Friday, April 15, 2022
Tim, my beloved, is the master of this blog as only he can really tell you the story. You will see why… enjoy!
Yeah, I’m that guy that has his taxes done, printed and mailed in or given to our tax preparer by February 5th nearly every year. Well, there have been those years when a stray W-2 or that yearend tax-deductible receipt keeps me waiting a few days longer. Usually within 48 hours of the last piece arriving I get it all turned in. That is, until 2022. In my defense, I started putting documents together back in October of 2021, eager to file because this last year I installed a solar array on our RV, which, as our primary home, is eligible for the federal solar tax credit on IRS form 5695 – Huzzah!
November 15th found us making the 3 hour drive down to Atlanta to take our “home” in for 2 weeks at the Cummins dealer due to an ongoing overheating issue. A month later we went back to retrieve Christmas presents and a few more changes of clothes as it appeared the repair was going to take longer than first expected.
January rolled around and I began collecting all my paperwork, just like every other year … wait… where are all the receipts… uh oh, still down in Atlanta… 3 hours away – not a problem, they should be done in just a few days.
The first week of February I had all my 1099’s, end of year charitable giving statements and my much-anticipated IRS form 5695 (Renewable energy tax credit form) but all the business expense records were still down in Atlanta. I was ready to make another trip down to pick up the paperwork, but they had finally figured out the problem, and the part should be back in just a day or two, give them 1 day to install it and I can come get it. Sure, I can wait another week to save 6 hours of driving, after all, taxes are not due for a couple months still.
You guessed it, 2 weeks later … “uhh, hate to tell you this, but they fabricated the part wrong, we’ve got to send it back and have it remade, they tell us it will only take a couple days.” – Sure, I can wait another week or two to avoid driving 276 miles (138 each way).
2 weeks later the phone rings “Hey, we got everything together, but it’s still overheating… there’s a wire connector that’s corroded going to the fan controller – all we have to do is replace that connector and things should run smoothly. Now that connection isn’t available here, but we can get the parts to fix it in just a couple of days – it should only take a few minutes to fix… not expensive or difficult at all…”
“Sure” I hear someone answer in a less than confident tone (Is that my voice I am hearing?) as I hang up the phone.
2 weeks later the phone rings again… now – early March – “That didn’t fix the problem, but don’t worry, we have a call into the factory and should have an answer tomorrow…”
Not to belabor an already well-labored story, but April 1st (hmm… April fool’s day joke anyone?) they called with good news “It’s fixed! We tested it for hours on the dyno and if it won’t overheat there, you’ll be fine on the road…” Yes, I did notice a slight pause in his voice at the end of that sentence… “Umm, a tow truck was backing in next to you and … well, they sort of hit your step – now don’t worry, we sent it to the body shop and they said it will be back on Monday morning – it will only take 5 minutes to install …”
Monday, we took a chance and drove down, after all, it was now April 4th and finished or not, we needed our paperwork. It wasn’t quite ready, but they let us stay in it out in their parking lot. The next morning, when the step came back from the body shop, as promised, it only took them 5 minutes to install. We left, with our envelope full of receipts. Sure, enough we did not overheat, even spending 2 hours in stop and go rush hour traffic thru Atlanta. I was relieved as I knew I could finally finish my taxes. Still, we were scheduled to leave 3 days later and had 4 months of projects that had been piling up and waiting for the RV to get back to us. The next 3 days were a flurry of activity as we cleaned, packed, prepped projects so we could finish them on the road, organized and said good bye to friends and family in the area. 3 PM, Friday April 8th we got on the road and were on our way!
I was eagerly looking forward to stopping for the night and finishing our taxes –our destination, Nacogdoches, Texas for a few repairs we had scheduled 6 months prior with Foretravel (The manufacturer of our RV) … you’d think this was the end of the story, wouldn’t you…
Late that night, as I began working thru paperwork I asked Mari “Where is the envelope with all the business expenses?” … in the confusion of packing, putting things into storage and prepping for the trip I had inadvertently boxed up an envelope with half of our business expenses in it and left it somewhere at my parent’s house … but it was ok, because I still had the other half of the receipts in the envelope securely held in a gallon sized zip-loc bag. I’ll just have to go thru the online bank account records, Amazon purchases, and find as many of the missing pieces as I can. At least I had my zip-loc bag full of receipts and documents that didn’t get lost.
In the morning I took the zip loc bag full of paperwork, laptop and an eager sense of anticipation at being nearly done with my taxes, over to the customer lounge to work on finishing them while the shop worked on the repairs to our coach. Six hours later the shop mechanic reported, “Got some good news, looks like we are done.” This was a surprise. We had expected the work they were doing to take 3-5 days. “Come on down and I’ll show you what we did – looks like we were able to save quite a bit of money for you too” – More good news!
I quickly packed my laptop, mouse and power adapter into my laptop case, zipped it up and picked up my gallon zip loc bag full of receipts so we could check out and get on the road once again.
We headed to the garage to see what miracle they had worked to get us out so quickly. As I followed Mari down the side of the building I saw something white flutter out of the corner of my eye. Mari instantly turned on her heel and exclaimed “Look out!” At that moment, I realized I’d been carrying my precious gallon zip loc bag upside down … and had failed to properly seal it. At that very moment a huge gust of wind caught every last receipt, scrap of paper, tax deductible receipt, 1099 and had nearly instantly carried them on a strong updraft 200 yards out of our reach, spread over an acre of parking lot, swirling with an intensity that reminded me of the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character. As Mari raced back and forth, scrambling to catch and pick up the pieces I found myself immobilized … with laughter. The scene was so ludicrous all I could do was stand there and laugh till my sides began to hurt. Yes, we, or rather Mari, found every single piece of paper… while I did my best to stop laughing and grab a couple of pieces of paper here and there…
Today is April 15th. Where are our taxes you ask? I am very grateful my Father-in-Law, our tax preparer since marrying his daughter, filed for an extension for us April 13th just a few hours before I finished scanning the last of all the salvageable paperwork we have … including that wonderful IRS form 5695.
Life is funny, and when it’s not, just wait for a gust of wind to blow some humor your way – It’s all part of the journey as we pursue God’s delicious unknown in our lives.
Tim Dekle
Great story. Looking forward to seeing you soon. Drive safely.
Rich blessing in your travels.
Love you much.