Lots of deaths this week:
- Michael Jackson
- Farrah Fawcett
- Romeo LeBlanc, former Governor General of Canada
We still have 4 goslings and 5 ducklings, 3 happy cats, and our bear. We made it back safely from Lake Superior. What a relief to both leave and return. Crazy drivers out there and crazy tourist. They trap the bears.
Lots of taxes:
- filed my late father's estate bill today (he died in 2007). While death and t
axes are both certain, death with taxes is the BIG certainty. We paid a tax to have me named beneficiary, rather than the original person who declined to be involved. For a piece of paper we paid a 5-digit amount (a percentage of the estate value, including the value of the house...)We had to file a personal tax for dad in 2007, then file for his estate for the same year. Then, since we declared him disabled (with a brain tumour, physically and cognitively incapaciated) we got back a refund (with interest) for 2008. Then we had to pay taxes this month - on the interest of the refund interest($35). We put the balance of the estate in a non-tax bearing account in order both to NOT earn interest, and not to have to pay taxes on it. But all this had to filed finally for 2008 - for now. Long story, thank goodness for our accountant...
And our final property tax bill came, too. Almost as much as one semester's tuition. Glad the kids are through university and gainfully employed!
And despite having irregular garbage pick-up in winter, and no street plowing, we are happy to live here.
3 comments:
It is amazing the amount of bureacratic red-tape one has to go through when a family member dies, yet it seems that the laws etc. just continue to get more and more complicated.
Hi, Jenn - Thanks for all the comments you have made on my photos!! reading your bio or whatever that page is called - I have not thought of the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in years. Thanks for the memories.
On the subject of adoptees and records - 20? years ago, my mother found out she had a cousin she didn't know about. It took a couple of years before my uncle would meet the woman. The records people told the new cousin that her father was dead, and her mother didn't want to meet her. My mother was the next best thing. So it is not just the children of the 60s and 70s that faced the issue. It happened in the 20s as well.
Don't you love that book? It's going to be a cartoon, but I wouldn't be happy with it!
RE: adoption
Excellent points, Judy.
The 'good old days' were not so much. We have learned a lot about human compassion.
Unfortunately, unwanted pregnancies are still an issue, with young girls now choosing to keep their babies. They lack the emotional stability, parenting skills, and finances of adults. Some perpetuating a cycle of poverty and lack of opportunities. I am so grateful I was adopted into a working class family that embraced education. My parents, openly disclosing my adoption status, even lauded, was the best thing for me.
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