Dear Ann Landers. Should she ditch the guy?

Dear Lynda. If you've got a friend who walks straight to your fridge after entering your home, you've got a problem. Sure, maybe you're a great cook, crazy about food and leftovers, but your friend is the most ill-mannered clod I've read about this week.

 [London Free Press, back issue]

I'd be saying, "Back away from the fridge, Bub. And close the door. Unless you want this to be the last time you get an invite over here. Nobody touches my potato salad 'til lunch is served."

["A healthy lunch. And it's mine until I say different"]

Lynda, set some ground rules fast or else readers will lose all respect for you, no matter how good you think your leftovers taste. I can get my head around your 'pizza with a rice pudding chaser for breakfast' but I can't digest your acceptance of clod-like behaviour in your own house.

And don't take just my word for it. There are others who will say the same.

Pssst. Ann. Should she ditch the guy?

Photos by GH

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Please click here to view more of my leftovers

It Strikes Me Funny: I'm in debt but I think it’s manageable Pt 1

I started thinking more seriously about my debt load recently after learning that six-in-ten Canadian baby boomers are providing financial support to their adult children to the tune of $3,675 per year. (Canadian Investors Group poll)


["I can only afford popsicles for Ollie": photo PAH]

Information like that sends a chill down my spine, almost as cold as the chill I’d feel if my pensions and wee RRSP dried up and blew away.

After all, I am Canadian.

I am a baby boomer.

I have two adult children.

You know how I feel about money.

And six-in-ten chance is... 6 out of 10!

That means there’s better than half a chance I could be emptying my wallet every year. I don’t like those odds and I don’t have that kind of money to spare.

Hey, I can afford popsicles for my grandson and breakfast for my two boys every now and again, but if the bill ever comes to $3,675 they’d better be prepared to pick me up off the floor.

Part of the problem may be that many adult children cannot find a job and must live at home. Or they have a low-paying job and regularly feel they need help with monthly bills.

Or they have a decent job but have expenses and debts beyond their means.

Or... we can just agree it’s a complicated world out there and 60 per cent of boomers are taking a hit along with their kids.

The problem with me is, I have a significant debt load right now (Did I tell you anything about a year and a half’s worth of renovations?)...


["Can you drop that, Ed? Twenty windows have arrived.": photo GAH]

...and though I feel it’s manageable, it’s only manageable as long as my children hang onto their jobs.

Do you feel the chill?

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Adult kids aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch.

Click here to read part 2.

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Dear Ann Landers: What’s the deal with my family discount?

At some point last week I got a bit whiny.

(Maybe even more than once).


And when that happens I usually whip off a quick note to Ann Landers because if there’s anyone who can read my mind and cut to the quick it’s that dear old scribe.

Dear Ann,

I create exceptional projects in my shop (some actually hold together for weeks at a time) and send photos to my family because I’m sure they’ll want to be the first to see that I haven’t hurt myself with my power tools.

My oldest sister loved one of my latest birdhouses that looked like our family home, wanted to buy it, and I said, “Sold.”


But because I fell into the habit of giving a family discount in the past I now feel it’s always going to be expected and - dare I say - my brilliant work is undervalued as a result.

What to do?

Sincerely,

Whining in the workshop

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Dear Whining,

I could hear your sobs all the way to my Upper West Side apartment.

I say, cut it out, and I don’t mean the family discount.

Continue to give 25% off to your family because they are the same people who had to put up with - and this is just my opinion but I bet I’m dead right (I am, after all, Ann Landers) - all of your shenanigans when you all lived under the same roof on Washington Avenue in Norwich.

In fact, 50% off sounds better.

Sincerely right back at ya,

Ann

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Dear Ann Landers: Lunch out is not an ‘in’ thing

Dear Ann Landers,

My wife just called from my son’s house (she’s babysitting our grandson) and invited me out for lunch with Ollie and her mother.

Now, I don’t like restaurant meals all that much because of the cost and high calories. I’d rather putter around the kitchen and eat leftovers.

Plus, we went out for lunch together during our last Sunday drive and we’re going out for a big family supper tomorrow night.

Am I turning into an old scrooge? What should I do?

Signed: Perplexed

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Dear Perplexed,

I hear your pain - but don’t feel it.

Go on, get out of the house. Order a salad.

Say ‘Hi’ to your lovely wife, Ollie and Betty for me.

Ann Landers

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GAH: "I’m outta here. Maybe my wife will pay."

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Dear Ann Landers: Married 38 years, I find tax time taxing

Dear Ann,

It’s that time of year again - spring is in the air, people are raking their lawns, neatly organizing garden tools in their shed and trying to find tax forms under a pile of papers on their desks.

At my house, it’s also the time my wife starts reminding me - for the 37th year in a row - that I should try to get my taxes done earlier than I did in 1971.

OK, I admit it, I left filling out the tax forms until after our first anniversary in August, but how does she remember stuff like that?

It’s not even April yet and she’s already dropped the words ‘tax forms', 'T-4 slips', and 'April 30 deadline’ into three totally unrelated conversations and left two Post-It notes on the TV remote.

I could scream. What should I do?

Signed, Over-taxed in Old South.

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Dear Over-taxed,

So, what are you waiting for? Do your taxes. And thanks for the tip about Post-Its on the remote. My own hubby will never see it coming.

Ann

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