Man, oh man! The work I put into figuring out the tax returns for my wife and I this weekend! In fact, I never had time for anything else yesterday ─ especially since my eyes would deteriorate so direly that I kept having to seek a nap.
I wrote in this blog on Saturday that I was likely going to take the charitable donations and medical expenses for myself, rather than try and figure out which of us it would be more advantageous collectively to apportion them to. After all, it was the total combined refunds that counted ─ not how much either one of us might receive back. Supposedly, we are a collective or partnership.
But having that said, I do want to make clear that where the medical expenses were concerned ─ $1,860.49 ─ that entire 'expense' figure was comprised of the coverage costs deducted from my retirement pension toward my extended health care and my dental care plans under whom my wife is a dependant.
My wife is the one who sees doctors and gets prescriptions, or gets dental treatments ─ yet she did not provide me with even one receipt for last year.
And concerning the charitable donations, although our total was $1,504, she had only provided a receipt for $20 to contribute toward that figure. I know she made other contributions, for the $20 went to the Thai Buddhist temple she occasionally frequents ─ she donates quite commonly when she visits that temple. She just doesn't keep her damned receipts!
But I could not be selfish in my calculations ─ I had to try and work out by hand just which apportionment of the two expenses would be most beneficial for us collectively and not just selfishly (i.e., for myself).
I only had a single draft copy each of the tax returns, yet I needed to make four separate calculations by hand for each of us using the applicable schedules.
In other words, it was like figuring out a total of eight different tax returns when the pair of us were taken into consideration! And then when the decision was made, I still had to complete the actual finally copy of the tax return for each of us ─ so, a total of 10 different tax returns!
I also had my eldest stepson's tax return, but I had made the draft calculation for him a week or so ago. I only needed to complete the final copy or version.
So really, by the time this was all done, I had worked out a dozen tax returns ─ and it took me many, many hours.
I honestly don't know if I can do this again next year ─ my vision is so dire now.
Anyway, the outcome was that it seemed to me to be most advantageous for my wife to have both the medical expenses and the charitable donations.
I made that rough conclusion by estimating that if she had none of those credits, her refund might be around $140; yet with them all, her refund was well over $900.
If I took none of the credits for myself, then my refund was something like $1,516; but if I took them all, then I might have qualified for over $2,100.
And with her taking one type of credit and me the other ─ and vice versa ─ then the refunds were variously in between those two ranges, but just not quite as advantageous for us collectively.
However, since I was doing the entire work by hand with just a single draft copy to work with, there is no question that my calculations were inexact.
And of course, I don't even know that the final copies are going to be absolutely correct, for tax returns seem to be a little different every damned tax year, and there is so, so much to read ─ my eyes just can't take it anymore.
I wanted to try and get out in the early evening yesterday to hike the three tax returns over to the Tax Services Office something over a half mile from here so that they would be there for this morning's collection.
I also had an ATM deposit I needed to make of over $600 at the outdoor ATM of the Coast Capital Savings Federal Credit Union building approximately a mile from here, and just up King George Boulevard from the Tax Services Office.
Just as I was beginning to ready for that trek (I do not drive) right around 7:30 p.m., my drunken brother arrived home from wherever he had been swilling beer.
And all impetus for the venture dissolved within me. It was going to have to wait.
It is hell not having control of one's own life.
I decided that it might be easier on me to go late in the night when the world was far less busy out there, so I opted to have some supper and risk my brother's state by operating our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box to watch episodes of a few of the T.V. series we follow.
About 15 minutes into the first episode I had tuned in, the drunken lout was snoring.
Disgusted, I shut down the episode and the Android TV Box, and left him with basic cable programming (he doesn't have any facility at operating the Android TV Box ─ that role is mine).
He rallied the instant that there was no volume on the T.V. when I was in the process of switching over to basic cable, but he probably knew that it was too late ─ I am inflexible about this. Whenever he passes out, I shut things down and leave him to continue his drinking all by himself ─ something he has no problem at all continuing with. He does not savour and enjoy his beer ─ he just wolfs them down.
I now don't recall just when it was that I came to bed, but it must have been around 9:00 p.m. or soon thereafter.
I managed a few brief periods of sleep. As I often say, I do not enjoy a single bout of sleep; rather, my sleep is characterized as being a succession of naps, often with periods of wakefulness between them that are equal to the duration of each nap.
By 11:00 p.m. I was ready to rise, but I knew my brother would still be downstairs watching T.V. He just about always resists going to bed until after the arrival of midnight.
And so it was last night. It was probably approaching 12:30 a.m. before I heard him come upstairs and shut himself into his bedroom. I could now rise and come here to my computer to put some work into the post I am developing at one of my six hosted websites.
Around 12:40 a.m., I was a little surprised to hear my wife unlocking the front door. That sound was soon followed by her Thai exchange with her youngest son who was still up in the boys' den area where he sits at his own computer.
She soon got busy doing some cooking, and then had herself a small meal. I meanwhile even went downstairs and chatted a little with her. I wanted to fix myself a mug of hot, black, and unsweetened instant coffee.
And soon enough my wife went to bed.
It was probably nigh 4:00 a.m. by the time I was set for my outing.
It was uneventful. On my return walk, I even stopped in at the elementary school where I sometimes go to do four sets of pull-ups on the gymnastics-style rings in its playground.
The night was very chilly ─ there was frost. Even the rings were frosted, and the sawdust and crushed gravel that I walked upon was clumped because of the freezing.
It was well after 5:00 a.m. by the time I was back into bed. In fact, it might even have been as late as 5:40 a.m.
Yet I had trouble finding sleep; and even though I eventually did, before 9:00 a.m. I was back up.
We were to have a fairly sunny day, but I've spent it indoors. My wife rose around 9:30 a.m., and soon began readying for her workday at the Thai restaurant that employs her. My brother didn't rise until after she had been up for awhile.
Concerning my failing vision, just today I read an article that has me pondering the purchase of a specific supplement that I see I can find at Walmart Canada.
I would link to the article at its source website, but for some reason it has not yet been published there even though I received it today from them ─ that is, HSIonline.com.
And so that being the case, I will reproduce the article here in full:
Stop IRREVERSIBLE vision loss... with this 5,000-year-old Chinese secret
Once you hit a certain age, your trips to the eye doc seem to get longer... and longer.What used to be nothing more than a quick read of an eye chart now consists of all sorts of gadgets and tests that examine every square inch of your eyeballs – inside and out.Because it's no longer a question of whether you need glasses...But whether something more sinister is waiting in the wings to STEAL your vision.And one of the WORST perpetrators is age-related macular degeneration.When you've got AMD, the middle part of the retina (or "macula") DISINTEGRATES... and the center part of your field of vision is gone FOREVER.There's no cure for it.It's the LEADING reason why older folks go blind – even in the RICHEST countries in the world, with the BEST healthcare systems.Don't let that happen to you.You can stop this runaway train right now... if you know the right trick to use.Because there is something that can SLOW the progression of the disease... and help keep the objects straight ahead of you looking SHARP.That means you can keep doing the things you love, like reading...And you won't have to lose your driver's license... OR your independence.
Give AMD the ol' heave-ho
The ginkgo biloba tree (or "maidenhair tree," Salisburia adiantifolia) has been around for as long as the Early Jurassic Period -- 270 million years ago, maybe more.A single tree can grow to be more than 2,700 years old.And as a testament to the species' longevity, ginkgo plants were one of the only living things to survive the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.Traditional Chinese Medicine has used ginkgo for over 5,000 years – though you may have only recently heard of it as the superstar ingredient behind many brain-boosting supplements.But it's also widely used in China, Germany, and France to help support healthy circulation.How can that help your vision... particularly if you've been diagnosed with AMD?Well, blood flow is ESSENTIAL to your eye health...And ginkgo can help strengthen the blood vessels in your eyes... and help bring life-giving blood to every itty-bitty corner.But there's even MORE that ginkgo has to offer.It contains compounds known as ginkgolides that help SLAM THE BRAKES on neurodegeneration of the retina... and actually help grow NEW retinal nerve cells!What seems to have impressed researchers the most, however, is how ginkgo's antioxidant compounds (flavonoids and terpenoids) help make the herb such a powerful scavenger of free radicals (like hydroxyl and peroxyl).You see, the retina is particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress...And the older you get, the more oxidative stress RAVAGES your body... and your retinas.But ginkgo is like a minesweeper... DISABLING reactive oxygen species (like the superoxide anion)... and therefore helping maintain healthy retinal function.Without anything to make a "clean sweep" like what ginkgo can do... your retina WON'T work properly... and your vision will be IMPAIRED.According to research, you could see improvements only after 4 weeks of supplementing with ginkgo.And in a 2013 review, there were ZERO adverse events associated with using it (in two separate studies).A standardized ginkgo extract, called EGb 761, has been studied for a multitude of vision benefits, which also include beating back glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.In Germany, it's sold under the brand name Rökan...But you can find it in this country in the supplement aisle by many quality makers. Choose one you trust.You can also combine ginkgo with other vision-supporting nutrients, like lutein... zeaxanthin... and bilberry
There were no footnotes or references, and it sure would have been helpful if the article had given dosage recommendations, but it did not.
I have no idea if my problem is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but why not give this stuff a try anyway? After all: "According to research, you could see improvements only after 4 weeks of supplementing with ginkgo."
There is no way that I can also afford lutein, zeaxanthin, and bilberry ─ my pension is too limited, and my debts too enormous. But I could sure likely give this recommended version of gingko a try for at least four weeks.
I did a little research and found the likely study ─ it's German, and was published back in 2002. This is an English translation of the abstract or summary:
The therapeutic efficacy of Ginkgo special extract Egb 761 was investigated in a controlled, double-blind trial involving 99 patients with impaired vision due to senile, dry macular degeneration. The primary objective target variable was the change in the corrected visual acuity of the more severely impaired eye at baseline, during a six months treatment period with either 240 mg/die (group I = 50 patients) or 60 mg/die (group II = 49 patients) Egb 761. Marked improvement of the study participants' vision was observed in both treatment groups already after four weeks, with more pronounced improvements in group I (acuity increases by 0.13 in group I vs. 0.10 in group II after 24 weeks). The fraction of patients with improvement of visual acuity > or = 0.2 was nearly twice as large in the group treated with 240 mg/die Egb 761 as in patients receiving the lower dosage (p = 0.08). Subjective health impairments, if present, could be improved during treatment as well. The investigator rated a favorable tolerability for both dosages of Egb 761. In conclusion, the results demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of Egb 761 in patients with senile, dry macular degeneration, with obvious benefits in every-day life.
So it was a six-month trial, and it was the group taking the larger dosage ─ 240 mg/die ─ who apparently experienced the greater benefit. "240 mg/die" merely means 240 milligrams or milligrammes per day. I located that abstract at PubMed here.
Now, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine published a critique of that and another related study in this 2013 .pdf document titled Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: Ginkgo biloba extract for age-related macular degeneration (Review); but it seemed to me that concerning the German study, the worst they had to say in conclusion was that the study was not long or thorough enough, that it may have been biased, and that the differences in results in the two groups of participants taking the gingko "was not statistically significant."
Nevertheless, I am willing to try taking 240-mgs daily for at least four weeks ─ if not a full six months ─ if I find that I can afford it.
The Walmart Canada product I referred to earlier is Nature's Bounty Gingko Biloba ─ 180 capsules at 120-mgs each ─ for $22.37. That would be a 90-day or three-month supply.
Rather peculiarly, the directions says to take one or two capsules daily ─ preferably with meals; but not to do so for more than four weeks without directions from a doctor.
Then...why sell it as a possible three-month supply at 240-mgs daily if no one should be taking it for longer than a month without medical supervision?
But I'm unconcerned about that.
However, is this stuff the EGb 761 extract?
Probably.
From what I understand, EGb 761 is now essentially a universally recognized definition in pharmacology of what a standardised extract of ginkgo biloba leaves is. Thus, when a gingko extract product says that it is standardised (as does Nature's Bounty), then supposedly it is conforming to the definition of potency as defined with the descriptive EGb 761.
Otherwise, it could not properly be called standardised without that term being used fraudulently.
I've linked to a search I made of some Amazon U.S. "EGb 761" products at the bottom of this post, as well as a search of "Gingko biloba" at the top of the post ─ just for price comparison purposes for any American readers. There isn't much difference in the variety of brands for the two search results, is there?
It is nearly 8:10 p.m. ─ I have to stop here get this post published.
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