Tuesday

These last couple of days of recovery have been humbling.  I measure progress on my left arm by dental-care standards.  For the first two days, I had to use one-handed dental picks for flossing.  This morning, I was finally able to raise my left arm high enough to allow for standard, two-handed flossing.  Lots of other stuff is still done with just my right hand.

I finally took the bandage off of the pinkee-finger with no nail.  I'll save the picture so as to limit the gross-out ratio of my readers.  It stings for sure.  Very tender.

I was able to identify and send emails to my Good Samaritans who assisted me immediately after the crash.  Both were very humble.  I truly believe that there are lots of people who simply act to help by natural instinct.  Lord knows, we all need a hand at times.  I've been lucky multiple times in that regard.

My StL Cardinals are in the news today for bad reasons.  Seems as though there has been a modern-day signal-stealing episode through hacking another team's (the Astros) computer banks.  If true, I hope it was just some yo-yo's  down the line and not any of the key offices of the GM.  With hacking being elevated to an international black-market business, it should come as no surprise that the electronic files of sports teams might be a target.  But the Cards?

My recent experience with the IRS is as frustrating as at any time in my career.  If you have a client issue that requires contact with a human body at the Service to solve it, you're basically screwed.  They must be hugely under-staffed.  The automated system now makes no effort to excuse the situation.  On a call, if you do not fit one of the options offered, the voice simply says that they have too many calls and that you should call at another time...and the call is disconnected.  Perfect.

I have one collection situation that has been receiving notices for 6 months.  I have responded to each notice with copious amounts of supporting paperwork to document the client's position of no-additional-tax applicable.  There is no indication that any of my letters have been read, let alone acted upon.  I actually did speak to a collection agent on that one...after waiting on hold for 45 minutes...and she said that she would put the case on hold in hopes that my last submission would get processed. 

In the meantime, I have received a notice on the same taxpayer asking about a large credit balance in his account in the prior year.  This has been my point in all those earlier responses...that they already had the money that they said was due...and that my client was actually overpaid.  Its maddening.

OK.  I'm going to publish this part of the entry.  I'll add more later from the iPad.

BCOT