For many Americans, the 15th of April is a very stressful day. Many people put off doing their taxes because here in the USA it is such a daunting process. We’re supposed to be the free people and yet we are hounded by the tax man from local, state, and federal every year. I get it, the feds aren’t supposed to control everything which is why we have so many levels, but sometimes it can get a bit insane.
Normally, I file online. The forms really only take a few minutes if you have the information available. I typically store it all in one place and I don’t have a lot of write offs. I know that is weird having a business, but most of my business is online. I have my own office space, I use pens, paper, computer products, software, etc. but I don’t have any inventory. I consider that a blessing because I am not the most analytical person in the word despite my name geekmom.
This year I filed and the I.R.S. claims that I don’t have the same information as last year so it wouldn’t let me file electronically. Oh, the joy! I went back into my 2017 forms and entered the info again. Nada. So I put it off until the last day. I didn’t feel like dealing with it as I’m busy. I’m trying to work here, right?
Yesterday, the 15th and dreaded tax day, I went into the library. I didn’t have any printer ink and I didn’t feel like paying department store prices for it so I figured I would print the forms at the library. Mind you, that I did try this at the local satellite library a few months ago when I was originally declined. The library didn’t have PDF readers on their machines and for some reason my Chromebook couldn’t access the printer so I put it off until yesterday.
Our downtown library is this overpriced place that looks like a museum. They have about 100 machines (I’m guessing) to use, art for sale, and even a cafeteria. Sadly, I couldn’t buy a coffee because they were closed for the night. I feel fortunate because their meal menu isn’t exactly low carb and I’m trying to lose weight. Had I gone during the day, I would have blown it because taxes are stressful and I’m a stress eater.
I first noticed they didn’t have flash drives for memory cards. Both my PC and my Chromebook have the same memory card reader. I was hoping this would be the easiest way to get them printed and be done with it. It wasn’t. So, I figured I’d login to my gmail from the library PC. Nope. Bad idea. When I login from a new place I require a confirmation from my phone. I just bought a new phone from Verizon with a new phone number and hadn’t changed it on Google yet.
Idea number 3 failed as well. I couldn’t connect to the printer with the Chromebook. At fist I couldn’t even connect to the wireless at the library, but they must have fixed that somewhere along the line because fortunately for me, I was able to after a half hour. At that point, I created a new google account and emailed the files from the laptop to the PC and then I was able to pay a whopping $2.60 to print the federal and state forms.
Oh no, it doesn’t end there. I then headed off to the store to buy envelopes. They only had #10 envelopes and it was getting late so I bought the #10’s. I then went to the post office, which was closed. Both were closed. I could either use the self service kiosk at that point or drive to Oakland which is about 45 minutes away.
I took my chances at the kiosk. Of course, even though the labels are postdated the 15th, they were the wrong size for the #10 envelope. I had to put them on sideways. Can we all laugh now? They might not get there on time but damn it, I tried! At least they are post-dated and I have a receipt.
And that concludes my tax day nightmare of April 15, 2019.
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