evening and night was warm, but not hot and several times during the night I was awakened by pounding rain.  That's right POUNDING RAIN.  Not a gentle rain, pounding rain with lightening, thunder and 15 mph winds.  I didn't talk to my daughter during the storm in case she was still sleeping, but I would have had I known she was on the other side of the tent checking her weather app to see if we were in the middle of a tornado.  Fifteen mile an hour winds seem like 50 mph winds in a tent.  Since I had the windows slightly unzipped to avoid condensation, I did get a little bit wet from the open window, but no rain came into the tent from leaking seams or roof.  We have a "bathtub" floor which means the seam that joins the walls to the floor are about 4 inches up the wall to avoid leaking.

The day after the storm was damp and drippy until the afternoon when things dried up but the temperature was great.  A wonderful day to sit outside reading This Old House magazine, drinking coffee, while Savannah slept late and then watched movies on her computer.  I walked around the camp and talked with the host who had a large sofa on her platform outside her camper surrounded by several tarps.  Her husband drove around the camp on a golf cart looking very sour.  I never talked to him.

The second night the temperature dropped to 48 degrees.  I was prepared but Savannah was not.  I told her to bring more covers but she didn't.  I woke up with a great need to run across the street to the bathhouse.  I pulled on my sweat pants and sweat shirt to keep warm and ran to the toilet.  When I returned I found Savannah huddled under her cover so I threw my sleeping bag over her and went to make coffee.  After a couple of hours freezing outside, hoping it would warm up, I told Savannah she had to get up so we could go somewhere and get warm.  "I'm warm," she said, not realizing she was under a cover and a sleeping bag.  She thought she'd gotten warm from the sun shining on the tent.  We went to Wal Mart and Pizza Hut.

The next night we both slept well since we'd gone to the local Wal Mart (yes, all great camp sites are next to a Wal Mart) and purchased for her a decent sleeping bag that would withstand the cold.  My weather app, which wasn't wrong, predicted the next night to be 38 degrees.  The next day was also warmer and quite pleasant.

What else did we do beside survive a raging thunderstorm and the freezing cold?  We went to a ranger scary story telling about the Bell Witch.  We went out every day to get some hot food since I didn't bring anything but snack foods.  I don't cook at home and I'm not going to start some horrible precedent during camping.  The only hot food I brought to prepare was coffee.  We walked around the camp ground so much that every muscle in my body was sore but walking kept me limber as well as in pain.  We also watched movies and enjoyed nature.  I had hoped for a better lake view from my site but the necessity of having solid walls to keep campers from falling to their deaths from the camping platforms meant my main view was of the protective walls.

My best lake view, which really wasn't that good.

View from my bed in the tent.  Notice the protective wall.

Inside our two room tent with the room divider up.

The next trip is scheduled for Henry Horton State Park early in November.  If it's warm enough and not raining, we'll go.  I have booked a handicapped site which is completely flat and paved and right across from the bathhouse.  Another good budget item about state parks, if you have to cancel your reservation there is only a $3 charge which is well worth it.  Another plus for Henry Horton -- it has a restaurant.  Edgar Evins also has a restaurant but it was closed for the season.  Henry Horton has no lake but it does have a river.  And did I mention the restaurant?  No driving 22 miles round trip to get some hot food.  Here's hoping for a warm dry November.

Check out a state park near you.  You won't be disappointed.

Death and Taxes

My father had his CPA office in our home and across the street from our house was a large cemetery.  Now I have my office in my home and I live across the street from a funeral home.  Death and taxes are always linked as two events that can not be avoided.  To paraphrase a doctor I saw on television this week -- no matter what strides have been made in medicine, the final out come, death, is still 100%.  Death is a depressing topic that everyone wants to avoid, however, it is unavoidable and ignoring it might make life easier on you, but more difficult for those left behind when you die.  Everyone should prepare for death and here are some ideas about what to do.

I've been watching a series of shows that Nashville Public Television has been producing on aging in the United States, particularily in Tennessee.  Death is not a general topic of conversation around the dinner table, even though everyone at dinner is dying, to a greater or lessor degree.  Therefore when death is imminent few, including doctors, know what to do.  Generally doctors are trained to do everything they can to keep a dying person alive, no matter what quality of life that person will have during and after the treatments.  Quality of life has a different definition for everyone.  By talking about death and dying before death is staring you in the face, everyone will have a better out come. 


Everyone at every age needs to consider how they want their life to end.  Do everything possible?  Do everything possible only if I'm not going to remain a vegetable?  Pull the plug if there is no hope?  Donate all my organs?  Donate none of my organs?  Who will carry out these decisions if you are unable?  Start thinking about this now and let people know.  No doubt this won't be a once in a life time decision.  As you grow and change and the people around you do the same, your ideas about death and dying will also change and your documents will have to be updated.

Here are some web sites and forms to review to help you record your final wishes.  One is  www.stjosephhospicefoundation.org where you can find a free download of the Five Wishes form.  The Five Wishes form was developed by the St. Joseph Hospice Foundation to give people an outline of what needs to be considered before death.  It asks the hard questions.  Do you want life support no matter what?  Do you want your organs donated?  Do you want to die at home?  Who do you want to decide that it's time to stop medical care if you're not able to make that decision for yourself?  It even offers suggestion about activities you can request.  Do you want someone to hold your hand while you are dying?  Do you want to be surrounded by people?  You can write it all down, sign it and notarize it.  Do not put these forms in a safety deposit box.  Put them in a file.  Spread them around.

Some think the Five Wishes form is contradictory and too "religious" based.  If you'd like a basic legal form to do much the same as the Five Wishes form, then go to www.compassionandchoices.org.  From this site you can find state specific forms.  Click on the state and go to the forms that apply to the state where you live.  Fill these out and have them signed and notarized as well.

Remember you'll probably need to do this more than once.  Life changes.  Each decade you should review your forms and make changes.  Maybe the person you chose to make your end of life decisions has died before you.  You'll need to pick a new person for that role.  Maybe your feelings about organ donation have changed.  Or about drastic medical care to save your life.

There is nothing wrong or sad or depressing about thinking about your death and what you want to have happen when you die.  It's just taking care of business.  It's making sure the people you love don't have to wonder about what you wanted.  It's making sure that they don't have guilt, shame and confusion to contend with while they are mourning your loss.  Dying is part of living and it's time to recognize that and talk about it.

The IRS will never call you. Never. Beware of scam.

I believe I have written about this before but it bears repeating.  The IRS will never call you.  Never.  Never.  Never.  The IRS agent wants to know that he is talking to the taxpayer in question and he can't know that if he makes a phone call.

If the IRS contacts you it will be with a Registered Letter that you will have to sign for.  That's the way they work.  They do not want the taxpayer to have the option or ability to say, "I didn't know I owed this tax." or "I was never contacted about this matter."

If they call, they could be talking to anyone claiming to be you or it could be you and you'll lie about it later.  Not that you would ever do that, but the IRS wants to make sure.

So, if anyone calls saying they are from the IRS and you need to pay some taxes you didn't know about over the phone, just hang up the phone.  Or start laughing and hang up the phone.  Or better yet tell the caller that you'll need to talk to your CPA and ask for the caller's contact information so you can get back to them.  Then hang up and call the police.

And that's another thing, after the IRS doesn't call you, they NEVER take tax payments over the phone by credit card.  YOU can contact the IRS payment system  --  the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) either via phone or computer to make a payment if you wish, but the IRS never calls and they never ask for money over the phone.  They don't do that.

The IRS will never call you.

How to live well on a lower inomce -- Move back in with your parents!

No way am I moving back in with my parents!!  Or, yes, that's exactly what I want to do but they don't want me any more.  I'm 36 years old and I have no place to go, whaaaaaaaa!!

I'm not talking about freeloading.  I'm talking about sharing a home and the expenses.

Maybe neither of you have much money and by joining forces you can improve your standard of living.

My mother and I have been sharing a home for twenty-one years in this last go around.  We shared a home for the first 18 years of my life, to which I contributed very little if anything.  Then I moved out for about 12 years, somewhat on my own.  Whenever I needed a free meal I could always "drop in for a visit".  Lucky for my mom, she wasn't that good a cook so I didn't come by every night and eat up her food.

After I was diagnosed with MS, we thought it might be a good idea to move to an area where life was less stressful and we'd be closer to our relatives.  We returned to the family stomping grounds, and many a summer adventure for me, and purchased a home that we then renovated into two full houses and a large office space.

We have separate electric and natural gas bills, but share the water and the alarm system.  We also have a shared laundry room accessible from either side of the house.  The lot is 3/4 of an acre giving us ample room to plant vegetable and flower gardens, put in a swing set for my daughter and grow nut and fruit trees.  Now and then the deer and squirrels let us have some fruit and nuts.  We also share the cost of the property taxes and property insurance.  We insure our cars together for discounts.  My mom pays the AAA fee and I pay for the family cell phone plan.  The wireless wifi covers my mom's side of the house as well.

Neither of us could live as well if we lived alone.  And there are the non-cash extras such as the time my daughter and my mother get to spend together since they live in the same house.  The ease we have in caring for each other when sickness hits since we live in the same house.

We do have separate kitchens and buy separate groceries.  It works for us and we planned to live together for a long time when we moved in here so we set it up to work with an eye toward both privacy and togetherness.

Maybe your parents have a large home that you have the money to renovate into something workable for both of you.  What would it take minimum?  An extra bathroom, a small kitchen and a separate entrance.  I think both parties need to be able to come and go without going through the other's space and prepare a private meal.  Some newer homes are now being planned with an in-law or grandparents suite already included.  When one side is no longer needed, the extra home space could be rented or utilized by another relative -- sibling?  aunt?  uncle? who'd work well in a similar arrangement.

Maybe neither of you has a suitable home and need to sell both current homes and buy or build something new.  That's what my mom and I did.  Neither of us owned a home large enough to accommodate both of us and an office, so we sold what we had and bought something we could mold into exactly what we needed and raise both our standards of living.

This might not work for you at all, but it's certainly something to consider if making ends meet isn't as easy as it used to be.  Living side by side will make it easier to share as many expenses as possible especially the largest -- property taxes, property insurance and the mortgage.  Also, if your parent, or you, ever needs someone around to make sure everything is "all right" there's no need to make an extra trip or interrupt the day to check on your parent, just open a door and say hello.

It will take some working out, maybe even some growing up -- for parent and child -- but I don't subscribe to the do-it-all-on-your-own theory.  I think families should help each other out as much as they can when necessary.  Many things might not be possible but surely a warm, dry place to live with a little food on the table can be achieved with a some forethought and consideration.

And if incomes are low enough, there might be some tax implications to consider.  There's nothing wrong with being a boomerang kid as long as you hold up your end of the boomerang.

Why has it been a year since the last post?

Could it be that I've not published an entry because the tax code has not changed?
No, I'm sure there have been a lot of tax law changes in the past year.

Could it be that I've lost interest in this blog or the tax law?
No, that is not the case either.

So what's the reason?

I am only a part-time CPA because my health doesn't allow me to work full-time as I would like to do and as I enjoyed doing before I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  As you might imagine I've had a very up and down career.

My income consists of annuity payments from investments I was lucky enough to acquire as a disability stop gap before I was diagnosed.  But time and the stock market have lowered these payments a great deal from where they started.  I still make a small amount of income from my CPA practice but it's difficult to grow a practice when health gets in the way.  New clients want a healthy, strong CPA that they can depend on in case of trouble.  When the IRS comes knocking, or more likely sends a registered letter, the client wants the CPA to jump right on the case -- not have to schedule it in around health issues.

It's also difficult to know how to charge a new client.  Would a healthy CPA have taken this long to finish this task?  Was I slower because it's difficult for me to concentrate and I'm tired?  I don't want to over bill or do a poor job for a client who expects and deserves only my best.

So, last year I got the brilliant idea of giving a series of lectures to small business people about what to expect in the way of taxes.  Of course, they could read books, but I found books too general.  Books covered too many topics that had nothing to do with starting a small business in Tennessee.

Alas, the only one who thought this was a good idea was me.  No one signed up to come to my seminars.  Therefore last August I was faced with some very difficult decisions.  Did I go out of business completely for a year, have no income, and then try for Social Security Disability?  A pretty big risk.  No guarantee I'd quality and after a year, my practice would certainly be dead.  Even my most loyal clients would have found another CPA in that time and clients don't switch CPAs easily or quickly.

I had taken on little jobs here and there, my most exciting was stripping furniture at a local upholstery shop.  I really loved that job.  I could set my own hours, work 10 hours a week and make the extra income I needed.  But when the summer came, I could not find a time when it was cool enough for me to get my work done.  By the time fall and cooler temperatures came around I was eager to try my new seminar business and all my extra time and energy went into preparing for that.  I wrote lectures and prepared handouts.  I practiced my delivery and attended Toast Masters and rented a venue.

I learned a lot but nothing that would help me make money in the long run or the short run.  More bills were coming due.  My line of credit was almost maxed out.  When all seemed lost, the local county library received the funding to hire two new part-time librarians and I applied for one of the jobs.  I needed a job that had no stress, didn't require a long commute, and that I felt competent to do.  I was very lucky to be hired.

So that's what I've been doing.  I'm going to try and keep the blog updated more than once a year now that my finances are stabilized.  Sorry to be away for so long

And I'm going to change or widen the blog topics.  I'm still going to cover tax issues, and feel free to ask questions if you have any, but I'm also going to discuss how to live well on a limited income.  I'm looking forward to it, I hope you are, too.