Wednesday

A bitterly cold day with freezing rain. Since I have tax school Thurs & Friday I was just able to make a trade so I could be off both days and worked at Hillsboro today instead of the usual Thursday. Did some Quickbooks entry all AM & got quite a bit done. Stopped at MP to see Jim for just a bit & to make plans for Friday. His birthday is Sat, but I have to work that day.

By the time I got to Lehigh there was snow on the road & in the ditches, but they weren’t too bad. By 4PM that changed dramatically. There was at least 2 & possibly 3 wrecks on 50 between Florence and Peabody between 4PM & 4:30PM so the scanner was squacking almost constantly. Heard about a truck rollover on 50 by Walton by a night shift person. A very busy night and we were conscripted to put up Christmas decorations as well & clean up the report room. Out at 11PM since I need to be at Salina by 7:30AM tomorrow.

Heard about a 48 yr old acquaintance who was diagnosed with cancer on Oct 10 & died on Thanksgiving Day. Her funeral was yesterday. Quite a shock. Also, my mother had 4 precancerous lesions treated on her face today and heard that news when I got home.

Better get to bed soon.

mikey

Tuesday

All AM I worked on finishing a Quickbooks file for a business who quit this year & think I have most of the transactions entered. Then went to Hillsboro for a staff meeting on infection control & blood-borne pathogens. Only lasted about a half hour. Then went to the store on entered & reconciled the November statement which took about 4 hours. No major hangups there. Had a good chat with the owner.

Then went to Florence for EMT recert class & it was on shock, CHF & COPD & applying MAST trousers. MAST’s or PASG’s aren’t used much anymore, but still need to be reviewed. I noticed that at least 80% of this class & the instructor are smokers. This seems to be expected for those in the health care industry. Most of my immediate co-workers smoke also. That means they get regular breaks. Something to think about.

mikey

Monday

Woke up to a cloudy, foggy day & stayed that way all day. About 1PM we had a downpour of rain for about 5 minutes, then stopped just as quickly as it started. Did some more Quickbooks backups and checking if all the rec computers had the same info as the send computers and all checked out OK. Think I’m all done with that boring task.

Went to Hillsboro & did some more QB entry at the store and then went over transactions with the owner I didn’t know how to post. Also went over some invoices with the secretary and tried to iron out a misunderstanding from about 2 weeks ago. Think everything is OK now.

Went to EMT recert class which was just around the corner at 7PM and picked up 3 hours of recert. Delores was the instructor and we studied all the different kinds of shock. Gary told us about a patient retrieval he observed along the turnpike in Leavenworth County. Just glad they don’t do things like that in Marion County. I really like having Delores as the instuctor and if you want to know why I well tell you privately.

Talked to Nelson Wiebe for a bit afterwards who I haven’t seen in a long time. Guess that’s all for now.

mikey

Sunday

Went to Church…or more specifically to Menn Manor for SS. Lester Yuzy’s, DLM’s & Merle’s & I came from Center. Vernon Wickey led the singing, the first time ever for him to do that. Never would have guessed that if he didn’t mention it. It all went fine. He also informed us that today is his & Yvette’s 30 anniversary. Happy Anniversary!!

Went to the other place on Broadacres, but don’t know what it’s called now, then on to Center. Freeman Hochstetler from AR had the sermon on opening our hearts to God & spent a lot of time in Genesis. Also had quite a bit on creationism which I found refreshing.

We all rec a generous package of Bangladesh snacks courtesy of Ellis & Lynita via Marilyn who just returned from helping out there. Jacob said he could read the writing on the package, but I’m not fully convinced. Anyway it was a nice gift.

Had dinner with Willard & Fannie & Kendrick joined us since the rest of his family is gone. He told us about the big adventure he & Joe Kuepfer had at Best Buy starting at 11PM Thurs nite. Sorry it didn’t have the intended result of a long awaited purch, but there’s always next year.

Slept & then to Center & went in the youth group caravan to Maxwell for the singing. Had a great time there and am confindent I arrived home sooner than anyone else for a change:) A very nice day & ready for another week.

mikey

Saturday

Got up at 10AM & puttered around at home & tried to clean up a bit since my parents are coming home today. Then went to Buhler on a sales tax run & then went on in to Hutch to get some signatures, a check, etc. I stopped at MP to pick up Jim so he could ride along. I enjoyed the company & he doesn’t get out of town much, so we both had a great time.

After I dropped Jim off it was off to Hillsboro to do my Sat shift which should have been a Thurs shift this week. I was asked to make this trade & it was nice having Thanksgiving off for a change. There were 6 pts there & just one ER that almost turned into an admission, but glad it didn’t after all. We had plenty to do as it was. No chance of boredome today & my back is speaking to me. Had to pick someone off the floor & this job isn’t as easy as it used to be.

Got off at 11 & glad to see Mom & Dad again. They had a great time in CO and stopped in SW KS to see Uncle Dukes & Uncle Carl’s. Rascal is glad to see them also.

Time for bed now.

mikey

Friday

Installed Quickbooks 2006 on my desktop, registererd the copy & converted all 18 files which took several hours. Got to bed at 7AM. Had a phone call at 10AM & slept till 1PM. Then I installed Quickbooks 2006 on my laptop & converted all those files. which took most of the PM. No problems, but sure took a long time and got all the settings like I want them.

Went to Salina for a few items & got a bite to eat at Western Sizzlin which is a fav. Stopped at the mall to get an appt calendar at Day by Day who has a stand in the walk area for the holidays. Got my usual Kansas photo calendar which I really enjoy. Rec a 15% coupon good for only today at a local vendor & guess what?? I actually purch 4 gifts today…and on Black Friday. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think that would occur, so have to eat my words yesterday. The crowds were quite tame in my opinion. My usual shopping day of Dec 24 is much more hectic. Saw Dad’s cousin, Keith & Delores Stenfors there.

Then I went to WalMart for a new battery pak and saw Blake and his family. They have a new daughter born 2 weeks ago. 1st girl after 3 boys so are excited about that.

Home & doing more backups and transfers, things that just don’t get done during tax season. Also stopped at TRG to install an update that downloaded, but wasn’t taken care of yet. Time to get back to things. See you all later.

mikey

Thursday-Thanksgiving

Went to Aunt Vivians at Noon for the traditional Thanksgiving meal. All of the local family was there plus Don & Marian Miller from Lindsborg and Marsha, Chad’s mother. My parents are with Elizabeth and her family. We had a good day. Nice & warm and just laid around most of the time or played games.

Risk, Racko & Chess were some of the many games played. I slept much of the afternoon and came back for the evening meal. Tyler and his brother Cord came later. Some were considering going boating, but eventually decided to just stay home & rest or play games.

Later I installed Quickbooks 2006 on Vivian’s computer and then went home & took my old computer apart for storage & replaced it with the new one & even cleaned & dusted there. Took much longer than I expected, but think my parents will be pleased that it’s all set up now.

A good call from Loyal & we discussed having a singing at Maxwell and that is planned for this next Sunday.

A very good Thanksgiving day and some of the ladies went to bed early to start Black Friday shopping at 5AM tomorrow. I can assure you that this is the last thing I would ever do tomorrow, so don’t look for me among the crowd.

mikey

Wednesday

Did my usual payrolls today. All went well & did a few other misc jobs at TRG since I had some extra time. Then my computer Geek from Geeks Inc came and transferred info from one computer to 2 different computers & did an external virus scan & did a whole lot of other little things and answered a lot of questions, etc. Very happy with his work. He’s the guy who secures computers into cars with seat belts before you leave his place.  Amazing!!

Then I went to Salina and got some food and other misc items. Taking it easy tonight.

mikey

Tuesday

Spent most of the AM wasting my time away with my Quicken problems. I installed Q2007 on my laptop and have the same error. Guess I will just have to live with it. This certainly isn’t reassuring, but don’t know what else to do.

Went to Hillsboro and mailed several letters & packages & spent some more time at the store. Some more communication issues and some tasks are being done twice & some not at all. Hopefully we’ll get on the same page soon as to who is doing what. These kind of things can be quite stressful.

Picked up Jordan (aka birthdayboy) and we ate at Carlos O’Kelly’s. He had chicken fingers & fries & I had the Monterrey chicken meal. Then to KMart & WalMart & Jordan picked out a Christmas gift for a family member & purch it with his own money. It will be all he can do to keep it a secret till Christmas. Glad he enjoys giving more than receiving. We were celebrating our birthday tonight either 7 months late or 5 months earlier. Take your pick.

Back to Hillsboro and spent about 4 hours on Quickbooks there & finally have the checking accounts all caught up and reconciled. Now there are some other things to do, but that will wait for another day. Finally got home about 3:30AM. Like doing that kind of thing when all is peaceful and quiet.

A good day, but tired and ready for some rest.

mikey

Monday

Had a bit of a short rest tonight after getting to bed at 5:20AM. Lots of phone calls & other interruptions. My parents arrived home from MO last night & today are leaving for Colorado for a week to be with Elizabeth & family for Thanksgiving.

Made a call to KS Dept of Revenue and rec the answer that sales to a non-profit nursing home are sales tax exempt. This is VERY significant for one of my tax clients, so let them know the good news. Left for Hutch to see Kevin before his family leaves for El Salvador tomorrow. Kevin & I ate at Chili’s & had a good meal as I expected. I had a BBQ steak & can’t remember what he had. He’s planning to be back for several months next summer so that will be nice. He really enjoyed working with Titus & David Yutzy on a roofing job and said that might be something he might want to get into in the future.

Said our goodbyes and did the handshake when meeting and then when leaving which is an ES custom. Arthur is asking for prayer for Evie’s health and for Jana & Marietta. Also insisting I come there to visit them. Would be great to go there some time.

Sleep got the best of me at Inman & slept for 2 hours there on the way home. Then rec a message that the EMS meeting is postponed till next Monday which is what I was planning to do tonight for recert hours. Rested some more & then went to see Grandma. She is doing great and was esp cheerful tonight & likes to talk about the past. She mentioned how it hurt her when people would make fun of her mother’s Swedish accent. Grandma didn’t learn English till she went to school and then it was encouraged for all to learn the language of the new country.

Will prob waste some more time on my seemingly hopeless Quicken file dilemma. My computer geek (that’s his OFFICIAL business name) is coming Wednesday to transfer my old DOS tax programs, but said they may not work with WinXP. Will try it anyway & have a few other minor tasks for him to do.

Had an email from Jordan (aka birthday boy). What a nice surprise!! He said he was the large intestine for a class project on digestion. hmmmmmmmmmm

Guess that’s a good note to part on

mikey