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.
Apparently, my iPhone calendar makes suggested locations for events. Let’s see if I can locate any proof of that kind of suggested location.
I did spend my vacation day yesterday in the suggested location and in other locations very close to the suggested location.
I made sure to be in locations last night to see the full Corn Moon. My first photo, located above, suggests that I was thinking about the Corn Moon all day.
Before I took the last photo located above, I passed by some young neighbors I hadn’t met before, located outside their home. Here’s what transpired at that location, as I walked by with a mask located on my face.
Them: Hello!
Me: Have you seen the moon?
(pause) (during which some thoughts like “how weird am I?” located themselves in my head)
After I continued on my way to locate the Corn Moon at the end of our street and then turned back, I saw that my young neighbors had followed me to locate the beautiful moon too.
I wish that somebody like Fred Rogers was located in the White House and I plan to make my best suggestion about that with a future vote in a suggested location.
Today, my suggested locations include home and near home, again, and all suggestions indicate that those will be my suggested locations for quite some time.
Yesterday, on my way to work, I encountered my first unexpected appearances.
I didn’t expect the appearance of geese on the sidewalk. Did you?
There were more unexpected appearances throughout my day.
The appearance of that duck in front of a local bakery was unexpected. Maybe that duck expects the appearance of bread crumbs.
Expect the unexpected and the appearance of two more photos today. Here’s the first of those now expected photos:
That cat made an unexpected appearance last night at a party where my old friend Lawry and his family made wonderful appearances. (I expect I’ll add links to Lawry’s appearances in previous posts after I publish this one.) (Like this one and this one.)
In two days, my son will be making an expected appearance back in Boston. I expect to appear very happy about that.
This video made an unexpected appearance when I searched YouTube for “unexpected appearances.”
I expect the appearances of unexpected comments about today’s post, below.
Finally, here’s the expected appearance of gratitude at the end of this blog post.
We don’t know how long the impact of any deed, word, or moment will last, including this one:
Sometimes, I fear that a mistake — like a “wrong” decision — will have everlasting impact. I also hope that compassionate, kind, and loving actions will have everlasting impact.
I believe that people can fear AND hope for everlasting impact.
I wonder how long the impact of these seemingly random photos will last?
Lasting readers of this blog might know that I’m someone who loves tea, my work, and macaroni and cheese. Yesterday, one of my patients brought me A LOT of macaroni and cheese.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 