roof and taxes

Sounds like a book title, doesn't it?

I've been home today--splitting headache and upset stomach. And it's soooooo cold--I can't get warm (in fact, my temp is running in the low 96 range--96.2, 96.3). The Ts have been pretty good.

Last night I did my taxes on line. One good thing about being poor is you're eligible for this Free File thing--although I still don't understand why the heck the IRS doesn't have a direct-file, instead of sending you offsite to some other party which the IRS "doesn't necessarily recommend." That's trust-inspiring. Last year I used Turbo Tax, and meant to again this year, but for some reason instead of getting the short easy form it started waltzing me through this long, complicated thing and after about 20 minutes I just cleared the form and shut down, then went to a different site. Then I did the state tax. As usual, I'll get a refund of about $1k, and as usual it will probably go toward the credit cards--provided, of course, that the usual tax-refund emergency doesn't crop up. Yeah, you're right, I'm not very excited about it.

The insurance guy finally showed up today. I have to hand it to him--I wouldn't have wanted to be up on that very steep, very high roof on a day like this. He says they'll pay to have the chimney repaired, the north side of the roof redone, and the tree removed (the fallen part, not the standing part; at least I don't think so). He s aid I would get a letter and a check sometime next week. I'm not contacting anybody until I see the check and know what I have to work with.

On the sock front, I have about two inches to go before I reach the toe on the tube sock. Unless, of course, I decide I should make them 2-4 inches longer, to make sure they go well up over the ankle. If he has an 11.5 inch foot, the leg ought to be 6 or 7 inches long, I think, so that's, rounding up, 18 or 19 inches total length.

Not too cheerful today, but tomorrow is supposed to be warmer (35) and partly sunny, so that should help.