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I doubt it was a question of "letting" her shovel snow. At her age she probably does as she pleases and her son does as she tells him.

We're getting older. One set of hurricanes a couple of years ago was before my husband had had shoulder replacements, the next set was while he was recovering from his first shoulder replacement, and Sandy and Athena were while he was recovering from his second. So, lugging buckets of water from tubs in the basement so we could flush toilets for 11 days each power outage was not in his physical therapy plan! Actually, we ran out of stockpiled water before the power came back on so drained the water heater, also in the basement, to use water to flush. And, the gas stations were out of power too; people weren't able to refill their portable generators. So, I'm spending the big bucks and getting the whole house generator that kicks on automatically and a big propane tank (wish the gas lines came closer to our street). We're getting enough power to run my home office (computer, printer, lights), well pump, refrigerator (we have lost so much food over the last three years), furnace (one year the house temp was 42 degrees, so in the basement and uninsulated garage where the pipes run it was probably close to freezing; we drained the pipes and fled), and a light in the room we're in, and a few other items. We've had bids for over a year but take a huge expense like this very seriously. We're having our two favorite bidders come on Wednesday to update their bids and answer our questions, I think we can finally decide. We're going to be in this house for awhile yet (it has a first floor master so will work even if one of us gets less mobile over time). Plus, a whole house automatic generator is probably a good sales feature!

I'd suggest that you convert several of your business clients into Drake and play with the program and see if it gives you the reports you like. I have some businesses that have several hundred assets entered and the reports seem complete to me. It also has reports for next year's regular depreciation, but I don't see an AMT depreciation report for future years. That's not a deal breaker for me since these are all under the threshold for being subject to the AMT. One partnership that I have does have a small AMT adjustment that flows through, but the dollar amount is inconsequential, so again I'm not too concerned about that one either. FWIW, I didn't enter these assets manually. I converted everything into Drake in early February and spent some time that weekend checking all of the depreciation. I didn't find anything to correct. Everything came over from ATX correctly as far as the fixed assets were concerned. The only real issue for my conversion was lines not matching up on detail schedules for the businesses. The bottom line net profit was correct, but the detail worksheets were off. For example, accounting expense in ATX might have ended up on bank & credit card processing in Drake. I did correct those since the clients do like the comparison and I use it as part of my overall review. I do have a separate depreciation program that I use for my accounting work that requires more detail than is found in any tax program. I've had it for years and plan on keeping it in the future. It is the old Creative Solutions DS II that is now part of Tompson Reuters and is called Fixed Assets CS. It would integrate with Ultra Tax if I ever used that. Too expensive for my little practice, but the fixed asset module is excellent and will give any kind of report I need. I hope this helps somewhat.

I hope she gives a couple million to the lady she stepped in front of.

Our unfinished garage is a few inches below the basement; a river flows through it when it rains; it also has lost ceiling insulation over the years when pipes leaked, so vents into the bedrooms and my office above. The unfinished basement has no ceiling insulation. So far the experts are suggesting an outdoor generator at the end of the house that has the electric panel inside (I had typed fuse box, showing my age!). And, I think our quotes were for systems from 8000W up to 20000W with 14000W the most common suggestion. I have a home office, so that runs it up, as well as the furnace since it's the ice storms and nor'easters during cold tax season that are most scary for us. We are in a small town with almost no services. I have my own well and septic system. The town provides roads, one stop light, eight policemen, and schools. No sidewalks or lights; all volunteer fire and EMS; take your own garbage to the dump or hire a private service; etc. Next to Easton with its three-acre zoning, Weston is the most sparsely populated area in Fairfield County so gets its power back next to last. I'm really looking forward to having a generator and am sure it will be worth every penny. I choose to rough it while on Appalachia Service Project this July (no A/C, outdoor cold water hose shower with black plastic hanging from clotheslines or PVC pipe "stalls," PB&J sandwiches for lunch every day, etc) but want to be comfortable in my own home.

My mom is going to be 87 this fall and still has SE income from a home based business although it is getting smaller, mostly because the customer base is slowly shrinking and not because my mother is slowing down or unable. She works as hard as ever, and she definitely has more energy than I do. I honestly am frequently amazed by her.

Speaking of trees come tumbling down, my wife and I live in an older residential area on a tree lined brick street. Our house was built in 1904. Our media room is on the second floor in the back of the house. Friday after work, we went and picked up a pizza and brought it home to eat while we watched a little TV. I was about half way into my second piece of pizza when we heard this this sssshhhhooooossshhhhh thump and the power went out. We look at each other and simultaneously said "what was that". I headed down the steps and passed my German Shepherd coming up the steps and I thought "this can't be good". Got to the bottom of the steps and looked out the front door and one of our 45 foot oak trees was laying in front of the house. We had gutter damage to gutters that were installed a week earlier and a hand rail on the front steps got wrecked. But that was it. Upon inspection, we found that the bottom 12 inches of the tree was rotted. The rest of the tree was very healthy. There was no other impetus to that tree falling - no wind, no rain, nothing. If that tree fell two feet in either direction, a tremendous amount of damage would have resulted. Thirty seconds before the tree fell, an elderly gentleman and his dog had passed in front of the tree. Ten minutes before, Rebecca and I had just passed in front of the tree coming into the house. An hour earlier, a young mother, her baby and a friend were standing right where that tree came down. Just a little change in timing would have created a completely different ending to this story. Have I mentioned lately that God is good?

Lion, I don't think you'll regret spending some money on the generator. While we aren't out in the boonies, we have frequent outages and are nondevelopment so we are low priority when the outages do occur. My husband didn't think it was necessary, but he'd never lived in this area to realize how long some outages are and what the basement would look like without the sump pump having power! When he had cancer 10 years ago, I saved up and bought a portable generator of 6300 watts with a surge of 9100. I spent extra to get one with a push button starter since I didn't think I could handle the pull cord on my own. Now the husband is very happy to have it! We've talked of having the plug-in recepticle installed into the main wiring so that I could pick the circuits on the breaker box to leave on, but we've never done it. Now if you really want convenience, get one that will sense the outage and kick on automatically. I'd love that, but I can't justify the expense as long as I'm able to handle the portable one. I was a nervous wreck during Hurricane Sandy, but we were extremely lucky to have sustained no damage and didn't lose our power either. I really dislike when the weather map gets very colorful.

We finally pulled out our generator bids after more than a year debating spending the money. Having the top two electricians come out next Wednesday to update their bids. Really need to do this while I live out in the boonies. Sandy took down five big trees and lots of branches, but there are a lot of dead trees and branches and trees that have grown too tall on our two acres. Talked to our friendly, local landscaper about tree work, but he's too busy (still doing spring clean-ups) to walk the property with us and bid until July. Between hurricanes coming up the coast and nor'easters coming down, we get hit hard. Hurricane Sandy was followed by Nor'easter Athena (or Nemo, depending on which weather station you listen to) before we had all our services back. I just read that we're expected to have 11 hurricanes this year instead of the usual 5-6. My stepdaughter already postponed her Saturday housewarming party since it's likely we wouldn't be outside. I don't get as unhappy without power when the weather's warm, but Athena brought snow. I still get cranky when I can't work and clients are waiting for their returns. Both my business bookkeeping clients have generators, so I catch up on them and recharge my electronics! Stay dry and safe everyone.

This one's for you, Joan -- from a fellow Californian, too. http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2013/05/28/karl-marx-was-a-tea-partier/?singlepage=true

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