Michelle, you are right. It is what it is. What is it? Your loved one always is with you, in your heart. The rest, such as filling taxes, are just details about how we remember them. Hugs, tiger

I hear ya Michele. It just plain sucks...I still can't believe it either. I'm so so sorry. You are an inspiration to me.
Take care my friend
Darcie

MIchele I just wanted to say how much I admire you. It's only been 11 weeks for me, but I only had 8 years with Johnny where you had 40. I can't imagine how much tougher this is for you. I am praying for you and will continue to do so. Big time HUGS

Hi Michele, Aw yes, the taxes. I started to pull our financial stuff together for our accountant about April 1 - Juani was couch-ridden by then. So I just told her we'd file an extension and wait on this, and just put last year's tax info into a drawer. And there the same pile sat until about 2 weeks ago. I just got in the drawer, and took the accountant exactly the same info I had compiled back in April, and said screw the rest - if I lose deductions, I lose deductions. And then I owed. And then I had to pay the accountant. And then I had to order new snow tires. And so now I've got to figure out how to pay for those new snow tires. And soon, I get to start gathering all the tax stuff for this year when I will really get hammered because we've had no health insurance on me for years due to my being the youngster in the family. And now I don't have Juanita to blame for not having the tax stuff organized the way I like it - it's all on me now. And so life does go on. And now I am adopting your philosophical saying, "What's the worst that can happen? Oh yeah, it already did". Oh, and while I'm venting, I quit smoking yesterday 13.5 hrs ago and I'm getting really really grumpy - good day for me to drag my ironing table outside and just beat the hell out of it -- my sledge hammer would do the trick nicely! Thanks for your post ~ Scott

Yes guys the list of dumb things we have to do seems to go on forever and we don't care about the stupid fees and penalties. Small price to try to keep our sanity during the worst time of our lives. Minute to minute, day by day, and step by step is all we can handle and it's ok. At 14 months after 38 yrs together, I have found, I'm often a day late or a dollar short. There is always another thing breaking down or chore that can't wait. Deep breath and just do what you can. Believe me, the rest will wait. Hugs to all. R

I don't have to file taxes til June of next year. I already know I'm out looking forward tho this. Luckily (?) , this year I got Joe to file on time ( he had corporation, and corporate taxes are due in June). I've tried doing some of the business stuff periodically to keep on top of it, because I know there will be a lot going on over the next several months. Every time I do something for the last time I cry. I had just sorted out his books, and I was tracking things. I was starting to enjoy it.
Now when I need to do a task related to the business, something that would take 30 minutes seems to drag on for weeks. I fully understand the procrastination of it.

On the flip side, I finally got his filing mostly organized. That needed to be done for nearly 2 years! I had hoped that he would do it, but never got around to it.

All these little things that people complain about doing in their lives. It's come to make me realize that I should appreciate being able to do them. And once the finalization of having to them passes, I hope I can appreciate doing the, for myself. In the mean time, the heartache of doing things like filing his taxes for the last time, I expect will bring a lot of tears.

Good to know we're not in this alone,

Sheila

Thank you all for your replies! I have just come to realize there is not much of this paperwork crap that I give a hoot about. If I screwed up, oh well. Put me in jail, don't care, just don't put me in horizontal stripes. Three hots and a cot doesn't sound so bad today! ha ha. Scott, let me know how the no smoking goes! I need to put that on my list of sh*t to do also. But, I think I am hard to be around now, so not sure how I will be if I quit! I do have a damn sledge hammer! Road trip? ha ha, I feel like beating on something too. Hugs and Love, Michele
P.S. I am getting a refund from both Fed and State. Go figure!

Okay Michele, what happened to this world? Hardly anyone smokes anymore - at least out here. I finally met a really hot babe yesterday and all she could do was tell me how smoking was bad for me? Duhh? (Weird, now I'm calling 40+ year old women "babes" - shoot, I'm getting old!) She's telling me to quit and didn't even know me. Well, I stood my ground and went out any way for my cigarette. In no way was she the reason I quit - man, I so wanted to blow my smoke in her face - but I didn't because she was after all, a hot babe, and I've gotta keep my options open (oink, oink). I've been procrastinating quiting for over 28 years (I hope it doesn't take me that long before I do the stupid yard work again!). Actually quiting is part of my retirement plan - figure the $7 a pack I have to pay here will go a long way toward my dream retirement in Tahiti (not!). Well, maybe it will help a little to buy a few more Christmas presents for the grand kids and maybe it'll be nice to be here a few more years to watch them grow up. As for borrowing your sledge hammer, good idea. Just mail it over, and when I quit smoking for, let's see.... about 20 days and I can reimburse you postage. But it'll take me 20 more days to save enough to mail it back to ya. No, that's 40 less days for me in Tahiti homeless and starving on the beach after I stowaway on some cruise ship to get there. I know I joke about it, but seriously, what ironing represents to me is how Juanita absolutely spoiled me rotten for so many years in everything and I really am sad and angry about how this life without her sucks so bad. ~ Scott

It's not "procrastination". Now it is called "Pacing out your internal resources"
;-)

LOL i have all of you beat, I have a jack hammer.. haha.. take that.. oh and by the way, its local pick up only. No way I'm mailing this flippin thing to either of you, we can take out on trade, either of you cook good? lol. Scott, no one should ask you to change, the change comes from within yourself, for your own reasons. I will say in support off that old brod, much better to have a grumpy ole man than a dead one, but heck you could try to iron again, and flip the stupid thing, and it crack your head open either way, rather you smoke, or don't smoke, Your still scott and you are our friend... So behave, no more ironing for awhile, the stitch in my side from laughing so hard, is still aching.. lol... hugs to you all, carla

Scott how is the NOT smoking going? Are you banging your head and licking windows yet? I too have a problem with people who feel the need to advise us on what we should or should not do! Have they no manners? My husband was very blunt to a woman at Perkins back in the day where they had a smoking section. He was minding his own business, reading the paper, drinking his coffee and smoking a cigarette (in the smoking section) So this woman comes from the non section to the back where he was and proceeds to inform him of all the harm he is doing, you know the lecture. I will not describe how she looked, you get the picture! There is a reason the restaurant has double doors though. It was the straw that broke the camels back. He proceeded to in a not so nice way inform her that if she thinks he has a problem, she really needed to look in the mirror. She was like: "Well I never"!! He was like: "Well lady you just did"! I guess I was raised to mind my own business and treat others with respect. Apparently this woman wasn't. Hugs and Love to all. Michele

:-)

Oh Lord, sorry to highjack your post Michelle, but I just can't resist - Carla got me laughing (gut-rolling actually). So today I had the brainstorm to clean the living room. My wife has all these foo-foos, we live in the middle of a desert, and man it is dusty even with the house all closed up. So I'm dusting away with my lemon pledge and I get to all these fake plants everywhere and the leaves are all dusty. So I thought, no way am I dusting thousands of plastic leaves - that would take me longer than ironing. So I did what any undomesticated guy would do - got out the shop vac, put it in reverse so it would blow not suck, and started dragging alot of stuff outside to blow the dust off - let's see, even the lamps because the lampshades were dusty. Well, I'm not so sure the foo-foo fake plants were made to withstand the hurricane force wind of the shop vac -- on some, you should have seen those leafs fly off across the yard. But that wasn't as bad as what the moss like stuff at the base of the fake plants in the vases did - that stuff really took off! So Carla and Michelle, I don't need your silly tools to destroy my ironing board - I'll just unleash my shop-vac in reverse on it -- it'll probably fly over the fence into the neighbors yard and I'll never have to see it again! Oh, did I mention, I really hate getting stuck doing all this house work? ~ Scott

LOL! @Scott
That BLOWS! It's the opposite of That Sucks!
hahahaha

Scott, you should have turned the shop vac on max and let the whole foo foo plants go flying into the neighbors yard! No need to dust agan, problem solved!! Hugs and Love, Michele