This morning when the alarm went off I laid there and waited for it to stop buzzing so that I could sleep for another ten minutes until it buzzed again. When it buzzed the second time I sat up and said to myself that I just could not make it to Bible study today for I was just too tired and sleepy. I turned off the alarm and crawled back into bed and laid there for about three minutes and then I jumped out of bed and headed for the shower. I got to church five minutes before Bible study was to begin and there was not a single car in the parking lot. I called the teacher but she was not at home so just thought she was on the way. I closed the phone and saw that another car was pulling into the parking lot. It was Johnette, the pastor’s wife, and she told me that the study was going to be the fourth Tuesday this month. Chatted with her for a couple of minutes and then took off for home. I decided that since I was up and dressed that I would go on to Monroe to check at the Tax Assistance Office about my Stimulus Payment.
I was almost to the interstate in Ruston when my cell phone rang and it was Mignon. Since I do not like to drive and use the cell phone and I cannot hear that well when I am driving, I pulled into a bank parking lot and we talked for about thirty minutes. Mignon confirmed that she will not be back in Louisiana until at least the middle of August. When we finished our conversation I continued on to Monroe but the tax office was closed from 12:30 to 1:30 for lunch so I stopped at Cane’s to have lunch. Then I went to the Ouachita library to renew my library card since they had sent me an email saying it would expire at the end of this month.
I stayed at the library reading until time for the tax office to open and then I took off to find out what happened to my check. I was very surprised when I opened the door to the Tax Assistance Office for the room was filled with people. Had to take a number and realized that there were ten people ahead of me. Sat there and read for over an hour before the lady finally called my number. The first thing she did was request my driver’s license, then she typed a few words into the computer and then told me that I was not in the system, in other words, no form had been sent to the IRS. For the past couple of weeks I had started to have the feeling that the Turbo Tax online ‘free’ service did not even send my form to the IRS. Fortunately I had printed out everything that Turbo Tax emailed me so she took the pages of the 1040 form and had me sign it and then she copied it and gave me a signed copy. She did a little more typing and then said I was now in the system. I then asked her if I could expect my check in about two more months and she smiled and shook her head yes. If I had known that Turbo Tax was not going to send the form to the IRS I could have just filled it out myself and mailed it. I did it online thinking that it would be quicker and that I would not have to hunt up an envelope and then drive to the post office for a stamp. One day when I have nothing waiting in the wings for me to do, I am going to see if I can find an email address for Turbo Tax and going to let them know what I think of their free service. If they had told me that I needed to mail the form that would have been fine but they did not tell me anything, just sent five pages via email.
I am seriously thinking of putting the stimulus payment with some more money and buying myself a laptop. But more than likely, I will probably talk myself out of that notion. Had a message from Scott this morning and he will be home Thursday night. So I have got to get some house cleaning done before he gets here. I am going to have him go to the grocery store with me and he can pick out what he wants to eat while he is here. We usually go out to eat but we decided that we would eat at home this time except for Brian’s birthday when we will go to the restaurant of Brian’s choice. Bet he picks Outback which is just about the most expensive restaurant in this area. Oh well, he only has one birthday a year and he is worth it. Even though Christy bakes him a birthday cake, I will also have a cake for one of the meals when they eat here. Only mom will make exactly what he wants. I probably should not say that for I am sure that Christy also makes what he wants. But he knows that good old mom will cater to his wishes.