HomeAugust 1, 1997
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tax accountantIf I really owe that much in taxes, the closest I'm going to get to Antarctica this year is the Antarctic Exhibit at the Thames Science Center. My accountant called me back first thing this morning - I wasn't even out of bed yet now you know my shameful secret I sleep til 9:00 AM! She said she needed to see the letter from the IRS so I said - I'll be over to your office as soon as I get dressed. Heck, if I could've gone there naked I would have (it's hot again to boot). So I threw on shorts and a t-shirt and dashed over to her office. flickerWhile I was on the phone with the accountant, I spied a flicker on the light pole outside my window. That surprised me. Not that a flicker is such a total apparition, but I'm so used to the mockingbird's being there all the time I first thought the mockingbird had simply added flicker to its repertoire of calls. But no, there was the flicker with its handsome red patch on the head pecking on the pole. What it expected to find to eat in a light pole I have no idea. So, the universe sent it to take my mind off the taxes. tax accountantAnyway, I dashed to the accountant's office nearly stepping on a yellow jacket nest inexplicably located between bricks in the sidewalk (this is New England we have brick sidewalks - not one of my reasons it is insane to live in Massachusetts, just a strange anomaly to you people who live in normal or normative places like California or Seattle). So the accountant looks at the letter and says it's a form letter kicked out automatically when something unusual shows up. She agrees to call the IRS and handle it. I leave. power of attorneyA little while later I'm sitting in Starbucks drinking my coffee and eating a lemon ginger scone, when Susan the accountant appears. "It helps to know your client's habits" she offers. She called the IRS. They won't talk to her without a power of attorney from me. I sign the three page power of attorney form. Susan leaves. I go back to my coffee. absent the beanie babiesThe day wears on. I go in search of Beanie Babies for Elizabeth's birthday. There are none to be had. Beanie Baby seekers come and go while I browse the other toys and settle on Pocket Pals and a couple of Beanie Baby backpacks. I buy myself The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville. keyI have a key made so Joan-east can feed Wilbur while I'm at the Coastal Aesthetics Summer School at the Hotel Viking in Newport, Rhode Island next week. The key doesn't work. I have another one made. It works. I go over to Joan-east's house to deliver it. I see a huge black cloud and smell smoke. When I get to her house she is sniffing everywhere to see if it's her house that's burning. I tell her I smelled it on Main Street and doubt if it's her house. The black cloud is in the general direction of the sewage treatment plant. We sit and talk over a tall glass of cold spring water. We hear fire engines going in the direction of the black cloud. We decide it's definitely not Joan-east's house. next weekI'm driving down to Newport right after my plover warden shift on Monday morning (I have the early shift), so readers will have to wait for Monday's plover count/account until I get back.
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progress on the book pileJust finished: The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, Farley Mowat Just started: Calm and Dawn, Calm at Sunset, Paul Watkins - I picked this up yesterday at Jabberwocky in Newburyport after my plover warden shift when I was still in a good mood - hadn't seen the IRS letter yet. It was only $4.98 and Watkins is one of the presenters at the Coastal Aesthetics Summer School , so I figured I'd read it now and during the week. other items of noteI ran into Tom at the Richdale store last night. I hadn't seen him in weeks because our coffee drinking schedules have gotten out of sync. He reminded me about the Tom & Ned poetry reading at North Parish Church Sunday morning at 9:00. I told him Ned had asked me to read. The Red Sox traded Heathcliff Slocum, the closer who makes it too exciting. |