Old Folks

After many years of being around “old folks”, I am beginning to understand them. Why, you may ask? Well, I are one!

Yes, the year of 2009 led me into the magical age of 65. It is a time when all of your youthful fun and fantasies have been realized and “you have arrived”. Some call it “the life of Riley”. Everything just seems to go extremely well, and now, you can just “coast” the rest of the way.

I’m beginning to understand the thing about, old folks not remembering things, like times, dates, events, others birthdays and anniversaries, appointments and such. In a favorite song of mine by the Statler Brothers, The Class of ’57, the line goes like this, “Things get complicated, when you get past eighteen, the class of ’57, had its dream”. And it just seems to compound when you hit sixty-five. It seems the family gets larger with grand-children and schedules expand. You try to make all the games, performances and major events like birthday parties… for everyone. While all the time, trying to enjoy “your life” for yourself. Projects and the “honey do” list really get shoved to the bottom of the list and you never seem to get anything done. I’m really not complaining, just making known to the readers I’m not going crazy, I’m just really busy. And did I mention your own job or business; all the things that need to be done and schedules that need to be kept in order to keep your clients and customers happy.

Then there are the things that jump up, out of nowhere, to put you further behind. Last September I got a notice in the mail that there was a warrant for my arrest for not paying my State Sales Tax. Well, to their surprise, I don’t pay Sales Tax, my business is exempt.
I have to file a form each year to show how much I made and that the total amount is “tax exempt”, put a zero on the bottom line and send it in. The main problem was that I had been trying to satisfy this problem since the beginning of the year. Somehow, the state had not gotten my original filing. I got a notice of this in May 2009, because it was not evident, since I don’t usually do my taxes until April. With a phone call and a fax, I thought the issue was resolved. In June I get another letter saying I was delinquent and penalties were being added, the same in September, but also came the letter informing me of the warrant. This prompted a trip to downtown Indianapolis to hopefully rectify the situation. Finally, resolution, what a relief.

Time marches on and no man is left behind. In January of 2010, however you want to pronounce it, We were in the process of refinancing our home to try to save money, remember I are old, our (my) credit report came back with this same issue staring us in the face. A credit rating of over 800 was dropped to 600. So, it was time for another call to the tax office to see what happened and what could be done, hopefully there would be no trip to downtown. The agent could not understand what I needed or how to help me so she got her Supervisor on the phone. Even though it was a thirty minute call, he did take care of me. He also helped me with a possible delinquent situation because of all this, when filing my 2009 taxes in 2010. Ain’t Life Grand!! I are getting older, quicker, faster!

Ron