Not much to report. It is time for us to be moving on but we still haven't figured out where to go. There are still many things to do at Drew's; fixing cracks in the plaster and then painting those walls, painting the side of the house that is on the lot line, and other smaller items. I don't do drywall taping or repair because I have never been able to do it well enough to be satisfied by the result. He isn't ready to ask the neighbors move vehicles out of their driveway (vehicles that have not been moved during the 6 weeks we have been here, and that probably don't run), and to ask them to keep their 3(?) pit bulls penned up while someone is in their fenced yard working on the side of his house.
This is the most time we have spent with Drew in 20 years. We have enjoyed getting to know him better.
Camp Alta is "snowed in", not really but there is enough new snow there now that it doesn't make sense for us to drive there, round trip is over 300 miles, to check it out. Also, oddly, the low temperatures there have been down in the 20's for the past week. For the next week lows are forecast to be in the 30's and highs mostly in the 40's. That is tolerable, but not fun, weather in our motorhome.
We may end up giving Mt. Gilead Bible Camp a try after all. Frank, the guy who I have been talking with there, told me that semi's do make deliveries to the camp on a somewhat regular basis. Typically a semi would be at least as tall as our motorhome so they should be keeping all the larger branches knocked down.
We had a nice experience Tuesday (?) evening. Kathy had baked an apple pie for supper. While we were eating Drew kidded about asking a couple of young ladies, from the neighborhood, who he knew before moving here, over for pie, because they LOVE pie. We told him to go ahead. He went back to his house and in about 20 minutes we saw two young ladies parking their bicycles in front of the motorhome. They came to have pie. Drew came back out. They live about 4 blocks away.
The oven repair guy finally came yesterday. He is supposed to repair Drew's oven under the home warranty policy. Initially he came out, looked things over, and did some work on the burners in a timely manner but it has been a nightmare trying to get him back to work on the oven. He was supposed to come Monday and didn't show up. Then he was supposed to call Drew and make another appointment. Didn't happen. Then he was supposed to come between 2 and 4 yesterday. I was in the house at 1:30, to make sure we didn't miss him. Around 2:40 Drew called me to make sure I was in the house. The guy left a message on Drew's phone saying that he had been here but no one was home.
Drew called him back and the guy said that he didn't actually knock or ring the doorbell because he couldn't get through the front gate. Drew informed him that his "feeble, old mother "<grin> could open and close the gate just fine. The guy came back a little after 3 and replaced a gas valve. He said that because the stove is a commercial unit it has to "prime" itself so we could not start the oven, to see if his repairs worked, for 24 hours. I think this is a load of baloney but....
I've been working on our taxes. Tower has been "closed" since early 2010 so all we have is our personal taxes. I thought it couldn't take me long to do them...WRONG! I've spent at least 6 hours on them. I think there are 12 pages to be mailed with our federal form, not counting W2's, etc; and 8 pages with our Indiana part-year resident forms. The good news is that I was concerned that we would owe money but it appears that I had to much withheld from my ARSEE wages and we will get some of it refunded.
Our state and federal income tax for 2010 will total $16,500. Add to that $2,600 in property taxes, $6-7,000 in sales taxes, probably $1,000 in gas/diesel taxes, and thousands of dollars worth of other directr "hidden" (look at the taxes on your phone bill) taxes and I sure don't think I am getting my money's worth. For those of you who are aware of my anti big government sentiments, our tax deductible charitable donations were 14% of our adjusted gross income. I am not a betting man but I would be willing to make a sizable wager that this percentage exceeds the average given by the big government liberals (politicians, bureaucrats, etc.) whose incomes far exceed ours, and who feed at the trough filled by we taxpayers. Far to many liberals only want to be generous with someone else's money.
God has blessed us richly and for that I am thankful. I am also certain that I can do a better job of spending the money He has showered us with than some government bureaucrat.
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