N/T - GOOGLE IT

[BLACK BART]

I swear, if that outfit calls me one more time I'm gonna, gonna, ....hmmm.... uh... answer it I guess.  They've lightened up lately - no more than three calls daily instead of the previously normal six.  Since they already own everything in internet-land (and probably a telephone company or two to boot), I don't suppose there's any chance of them runnin' out of cash any time in the next century or so.  At first they were calling on the up-and-up (ID said "out of region"); that didn't work so they bought up all our local three-digit prefix numbers so I'd think it might be a legit local customer, but the salesman's spiel gave that away pretty quick and we hung up immediately.  They quit that and started using strange out-of-the-way towns for caller ID (lucky for me that Horseshoe Bend, AR isn't strange 'cause I've already been to Possum Grape and Oil Trough).  The latest gimmick is they're using random names: now I've got to figure out who the heck is R. Hicks (no address listed).  

Sure wish I had my party line back - two long rings followed by three short.  'Course I guess faxin' would be a little more complicated and then there's those dadgum confidentiality rules to rassle with. 

 P. S.  Ran into a (socially-distanced) old friend the other day and right in the middle of my complaints she said "Bart - Prozac is not the answer! 

 

 

[Abby Normal]

You should share stories here on a regular basis. I would so look forward to reading them!

[Max W]

I get plenty of those, too.   It is almost always a robocall, but sometime it is a potential new client that I wouldn't want to miss.  So, instead of answering, "Hello", or "Yes", which the robot recognizes, I say, "Good morning.  How can I help you".   If it is a live person needing tax services, they will ask an appropriate question. If it is a robot, it will wait for 3 seconds and disconnect.  Then I block that number.  Of course that doesn't always work as the robocallers will switch to another number, but at least it stops the less sophisticated ones, like those asking for a donation or to answer a survey.  

 

 

 

[Catherine]

If we get a call from an unrecognized number (or just a town name), instead of saying anything, I start humming into the phone.  Scotland the Brave is a good one, but you could use the Eggplant That Ate Chicago, or Clementine, or Hallelujah Chorus, or whatever.  If it's a person, they'll SAY something.  If it's a robo-call, it clicks off.  SO much easier on the throat than growling, and makes the others in the office laugh instead of grumble.

[BLACK BART]

On 8/29/2020 at 4:07 PM, Abby Normal said:

You should share stories here on a regular basis. I would so look forward to reading them!

Dear Abby (and friends),

I appreciate your comment and would indeed write more (I do enjoy it very much), but it seems to me that a steady diet of crackerbarrel humor and southern cornbread tends to become a tad overdone and stale PDQ (as you know, some tax pros want non-tax posts eliminated entirely).

I'll continue to contribute occasionally though.  We certainly could USE some humor nowadays, couldn't we?  Saw that divorces are up sharply among newlyweds (must not have suffered from as many slings and arrows of past events as this old bunch - I'm trudging through a fifty-something anniversary). Some good news: supposed to have a vaccine in a few months which is cheering.  Wonder of wonders - saw Lysol spray for sale on Amazon (if you want to pay $64.99 for three cans); the stuff's made in India. While my Prozac-popping pal looked a little bleary-eyed the other day, at least she's still with us, so that's encouraging.  Also recently saw two movies on Netflix that weren't completly crazy.  Hooray! 

Best regards, BB 

 

[Abby Normal]

On 9/1/2020 at 3:17 PM, Catherine said:

If we get a call from an unrecognized number (or just a town name), instead of saying anything, I start humming into the phone.  Scotland the Brave is a good one, but you could use the Eggplant That Ate Chicago, or Clementine, or Hallelujah Chorus, or whatever.  If it's a person, they'll SAY something.  If it's a robo-call, it clicks off.  SO much easier on the throat than growling, and makes the others in the office laugh instead of grumble.

I have a shortcut to Alice Cooper's Hey Stoopid on my desktop and I hold the receiver up to my speakers and crank up the volume.

[Catherine]

On 9/5/2020 at 11:17 AM, Abby Normal said:

Alice Cooper's Hey Stoopid

not sure how well that would work in the office, frankly.  lol

[BLACK BART]

On 9/5/2020 at 1:49 AM, BLACK BART said:

...recently saw two (make that one) movies on Netflix that weren't completly crazy... 

I've gotta amend this piece of that last post. 

About that movie on Netflix that they're carryin' on about so much (yeah; that one); well I haven't actually seen it but they played a few clips on the news and I was so flabbergasted that I'm cancellin' my subscription.  And here's where this turns into a non-(N/T) question: I don't actually have a subscription to Netflix, but my tech-savvy granddaughter who lives off from here does and somehow I'm gettin' the movies on her card, code, cosmos, or whatever.  Is there a deduction (AR allows schedule A) in there somewhere for sacrificing for "the greater good" (some of those movies are just terrible)?  Or is my six months of watchin' them for free (never knew Bruce Willis and so many other aging actors were on it) a taxable line 21 item (after all, where else could you put it?)?   

I think I already know the answer, but if my luck holds (I won a cakewalk when I was eleven years old), who knows?