Dear god shrift!! That's way worse than the time they told me I under reported income and owed them like $1K (I didn't, and was able to send one letter with supporting documents and they were like 'OK"...but it was still hella stressful).

So had a whole saga with the electricians, but it has a good end (I hope--it's not QUITE over). The estimator came last week, and said "ooh, have to replace all the wiring on the circuit (in the room) to do this but if you put the holes in the walls for us that we'll need, that'll make it quicker for us, and you won't be paying an electrician to make holes". OK, sounds good to me. Arranged to get a stud finder and a drywall saw from some friends who just did a drywall project. Talked to the guy in charge yesterday, when he called to ask if they could come today. I asked where they need the holes, we had a whole back and forth--he thought I was just going to take a whole strip along all four walls off (!!!). So he said he'd get back to me. Today, calls in the morning, says OK, if we promise it won't be more than 3 hours work, how about they come today (because they had a cancellation) and they'll do the holes needed. I said great.

They were supposed to come at 12:30. At noon I talked to him and he said they'd be a little late. At 2PM the actual electrician called and said they'd be here in 45 minutes. At 2:45, he was lost and had the wrong address. Eventually they showed up at 3PM, the electrician and his (very cute pink haired lip ringed) apprentice. And they were like "wait, you just need it for the one outlet? We can totally just switch one of the existing circuits to a tandem one, and voila, super easy". They were here for 20 minutes, and only didn't finish because they didn't have the part with them, but said they'll come back tomorrow and do it in like 10 minutes. And there's only one teeny hole I can easily patch. Win! ....assuming it actually works and the treadmill runs, tomorrow. Fingers crossed. It would be typical 2020 if it works and the treadmill runs, but the guy put it together badly or it's missing a crucial piece or something. And now I have to move ALL my books and bookshelves back because I moved them away from the walls. Massive project, but way more doable.

I know it's a little thing, but having all these work people know my cell number now is going to be an unending source of annoyance in the future...

I was concerned about that when I started needing to add work people to my contacts, but I think people forget it's an option. That could easily change, of course.

Yay meara!

Nilly! It is always good to see your pixels. You are loved and missed.

Oh shrift, that's scary as hell. I hope that it gets worked out quickly.

Hooray for an easier-than-thought job, meara. Glad it wasn't nearly as involved as anticipated.

For anyone needing to use their personal cell for work, why don't you try using a Google Voice number? You can have it forwarded to your phone, and if you call using the app it will show up on caller ID as the Voice number and not your actual cell number.

shrift, that's interesting, because we also got a communication from the IRS that we underreported and owe them $3k, which is less alarming than $47k. I'm going to message you about our theory of the problem.

For anyone needing to use their personal cell for work, why don't you try using a Google Voice number? You can have it forwarded to your phone, and if you call using the app it will show up on caller ID as the Voice number and not your actual cell number.

That ship has sailed.

I thought about doing that, Maria, but not hard enough to actually do it. People only have my number if I give it to them or I call them, which seems manageable?

Yeah, if a lot of people and/or strangers needed to call me, that would be a different story.

shrift, that's outrageous. I'm sorry, and I hope you can get it sorted with a minimum of distress.

In re cell phones: anyone who really needs to talk to me calls my landline, because they know my phone is dead in my purse more than half the time.

In normal times, I'll pick up most calls on the landline, even if I don't recognize the number, because I always allow for the chance that it could be one of the kids calling on a friend's phone.