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As I was saying last week, I have more times than a clock maker’s shop. And as we venture further info this lump of time called 2014, a wide array of new and different times unfold before my eyes. It leads me to wonder whether it was an ancient scribe or historian who invented a means to track it.
Let’s face it: the intangible concept of time – the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millenia, and eras – wouldn’t have been “discovered,” like an uncharted isle. An island is tangible. You can see it you can stand on it; you can do, pretty much, just about anything physical on, with, or to it.
With this thing called time, you can only play with it mentally. No, time is definitely an invention. We celebrate its first use every time we “make time” for something or someone.
Of course, I’m speaking about the tracking of that moment-to-moment phenomenon “Time,” and not “Time” itself. After all, Time is eternal.
SUMMERTIME
It’s finally here! Summertime. I’ve always enjoyed summertime – it ranks right up there with the top times, such as breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time, party time, and paydays. As you may know, my life is currently spent chasing summertime. I vacation in the States when they observe summertime, and return to the Philippines for the seemingly endless summertime when the life in the States gets cold.
Today is my official transition into summertime. I’ve “shifted colors” (service slang for changing apparel). Off came the T-shirt, and on went the A-shirt. What in the world is an “A-shirt”? you may be asking. If I used the better known name of “a wife-beater,” many would understand. For the rest of you, dear readers, it’s a sleeveless T-shirt – the male (or is that Alpha Male?) version of a women’s tank-top blouse. (No, it’s not a “muscle shirt” – that’s something entirely different!)
Definitely need this A-shirt today, too. It’s much cooler than what it replaced. My tablet weather widget tells me that it is currently 91F outside (I should say 32C) but it also says it feels like 106F (41C). Normally, not a bad reading as far as I’m concerned. The humidity, however, is trying to match it number-for-number.
True to summertime observations of the past, a large thunderstorm is threatening to provide us a meteorological show. It’s the same staging every afternoon. And, just as in summer afternoons of the past, the show is always canceled. It stays humid while the huge, dark clouds slowly disperse providing us with nightly clear skies and a little relief from the heat.
The afternoon when the threat becomes reality, when the show finally goes on, that’s when we say “So long!” to summertime, and “Hello!” to the rainy season. Hopefully, if my timing is right, I will be on the other side of the planet, enjoying the final days of spring and moving back into my beloved summertime.
COLLECTION TIME
This time of year has its business aspects as well. Over 80% of my recurring tax work has been completed. As in all businesses, the percentage of invoice payments lag behind the percentage associated with work completion. That calls for expending a bit of time devoted to “percentage equalization.” Don’t get me wrong, and don’t assume anything negative about my clients or my firm. (Remember: ASSUME = ASS + U + ME – “Assume makes an ass out of you and me.”) Stuff happens. Invoices get misplaced, memories fail, refunds are still just checks in the mail, etc.

An Actual Deadbeat Client
I’ve great clients. My “aging report” (my list of unpaid invoices showing the number of days each invoice is outstanding or unpaid) very seldom has any open invoices listed beyond 15 days old. I’m quite reasonable about it, too. My follow-up emails are more concerned with my clients’ well-being than they are about any amounts due.
This is the time of year to provide that extra service to my clients. Sometimes, a convenient payment schedule is arranged. Sometimes, the billing amount is re-negotiated (either up or down – I’m flexible like that). And sometimes, it’s a readjustment of terms as illness or some other problem has surfaced.
Luckily for me, collection time is a happy time.
TIME FOR REMEMBERING
Age certainly brings on changes in one’s life, and mine is no exception. I’m living proof of the old joke: The second thing to go as you age is your memory. I can’t remember what the first thing is! It’s true. Had I a handy pad of yellow “stick-’em” notes, I’d be surrounded by the hue of yellow.
It’s already getting near the end of the month. That means I must remember to check and pay any and all of my outstanding bills. While I do try to circumvent this monthly chore by arranging automatic payments for bills, there are some that I would rather handle personally. One has to keep on one’s toes when it comes to bills for certain services.
My largest lapses of memory come with the U.S. cellphone bill. Baket ko (Asawa ko) [my Wife] and I have a cellphone plan with Sprint and they are quite efficient with billing. During our stays in the Philippines, we place our cellphones on “Seasonal Standby” which keeps our plan active but limits available service to emergency calls only. Not a bad deal for a couple of bucks per phone line.
Not using those cellphones in the Philippines, it becomes a case of “Out of sight, out of mind.” So, it’s a mental madhouse at month’s end, hoping more than trying to remember paying this and other, similar bills. To help the old noggin along, I’ve installed Quicken 2014 on my laptop. It has a bill reminder routine that I’m seriously going to start using. That is, if I remember.
QUITTING TIME
It’s time to put this article to bed. There’s a time for everything, even a time for nothing. When you
have all of these times, plus more yet to be reported on times, the choices and opportunities are endless.
Think I’ll sit back, and maybe spend a little more of my chronological fortune pondering the “goat girl’s” activities and fate. Then, again, maybe I’ll just do nothing.
91 F, with the humidity! I am glad I am sweating here in the 80F weather we have now.
Hi Jay – I always found summertime on Oahu was pleasant when I lived there, but never really hot. Here, it doesn’t really get hot if you rely on the thermometer alone. But that “feels like” temperature can really be felt. 😉
About your list of unpaid advances, Paul, I understand that the IRS has a way of dealing with deadbits by employing a “benign” form of La Cosa Nostra tactics. If the IRS can, perhaps, you can, too, just be sure you stay “within the law”. And no whacking across the knee with a baseball bat, hear? LOL You’re not leaving us hanging in midair about the goat girl much longer, are you? 🙂
Hi John – I’ve been spending long evening hours working and getting things ready for the upcoming vacation to the States. As a result, I’ve tended to sleep-in a little longer in the morning. I haven’t seen the “goat girl” since a few days after that article. I know she still takes care of them – they are out in the fields when I get up. Think the main culprit here is the sun. I still get up around 5:30AM – 6:00AM, but the sun rises earlier than that now. The “goat girl” makes her moves about fifteen minutes after… Read more »
“unpaid invoices”, rather.
Only have one unpaid invoice, courtesy of the fellow in the picture! 🙁
Paul, only one unpaid invoice out of many returns you prepared for people the previous year is an excellent record. But, you’re right, money owed is money owed. I wonder if he reads LiP. To see your picture posted in the internet like that and be labeled as an actual deadbeat is almost like having to register with the police as a sex offender in the city where you live. LOL
Btw, the name of your accounting firm, “Keating & Chillingsworth, Ltd.” has for me a ring of the British Raj to it. Any relationship to the East India Company? 🙂
😆 No – The format (using “Ltd.”) is one of a couple formats mandated by my registration state for identifying my firm as a Limited Liability Company.
I chose to use it rather than the familiar “LLC” tag because it stands out from the others. Too, by standing out, it creates a subliminal message that our firm’s services stand out as well – outstanding service! 😉
Hi John – Well, what can I say? 🙂
His tab is well over $500, considerable amounts of time and resources were expended on his behalf, plus he benefited considerably through the resulting tax credits and refunds.
He is on “my list”! 😆
I like this quote in the post: “top times, such as breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time, party time, and paydays. ” Are we retired or what… 😀
They were always my favorites, Axel! Don’t think there are any other times that can come close to them! 😆
Paul, you need to use your time wisely and find out more about the goat girl. We’re all dying here, waiting for the next installment!
Paul
Won’t be long and you will be back inthe states. We have a duel sim phone we just go to at and t and get a us number with the other sim for our entire stay in the us. It just expires when were ready to go back. You have to get a new number everytime you go back but its no problem for us
Hi PD – I have a Samsung Duos GT-S7582 dual sim smart phone and will try to do the same. As is, I use call forwarding on my Vonage business number to my cell phone and all works well.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever be “ready to go back” but will be “begrudgingly going back”!! :lol::
Ok, Tim – I’ll set the alarm clock for “Oh-dark-thirty” and get up in enough time to see her tending her goats. Just a little coordination problem – I’m more of a “by the clock” kind of person; she’s more of a “by the daybreak” kind of person. Daybreak is beating the clock as the sun is almost passing directly overhead these days. 😉
Axel, looking forward to joining the PI Ranks! lol
You do have something good to look forward too…This rank is the best 😀
I’ve had a 2 month break in PHI and I’ve noticed how quickly time passes when you are enjoying life.
When I’m at home I close my eyes for five minutes and an hour has gone by. When I’m at work I close my eyes for five minutes and one minute thirty seconds has gone by!!
Brown out has just started so time will pass by slowly. The only thing that happens quickly is dipping the hand in the fridge for a beer so that not too much cold escapes.
Hi AJ – I’m finally getting to answering the comments here today, Sunday May 4 @ 6:00 PM PHT. We had a 6-to-6 brown out today as the electric coop has finally tired of complaints and is upgrading the power infrastructure with new poles and wires. Doing a great job of it, too. Now, I just hope they replace the “cut-outs” that always open up during high winds and causing unintentional brown outs. 😉
Sounds like it! I’m coming in August of this year.
Paul,
Enjoyed your article. I also enjoy your style of writing. That’s a nice pic of the deadbeat. Looks like an Inmate I once had in our prison. haha
Keep up the good work!
Bill
Hi Bill – Inmate? Well, I can’t speak to his history, but I do recognize the behavior pattern! 😆