Success at last. We have had to contact our banker on several occasions. It has been one of those “what can go wrong will”. Just days before we left , Jack had time to spare before picking me up after work. He was in the general vicinity of three places that we had submitted change of addresses with and verified they all had our new address. One of which was the main bank that we use. However, in January we still were getting mail from our bank to our old address. So we had to contact Beth, our ace banker. It seemed it got changed on one data base but not all.
Then I got a 1099R from the bank. It was actually an IRA that came due and I had rolled it over to different bank that offered a better rate. However, the person who did the paper work for withdrawing failed to mark that it was a roll-over. This meant the IRS thinks I got money early and not only do they expect taxes paid on it, they would be looking for an early withdrawal penalty form. So-o-o we had to email Beth for her to check into it and get a corrected 1099R submitted showing it as not taxable.
THEN Jack gets a letter saying that since he is over 71-1/2 he must begin withdrawing on his IRA’s and that they do not show that we have made arrangements for this. HOWEVER, we did make arrangements before we left because we knew the deadline for the withdrawal would be while we are out of the country. S-o-o-oooo another email to Beth.
Somewhere in between we also did a few emails when we tossed around the idea of buying a car. She had to do some research on how to handle the exchange of monies. We nix the idea after all.
Yep, we’ve gotten to know Beth. We even know where she and her husband are going on vacation this year and what she does on the what seems to be fifty or so federal holidays that bank people have off. These are problems other people have created and she has graciously corrected. We weaseled her home address out of her and I picked out a little crystal piece for her. We know we will need her help in the future. The fun part is the mailing of it.
The place where I bought suggested I use them to package and mail it - at double the price I paid for the piece. Yeah-Right. Okay, to the post office we go.
I had kept seeing this little form on the counter at the post office that people keep picking up. I found out that this is the little form to use if you want a receipt for postage paid. We had to break down and ask Hanka to pick up the form for us as the post office is in the same building as her pharmacy. She picked up two and we used one as a cheat sheet that we marked up as to what each box means for future use and we filled out the other one.
Off to the post office again the following week only to be told I can’t use that form. Anything over 2,000 grams (2 kilos) requires a different form. In fact, you have to go to a different post office that does just packages. My package weight 2,023 grams, a lousy 23 grams over. Because it was glass, I put the original box into another box. Let me digress first. Metric is by far a better system. Why the USA dropped converting to it I’ll never understand. It is so much simpler than memorizing (or trying to memorize) all the crazy weight and measurement combinations we have. Anyway. . . . very nice girl, she tells me English and then writes it all down, including which tram to take and what stop to get off at. We recognized the name of the stop right away. It is the post office we go by every time we take Tram #9 near us. Off to that post office we go.
We went figuring we would not be able to mail it that day assuming the form would be in Czech. We were correct. Attila the Hun apparently wasn’t in much of a mood to be helpful and just rattled something off in Czech faster than anything I have heard to date and slid two forms to me. There are times when I know it doesn’t pay to ask questions, this was one of those times. Off to home and the dictionary.
No help. Czech isn’t like Spanish where sentence structure is about the same; just the words are spelled different. Most of it made no sense. At this point we thought about just waiting and taking it back with us and giving it to her then. But we both knew there would be other times we would need to mail something and would have to learn sooner or later. We left it with Mike and Hanka to take a look at it at their leisure as we were about to leave for London.
Hanka went over both forms with me on Monday morning. We have made our notes so that we can do it ourselves in the future. And today we mailed it!! Attila the Hun wasn’t there, but two other very nice people were. Here’s hoping there are no problems on the USA end with customs. The forms are filled out in Czech and in the language of the country it goes to.
Weather
Tuesday we woke up to about two or three inches of snow on the ground. That was a surprise. The temperatures have dropped for the past week, but no snow had been predicted. We collected our emails that morning also. Two were from Michigan telling us of the terrible snow storm to hit the mid-west. Suddenly, we thought ourselves to be pretty lucky.
Home Sweet Home
Probably the wrong heading, but we are finding out we just are not apartment dwellers. After a bunch of noise and two weeks they fixed the plumbing problem upstairs. Yesterday the apartment next to us must have decided to redo the bathroom, walls and all. Good thing we are gone for four or five hours in the day. To be seen how extensive of a project it will be. Hopefully it doesn’t take weeks. Must not be too bad for the dog otherwise, I would think if he didn’t get his naps he would be sleeping in. No such luck, he still wakes us up (and we still tell him to go lie down) before seven now that it is lighter earlier.
We still get giddy when they are gone for the weekend. Shep gets all the time outdoors he wants and we more or less stay home. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but we had not seen the dachshund for quite some time. Being down to one dog should be a plus, but this mutt starts whining and howling two minutes after it is left alone. One afternoon we came home around three and it howled nonstop until 8pm when they finally came home. After awhile you barely notice the noise, but still . . . . In fact, since I’m into complaining about the mutt. We have also learned that when it is rainy outside the aunt upstairs will leave the dog out and then leaves the first entrance door open. Makes sense, the dog can get out of the rain. We have a small window from our kitchen into this entrance way. The mutt hears us and starts barking, continually, even after we try to be completely quiet. Sooooo, I wonder if the dictionary has a translation for rat and poison.
March 13, 1998
Strahov Monastery
This past week we went to see the Stahov Monastery. My guide book devoted two pages about the highlights and a layout of the complex. The original buildings date back to 1258. It is most famous for the library in theology and philosophy. We were somewhat disappointed with not really getting a good look at the libraries. Both libraries are rectangular and around 40 feet in length. Visitors are only allowed to look in through the door at one end of each of the rooms. Therefore, we never really get a close up look at the detail in the carved wooden bookcases or the frescos painted on the ceilings. Still it was worth the trip.
Popcorn
Yes! I found popcorn at the British store we go to (more and more)! Now, someone explain to me why it is tuff to chew? Being a rental these are not the top of the line pots and pans, they are cheap and burn easily. So is it because I have to use too low of a flame? I didn’t have vegetable oil at the time so I used something Hanka had given me. I’ve never translated it, but have assumed it is just plain lard. It’s white and hard just like lard. Maybe that is the problem?
Road (Track) Work
So far the track work has been coordinated. When the tracks for Tram #9 were being repaired they brought a bunch of buses out of moth balls to use in place of the tram for that portion of the route. They are now repairing the tracks and road for Tram #22. Again, they have buses to run for that part of the route. The place to get on the temporary and regular buses is one block to the south of the regular stop. Luckily that is the street we walk along anyway, so it wasn’t hard to figure out.
Observations
--Jack gets his hair cut for 35 kc ($1.00). It takes her ten minutes and a darn good job. His other barber was $12 and took close to 20 minutes. Jack knew his old barber well enough that he admitted that they take their time because the longer it takes; the easier it is to pay more.
--Eggs, I have only found brown eggs. No big deal, an egg is an egg to us. I just was surprised to find white eggs last week. It was at a Czech grocer and not the British place we also go to. They were the same size as the brown. I think they would be classified at medium. They are definitely not large.
--Sometimes I miss the timer on the oven. Using a watch requires concentration and I’m not called “Sidetrack” for nothing. I’m spoiled.
--Valentines Day, or Hallmark Day as Jack would say, has arrived here. Mike said about three years ago it first showed up at Tesco (the British store I’ve mentioned). Now it has caught on all over.
--In London we heard mention that if the French aren’t complaining they are demonstrating. I’ve noticed it in the past. Now we notice it even more. The statement appears to be true.
--Mercedes is coming out with a Euro Compact. It looks like a cross between a VW bug and the Chrysler Neon. Not real appealing in our opinion. The Czech’s were giving it a road test. It looks and is little top heavy, they rolled it.
--Western Michigan plays Clemson today in the NCAA championship. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to know the results.
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