Looks like everybody's been doing well, glad to see it.
Yeah... bought the download at costco which gives me a 10 buck voucher to spend on any of the fees... paid 59 bucks for the delux version. so the first thing it tried to do when I downloaded it was redirect me to start using the "cloud" or online version. told it no, installed the software to my laptop. after several more prompts to do it online and telling it to go f*** off, it asked me for feedback as to why I didn't want to do the online version. and it would not let me go further until i gave that feedback. told it I don't believe in the cloud system, it is just someone elses computer and I don't want my taxes on someone elses computer. then i spent another eternity dodging the upsells. No I don't want tax expert to walk me through taxes for an extra 40 bucks. again, halt the system and ask for feedback as to why. because I don't need it. wanted to type in F*** off and die, but figured it wouldn't get me anywhere but on a watch list... And no, I don't need audit protection, my taxes are not that complicated and there is not much to audit...
I think I am going to try that freeTaxUSA.com next year. Turdbo Tax really annoyed the crap out of me this year.
AJ
I normally use TurboTax as well, usuallyy the online version. As you said, they're getting rather annoying with pushing the upgrades and such. Mine automatically gets pushed to the basic version for some reason, I think by the time I filed the stated takes it would be in the $89 range. Back when I had education expenses, I had large enough returns that it made sense to pay for filing. Now it it weren't for a little bit of overtime this year I'd probably be owing on taxes, and still may before I'm done with state. I started them on TT again this year, but stopped because I need to verify a few things. May continue through to see what price is going to be then jump over and file with that FreeTax website.
Changed oil in both escapes & the equinox today. Truck oil looks pretty clean as does the filter plus theres the brakes to do before anything else. The pressure bleeder & ni copp line came today, didn’t know you could get automotive stuff on amazon until the other day. The nylon insets for the back plate fasteners were gone when I got the truck, had 5/16 bolts in the bumper for the plate. did find replacement inserts & new screws at meijers when I bought oil & filters. Sure is a lot of crap under the hood, can barely see the engine in the truck.
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Wish we could get away with that for a license plate here. Not necessarily that plate, though I like it it's would just incite voilence here, but any vanity plate that couldn't be traced back to me. Eat-it flock and school zone cameras.
There's the water heater:
I need to do that as well. Mine is behind a panel in the wall and started leaking, damaged the floors before I found it. It's in a catch pan, but the pan was never routed to the exterior. Still leaking until I get the repairs done, but I did get the drain routed outside.
I may be wrong, but you probably want that pressure relief valve routed to the exterior. If it blows off, that's going to be a lot of hot steam coming out of the drain on it.
Few things ongoing. Still working repairs on the house as mentioned above. The major soft floor locations int he kitchen have been repaired. Started doing underlayment in preperation for new flooring, then stalled out. Haven;t found the motivation to get the kitchen finished up, then still need to tackle the utility room. Fortunately that area is small, just not sure if the back door and exterior wall are really affected yet.
Got some news the other week that is really making me think hard about exactly how much effort I want to put into repairs on the house. I like the area I'm in and space I have, but I've been thinking for several years that it would be nice to get back closer to my family and workplace. Currently 1/2 hour drive to get anywhere, longer to visit with family, and close to a hour each way to work. Since dad passed last summer I've gotten a bit more serious about it. It's difficult to find something closer that is affordable and not cookie cutter house on a postage stamp sized lot. Well, my "aunt" (not legally or blood related) owns about 88 acres maybe 10 minutes from everything. About 75 acres wooded and the rest mostly cleared. I was already thinking about trying to get a hunting lease for it for this year, jsut something formal because we know people are trespassing and hunting out there. She maded an off handed comment to my mom about what to do with the land since she doesn't have children, doesn't use it, and knows that her actual nieces would just sell it off to the highest bidder. Mom said something about my sister and I being interested in buying it and my aunt said she'd "just give it to" us. Of course we took it to be joking at the time. Apparently she was serious about it. Nothing has changed hands yet, but good chance it's going to happen in the next few months. Looks like over the next year I've got to decide if I really want to be closer and how to go about building a bachelor pad w/ shop on the new property.
Today dropped off the Kia at mom's to put it in the shop. I've had a persistant metallic scraping sound on the front, sounds like right side around the wheel brake. Previously thought that brakes were dragging, removed and lubed the caliper. Sound persisted. Suspecting a wheel bearing now, parts are cheap enough to throw them at it. Over the next week or two I'll find time to tear that down and replace. If that doesn't work it's getting new calipers, new brakes hoses, and a full brake flush, just in case. Almost 200k miles and still running strong, I figure it's earned a little bit of pointing the buckzooka at it to fix an annoyance.
Tomorrow I'll be meeting mom at the tag office to get the dad's F-150 transfered into my name. Probably need to update my sig because the F-250 is gone. Gave it to my BIL a couple of weeks ago. Probably going to regret that, but I wasn't using it ewnough to justify keeping it. Dad gave it to me when he bought the F-150 because I needed a reliable fullsize truck. My BIL needed a truck and I'm getting the F-150, so it only made sense to pass it on to him. Of course the first thing he did was park it and start installing the parts I'd been collecting, but procrastinating on installing. So it's currently inop, but should be up and running again soon.
