April Update - Birthday, Taxes, Doctor, Shots

 

Mom celebrated her 91st birthday this past weekend.  What she wanted the most, other than seeing her most favorite youngest son and his lovely wife...which unfortunately was not in the cards this year, was to have her Assisted Living Facility to lift restrictions due to COVID.  Well, she did get that wish as she can now have visitors, now have the ability to leave and return without quarantine, visit with others living in the facility other than passing them in the halls, and have "outings" where those who want can load up on a small bus and go visit a park, a mall, Walmart, etc. 

My older brother Jim and wife Carol drove out from San Antonio a few weeks ago, parked their small travel trailer in Arny & Sandy's backyard, and stayed at Sister Patti's house.  They visited mom many times, took her down to Elk Grove to visit her Sister Mary, and then visit Aunt Florence (Dad's brother's wife) ... Mom just ate it all up.  Wish we could have been there too Mom...perhaps for number 92!

Of course, April is TAX MAN time.  I did the taxes at the end of March, mailed them out in early April.  We pay quarterly taxes, and this time we overpaid by some $40. Now that I am 65, we will get another small adjustment on our taxes, so our quarterly went down just a bit.

Of course, the first quarter payment is due April 15th...and the first check was some $40 less than the rest will be since we overpaid last year.  Now I could have waited until May 15th this year...but the quarterly tax was still due April 15th, so I just did it all and sent them in.  In 1973 Dad taught me how to do my taxes (my first job was in 1972), and I have done them ever since until I married Marcia ten years ago.  There were some complicated tax issues that required a write off, so we used her CPA for the first six or seven years, and then I started doing them again.  With standard tax write-off, it really is just multiplication, and the new shorter form makes it even that much easier.

Now that I am on Medicare, we don't have to travel to Arkansas for my Doctor's Appointments.  I decided that Marcia's doctor would be a good fit for me, and during her last visit I asked her doctor if she ever takes care of spouses.  Her response was, "Yep, that's why it is called a 'family doctor'.  My visit went real well, although I have a nasty case of White Coat Hypertension...which is when your blood pressure shoots through the roof when at a medical facility.  

I have a Color Doctor wrist blood pressure monitor.  I take it a few times each week.  Last week all my scores were in the Green or Yellow.  The day before my exam they were Yellow and Red.  Of course, Red is bad.  At the Doctor's Office it was high...would have been in the Red on my monitor.  After I got home from the appointment and sat down, I took it within the hour...and it was in the Yellow, almost Green.  Go figure.  Just took it right now and it was 125 over 70...yellow but nearly in the green.

Since it was my first visit with her, she could not order blood tests until after my appointment.  Knowing that blood work would be needed, I did not eat that morning, and during my visit she ordered the test, and after seeing her I walked next door (same building...literally next door to her office) and had my blood drawn.

Do you see the bruise? (Yes, that is Indy in the upper background being a little nosy puppy.)  Well, there is a small amount of bruising today, but not much at all.  Test results came back, and well...I am alive.  The test is broken down into four categories, and they tested the following:

Hematology
WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW, PLT, MPV, Segs, Lymphs, Mono, Eos, Baso, Neutrophil Abs, Lymph Abs, Monocyte Abs, Eosinophil Abs

General Chem
Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Carbon Dioxide, Glucose, BUN, Creatinine, BUN/Creat, Calcium, Total Protein, Albumin, Globulin, Alb/Glob, Total Bili, Alk Phos, ALT, AST, Anion Gap, eGFR

Lipids
Triglyceride, Cholesterol, HDL, LDL Calc, Risk Ratio, Lipid Interp

Special Chem
PSA YR, TSH 3rd Gen, Vitamin D 25 OH

ALL were within range except for...MCH, which was at 32.6 pg (High) and the range is suppose to be 26.0 pg - 32.0 pg.  This essentially is saying that I don't have enough vitamin B12 or folic acid...so I will add B12 to my morning assortment of vitamins and pills.  Of course, I do have high blood pressure, and she kept me on the same medications that I have been on.  FYI, my Cholesterol is 152, my PSA is .6 and for the first time my Vitamin D is at 32, just over the low in the low to high range...so I will continue to that a Vitamin D3 pill every day, and my glucose is within range, but the high end of the range.

Finally, today I got my first Pfizer COVID Vaccine shot.  And, after much contemplation and research, Marcia has decided to get the Vaccine too, and her first shot will be tomorrow.  We use Walgreens, and when I registered yesterday, I had eight or nine different time slots to choose from.  Today when I signed her up, all of the time slots were open.  They schedule three or four people for each time slot. Open time slots (those not taken when the day starts) are given to the younger crowd via an email to the next people on the waiting list, so nothing goes to waste.  I was out and in within 45 minutes, and that was with a 10-15 minute 'hang around' time period after the shot to be sure all is well before you leave.  And yes, out and in is what I said...it means "Out the door of the condo, drive there, register, get shot, hang around, drive back, into the condo again".  Walgreens throughout the country is administering around 1 million shots per week.  I figured that if I waited out the rush to get the shot, it would be easy...and it was.

Florida has averaged just over 50 deaths per day for the month of April...compared to 155 deaths per day for January and February.  Florida's first COVID death was early March of last year.  Four hundred days later, we have lost nearly 35,100 to COVID.  That is 88 people a day for 400 days. The bottom line is, the vaccine is working.  Although masks are still required in some counties, most do not require them ALTHOUGH, individual establishments can require them within their place of business.  I do most of our shopping at Winn-Dixie, which is just down the street.  It requires masks, but around 10% of the people don't have a mask on...they just treat them like anyone who has a mask is treated.  At Sam's Club, you must wear one, and they will give you one if you don't have one, but they will give exceptions for health reasons....99% of the people in Sam's have masks on, but about 10% don't wear them over their nose or let it fall to their chin.  I have never seen a customer say anything to another customer about their masks.  I have seen them say something to someone who cuts into a line because of the gap that the 6 feet limit makes...that is just rude...everyone knows about the 6 foot rule by now.  At least he didn't hit me.  😀

This is Taxing on All of US

Ok, so...what is this blog about?  April 15th is upon us, so is this blog about Taxes?  

 

All 50 states are in a state of emergency, nearly all of us are in "lock down", going out for food and essentials for the most part, and some (like Marcia), not going out anywhere.  At least April 15th is not a Taxing day for us this year...that has been postponed to July 15th.  But I did ours and mailed it in yesterday...we owed a whole $5.  Of course, we paid way more than that in our quarterly tax payments.  Our quarterly tax payments have gone down for 2020 because one of us finally turns 65...while the other is already &@ years old (over 65).  Hey, I am not stupid enough to really post Marcia's age, but she is a little older than I am.  It use to bother me that I was the youngest in the family...until Sisters came along...now I brag about being so YOUNG!  By years end, I will be on Medicare, 16 months later I qualify for a full Social Security Benefit, and I already get most discounts for Senior Citizens.  I also paid our first quarterly tax payment too, even though it could have been delayed to July.  Had I left it in the bank, it would have earned us what, about another dollar with interest rates so low?  Figured it is best to pay now, instead of forgetting to pay it in July and having to pay an outrageous IRS penalty!

Watching this VIRUS spread throughout the country...throughout the world is Taxing on the mind.  Just imagine "IF" we had the media resources we do today during the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920 when 500 Million were infected, and 50 Million died, 675,000 dying in the USA.  Heck, with news like that, and all the finger pointing and you should have done this, you need to do that attitudes, the news of the Spanish Flu would have killed another 675,000 due to heart attacks!

 

Most of us are tired of watching the news, news conferences, talking heads, Facebook news alerts, massive Tweets, numerous instant messaging from news feeds, etc., etc. etc.  It is TAXING to our brains, that is for sure.

 

Of course, the alternative is Taxing on your brain (and body) too.  Binge Watching episode after episode after episode will eventually catch up to you.  Last year Marcia and I found that we could watch all of Heartland via Amazon except the last (current) season.  Even that show, as gentle on the mind that it is (compared to shows that have lots of shoot-em-ups and bombs going off), it finally got to us.  Then we hit the end of the episodes that you could watch for free, which brings on addiction pains because you KNOW there is more out there, but you can't watch them without paying more $$$$ than you basic Amazon Prime price.  We never did give in to the temptation, and our addiction pains eventually vanished.

   

 

And finally, it is Taxing to the Brain to try and remember all the common sense stuff that you are suppose to do during this Coronavirus threat.  Well, for me, not so much...but for others, yes it is.  I will end this fun little Tax Day Blog with a few of the strange things I have observed over the past few weeks.

• Lady riding a bike down the street near the condo wearing a mask.  Now mind you, there is NO ONE ELSE out on the street, but she insisted on wearing a mask...which does not bother me.  However, as she was headed toward me, I was able to observe her for perhaps a good tenth of a mile.  In that time period she touched her mask, and areas of her face, at least six times.  Mask for protection will not protect face from being touched by potential dirty hands.   Note:  Why is it that every time I put my gloves on to enter a store, that my nose or face itches but I can't touch it???

• I was stopped at a stop light a few weeks ago and I looked in the rear view mirror.  There was a guy, about mid-30's, in his car, alone except for his dog which was in the back seat.  The guy had a mask on.  I can understand wearing masks in stores and stuff (although I choose not to), but in your own car with only your dog in the car???  You gotta wonder...   Note:  If the stores were full of people, which they are not here, I would consider wearing a mask.  Also, our county has a .02% infection rate, with 3 deaths.  When I go down an grocery aisle where someone has stopped looking for something, I will either wait for them, or stop breathing and quickly go by them before taking another breath.  Waited for this lady in the produce area just yesterday when I needed some diced garlic.  After about a minute she realizes I was there waiting for her back about 10 feet, and she apologized.  I told her, "I am in no hurry...there is no where to go but back home into isolation."  She laughed...

• They closed the Dog Park!  Now they tell us to be sure to exercise the dogs, and then they close up the place where dogs can get exercise.  Up until a week ago, it was open, and everyone was keeping their distance.  They still have fishing beach and fishing pier open, but the playground is closed, as is the kids water park.  Poor Bubba...no more free wandering around on his own for awhile.

• We get mail here at the Condo and also at a PO Box.  Went in to get mail, and I see this lady at the counter by the PO Boxes where many people open mail and toss out the junk.  Her safety gloves are off her hands, laying on the table, as she opens her mail, putting her hands on the counter top, on the garbage lid, and when she finished, she put her gloves back on and went out to her car.  I only hope that she washed her hands and dumped the gloves when she got home.  Note: When I get to the car while wearing gloves, I remove my left one partially exposing the inside of the glove, open the door with what was the inside of the glove, remove that glove and put in trash bag once inside, shut the door with my now bare hand, and I don't touch anything with my right hand until I take that glove off and put in trash bag.  I then take a Clorox wipe and wipe down my face, hands, arms, keys, steering wheel, and other places I touch in the car, all in that order, and put the now dirty wipe in the bag.  So the interior of the car should be as sanitized as it can be.

I could go into a bunch of stupid political things from every side of the aisle, or the stupid things politicians have said, or how the media has stuck its foot in mouth here and there..all of that is too TAXING on my brain.  As Marcia says, "Can't wipe stupid off of one's forehead."  Too many of these media and politicians are simply acting stupid, in my opinion, for whatever that is worth.

One very good thing I have noticed is just how clean everyone is keeping everything.  The stores use to have wipes to clean your own shopping cart ...now they have a cleaning person who wipes them down much more thoroughly than one can do with those little wipes.  Staff are wiping down freezer and refrigerator doors, vegetables in the produce area, grocery shelves, moping the floor, and especially keeping the check-out areas spotless, including the touch pad at the credit card machine.  They have put up sneeze/cough barriers between the staff member and those checking out.  If someone is bagging your groceries, you are asked to stay in your checkout area until they have everything in the cart.  And the lines are longer only because of the 6 foot rule they want everyone to keep...so a line with 3 people in it is 12+ feet long instead of everyone crunched up along the conveyor belt waiting for their turn to pay.  Good news, most people are shopping alone, few to no kids, and everyone is being polite and orderly...with about 50% of the people having masks on.  Gee...I wonder how long all this new found politeness will last after this epidemic is over????