A Whole Lot of Nothing Going On (or Tick Tock Not)

The battery in my watch died and no jewelers are open to replace it so I'm clueless as to what time it is. It's really not a bad way to go when you live in paradise and there's not much to do. What's the hurry anyway? Besides, it's probably five o'clock, right?

Actually, work keeps me in a routine. I know there are a lot of folks out there who don't have a job right now. I am very fortunate and very grateful to have one even if it means doing tax returns for months on end. This time of year, I'm usually just coming home from a post-tax-season trip to some beach but this year, the possibility exists that there will be no post-tax season.

On May 10, the CPA Practice Advisor reported the tax deadline could move from it's new date in July to September 15 or later. On the one hand, many clients are used to filing in the fall. These are the ones who routinely extend their returns six months from their usual due dates. But, they are not used to delaying paying their taxes. Usually, when you extend filing your tax return, any amounts due are payable on the original due date with any estimated tax payments due quarterly throughout the year.

Now, taxpayers who owe money could end up paying for all of 2019 and all of 2020 at the same time making for a whopping bill. Unless they plan for it, this could be quite a costly reality.

I, personally, hope the tax date gets moved. I postponed my post-tax-season retreat to July this year which is will become difficult if not impossible if I'm working 24/7 trying to meet the deadline. (I know, I know, I have all summer to get them done but we all know it won't work that way, don't we? Taxpayers who procrastinate filing their returns in the spring will be the same ones who will procrastinate in the summer.)

My current struggle (of the First World privileged sort) is that I killed my iPhone. I dropped it in March severely cracking the glass. I'd had it for three years so I figured I was due for a new phone anyway but all the stores were shuttered and the phone still worked so I figured I would just wait.

The longer I waited, the less important it seemed to have a new one. Sure, it was ugly and there were some other minor glitches surfacing in some of its features but it was good enough. Plus, new phones are expensive and almost always a pain in the rear to replace and set up.

Until, I dropped it again. This time, parts of the glass fell clean off and the top half of the touch screen no longer functioned. That meant I could take a call (swiping the bottom of the screen) but I couldn't shut off the phone (which requires swiping the top of the screen). It also meant I was locked out of my phone because the home button, while at the bottom, was also nonfunctional and part of my passcode uses the top part of the screen. Now, I had to suck it up and get a new phone.

Hassles involving the service provider were ultimately solved and a new phone was delivered within 24 hours of my order. The very first instruction for setting up the new phone was to power off the old phone but since I couldn't do that, all I could do was wait for the battery to die.

Did you know that if you can't use your phone it takes days for the battery to die? Days.

I wasn't willing to wait that long so I logged onto my account and wiped the old phone's memory. Same thing as turning off, I figured, except it's not, apparently. That did allow me to transfer all the data to the new phone but not the phone number itself. So here I wait. For the old phone die. And not able to make a call. From either device.

Tick tock goes the clock. Except mine. The battery died.

It's got to be five o'clock by now. Right?