Sunday, June 3, 2012

Hard time writing

In Dad's letter from August '44 he has a hard time writing and I've missed a whole month. I got into a routine of going to the library or Barnes and Noble and writing a couple of times a week. I've been writing about the years from 2001 to 2011. I'm up to 2009. I want to reflect on our life during those years. Since I last wrote in April we went to Austin in May and saw Jenny and Chris and also I attended the Friends Peace Teams council meeting in Austin. We are now getting ready to go to Intermountain yearly meeting at Ghost Ranch. Our hope is to camp. We have a full size blow up air bed so we can be fairly comfortable.

I guess I can catch up on where we are with the IRS. When we returned from Texas we had a conference call with the lawyer, the IRS lady and Tim and I. there was some learning going on on this phone call. The lawyer was surprised that the IRS lady thought that putting a letter in with the form was the same as an attachment. I was surprised 1)that the IRS appeals person had not really considered the law schools position, 2) that she had not looked at or seen the original form when that is what the penalty is about and 3) that even though the penalty is about frivolous filing the fact that I still owed money for years after the one the penalty is for seem to figure in to what she is deciding. It is one of those things that come up in my life, people say something and I can not believe what they are saying so I am sure they are wrong. In this case, each time I talked with an IRS person they would say, 'this penalty is because you owe us money'. That is not what the frivolous filing rules say but evidently it does seem to be the case. As one tax court judge said 'it is about manipulating you in to compliance'. So in order to work with the lawyers at the law school I have sent in the money owed for 2011. The IRS seems to be after getting the penalty down to $500 or 0, considering that somehow or other they paid $700 toward it. I think this is some of the money they took from my paycheck for past due taxes. So there will be another call. I am considering letting the law school handle it without me, as I am not as artful as the professor in not saying something confrontational. In terms of surprises, I think the IRS lady was surprised that she was expected to do her job. I was impressed that the lawyer just said she was glad to know her position and asked for a few weeks to regroup with the new law student, who was also listening in. I realized that this time gives the IRS a chance to really look at the situation again and get the original form. Anyway I feel that this is a labyrinth I am ready to get out of.


August 8, 1944

8/4/44

Dear family,

 Some how I don’t seem to have anything to write this week either. What is the matter? Am I slipping? I guess I’ll tell a few of the sundry little things that happened during the week.

 I took an inventory of the shop and found that I had lost only $1.01 in the last two months. That isn’t bad as this place is supposed to be run with profit. The shop had a total net worth of $99.49. It consists of lumber and hardware, nails, screws and lacquer and varnishes and stuff that I sell to the fellows to make things and that I use in making things for the camp and project. I don’t mind losing a little as there are a lot of small items that are used like nails and a few screws at a time that it is impossible to charge for. I try to charge just a little extra for some things but I don’t cover everything.

 We had a fire drill this week for getting away on forest fires. We had the project Supt call in a false call from home and it fooled everybody and then all we did was drive around camp. We got away in 15-minutes from the time the fire bell was rung. That wasn’t exceptional. We wanted to make it in ten but there were about three guys that came along after that.

 We have another visiter. this week. This time it is a girl about our own age. She is Philiadelphia. The exec. Sec. of some young Friends organization in the east, we will probably have some meetings with her and some interesting discussions.

 Eight new men have arrived this week. All good guys. Most of them about 20 years old. It is funny how young they seem. One of them is from Iowa City.

 At this time I want to thank you for the two bucks in your last letter. I’ll take care of them. I had just put my last Air Mail sticker on my letter to you last week. I don’t know what was happening to those sisors that I left there. I’m sure that I left them up stairs on the dresser. Well, if you find them send them out as we can’t seem to find any in Eugene.

 I suspect that you have received the two books that I sent home. I had read the Philosophy book twice and got a lot more out of it the second time. The other one isn’t so hot at first but gets good about half way through, I just bought it cause I had heard that the author was good and I wanted something to read on the train.

 I read a very good book last week. STRANGE FRUIT by Lillian Smith. It is a southern story and deals with the negro problem in the south. It is certainly interesting and I wish yous could all read it. If Evelyn is working over at Jeff I would advise and urge her to get it from the library there. You can never tell it may be in the paton libraby. It got a lot of publicity when its sale was banned in the city of Boston.

 I’m glad to hear that the ailments are getting better and that the oats is all in and the straw will be by now.

 So Mary is married. More people getting married!!

 I’m not surprised at the boys and their girls splitting up. Who is Charles chasing now? That certainly si a situation isn’t it. Farm boys left at home and not enough girls. We have the same trouble.

 Yes Mom. E. J. is pretty nice. You never can tell how things will turn out. I wouldn’t even want to guess. But I’m not blind or asleep.

 I guess I’ll quit and go eat breakfast.

    Good By now------

     Bernard