Participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge

After 1000 hours of gut ache, my taxes are finished…or at least until my CPA calls me to tell me what is missing.

Last week: I get back from AZ and think doing taxes will take me one day. I have copious notes and several spreadsheets from my numerous years (6) of taking over my late husband’s job of handling the finances.

I find the hard copies of the notes and spreadsheets. I go to the computer to make a 2024 version of the 2023 spreadsheet. I open Word and hunt. And hunt and hunt. No luck.

I’ve already sorted out the documents I know I will need from my three months of accumulated mail. But with no spreadsheet to check them against, I’m toast. And irritated.

Are you following?

I go back to my computer. The spreadsheet must be somewhere. It suddenly dawns on me that my spreadsheet will not be under Word, but Excel! I feel positively brilliant.

After I rename my 2023 spreadsheet to 2024, and print it, I’m awash with excitement! I can now compare last year’s list to my pile of documents. I discover I have two extra documents, but who cares, because, lo and behold, I am missing two others.

And that’s where the added hours of work came in. I hunt and search and roil in gut pain. I text my daughter who takes in my mail when I’m gone. Did she steal them? She suggests I check my recycle bin. Great idea!

To keep my socks clean, I tiptoe into the garage to retrieve the plastic bag containing recyclables. Thankfully, I have not yet emptied it into the bin that forbids plastic garbage bags.

With my treasure in hand, I empty the bag onto my LR carpeting, forgetting there are some food containers in there too—green beans, frozen dinner trays…. I teeter slowly to the floor (the act of which reminds me that I must exercise—my post of yesterday) and meticulously sort out each piece of paper garbage. Surprise! I find one of the pieces I need. It is torn in half, as I do with unwanted mail, so, in slow tortuous motion, I raise myself off the floor, hobble to my study, and tape it back together.

One missing piece to go. I email the entity for the still-missing document. I get a friendly email back saying it is attached. The attachment doesn’t open on my computer. I check my phone. Already open! Did my computer call my phone to warn it of my frustration? My phone miraculously sends the document to my printer, and it prints! Hurrah!

After 1000 hours of angst, this woman’s life at 82 suddenly warrants a Dairy Queen Blizzard. But only if there’s enough WW points left in the day to allow it…