Day 2916: Living

No matter what day or year it is, I am grateful to be living.

I’m so thankful that you and I are still living, on this Christmas Day 2020.

Do you see evidence of living in today’s images (presented in the order I was living them)?

I wish:

• sarcasm burned calories,
• you a Merry Christmas, and
• better days of living ahead.

Here’s Dierks Bentley with “Living.”

Here is “Carol of the Bells” (with cute cats) by The Living Tombstone.

What are your thoughts and feelings about this “Living” post?

Thanks to all who help me appreciate living every day, including YOU!

Day 2915: Giving and getting

This year, we are neither giving nor getting any material gifts, which feels like a gift to me.

Here are some quotes about giving and getting:

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Now it’s time to be giving you my latest photos and I hope you’ll be getting them.

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Now, on Christmas Eve 2020, I’ll be giving you a question and I hope to be getting some answers: Which of today’s photos best represent this year for you?

When I search YouTube for “giving and getting,” I’m getting this:

I’m also getting this:

If you’re giving the Olsen twins your attention, you’re getting that appreciation is love. As always, you’ll be getting both from me, here and now.

Day 2901: Good to know

One thousand, three hundred, and sixty days ago (it’s good to know who’s counting — me!), I wrote another post titled “Good to know.” It’s good to know that it’s still good to know things, even during these times of a deadly pandemic and deadly denial.

I hope it’s good to know that I finally got up some good courage yesterday to call the Internal Revenue Service to know about my good refund, which, as you might know, is a good many months late.

It’s good to know details, so here’s what happened:

• I know how difficult it is to connect with a real person in the IRS, especially these days, so I set aside a good long time to make the call.
• The automated IRS phone system gave me the same response I had gotten on-line a good many weeks ago — that the system had no knowledge of my refund — which was not good to know.
• Other automated information increased my fear that something bad had happened to my refund.
• I tried navigating the phone system every which way I knew, but still couldn’t get through to a real person with knowledge.
• I googled “how to reach a real person at IRS” which gave me a complicated hack of the phone system including refusing to enter my social security number twice, which was very good to know.
• I stayed on hold for 45 minutes, marveling that so many good people ahead of me had figured out the good-to-know hack of the phone system.
• I finally spoke to a wonderful IRS employee who was home in Texas with her dogs and who was good to know. She told me the good-to-know information that there was a backlog of mailed returns and mine was among them. That was the only reason I had not received my refund, instead of all the bad-to-know fears my mind had manufactured.
• She told me other good-to-know information, including (1) don’t mail in your return again, (2) don’t worry about identity thieves stealing your refund, (3) your husband’s erroneous Social Security information (which necessitated the mailing rather than the e-filing of our joint tax return) has been corrected, and (4) you go, girl, for marrying a good guy 10 years younger than you who cooks!

It’s good to know that bureaucracies can be made up of good-to-know human beings.

Are any of today’s images good to know?

It’s good to know Hanukkah is starting tonight and Michael will be making good potato latkes very soon.

Here are five good-to-know facts about Hanukkah from watchmojo.com:

Many thanks to all my good-to-know readers, including YOU.

Day 2900: UP

Now that I’m UP, it’s UP to me to decide how I want to start UP today’s blog post.

Cases of COVID-19 are going UP, UP, UP.

People still haven’t given UP gathering inside and going maskless. It’s UPsetting how stUPid this is.

The number of failed lawsuits in trUmP’s attempts to foul UP the Presidential election is now UP to 50, at least.

Yesterday, I was informed that my stats here were going UP.

I am always UP for a walk, no matter the time or the weather, and yesterday I noticed that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is now standing UP…

… after being hung UP like this a few days ago:

Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and Santa are now all UP for Christmas. Are you?

Yesterday, in my Coping and Healing group, people wanted to make UP a new name for themselves. I held UP this sign with a suggested name:

They were definitely UP for that reframe.

Now it’s time for me to put UP (or shut UP) my other pictures for today. What’s UP in these photos?

The Daily Bitch Calendar always gets me UP.

Today, I feel UP to calling the IRS about my long-delayed tax refund. I looked UP what might happen if identity thieves have stolen it. Cases of identity theft are going UP, and apparently the IRS is still UP to the task of fixing these UPsetting experiences. Also, it’s UP in the air exactly why my refund has been held UP for so long.

I will give you an UPdate about this tomorrow.

When I’m UP and out for a walk, I often listen to “The Way UP” by the Pat Metheny Group.

As always, I am UP for your comments, if you feel UP to leaving one.

I like to end UP every post with gratitude, so thanks to all who help me keep UP this daily blog, including YOU.