Day 189

18 Replies

On my own in the shop today. The other two had family matters to attend to and there I was, a whole shop to myself, It wasn’t planned like that but one of the “family matters” was an urgent visit to the vet, which turned out to be yet another false alarm – that dog is cheery and full of energy but a canine hypochondriac of legendary proportions.

After a quiet week, things got very busy and by 01,00 I had only just managed to pack my second parcel, though I had bought two lots of stuff, turned another down, run out of money and sold some Roman coins. All that and answer the phone on an almost constant basis. I had more phone calls this morning than I had answered in the preceding week. How did they all know I was on my own?

Fortunately the owner was able to get in just after lunch, which took some of the pressure off. I(t was a nice day so he decided that we should pack up at 2pm. It’s nice to have  a boss with an appreciation of the life/work balance.

That allowed me plenty of time to get to the pharmacy for my prescription. There, I was nearly hit by a reversing van, hit a kerb with the front of the car (caught the bit at the front under the number plate when parking) and found myself staring at someone in the pharmacy because they looked familiar.

It was the neighbour from across the road. I’ve known her for 34 years, but in  a mask, with only eyes showing, my facial recognition skills completely desert me.

In the front garden, the teasel is starting to flower.

When I opened the front door I found a letter from the tax office.You know the feeling of a cold, skeletal hand clutching your heart, well that was just how it felt. Letters from the tax office, in my opinion, are never good. I may make an exception for this one as it was news of a £108 refund. Say what you like about the tax authorities, they are vey fair.

That’s it. A day in a  nutshell, some good, some bad and some (like the tax letter) unusual.

Teasel – breaking into flower

18 thoughts on “Day 189”

      2. quercuscommunity Post author

        From what I am told, yours seems to involve you doing a lot of work before paying. That’s what I would call adding insult to injury. 🙂

      3. LA

        My husband is a cfo of a portion of a bank, has a degree in accounting, an MBA, a masters specifically in tax, and we hire someone to do ours because it’s so ridiculous

      5. LA

        Here’s a fun one. My husbands actual office is in New Jersey, though we live in NY which complicates state tax. We ended up owing NJ like 7$. They wanted us to mail a check with his social security number on it. Because the postal service and the irs both run flawlessly

      6. quercuscommunity Post author

        🙂 I was at an antiques fair once, when an autograph dealer I knew came up to me and said “Look at this.” He passed me an official brown envelope. There was a tax refund cheque in it for 14 pence. The cost of mailing the envelope was 20 pence.

        Tax authorities are strange.

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