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May 18th, 2006

  1. Dear David: Month Five

    May 18, 2006 by Gail

    AviatorDave & Bill King

    Dear David,

    You’ve been gone for five months and I wasn’t expecting this last month to be so brutal. I didn’t know what to expect, exactly, but it felt harder than Month Four. How does a newly-married and newly-widowed person carry on as per normal? And when? I don’t know, I’m still searching for answers to those questions.

    I’m in the new(est) place now, and I put your pictures up so I can see you when you were healthy and full of vitality. I love this photo of you with Bill King at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome last September. It was a few weeks after the diagnosis but some of your hair was hanging in there, and you could still walk without a cane. Your spirits were high.

    I’ll be at the Aerodrome in less than two weeks to scatter your ashes. Can you put in a good word for us to the weather gods about some sunshine on May 30?

    Love,
    Gail

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    Category Letters to David | Tags: | 6 Comments

  2. Hallelujah

    May 18, 2006 by Gail

    My income tax refund finally showed up in my bank account. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s been over six weeks and I’ve never had to wait that long for a refund, ever. I was wondering if Revenue Canada was in the process of querying the return my accountant submitted by mail and holding the funds in the meantime, but it was more likely a timing/bottlenecking issue otherwise known as the wheel of bureaucracy in the wrong gear up the hill. I would’ve filed earlier but the slips were sent to the wrong place — the House of Fielding in Pennsylvania when it was up for sale — while I was trying to set up the House of Fielding (Chapter I) in Toronto.

    I’ve had direct debit set up for income tax refunds for many years, which is the ONLY way to go if you get caught in an address quagmire like mine. If it had been a cheque, who knows where it would end up and when? (Also, a word of caution with not using direct deposit: a friend of mine who works for the largest bank in Canada had her income tax refund cheque intercepted through the mail and the fraud artists used her identity information to apply for a Mastercard. With that Mastercard they built up a large credit limit over time and cashed out $25,000. She had no idea until the RCMP showed up at her doorstep. She wasn’t held liable in the end, but contesting everything in court and restoring a credit profile costs quite a bit of time and money. Check statements online, and access your files with the credit bureaus Equifax and Transunion in Canada; same domains for the USA but with dot com.)

    Category House of Fielding | Tags: | 2 Comments