We Are Dopes

On Sunday, I realized that out taxes were due the next day. EEEEEK! I panicked and wondered if I should just send CRA money - a guestimate based on what I had to pay next year. We file jointly and Skip gets a refund (which we split) and I have to pay (which we also split). I sent Jeanette (my financial and stitching guru) and asked her what we should do. She wisely suggested we call our tax preparer and see what she’d suggest.

So on Monday morning, Skip called the preparer and she informed us that the deadline to pay the taxes was September 1. Because we are still under COVID-19 restrictions and concerned about spreading the virus, we can drop off our forms, they leave them for 24 hours for any virus to die. Then they get done and we get a call to come in and sign and they get efiled. We’ll have to pay a penalty for filing late but I don’t think it’ll be too much.

This morning we headed up to our tax preparer’s office in Port Perry. On the way, we stopped in at the garden centre and bought several plants for the garden and pots. Then to drop off the tax forms. We stopped into Canadian Tire to pick up a cabin filter for Skip’s car. Their online inventory showed that they had a couple in stock but the service person couldn’t find one so we decided to try another Canadian Tire closer to home. On the way back to Whitby, we stopped in again at the donkey farm.

The baby donkey is doing well and stayed pretty close to his mama. We saw her rolling in the dirt a little later.

This one came wandering over to check us out. Its ears are enormous.

Skip picked some long grass across the road and brought it back to her. She really appreciated the succulent snack.

It stood there for a while after we started back to the car.

We then picked up the cabin filter at the next Canadian Tire we tried. How the heck did it get to be June so soon? It was really easy to find and I made it through the lineup for the cashier very quickly. I’m still quite surprised at how few people are wearing masks when out shopping.

Then we went to Skip’s bank to deposit a US cheque into his account. I don’t have a US account so have to use his for this purpose.

Finally we picked up a couple of salads at Subway and rerned home to eat them. I really miss going out to eat. We used to do that quite a lot and miss the experience. I am also sick and tired of meal planning, shopping, and cooking. Bleah.

After our late lunch we both had long naps for most of the rest of the afternoon.

I then changed the cabin filter in Skip’s car. It was really dirty so the new one should improve his heater and air-conditioning output. I had watched a couple of YouTube videos on the subject and realized it was a very simple process. If it is done at the dealership they charge you a lot! The cabin filter is accessible from the glove compartment and takes about 5 minutes to replace. My hands didn’t even get dirty. It is recommended that it be changed every 24,000 km. Now I kick myself that I had the garage change the one in my own car at its last servicing.

All our errands were mundane but during the pandemic, any time we can get out is a bit of a change to our monotonous routine - quite fun, in fact.

Yesterday, I had Marilyn, Jen1, Jeanette, and Poppy over for a social distancing visit outside on the deck. We are finally getting nice enough weather to be able to comfortably spend some time outdoors. We all wore masks and I had hand sanitizer and gloves available. I hadn’t seen 3 out of the 4 of them in person since mid-January when we went to TX. I have felt connected to them as we’ve been having online Crafternoons twice a week since early April. We have no trouble stitching while we gab away for a couple of hours each time. Thank goodness for Wifi and being able to have video conferences with my friends! It was great seeing them but weird I couldn’t give them hugs or serve them treats or drinks.