Go, go, go little furnace (aka Sharon Sorts the Mail)

[dreamshark]

The lump of elderly technology that we affectionately refer to as our furnace (technically, a "boiler") made it through the night and the house was warm this morning. But it kinda belched smoke when it came on 20 minutes ago. It really does need a tuneup. It doesn't actually seem to be all that alarmingly cold this morning - according to the thermometer on our garage it was slightly above zero by the time I got up at 9:30 or so. According to the all-knowing Internet it's -8, but I assume that's out at the wind-swept airport. It's always a lot warmer in town.

Still, it's too cold and breezy to engage in winter sports, so I can spend the day puttering around the house playing catchup. When the sun is shining in the windows that's actually kinda fun. First, of course, I reprioritized and updated the to-do list on my Palm, but resisted the urge to make an entry for "reorganize todo list" just so I could check it off. Then I did not just one but TWO passes on sorting the mail, filling an entire grocery bag with junk mail, catalogues, envelopes, and those obnoxious inserts that come in all my bills and statements. Everything else is sorted into piles, which I am now planning to DEAL WITH instead of just putting them back in the box like I usually do.

One that just needs to be filed is a relief - the State of Minnesota has finally agreed with the IRS that I do not owe them thousands of dollars in back taxes. This whole mess resulted from the World's Stupidest Brokerage, Saloman Smith Barney, misreporting the sale of my cisco stock options. They are idiots. I am now trying to retrieve myf employee-stock-purchase Cisco stock from them and move it to my personal broker (Wachovia, which I quite like). When Wachovia submitted the request to Smith Barney, the World's Stupidest Brokerage insisted that my account with them was empty! It's not. I checked online, and opened a statement today showing that the Cisco stock is safe and sound in the same account it hasa been in for years. Idjits!

Okay, I'm starting down the home stretch with the mail. Don't get distracted. Go file the audit paper, file all my year-end statements, start a box for tax documents, and resend the insurance check that came back because I put the address card in the envelope backwards so that it came to ME instead of going to Farmers. *sigh* I'm really not good at this stuff.

Comments

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

I dunno my car said it was -11 at 7am and a balmy -8 at 10am. And it usually reads a few degrees higher then the near by school that weather bug leeches info from.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe it's warmer in our backyard. For whatever reason, the big round old-fashioned spring thermometer on the garage is always more optimistic about the weather than those digital gizmos. Who you gonna believe: new-fangled LCD-based electronics or wholesome old-fashioned mechanical physics?

Anyway, I stepped outside for 20 seconds with no coat on, and none of my exposed flesh froze. Take that, Mr. Wind Chill!

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

It was exactly 'darn cold' this morning. Your little furnace is to be congratulated.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I Too am sorting papers today! Also cleaned a major part of the furnace room, an archeological effor that might generate its own post.

K.

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

resisted the urge to make an entry for "reorganize todo list" just so I could check it off.

I love your take on things like this.

And I understand about not being good at send off bill payments. I've sent off unsigned checks, sent A's check to B and B's check to A, failed to deposit a paycheck (before I had direct deposit) so that a big outgoing check bounced...

You don't need another geek telling you this, but I sure lovvve paying bills online. We resisted for a long time when it was all the payees (like utilities) wanting us to set up automatic payments... we don't trust 'em. But now we grab a bill when it comes in snailmail, log into the Credit Union, and schedule a payment for just before the due date (and we pay no fees for online bill pay). I write about one check a month (for in-person stuff) and haven't bought stamps in a lonnnng time. I gave away the 31-slot sorter for bills to be paid.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, almost all of my bills pay themselves now. It's a godsend. I still check the bills periodically (about once every 3 months) to make sure there aren't any mysterious charges on the phone bill, etc. I resisted online bill pay for credit cards, because I knew I'd forget to check and would never notice if some stranger started furnishing their house with my credit card account. Then I realized that I could schedule the minimum payment every month and then pay the full bill online. I still tend to forget that second part and sometimes pay some interest I didn't intend to pay, but at least I don't get exorbitant late fees. Unfortunately, all this convenience makes me even LESS likely to notice the occasional bill that does have to be paid by hand...