Saturday, July 09, 2005
On the bright side … at least it's not inside the walls
There was bad news last night after getting home from the weekly D&D game—the A/C wasn't working. And if you live in Lower Sheol, there isn't much worse than not having A/C in the middle of July (I suppose it could be non-working A/C in August but let's not go there).
The outside portion of the A/C
has a small fuse-box on the side of the house and when I went to check it
after the game, I found what could have been the problem—there was a wasp
nest inside the fuse box, behind a plastic plate with holes to the
inside.
Wundervoll!
Today was spent trying to get rid of the unwanted houseguests.
I will admit to being a complete baby when it comes to the flying, stinging insects, namely because I've never been stung so I have no idea if I'm actually allergic to them or not. And I'm not really keen on finding out any time soon either. It was worth it to me to wear a heavy leather jacket, leather gloves and a large hankerchef over my head in 90° weather as I was spraying insecticide; I much prefer to melt into a puddle of water than to get stung.
But alas, even after chemically evicting our Polistes friends, removing the nest and testing the fuses (they were good), the A/C still didn't work. Which means we may have to call in the professionals …
“We regret to inform you … ”
It's always nerveracking when one receives a letter from the IRS, especially since this years tax-bill was a bit on the large side. As I was opening it, I kept expecting to see something like:
Dear Mr. Conner:
Congratulations!
You have been randomly selected to recieve a full audit of your taxes for the past five (5) years, starting with the 1997 tax year (and remember, we never make mistakes). Please call the number below to schedule time for your audit at our convenience.
And thank you for using the IRS. Have a nice day.
So I was rather surprising to read:
Dear Mr. Conner:
Re regret to inform you that you have overpaid your taxes for the 2004 tax year and are therefore entitled to receive money back. We calculated that your income as [some amount lower than I calculated] and therefore your tax liability should have been [about 80% of what I actually calculated]. If this is okay, do nothing and you should receive a check from us for the difference. If however, you think we are in error, please feel free to contact us so we can flag you for a full audit.
And thank you for using the IRS. Have a nice day.
I certainly wasn't expecting that!
The second letter from them was the actual refund check.
Sweet!
