Thursday, March 24, 2016

Today was paperwork day and I’ve been busy.

First thing this morning I got my birthday parcels wrapped and ready to be sent off. I decided I’d send them by courier since the Post Office won’t be working over the weekend (including Easter Monday). The courier outlet is just up the street so it seemed like an easy task. When I carted my two big boxes into the shop they told me they no longer process courier packages and I’d have to go to the mall. Since the office in the mall is right across the hall from the postal outlet I figured it was a good chance to compare prices.

The fellow behind the courier desk said he would give me an estimate but he thought the post office would be cheaper. So I hauled my boxes over to the post office. It saved me $10 using this method but it is the post office so rather than arriving on Tuesday they won’t arrive until Thursday. That still allows me a couple of days before the first birthday present is due.

I wrapped my packages in two boxes and got a lecture from the woman at the outlet saying it would be cheaper to wrap them as one package. Okay, next time I’ll do that. Then she had a conniption fit when I said I wanted a signature on each package along with some extra insurance. Apparently all that has to be done when they are doing the weighing and the measuring – normally the Post Office ladies ask these questions when they need the answer rather than me having to ask them. But we managed to sort all those “issues” out.

When I went to pay with my credit card (love those WestJet points) I was told they only handle cash or debit. It all came back to me why I normally go to the Post Office rather than the outlet. Anyway, the parcels are on their way.

As I was driving to the mall I went past the Service Canada office so on my way home I stopped to arrange to have income tax taken off my cheque-that-I-refuse-to-name! She said she needed my Social Insurance Number for the request and I really had to stretch my memory to get it; I doubted whether it was right but when she plugged it into the computer it was okay. She offered me a form to fill in that would be processed over the next couple of months or I could use their customer service phone and call the 1-800 number. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes I got that taken care of.

After such a tough morning I felt I deserved a little stop at the fabric shop up the street. I’m fixing a quilt for an acquaintance and I wanted to check on some fabrics for it. I originally planned only to do a binding on it but it seems silly to do that when the whole back of it is almost in shreds. I got a couple of fabrics for Sarah to choose from; one a fat quarter that if she doesn’t want I’ll use, as well as some fabric that was on 50% off that I think will work. I purchased what was on the bolt even though I don’t know if she wants to go ahead with it or not – I’ll always use it for something.

It was after lunch before I even started working on my paper. I cleared out my physical Inbox and then dealt with my e-mail. There were bank statements to reconcile, bills to pay and questions regarding Pat’s last GST report to answer. Next I sorted through our Income Tax papers; they are ready to go with the exception of one T4 that we are still waiting on from the accountant.

I don’t know if I mentioned that I have joined the board of the Powell River Council for Arts, Culture and Heritage as Treasurer. They were going to hire a bookkeeper and they were also trying to find a Treasurer. When Pat (who is on the Board already) asked if I wanted the bookkeeper job I thought it was crazy to be paying for the task and using a Treasurer as a middle-man; they accepted me as Treasurer although I haven’t been sworn in or been to a meeting yet. I’m still waiting on the transfer of accounts from the previous Treasurer so other than setting up a file there wasn’t much I could do today.

My last big paper project for today is working out how to make a booklet for our Guild recipe book.